Bhagavagd Gita - Session 33- Track 3308
If a good drink is given to you, if the essence is in the drink, you will be able to enjoy it, if the essence is taken away and only water is given without essence in it, you will say it is insipid, it doesn’t nourish you: the nourishing comes by the addition of essence in whatever you take: this is the basic concept of vasuin the Rig Veda.
Now, what is vasuin the physical terms is transcended by a concept of vasuwhich is supra-physical in character. You can enjoy beauty for example, it is not consumption of any particular object, but you enjoy beauty and by perception of beauty you are nourished: that also is vasu. Essence is that which, when consumed sustains you, it is an object of consumption.
So, “Among the gods, I am those gods which are supposed to be entities of consumption.
Question: This would have not any link with Sat?
Absolutely it is Sat?, all vasu(s) are manifestation of sat, all other gods may gods of Consciousness, Energy, etc. But vasu(s) are fundamentally manifestation of Sat.
indriyāṇāṁ manaś cāsmi: “Among all the senses I am the mind.”
In the Indian psychology it is said that ‘mind’ is the sixth sense. The five senses like touch, hearing, etc. are only manifestation of the mind. The mind is the sixth sense and the only sense actually. The real sense is the mind because that even when senses are active but mind in not behind them, then sensation will not be felt. Sensations are felt only when the mind is joined with them. So…
indriyāṇāṁ manaś cāsmi bhūtānām asmi cetanā ||22|| (X)
“Among the objects of the world I am the consciousness.”
rudrāṇāṁ śaṅkaraś cāsmi, “Among rudrā(s) I am Shankara.” According to Vedic knowledge again there are 11 Rudras. Of these 11, Shankara is special manifestation of the Divine.
vitteśo yakṣarakṣasām, “Among the people who hold wealth, I am yakṣa.”
vasūnāṁ pāvakaś cāsmi, “Among the gods I am the vasu, but among the Vasus I am pāvaka, I am Agni.
meruḥ śikhariṇām aham ||23|| (X), “Among all the hills which have high peaks, I am Meru”, which is supposed to the centre higher than the Everest, the highest peak is of Meru.
purodhasāṁ ca mukhyaṁ māṁ viddhi pārtha bṛhaspatim |
“Among the priests…” purodha is a priest, “…the one who is central and chief, O Partha! Know that he is Brihaspati”.
If one would have to comment upon each one of them, it would be a very interesting and a very, very…inspiring. To say a few words for example about Brihaspati, in the Veda there is a concept of a priest, a concept which is quite different from the word priest as we understand today. In our today’s evaluation priest is a Pujari, or one who chants Mantras while we go on doing anything else, and his position is simply somebody who has to be given something, and in return to which he goes on reciting Mantras.
But in the Vedic concept, priest is ‘one who moves forward’, in the front, without whom, you cannot march at all. We are all marching individuals in the world; we are all in a process of journey. Now, journey can never be started, journey cannot have the right direction unless there is a Purohita, unless there is a priest. So, actually priest is the leader: that is why the Rig Veda begins by the prayer to priest:
agnimīḷe purohitaṁ yajñasya devamṛtvijam | (I, 1, 1)
It starts with the worship of Agni who is described as Purohita.
Now, among the Purohits (there are many Purohits; Agni is also a Purohit)... So, “Among the priest” Sri Krishna says, “I am Brihaspati”. Brihaspati is supposed to be the wisest, one who possesses full knowledge, who has a power of the soul, whose one word is capable of giving life, who vibrates with tremendous energy and breaks all the resistances. Then only he can be the leader. So…
purodhasāṁ ca mukhyaṁ māṁ viddhi pārtha bṛhaspatim |
senānīnām aham skandaḥ…
I am Skanda among the commanders. Skanda is Karttikeya.
According to Purana Karttikeya is the first son of Shiva and Parvati. We know the whole story of the battle between the demons and the gods, and when the gods found that demons cannot be conquered at all, then they sought the help of the Supreme who said that only the child of Shiva can have the power to vanquish the demons and this was a very difficult problem because Shiva was in deep meditation, whose meditation cannot be broken and to bring him to a condition where he can produce a child was such a difficult task. Fortunately there was Parvati who was intent on getting the hand of Shiva. Taking advantage of this favourable condition Kama was deputed by the gods, and on a particular day which was very propitious, Kama affected Shiva’s meditation. But when he opened he himself manifested a fire as a result of which Kama, his body was burnt. This is a story which has a great symbolic meaning. The important point is that among all of them, when nobody could conquer the demons, it is only Skanda, only he could do it therefore,
senānīnām aham skandaḥ sarasām asmi sāgaraḥ ||24|| (X),
“All the enclosures of water, I am the ocean.”