Revelation Rising

Dear friends,

Tonight we celebrate revelation!  What is that exactly? 

The Bhagavad Gita climaxes in a moment of divine revelation. The great warrior Arjuna has heard from Krishna all about life, death and the true nature of God. And he gets it in theory. But he wants to experience it. 

“I do not doubt that you are 
 what you say you are, Lord. And yet 
I want to see for myself 
the splendor of your ultimate form. 

If you think I am strong enough, 
worthy enough to endure it, 
grant me now, Lord a vision 
of your vast, imperishable Self.” 

Unlike Hashem, who only allows Moses to see his back side when he makes the same request, Krishna agrees. “I will grant you divine sight. Look!” 

This is some of what he saw with that godly vision: 

“with innumerable mouths and eyes, 
faces too marvelous to stare at, wrapped in pure light 
He stood forth as the infinite 
God, composed of all wonders. 

Arjuna saw the whole universe 
enfolded, with its countless billions 
of life-forms, gathered together 
in the body of the God of gods.” 

It’s not long before Arjuna can’t take what he’s seeing. 

“Seeing your billion-fanged mouths 
blaze like the fire of doomsday 
I faint, I stagger, I despair. 
Have mercy on me Lord Vishnu!” 

Our ancestors made the same request of Moses as soon as God opened God’s mouth to speak at Mount Sinai. And according to the Torah, God agreed.  

But Krishna does not grant Arjuna the same mercy just yet. Arjuna sees all his fellow warriors rush into the God’s blazing mouth to be consumed: 

“As the rivers in many torrents 
rush toward the ocean, all 
these warriors are pouring down 
into your blazing mouths. 

You gulp down all worlds, everywhere 
swallowing them in your flames, 
and your rays, Lord Vishnu, fill all  
the universe with dreadful brilliance.” 

Perhaps the reason Krishna did not show mercy on Arjuna was for the sake of Arjuna’s question that follows this vision: 

“Who are you, in this terrifying form? 
Have mercy Lord, grant me even 
a glimmer of understanding 
to prop up my staggering mind.” 

Krishna does not mince words in answering: 

“I am death, shatterer of worlds, 
annihilating all things.” 

You or I might find that answer a bit of a downer. But Arjuna knows that he asked who Krishna is “in this terrifying form.” And so he responds with joy. 

“Now I know why the universe 
 delights and rejoices in you; 
terrified, the demons scatter  
before you, and the sages bow. 

You are both being and nonbeing, 
and what is beyond them both, 
the knower and the known 
you pervade – no, you are – all things.” 

This evening at our fabulous Shavuot Kumah celebration we will invite the music and the revelry to take us beyond our current world, our current form, our current selves - and enter into an expansive place beyond place and time. I very much hope you will reveal yourself there in your most wonderous brilliance, so we can all bask in the late night light of our communal revelation. 

Chag sameach, 

Rabbi Misha