OF THE GREAT RISHIS I AM BHRIGU — Bhrigu is the chief of the Seven Rishis mentioned earlier in this very chapter (Ibid., Verses 2 and 5). Bhrigu is the one who recites the ManavaDharmashastra, wherein he is recognised as Manu’s son.
OF WORDS, I AM THE ONE-SYLLABLED “OM” — Words are symbols of sounds to express one’s thoughts. A speaker, with his words, tries to raise in the bosom of his listeners, a pattern of thought-experiences which the speaker feels in himself. Thus, the word ‘tomato’ is the sound symbol which creates in the mind of all those who know the ‘tomato’ the same form-experience. To bless those who do not react to this word, but stand confused, the speaker will necessarily try to use a series of words arranged into sentences, and the sentences will be properly marshalled to give a full picture of what a ‘tomato’ is. To the extent the describer can mould the form, colour, taste and qualities of the ‘tomato’ in the thought-world of the listener, to that extent the listener also can experience mentally what the speaker is speaking about. Thus, ordinarily, language is full of such sound-symbols to indicate experiences and to communicate thoughts.
If ordinary word-symbol indicate only the finite, the Rishis thought that they must conceive a word-symbol to indicate the Eternal. Thus, they discovered the one-syllabled word ‘OM,’ which is the greatest mantra in all the Vedas and traditionally, upto recent times, this has been, in the spiritual world, the one sound idol used as a prop (Alambanam) for all early meditators.
OF SACRIFICES I AM THE JAPA — This universal spiritual exercise, Japa, is a technique by which the ‘Japist’ tries to maintain a constant stream of the same divine thoughts in his mind. All other sacrifices — be they on the “Path-of-Devotion” or on the “Path-of-Action,” or on the “Path-of-Knowledge” — are ritualistic, or meditative attempts, for a given period of time, to restrain the mind in one channel of deliberate thought. As such, in one form or the other, “thought repetition” of the same species is the attempt in all Sadhanas. No doubt, Japa is a path in itself, having an independent existence of its own; but, at the same time in one form or the other, it is the core of all the “paths.”
Thus, Japa Yajna is glorified here, not only because it is the essential core of all the other Yajnas but also because it transcends them all as an independent “Path” in itself. Unbroken remembrance of the Self is the very experience of Perfection and the moment of perfect intellectual tranquillity — Samadhi.
OF THINGS MOTIONLESS, I AM THE HIMALAYAS — The motionless is conceived as the inert, the insentient. Mud and rocks, trees and plants, birds and animals intermixed with the splendour of the phenomenal might, such as whistling storms, tearing thunders, roaring rivers cascading through silent valleys, still pools of eternal lakes, faithfully reflecting the blue sky and duplicating mountain peaks in their love-lorn hearts — all these together constitute the picture of all mountains. But, “OF THEM,” the Lord says, “I AM THE HIMALAYAS.” Certainly He gives to the Himalayan ranges a more glorious and divine status because of their special significance. Unlike anywhere else in the world, in India, the Himalayas have the secret peaks where man sat to rocket his thoughts even beyond the frontiers of his intellect and did it successfully as was never before done by any living creature from the beginningless history of the world.
NOT SATISFIED YET, THE LORD IS VIGOROUSLY TRYING THROUGH FINER EXAMPLES AND WORDS TO CONVEY HIS INFINITE GLORY TO THE DATA-MONGERING AND WORLDLY INTELLECT OF HIS WARRIOR-FRIEND, ARJUNA;
