Before the more, there was this.
Right. Back to the more. Yesterday, Holy Cow was sitting at a temple with TQ, who told me an interesting story about the Jagannath Temple at Puri. No one is allowed to remain inside the temple, that is, inside the main temple room where the idol is, overnight. They say that those who stay near the Lord overnight either go blind, or die.
Holy Cow was immediately interested. "I want to try"-"Have there been any incidents?"-"Whats the rationale behind it?"
TQ- Well, they say that in the night, God comes forward in his genuine, raw, un-idolised, true form, and its brightness is such that one goes blind because of the intensity of the light that shines off him, or dies because of exposure to the same. And yes, there have been incidents of this kind.
Holy Cow was very excited about this. She then remembered that in the Gita, Lord Krishna comes before Arjun in his natural, ujjwal (glowing), pure form- and a large section of that chapter of the text describes the brightness, the glory, the enormity of his real form- and nothing seems to happen to him!
TQ then pointed out that in the Gita, God does it out of his own volition. That is, he wants to present himself to Arjun. But in the case of the temple blindness and death, we are just hanging around when we're not supposed to, and God doesn't really want to show himself to us. We just happen to be around when it happens automatically.
This raises the following questions- If the incident of the temple is true, then the Gita is basically, untrue. If the Gita is true, then this temple incident can't be true. If both are true, then does it mean that God actually has hidden selves and he shows them to us as and when he pleases? I mean, there can't be just one pure form, and one regular one. Because we have counted three already -
1. The usual one. Idolised and worshipped.
2. Pure form no. 1, which is the one that Krishna presents himself as before Arjun. This is the one that he wants to reveal.
3. Pure form no. 2, which is the last thing that one sees before turning blind or dying inside the temple. This is the one he doesn't really want to reveal.
Does the second point suggest that Krishna was actually being untruthful when he revealed his supposedly true form to Arjuna (because of there being a third secret form that no one is allowed to see) ?
Does the last point just tell us that he is like many of us? That he too, can only be himself in solitude?
PS- Well, the Gita was revisited and checked and turns out that the Lord does present Arjuna with divine sight before revealing his true form.
However, he says to Arjuna "with these present eyes you will not be able to see me" (Chapter 11, Verse 8)
This changes things a little.
If he meant that Arjuna will not be able to see the changed form with his present eyes, then the case of the temple blindness is still not possible because without divine sight we wouldn't be able to see lord Jagannath in his true form in the first place, so the question of dying or going blind doesn't arise.
If however, he meant that Arjuna's present eyes will not be able to handle the luminosity that his true form will reflect and needs divine eyes as a shield, then the Gita and the Jagannath temple incident are in tandem, and I stand corrected.
To complicate matters further, I have been told by TQ that the blindness/death doesn't even happen all the time. It happens only once a year, when the idol is bathed. I do not know what to make of this detail.
However, he says to Arjuna "with these present eyes you will not be able to see me" (Chapter 11, Verse 8)
This changes things a little.
If he meant that Arjuna will not be able to see the changed form with his present eyes, then the case of the temple blindness is still not possible because without divine sight we wouldn't be able to see lord Jagannath in his true form in the first place, so the question of dying or going blind doesn't arise.
If however, he meant that Arjuna's present eyes will not be able to handle the luminosity that his true form will reflect and needs divine eyes as a shield, then the Gita and the Jagannath temple incident are in tandem, and I stand corrected.
To complicate matters further, I have been told by TQ that the blindness/death doesn't even happen all the time. It happens only once a year, when the idol is bathed. I do not know what to make of this detail.
