40: gigantic, miniscule, and... medium-sized?

CHAPTER 9, TEXT 11: Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.

In a few days, the results will come in for who is voted in to office as the next President of the United States. The President will have control over so many aspects of the United States, which is widely considered as one of the most powerful countries in the world. 

And if the United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world, then the  President is one of the most powerful men on earth. 

Still, the President is controlled by others - the people in the Senate, Congress, and other checks and balances in the United States government; it is not set up to be a dictatorship or a monarchy.

So the most powerful man on earth is still controlled by others. 

Think about it - our sphere of influence is so very, very small. Sometimes we climb the  "corporate" ladder to gain power and influence, or we claw our way to fame to be more widely known, or we pursue some other outlandish goal so that we may expand that tiny sphere of influence. We want to affect other people.  

Prabhupad writes in the purport to this verse that, "Each of [us] is a controller, but one is controlled by another." There is no escaping that the President is not only controlled by the Senate and Congress, but he's also controlled by his own bodily urges - to eat, to sleep, to evacuate, and more. The President is controlled by the movements of the sun - the span of a day - and  he is controlled by the weather - if it's raining, he must wear a raincoat. The president cannot control natural disasters like raging wildfires or cataclysmic floods. 

Prabhupad continues to write in this verse: "In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller." This means that Krishna controls all the machinations of this world and all of the universes in creation. 

For someone like me, who has so little control over when even I need to use the bathroom, the concept of one person controlling the universe is, frankly, preposterous. 

Still, let us return to the role of the President of the United States. He's considered one of the most powerful men on earth for a reason. He can suggest new laws, grant pardons, recognize foreign countries, act as a Commander-in-Chief during a war, and more (truman.gov). These are all capacities to affect the world on a much bigger scale than I ever have and ever will. 

And still, the president is one man. A person. 

In this verse, Krishna - who is a man - tells his friend Arjuna that "fools deride me when I descend in human form." In the impersonalist philosophical school, this conversation between Krishna and Arjuna is allegorical, and the battle of Kurukshetra never actually took place. It's all simply an analogy to represent the battle of consciousness. 

This particular verse, though, often confounds impersonalist philosophers. 

Krishna is emphasizing that yes, He is in a human form, and yes, fools deride Him in that form, that it's not possible for him to be the transcendental controller of all the universes if he's human. Prabhupad writes, "The biggest and the minutest are beyond [the impersonalists'] conception, so they cannot imagine that a form like that of a human being can simultaneously control the infinite and the minute." Although we have telescopes and microscopes to catch glimpses of the biggest and minutest, our capacity is so very limited. We cannot even conceive that one person could possibly control such a magnitude. 

In connection to this, another analogy comes to mind. 

The airport. 

Waiting for my plane at the airport. 

How many times have I gazed out of airport lobby windows to marvel at the gigantic planes wheeling in and out of the sky? Yet within that gigantic machine is one tiny man - the pilot - who controls the entire massive piece of metal and technology. What's more, he holds the lives of hundreds of people within his hands. 

One man. 

It doesn't matter how big that man is. He doesn't need to be as big as the plane, or even especially tall or impressive. That man controls the airplane. We understand that it's the intelligence of the human in the pilot's seat who is flying that airplane.

Similarly, God comes in human form. He's bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest, but he's also medium-sized. Why not? If He's God, why CAN'T he come in any size He wants, including human sized? That human form can simultaneously control all the machinations of the universes, just like a pilot controlling a gigantic plane. 

With this analogy, we can understand that God doesn't need to be as big as the universe or small as the atoms to control either one. He doesn't need to be invisible or in some alien form. 

He's simply God - the pilot - and He's in control. 

Most important of all, if God can come in medium size, in human form, then we can actually worship Him and love Him. It's hard to repose our love in a blazing universe or in a miniscule atom or an invisible force. But if God can come in the form of a beautiful, charming youth who plays the flute, someone I can look in the eyes, then this is where I may rest the love of my heart and soul. Krishna has such a loving friendship with Arjuna precisely because He has come in a human form. 

Ultimately, this human form of Krishna is what is worshiped in the temple as a sacred statue, or a murti. In this murti, we may worship God to our heart's content, in a form and size that we can actually connect to. Prabhupad writes, "There are also many impersonalists who deride temple worship. They say that since God is everywhere, why should one restrict himself to temple worship? But if God is everywhere, is He not in the temple or in the Deity?" Maybe God chooses to "restrict" himself by manifesting himself in the temple; he does so in order to exchange love with his devotees. 

In conclusion, the matter of who is in control is hotly debated. If we look at even the most  powerful man on earth, we can see that his scope of control is actually very limited. There is always someone controlling another in this world, including the President of the United States. 

But there is someone who controls everything and everyone, and that someone does not need to be a giant or microscopic amoeba. The Supreme Controller can manifest in a medium-sized form -  human - in order to exchange love with His devotees.   

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/9/11/