CHAPTER 11, TEXTS 41-42: Thinking of You as my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kṛṣṇa,” “O Yādava,” “O my friend,” not knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the same bed, or sat or ate together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. O infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.
We have been experiencing along with Arjuna the terrifying forms of God in His most powerful, awe-inspiring universal form, which includes viewing the vast pantheon of demigods, spinning planets and galaxies, and all beings rushing into the mouth of death. I would imagine that if I was to witness even a fraction of any of this, my brain would be blank.
But Arjuna's brain is not blank. In fact, he has the presence of mind to... huh? Apologize to Krishna for being so familiar?
The stark contrast between the universal form and Arjuna's description of intimate moments with Krishna is jarring. He describes lounging on the same bed, eating together, and jesting in the company of friends. There's a sense of coming back down to earth to the present moment, right there on a chariot in the midst of a battlefield, and I can almost see Arjuna folding his palms, stuttering his apologies.
Arjuna's apology brings to mind a simple comparison - he's just joking with an old friend, maybe even making fun of him. His friend would laugh along, maybe tease him in return. And then only much later would he find out that the old friend is actually the king. If I had been in Arjuna's shoes, I would be stumbling out apologies and begging forgiveness, too.
But the king is not only a king. Being a king is a role, not an identity.
Ultimately, a king is a person.
Krishna is a person, and He "is so kind and merciful that in spite of such opulence He played with Arjuna as a friend. Such is the transcendental loving reciprocation between the devotee and the Lord." Although Arjuna is gushing his apologies for his familiarity with Krishna, it's clear that Krishna is quite aware that Arjuna was interacting with him as a friend, eating together, joking with each other. Krishna was not only aware, He enjoyed this kind of exchange, this kind of natural loving reciprocation.
Arjuna is thoroughly awestruck and trembling from this divine display of the universe - creation, annihilation, all the demigods and planets and galaxies - and yet he has the presence of mind to come back to remembering his relationship with Krishna, which consists of such seemingly simple, mundane exchanges. This is because "the relationship between the living entity and Kṛṣṇa is fixed eternally; it cannot be forgotten, as we can see from the behavior of Arjuna." Prabhupad writes here that this relationship is eternal, which means that it is beyond this material world.
The virat-rupa, the universal form, is actually the material manifestation of God's greatness. Prabhupad writes "This universal form is material and temporary, as the material world is temporary" (11.45, purport). So although Arjuna was given divine eyes to behold this universal form, nevertheless the form is material and therefore temporary. After all, the universe and the demigods and the planets are constantly being created and destroyed.
But if something is eternal - like the soul, like God Himself - there is no creation. There is no destruction. And between the soul and God is a relationship that is eternal - that relationship was never created, it will never be destroyed.
This means that that relationship - that thread of connection - is more powerful and divine than even the universal form.
In this way, "Although Arjuna has seen the opulence in the universal form, he cannot forget his friendly relationship with Kṛṣṇa." So although the universes may rise and fall, the demigods create and destroy, the galaxies expand and collapse, living beings rush into the mouths of death in a ceaseless current, all these things will come and go.
But that friendly relationship is not forgotten.
Those jests, those moments of lounging and eating together amongst friends - that friendly relationship between Arjuna and Krishna will outlast even the longest lived demigod and universe because that is love, and love is eternal.
Now that is truly wondrous.
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/11/41-42/
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