Gītā 10-12

04/14/2026 · Tue/Thu 12:00-1:15 PM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

This class session explored the theological significance of Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad-Gītā, focusing on the theophany of Krishna. The instructor, Brad, discussed the Viśvarūpa, or the universal form, comparing it to other manifestations of the divine such as the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark and the childhood story of Krishna revealing the universe in his mouth to his mother, Yaśodā. The lecture emphasized the dual nature of divine grace: the revelation of the infinite form through a 'divine eye' granted to Arjuna, and the subsequent merciful concealment of that overwhelming form back into the familiar person of Krishna. The class also revisited the concept of Iṣṭa Deva, the idea that an infinite God can be imaged through infinite forms to meet the specific needs of the devotee. To embody the concept of Līlā (divine play), students participated in creative activities, including sculpting clay representations of the chariot allegory from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad and the Narasiṃha avatāra.

⚡ Key Takeaways

A theophany is a manifestation or revelation of God’s self to the conscious mind, as seen in Krishna’s revelation in Chapter 11.
Krishna grants Arjuna a 'divine eye' because the infinite universal form (Viśvarūpa) cannot be perceived by the regular human eye.
The revelation of the Viśvarūpa is an act of grace, but Krishna’s subsequent concealment of that form is also an act of grace because the infinite is overwhelming to human perception.
The concept of Iṣṭa Deva suggests that because God is infinite, God can and does manifest in whatever form the individual devotee can best connect with.
An Avatāra is defined as a 'descent' of the divine, differing from 'incarnation' in that it does not necessarily imply a separation between spirit and flesh.
The Narasiṃha avatar, a half-man and half-lion form of Viṣṇu, serves as a specific example of the divine taking a particular form for a specific purpose.
The chariot allegory from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad provides a psychological framework where the chariot is the body, the horses are the senses, the reins are the mind, and the charioteer is the intellect.
Līlā, or divine play, is not just a theological concept but a practice, as demonstrated by the class engaging in games and creative sculpting.
Arjuna’s experience in Chapter 11 shows that seeing the divine in everything (past, present, and future) can be terrifying and overwhelming, leading to a plea for the return of the familiar.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Meditation and Transition

Brad

Aruni, howdy y'all.

Brad

Let's take a moment to transition, put away screens, and just take a moment to be still and quiet.

Brad

Let's take a breath together. Go ahead and breathe in and out.

Student

Word?

Brad

Word.

Student

Word.

Brad

I was listening to student podcasts last night and just pulled my hair out, and that's all.

Brad

Just kidding.

Brad

I shaved.

Brad

But I wanted to keep this because it's super fun to play with and sometimes chew on.

Brad

But yeah, so today we're going to do something a little bit different. So I already kind of— I already— ⚠

Student

not kind of—

Brad

I already gave you a lecture on Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita.

Brad

And so, you know, if I learned anything from the last section, maybe I should repeat a little bit of that lecture, but not much of it.

Brad

So I want to spend most of the time today just practicing Līlā, right?

Brad

Because I think the best way to understand Līlā is to do it. So we're gonna play.

Brad

So I have a few different rounds, but yeah, so as far as you're like, I know some of you were prepared, hopefully you're prepared to do discussion leader today, but we're not gonna discuss the text 'cause there's no way we could do it justice. ⚠

2:18

Administrative Notes and Podcast Feedback

Brad

You know, we've got too much to cover, but you've got another podcast, right?

Brad

So your last podcast, you'll be able to talk about the Bhagavad Gita and the Gospel of Mark. So, save the best for your podcast. ⚠

Brad

And today, yeah, just want to say a couple of things. One is that this is one of the most famous—

Brad

I mean, this is after chapter 2, maybe the most important chapter in the Gita. It's probably the most famous part of the Gita, even more famous than chapter 1. ⚠

Brad

Chapter 2 with the revelation of Krishna's self-revelation, right?

Brad

So just to repeat a couple of things that I said last Tuesday. One is that this is a theophany.

Brad

What is a theophany? What does theophany mean?

Brad

Theophany means, so, "theo" meaning God, And "phane" meaning like manifestation or revelation or something that appears to your conscious mind. So revelation of God's self, right? We've seen this before, both with the first place we saw it really was in Mark chapter 9, right? ⚠

Brad

Which is the transfiguration. So when Jesus goes up on the mountain and appears in dazzling white robes and Moses shows up.

Brad

You remember that?

Brad

And then we saw it again last Tuesday in the video that I showed with Krishna and Yaśodā.

Brad

Yaśodā is his mom, right? And Krishna went and ate some mud, and then what happened?

Brad

Yeah?

Brad

So Yaśodā looks in his mouth, all of them there look in his mouth and see the entire universe in his mouth, right?

Brad

So it's definitely a a theophany, right?

Brad

It's a revelation of God's self here, I mean, within his own mouth, right? So, yes, that was another theophany that we looked at.

Brad

And then today, of course, this theophany that Isha showed images of last Tuesday, right, of Krishna revealing himself as the form of the universe, the Viśvarūpa. Rupa meaning form.

4:47

Lecture: Theophany and Krishna's Self-Revelation

Brad

So we've studied form, you know, particularly when we're studying like the Chandogya Upanishad, right?

Brad

So to the various names and forms.

Brad

So everything is just clay, but in various names and forms.

Brad

So here, Krishna is revealing himself as the Viśvarūpa, as the form of the universe. So exactly the same as in Yaśodā's, well, not exactly the same, but basically the same as in when he revealed himself inside of Krishna's, or yeah, inside of his own mouth, right? ⚠

Brad

So when Yaśodā looks into his mouth, she sees the entire universe including even herself looking into Krishna's mouth, right?

Brad

So it's sort of like a Klein bottle, it's like inside itself, it's like, you know, what do you call it, like a Mandelbrot, you know, that kind of thing, like turtles all the way down.

Brad

And so, yeah, so two things that I wanna emphasize from this chapter, from chapter 11, One is the notion of Iṣṭa Deva. ⚠

Brad

We taught this last Tuesday, so what is Iṣṭa Deva?

Brad

In my lecture I said I needed to teach everybody about Iṣṭa Deva except for Jaden.

Student

No one?

Brad

Crickets?

Brad

No one?

Brad

Okay. Alright, see, this is why All the deans here are like, we need to have more quizzes and tests and make sure that students are learning what's being taught.

Brad

Crazy thought.

Brad

All right, so Iṣṭa Deva means one's own deva, right?

Brad

I showed the quote from Anantanand Rambachan.

Brad

I said that I wanted him to be my dad.

Brad

I wanted to curl up on the couch with him and study the Bhagavad Gita.

Brad

You remember that part?

Brad

So yeah, so the idea of Iṣṭa Deva is that two things that I taught last week. One is that if God has any form at all, then God has every form, right? ⚠

Brad

Because God is infinite. So the only way you could image an infinite God is with an infinite number of images, right? The only way God could have any form, as if God has an infinite number of forms, which is all forms, right? But the other aspect of it is that, so for Advaita, God is not just all forms but also beyond all forms, right? ⚠

Brad

So the—

Brad

yeah, so beyond all forms.

Brad

And so here in Chapter 11, we see this philosophically represented a couple of different ways. One is Arjuna knows that on some level he knows that his cousin is God, right?

Brad

He kind of gradually figures out, I mean, because he keeps telling him.

Brad

You see that a lot in like chapter 9 and 10, right?

Brad

I'm the best tree of this.

Brad

I'm the best of the tree. I'm the best of all these things, right?

Brad

Among freshmen, I'm Cooper, that kind of stuff.

Brad

So he knows that he's God, but then Arjuna is like, can you show me?

Brad

Can you reveal yourself to me?

Brad

Can you show me this other side of you?

Brad

More than just my cousin that I've been hanging out with all this time, all my life, that I learned archery with and that kind of stuff.

Brad

And so as an act of grace, Krishna gives— what does he do first? He says, so Arjuna says, "Please reveal yourself to me, please show me." And then Krishna says, "You can't see it with your regular eye, right? ⚠

Brad

You have to have a divine eye." So he gives him a divine eye so that he can see.

Brad

So we know it's not just like a literal seeing, like I see Wilkes now, but like a seeing within your head, a seeing, like a theophany, within one's mind, a theophany within your heart, a theophany, you know, you get it, right?

Brad

Something the other people on the battlefield can't see it, right?

Brad

Something that Krishna, that Arjuna is seeing in his mind, sort of thing.

Brad

And so that's the first thing. And then the second thing is what happens when, and then, so he gives him this divine eye so that he can see it, and then Krishna reveals himself, you know, as the form of the universe.

Brad

And what happens to Arjuna in chapter 11?

Brad

Yeah, Ben?

Brad

He becomes really overwhelmed. Yeah, yeah, so then he kind of asks for the undoing of what he asked for before, right? So he's like, "Reveal yourself as the form of the universe." Krishna gives him his divine eye. He sees that, and then pretty quickly he gets overwhelmed, right? ⚠

9:45

Lecture: Iṣṭa Deva and the Acts of Grace

Brad

And he's just like, "I can't take it anymore." I can't see everything. Everything is too much, right? And it's not just everything now.

Brad

It's not just the infinite universe of all things right now, but it's also everything in the past, present, and future, right?

Brad

He sees himself in there.

Brad

He sees the battle is already over.

Brad

He sees the battle, everything, right? Just, and he can't take it.

Brad

So his legs get weak and he's like, please, as an act of grace, conceal yourself again, right?

Brad

So, so the first revelation is—

Brad

or the first act of grace is the revelation of his universal form, and the second act of grace is the concealment of the universal form, right?

Brad

Remember that? Good refresher from last week.

Brad

Um, uh, so that's why I wrote cousin up there, because first act of grace is showing himself as the form of the universe, and the second one is concealing himself again. So then the other question is, why would God, you know, reveal God's self in— if God could take any form, right, or all forms, or every form, all of those are true, right? God can take any form or every form or all forms at once. All forms at once is way too much, right? ⚠

Brad

So Arjuna says, you know, conceal yourself into one form, but then why would God reveal Godself in this particular form or that particular form? How does God decide how to reveal Godself? Yeah.

Student

Was it to teach Arjuna that you can see the divine in everything? Since everything is Krishna, you should know that it's concentrated within all beings, all forms, all things, so that you can see it and appreciate it and devote yourself to everything.

Brad

Yeah, so like chapter 6, verse 29, right? To see me in all beings and all beings— to see all beings in the self and the self in all beings, right? ⚠

Brad

Or see God in all beings.

Brad

Yeah, what else? So part of the idea is an act of grace, right? God would reveal Godself to Francis in a different way than God would reveal Godself to Aidan, right?

Brad

Because Francis and Aidan are different.

Brad

Right? And so, as an act of grace, God would reveal Godself in the way that Francis is most able to understand and connect with and vibe with, that kind of stuff.

Brad

But, God's going to reveal Godself to Brian in a different way because Brian is different. And so, maybe—

Brad

so, both of those are acts of grace.

Brad

If God could take any form—

Brad

I mean, if God has any form, God has every form and therefore can take any form. And then, so, God's going to reveal Godself to Boris in the most forest way possible. Yeah, so cool. ⚠

Brad

So that's Iṣṭa Deva.

12:42

Lecture: Avatāra vs. Incarnation and Chariot Allegory

Brad

Also last week I taught Narasiṃha and Avatāra. Anybody remember those terms? What's an Avatāra?

Student

Yeah, Devin.

Brad

Like an incarnation of Viṣṇu. Yeah, incarnation though is a little bit Spanish.

Brad

Yeah, basically.

Brad

So let's think about the difference between incarnation and Avatāra. The difference is an incarnation means that— carne means the body, right? ⚠

Brad

The meat, the flesh, in the flesh.

Brad

So then an incarnation means something is in something else, right? What is in something else?

Brad

Well, maybe spirit or something like that is in the flesh, right? So an incarnation.

Brad

But, Avatāra actually means descent, right?

Brad

So, the idea is that God doesn't come down and embody the flesh or embody matter, but God in God's—

Brad

every part of God is divine. There's no distinction then between the spirit and the matter, the Puruṣa and the Prakṛti, right?

Brad

So, does that make sense?

Brad

So, just descent. But, descent still has to have some form, right? And so, what is Narasiṃha? ⚠

Brad

Simha form.

Brad

Yeah.

Brad

Is that the lion that's ripping apart that dude?

Brad

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Nara means human, really means man.

Brad

And Simha means lion. So half lion, half human. And so the Narasiṃha avatar is the descent of Viṣṇu in the form of half man, half lion in order to defeat that dude that was— ⚠

Brad

yeah. Cool?

Brad

Chariot allegory, we won't have to review that, right? Chariot allegory from the Katha Upanishad.

Brad

Remember that?

Brad

And so the Bhagavad Gita, of course, takes place in a chariot.

Brad

And so one—

Brad

I can't remember exactly.

Brad

I think it was Hannah, actually. And you gave the example in your podcast when you're talking about contemporary parallels for the Gita. You talked about just finding a job, was that? ⚠

Brad

Yeah?

Brad

And so applying for a job, right? So there was a job that you wanted to apply for, or you weren't sure if you were going to apply for it or not. So you're like, should I apply?

Brad

Should I not apply?

Brad

What's the—

Brad

all these kind of pros and cons and that kind of stuff.

Brad

And then when you finally decided to apply for it, what happened?

Brad

Oh, it was gone. The job was already taken, right? So that indecision, right? So I like this because it's— It's something, it's not, you know, too literal. ⚠

Brad

It's really taking the Katha Upanishad that I've emphasized all along, right? So the allegory of the Bhagavad Gita that takes place in a chariot, right? The chariot represents the body, the mind represents the, you know, the reins represent the mind, the horses represent the senses, right? The intellect is the charioteer. So really understanding this and interpreting this, you know, psychologically in terms of, you know, just very different, right?

Brad

So then, I mean, it doesn't, it's not, it doesn't preclude other interpretations, right? Like the Simone Biles one, you know, or there's so many, there were a lot of really good examples, right?

Brad

Or the, another really super literal interpretation was the The general, the head of the army, the US Army resigned last week. ⚠

Brad

So Arjuna is a general.

Brad

And so here, combat, going against his kinsmen and that kind of stuff.

Brad

So lots of— oh, somebody had the Ben Jerry's too.

Brad

Was that maybe Ben?

Brad

Yeah. Anyway.

Brad

Jerry.

Brad

Yeah, Jerry.

Brad

I told you I'm binge watching.

Brad

Anyway, it's been like all weekend just watching Rick and Morty episodes, so Jerry only means one thing right now.

Brad

Okay, cool. Enough talking. So we're gonna do some games today. Yeah, for the rest of the class we're just doing games and we'll have a little competition. ⚠

16:55

Instructions for Līlā Games: Play-Doh Sculptures and Tumbling Tower

Brad

So we'll have several different games going on at the same time.

Brad

One is one that will go all period, all class. And so we're going to do basically sculptures, right? You're going to create little sculptures out of clay.

Brad

We did a version of this before.

Brad

And so there's 3 things that your teams—

Brad

everything's team-based.

Brad

So your team will—

Brad

oh, one thing I forgot.

Brad

Does anybody have registration, course registration during this period?

Student

OK, cool.

Brad

I was just going to say it's OK if you register.

Brad

So each team will make each one of these. And so you're going to make the chariot allegory from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, the Narasiṃha avatar, and then the last one will be Iṣṭa Deva. An Iṣṭa Deva. ⚠

Brad

I have no idea how you're going to represent that.

Brad

That's part of the challenge.

Brad

That's part of the point, right?

Brad

So, and then what we're going to do is we've got these 3 pieces of paper here. And so each team will have 3 pieces of paper. And you'll, at the end of class, after everybody's done, you'll go around and you'll vote for the best chariot. You'll vote for the best Iṣṭa Deva. And you'll vote for the best— ⚠

Brad

Narasiṃha. Yeah, but you can't vote for your own team. Fair?

Brad

Cool. So that's one game.

Brad

Simultaneous to that, we'll do the tumbling tower. So we'll just go in order.

Brad

We'll start top to bottom or bottom to top.

Brad

Let's go top to bottom, I guess.

Brad

So we'll go top to bottom and we'll give you 1 point Every time you put a block on top, if it doesn't fall, 1 point if it doesn't fall, and -3 if it does fall.

Brad

Yeah?

Brad

We did -5 last time, and then it turned out to be not a good number. So -3 seems like a good one.

Brad

Then the other thing we'll do— we'll do this in a little bit.

19:11

Instructions for Monikers: Theological Terms and Mahāvākyas

Brad

Anybody played a game called Monikers?

Brad

Super fun.

Brad

It is super fun.

Brad

It is.

Brad

Oh yeah, it would be so fun in like a college dorm. Yeah, it's kind of more fun the more people you have.

Brad

So, but we're going to do a different form of Monikers today. So the basic idea is we'll have several rounds. We'll try and get at least 2 rounds in. We only got 1 round in last class. Class though. Basically, it's sort of like taboo or $10,000 pyramid or something like that. ⚠

Brad

So you'll pull one of these, and then you're trying to get your team to say this word or phrase or whatever.

Brad

If it's a phrase, you've got to get it exactly right.

Brad

If it's a word, then it's just a word.

Brad

And there's differing points.

Brad

So like, "avatar" is 1 point.

Brad

And you have 1 minute, right?

Brad

So 60 seconds per team, and you're trying to get as many as you can. Skipping is fine, so you can skip as many times as you want.

Brad

And yeah, and then so the idea is we do—

Brad

if we get multiple rounds, then round 1 is like I just explained.

Brad

Then round 2, if we have 3 rounds, then which we probably won't, round 2 is supposed to be you can only say 1 word.

Brad

Second round, same words, but you can only say one word the second round. And then third round is charades.

Brad

So maybe we'll just do rounds 1 and 3.

Brad

So round 1, you go, you got a minute to try and get as many as you can.

Brad

And then round 2, charades, if we get there.

Brad

Yeah. You do have to say the, you have to say pretty much exactly the same, the phrase that's on here though, right? So let me read through this. ⚠

Brad

You cannot write them down, but I'll read them through.

Brad

So, "avatarah," 1 point.

Brad

"Grace," 1 point. What is grace?

Brad

Grace, the point is it's free, right? It's free.

Brad

It does no cost.

Brad

It's something free.

Brad

This, I put it in quotations.

Brad

Your team has to say exactly this phrase. "The symbolic meaning of the charioteer." in the Katha Upanishad?

Brad

That's worth 2 points.

Brad

The symbolic meaning of the horses in the Katha Upanishad, 2 points.

Student

Krishna, 1 point. Allegory, 1 point. Theophany, 1 point.

Brad

3 points if they say the mahavakya from the Mandukya Upanishad.

Student

I might even give 4 points for that, I don't know. Vishwarupa, 1 point.

Brad

Symbolic meaning of the rains in the Katha Upanishads.

Brad

Abhava, but you can't say milk or curd.

Brad

3 points for a valid source of knowledge that cannot be known by any other valid source of knowledge.

Brad

3 points for the mahavakya from the Chandogya Upanishad. 3 points for the hem of the golden egg.

Brad

And 3 points for the mahavakya from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Brad

Good?

Brad

Fine? Yeah? Ready to go?

22:40

Commencement of Group Activities

Brad

Alright, come grab some Play-Doh and 3 little sheets of paper per team. Oh, thanks, thanks.

Brad

I got it at a concert a couple weeks ago.