BG 9.11 LORD KRSNA UBACHA "Fools mistake My human form for ordinariness, unaware I am the Supreme Lord of all beings."

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a Eilon Schwartz

“Wonder is not simply curiosity. Curiosity is wonder without awe and reverence. It has lost the wider context. The object of our curiosity is in danger of becoming something without value, our relationship to it that of having knowledge devoid of wisdom. For Midgley, there is a paradox in the relationship with others around us – people, animals, plants, mountains, and rivers as examples. On the one hand, we experience wonder as we ponder something which is separate from us, something fundamentally different from us, with an evolutionary story and purpose of its own. And yet, simultaneously, we recognize that its meaning comes from the same story that human meaning comes from, and that our life’s purpose is intimately connected to the same source. Children, poets and scientists – that is, human beings who relate to life with a sense of humility and awe – have a particular prescience for wonder.”

You’re referring to Bhagavad-Gītā Chapter 9, Verse 11 (9.11). Here's the original Sanskrit and a refined translation, followed by a few commentaries to help unpack its meaning:

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Bhagavad Gītā 9.11 (Sanskrit + Transliteration)

अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् ।
परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् ॥
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānushīṁ tanum āśritam |
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram ||

Translation:
“Fools disregard Me when I assume a human form, not knowing My supreme nature as the Lord of all beings.” (bhagavadgitaforall.com, VivekaVani)

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Interpretations & Commentary

1. Swami Chaitanya Charan Das (ISKCON)

He translates:

“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.”
This underscores how those influenced by limited material perception mistake Krishna’s outward form for that of a mere mortal. (gitadaily.com)

2. Swami Mukundananda

He summarizes:

“When I descend in My personal form, deluded persons are unable to recognize Me. They do not know the divinity of My personality, as the Supreme Lord of all beings.”
This highlights the paradox of Krishna’s divine accessibility and our inability to perceive Him due to spiritual ignorance. (holy-bhagavad-gita.org)

3. Vedānta / Vaishnava Tradition (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

This tradition emphasizes:

• Krishna’s human form (mānuṣīm) is not ordinary; it is a transcendental, spiritual form—sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (eternal, blissful, omniscient) (vedapedia.org, prabhupada.io).

• The “fools” are those who cannot grasp that a divine Being can appear in human guise while simultaneously embodying supreme cosmic power. They misunderstand Him, reducing Him to a material figure. (vedapedia.org, prabhupada.io)

4. General Commentary (e.g., VivekaVani)

They stress that:

“Fools disregard Me as a mere mortal, unaware that I am the Supreme Lord and controller of all beings.”
This points to the fundamental spiritual shortcoming: failing to see past external appearance to recognize the divine presence. (VivekaVani)

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Summary Insight

In essence, Gīta 9.11 teaches:

• Divine humility: Krishna voluntarily adopts a human-like form, making divinity accessible.

• Perception vs. reality: Material conditioning skews perception; the spiritually blind mistake the divine for ordinary.

• Transcendent nature remains: Despite His external appearance, Krishna remains omnipotent and eternal—the supreme Lord of all creation.

• Spiritual discernment matters: True recognition of the Divine requires spiritual insight, not just physical sight or material intelligence.

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Quick Table for Clarity

Term	Meaning
Fools (mūḍhāḥ)	Those unable to perceive divine presence in human form
Human form (mānuṣīm tanum)	Krishna’s approachable appearance
Supreme nature (paraṁ bhāvam)	His transcendental identity
Lord of all beings (bhūta-maheśvaram)	Krishna as the supreme controller of everything

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Would you like similar explanations for other verses in Chapter 9—or perhaps a deeper philosophical or devotional reflection on this one?

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bk daimon - Our forgetting our inborn nature and role has led to a tragic schism in our collective psyche: a divorce between nature and narrative, being and action.

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1974- What is it like to be a bat?” Nagel’s work brought phenomenal consciousness—the qualities of experience—back into the investigative agenda in Western academia, after the dark, grotesque decades of Logical Positivism and Behaviorism. It started a process in Western culture that would eventually pull me in and set the context for my work as a philosopher. The second seminal event was Federico Faggin’s creation of the Z80 microprocessor at Zilog, which would go on to become one of the key enablers of the home microcomputer revolution and motivate me to pursue computer engineering 17 years later. Looking back, it’s funny to see how my paths in life seemed to be prefigured already at my birth.

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