![\"gita_modern.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/123\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/gita_modern-thumb-300x300-8745.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nThis verse is one of my all-time favorites. I love the imagery
\nand the aesthetics of it. And I am amazed that in a few short
\nwords, Lord Krishna is able to convey a message that is at once
\nbold and direct, and yet also layered with subtleties and nuance. I
\nlove the way that the Gita reconciles ideas that – at first blush –
\nseem to be paradoxical.<\/p>\n
Krishna’s claim that there is no truth superior to him, may rub
\nus the wrong way. It may sound exclusivist, dogmatic, unreasonably
\ndemanding. Many of us have been happily reading through a sacred
\nwisdom text like the Gita or the Bible, only to come across a God
\nwho hits us with this sort of cosmic “my way or the highway (to
\nhell?)” …and have checked out of religion entirely as a result of
\nit. And while Hinduism is often celebrated as promoting pluralism
\n(and it does), it also has its fair share of religious “truth
\nclaims.”<\/p>\n
The brilliance of this verse, to me, is that Krishna doesn’t
\nstop there. He gives Arjuna (and us) a vivid analogy to appreciate
\nhis claim in a deeper way. To say that God is the thread upon which
\nwe, the individual pearls, are strung, carries with it some profound
\nimplications.<\/p>\n
First, it tells us that the Divine doesn’t express his supremacy
\nthrough cruel, tyrannical demands for submission. He is
\never-present, providing the foundation upon which we can rest.
\nThere is a comfort there–we are not lonely pieces floating
\naimlessly adrift some ocean of meaninglessness. We are supported
\nand loved, an intrinsic part of the greater whole.<\/p>\n
Second, it reminds us that there is a connection between all of
\nus. As disparate as we might seem, as much as we experience the
\nworld and our journeys as individuals, the Divine is there as the
\nunifying, common factor. We are people with stories, bound together
\nin the struggle and pain and joys of love–bound by the Divine
\nsource of us all. And just as the necklace is considered well-made
\nwhen the thread tightly binds each pearl to the other, when each
\nstone is close to the other, our perfection is found in how we can
\nfill those gaps between us.<\/p>\n
Third, it tells us that we are precious. Krishna is intentional
\n(and maybe a bit humorous) in calling Arjuna by the epithet
\nDhananjaya<\/i>, the “conqueror of wealth.” Could it be that in a
\nworld that puts a premium on wealth – money, cars, and yes, jewels
\n– the real treasure waiting to be discovered is us, the self within
\nand the people around us?<\/p>\n
Finally, here Lord Krishna displays an attribute of the Divine
\nthat we don’t often see: a sense of humility. We are the shining
\npearls, the jewels seen and appreciated by others; he is the
\nthread, simple and unseen, performing the thankless task of holding
\neverything together. A beautiful necklace is one in which the
\npearls get the praise; nobody compliments the thread. There is
\nsomething awesome about a God who is content to remain invisible,
\nwho is glorified by allowing his creation to receive the glory. And
\nit gives us a hint of how we might aspire to be. It reminds us how
\nsacred and powerful of a force humility<\/i> truly is.<\/p>\n
Throughout the Gita, Lord Krishna does
\nthis–he plays with our expectations of what God should be, what we
\nare called to be, what the relationship between the two is. He
\nturns things on their heads and inspires us to see the world in a
\ndifferent way. <\/span><\/p>\nPlease feel free to share your thoughts. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bhagavad-gita chapter 7, sloka 7 mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva O Arjuna, great conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. This verse is one of my all-time favorites. I love the imagery and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gita-guideposts","category-krishna"],"yoast_head":"\n
Like Pearls on a Thread - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Like Pearls on a Thread - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bhagavad-gita chapter 7, sloka 7 mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva O Arjuna, great conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. This verse is one of my all-time favorites. I love the imagery and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-21T15:30:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vineet Chander\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Like Pearls on a Thread - Om Sweet Om","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Like Pearls on a Thread - Om Sweet Om","og_description":"Bhagavad-gita chapter 7, sloka 7 mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva O Arjuna, great conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. This verse is one of my all-time favorites. I love the imagery and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html","og_site_name":"Om Sweet Om","article_published_time":"2009-10-21T15:30:26+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg"}],"author":"Vineet Chander","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html","name":"Like Pearls on a Thread - Om Sweet Om","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg","datePublished":"2009-10-21T15:30:26+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-21T15:30:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/cf2056f344b6fa435169a0edd9e93d8b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/10\/like-pearls-on-a-thread.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Like Pearls on a Thread"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/","name":"Om Sweet Om","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Sheetal Shah","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/cf2056f344b6fa435169a0edd9e93d8b","name":"Vineet Chander","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/221\/221efe0b0631084cd4843bb843427584x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/221\/221efe0b0631084cd4843bb843427584x96.jpg","caption":"Vineet Chander"},"description":"Vineet Chander is a legal and communications consultant, writer, and teacher, specializing in the Hindu diaspora community. He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"pearls_whitebackground.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/123\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/10\/pearls_whitebackground-thumb-300x300-8742.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n