Q. In Bhagavad-Gita Lord Krishna has described His opulence in chapter 10. I am finding the whole concept very difficult to understand as He says that He is personally each of them. He says He is the ocean among water bodies, Kuvera among Yaksas etc. If Lord Krishna would say that He is Vishnu, then I would be able to understand, as Vishnu is a plenary expansion of Krishna. Please be kind enough to throw light on my query.
A. Regarding your question as to how krishna says He is personally each of the opulence, we may be unable to understand this due to our finite brains. therefore we are fortunate to be blessed with the purports of the acharyas who reveal the secrets of Bhagavad Gita.
The acharyas reveal that Lord Krishna explains these opulences for us to understand His infinite grandeur and opulence. For example Krishna says He is ocean amongst the water bodies. now when we see a water body like a pond, lake or even a river, we might not be impressed. However the ocean with its massive expanse and depth is awe inspiring. Seeing an ocean immediately fills our heart with two emotions, namely the infineteness of the creation in general or ocean (or nature) in particular. Secondly we are also left feeling insignificant in comparison to such a huge body. A sadhaka, when comes in contact with Krishna, either through the holy names or deity or prasadam, is expected to meditate on these two aspects i.e, Krishna’s infiniteness and our own infinitesimal nature. Therefore to help us, Krishna selects best examples from nature to meditate upon. We know there are hundreds of yakshas but might feel o.k, what’s the big deal. However when we think of Kuvera, we are impressed by his wealth. Thus Krishna reveals his opulences to meditate upon so that when we see some animals we can imagine, Krishna is like the Lion amongst them. Or so many warriors, the greatest is Arjuna. Krishna is like that, i.e He is best in each aspect of creation. He is all pervading and whatever greatness we see in nature is simply a tiny reflection of His potency.