Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Divi surya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthita, yadi bhah sadrishi sa syad bhasas tasya mahatmanah (11.12). Here, ‘thousand’ does not necessarily mean 999 plus one. The word 'sahasra' is used for an infinite number. Visvam anantam sahasram sarvam akshaya vachakam: In the Amara Kosam, visvam and sahasram also mean infinite. Infinite suns rose, as it were. We only hear these words, but we do not know what kind of light it is, because the sun does not shine there. Na tatra suryo bhati, it has been said. The sun will not shine; the sun’s light is like darkness before this great light. And yet, for our entertainment and for our education, we are told it is the light that surpasses all sunlight.

In that vast, mysterious, spread-out Universality, Arjuna saw the whole creation somewhere in a corner. Ananta koti brahmanda nayaka was showing His Visvarupa. This Brahmanda is not the only thing that God has created. Endless, endless, endless are the worlds that have been created. This particular world, these fourteen realms that are called this Brahmanda, which is ruled by Chaturmukha Brahma, is only one; and that entire thing was seen in some corner. Millions more of them were rolling as fireballs, like solar orbs, and this universe was seen in some corner.

Tatraikastham jagat kritsnam pravibhaktam anekadha (11.13): Divided into multifarious shapes, this entire creation was seen there as if it is only a fraction of this total manifestation. Padosya visva bhutani: Only one-fourth of the Supreme Being is manifested in this cosmos, as it were. Tripadasyamrtam divi: Three-fourths is invisible. The immanent form of God is only one-fourth, as it were; the transcendent form is three-fourths, as it were. It is not actually an arithmetical division that is intended here; the idea is that it is a very small fraction. Vishtabhyahamidam krtsnam ekamsena sthito jagat: “With a little fraction of Myself, I am supporting the entire cosmos.” The idea is that a little bit of the glory of God is revealed in the whole cosmos, and the real glory is transcendent. With a spoon from the sea of the bliss of Brahman, the entire world is sustained. Estasyaiva nandasyanyani bhutani matram upajivanti (Brihad. Upan. 4.3.32). Yajnavalkya says that with a little spoonful of the bliss of the ocean of Brahman, the whole universe is sustained; and we are licking it in a mild, adulterated, spread-out, dense, concretised form of one spoonful only. What would be the ocean of that bliss? Such a thing Arjuna beheld.

Tatraikastham jagat krtsnam pravibhaktam anekadha, apasyad deva-devasya sarire pandavas tada (11.13): In that great God of God’s Being, Arjuna had the blessing of beholding the wonder. There is no word in language to describe this wonder, except that it is a wonder. Gaganam gaganakaram sagarah sagarupama ramaravanayor yuddham ramaravanayoriva: “How was the battle of Rama with Ravana? Can you compare? What was it like?” somebody asked. It is like asking what the sky is like. The sky is only like the sky. What is the ocean like? The ocean is only like the ocean. How was the battle between Rama and Ravana? It was like the battle between Rama and Ravana; there is no other comparison. Such superb events which surpass understanding cannot have a comparison. In this wondrous form which cannot bear comparison with anything else, Arjuna lost his consciousness, as it were, and he prostrated himself in dizzy heights of awareness when he beheld this might.

Tatah sa vismayavishtah (11.14): wonderstruck, fear struck, dizzied with horripilation. Hrashtaroma: prostrating himself in utter surrender. Pranamya sirasa devam krtanjalirabhashata: “O God! What can I say?”

Arjuna uvacha: Pasyami devams tava deva dehe sarvams tatha bhuta-visesha-sanghan, brahmanam isam kamalasana-stham rshim cha sarvan uragams cha divyan (11.15): “O Lord! I behold everything here. Brahma, the creator himself, is seen here. I am seeing him.” Who can have darshan of Brahma? We cannot see him, but here he was, and here Rudra was. “In your form, I see all the gods. Every form of creation, including every created essence – all animals, all creatures, all human beings, all the denizens of heaven – I am seeing here just in front of me. I am seeing all the rishis. All the Nagas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras – I am seeing them here just now. All the multifaceted forms of Yours, I am beholding in front of me.”

Aneka-bahudara-vaktra-netram pasyami tvam sarvato’nanta-rupam, nantam na madhyam na punas tavadim pasyami visvesvara visvarupa (11.16): “In this multifaceted manifestation of Yours, with faces everywhere turned in my direction, with all eyes gazing at me, I see the infinity of Yours everywhere. I cannot know where You begin, where You end, or where is Your middle is. I cannot understand how vast is this personality of Yours. Hey Visvesvara! O Lord of the universe! O Visvarupa! The All-form, Omni-form! I cannot know where You begin, where You end, where is Your middle; and I am not able to gauge how vast You are. I am simply struck with surprise.”

Kiritinam gadinam chakrinam cha tejorasim sarvato diptimantam, pasyami tvam durnirikshyam samantad diptanalarka-dyutim aprameyam (11.17): “With diadems on every head of this multifarious form, I am seeing you shining. With gadas, with astras, together with this radiance that You are manifesting, I am unable to locate what is what at any place. Like blazing fire, I am seeing Your form spread out everywhere. You have gada, chakra, sankha and diadem on your heads – on all the millions of heads that I am seeing in front of me. And all these heads, all these faces, look like masses of fire. Heaps, columns of radiance – that is what I am seeing in front of me; and they have dazzled the whole space. I cannot see anything properly because my eyes are dazzled, dimmed completely in this light. Impossible it is for me to behold You, O Lord!” Durnirikshyam: “Really speaking, I cannot behold You. It is not possible for me even with this blessing of a new eye that You have given me. This is too much for me, and I cannot behold You anymore because You are fire, You are radiance, You are the Sun of suns. Immeasurable Thou art, O Lord!”

Tvam aksharam paramam veditavyam tvamasya visvasya param nidhanam, tvam avyayah sasvata-dharma-gopta sanatanas tvam purusho mato me (11.18): “Lord! Thou art the Eternal Being.” Arjuna is in ecstasy. He does not know how to express himself. He does not even know what he is speaking. “Thou art the immortal essence! Thou art the thing that is to be known through the scriptures, the Vedas, the Upanishads and all the texts that deal with liberation! O Supreme Being! O the Abode, the very support and substratum of this universe! I am addressing You. You are really the endless Being that is making me behold You here as something located in some place. You are not in one place; everywhere Thou art.” Sasvatadharmagopta: “I am seeing all dharma, all law and regulation, all blessing, all righteousness, all justice, all goodness, everything wonderful ethically, aesthetically, philosophically and spiritually. Truth, goodness and beauty are scintillating everywhere. ‘Eternity’ is the only word I can use for you. Supreme Purusha Thou art.”

Anadi-madhyantam anata-viryam ananta-bahum sasi-surya-netram, pasyami tvam dipta-hutasa-vaktram sva-tejasa visvam idam tapantam (11.19): “You are Yourself light. It is not that some light is emanating from You. Thou art Thyself the entire mass of light, and it is that light that is radiating everything. There is no beginning, no end, for this radiance.” Anantavirya: “What is Your prowess, what is Your energy, what is Your strength? They cannot be measured. Immeasurable strength, immeasurable prowess, is embedded in this vision of Virat.” Anantabahum: “Millions of hands are everywhere.” The Svestasvatara and Isavasya Upanishads tell us that without feet, He runs fast; without hands, He grasps everything. Even the fastest thing cannot overtake Him.

Arjuna repeats what he said. “I see You as columns of flames of light and radiance. I cannot see anything else in front of me, because Thou art Thyself. You glorify all things with Your presence, and it is Your glory that is glorying in the form of this vision. You are glorifying Yourself with Your own glory. Who can glorify You? Which thing in the world can glorify You? You are glorifying Yourself by Yourself.” We cannot glorify God. He has to glorify Himself with His own powers and grandeur. Sva-tejasa visvam idam tapantam: “The entire space and time is filled up with You. All the stars look like twinkling essences before this radiance. They have lost their radiance; they are dark before You.”

Dyav aprthivyor idam antaram hi vyaptam tvayaikena disas cha sarvah, drshtvadbhutam rupam ugram tavedam loka-trayam pravyathitam mahatman (11.20): “The whole creation is trembling because Your form is terrific and it is striking fear in everything. Earth and heaven, the skies and whatever is between them, is filled with this radiance of Yours.” The Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata describes how the whole creation was trembling when Sri Krishna took up his weapon against Bhishma and jumped from the chariot in the middle of the war. They say the earth shook and the oceans started throwing fierce waves, and Brahma himself could not understand why the end of the world was coming before the expected time. When Sri Krishna ran with the thud of his foot in the direction of Bhishma, Brahma felt that the Creator Himself had started destroying what He had created. 

Ami hi tvam sura-sangha visanti kechid bhitah pranjalayo grnanti, svastity uktva maharshi-siddha-sanghah stuvanti tvam stutibhih pushkalabhih (11.21): In the tremendous unity that Arjuna was perceiving, he also saw the little details. All the gods, all the rishis, all the Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras – all of them were also seen in detail at the background of this Universal Unity. On this canvas, or the substratum of this unity of perception, he also saw the details of creation simultaneously. “All the gods I see. They are entering into You. Some are running away from You in fear. Some are prostrating themselves before You. Some are crying, ‘Glory! Glory! Halleluiah! Wonderful God! O God!’ and they are running hither and thither. Maharishis, siddhas and all other groups are unable to visualise this vision. They are also wonderstruck. ‘Glory! Glory! Glory!’ they say, and dance in ecstasy.”

Rudraditya vasavo ye cha sadhya visve’svinau marutas choshmapas cha, gandharva-yakshasura-siddha-sangha vikshante tvam vismitas chaiva sarve (11.22): “All the Rudras, all the Adityas, all the Vasus, all the Sadhyas, all the Visvadevas, Asvinikumaras, Maruts, and all the other gods like the Ushmapas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, the other demi-gods and siddhas – all of them are looking at You, gazing at You with unwinking eyes, and struck with the wonder of this manifestation.”

Rupam mahat te (11.23): “Great, grand, glorious is this form, O Lord, that Thou are manifesting before me. Mahat-rupam this is. Bahu-vaktra-netram: with all faces and eyes. Maha-baho: O all-armed one! Bahu-bahuru-pada: with all kinds of feet everywhere, all kinds of hands grasping varieties of weapons, and myriads of manifestations of these arms and feet. Many stomachs, many eyes, many arms, many chests – I do not know how I can manage to see them with this blessing of the third eye that you have given. Even that is very feeble in front of this Might of all mights. Damshtra-karalam: You are very cruel in some forms, because You seem to be biting and crushing and chewing and swallowing – that also I am seeing in some forms. In some other forms it is all grace, blessing and beauty and majesty. The whole earth is unable to bear this any more. It is frightened and, O Lord, I am also very much frightened!”