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Chapter 10 of 18

विभूतियोग Vibhūti Yoga The Glories

Chapter 10: The Glories

42 verses

Wherever something is most fully itself, the Divine is most visible in it — a list of glories given because the whole cannot be listed.

Chapter 10 is a list, and it is the part of the Gita modern readers skim. It is worth not skimming.

Before the catalogue starts, Krishna says where he actually is: the self seated in the heart of all beings. Then twenty verses of among X, I am the best of X — Vishnu among the sons of Aditi, the moon among stars, the lion among animals, the Ganges among rivers, A among letters. The principle is not that the sun is holier than a lamp. It is that wherever something is most fully what it is, that is where he shows.

Two entries make the list something other than a hymn. Among the causes of birth, desire — which chapter 3 named the enemy. And I am the gambling of the deceitful, in a poem whose entire catastrophe began with a rigged dice game. Neither is softened. In the same verse as death carrying everything off sit fame, fortune, memory and patience.

Then, in the last three verses, the chapter dismisses its own inventory: there is no end to these, what I have said is a pointer, and what need was there of the detail anyway. Arjuna's response is not to ask for more words.

10.1Because you are dear to meKrishna speaks1 of 42

भूय एव महाबाहो श्रृणु मे परमं वचः
यत्तेऽहं प्रीयमाणाय वक्ष्यामि हितकाम्यया

bhūya eva mahā-bāho śhṛiṇu me paramaṁ vachaḥ
yatte ’haṁ prīyamāṇāya vakṣhyāmi hita-kāmyayā

Hear again my highest word, mighty-armed one, which I speak to you because you are dear to me and for your good.

The reason given is affection, again.

Hear my highest word — because you are dear to me, and for your good.

Chapter 4 gave friendship as the qualification; chapter 9 gave the absence of a sneer. Across the book the licence to hear the deepest things is never merit.

Word by wordśhrī-bhagavān uvācha — the Blessed Lord said · bhūyaḥ — again · eva — verily · mahā-bāho — mighty armed one · śhṛiṇu — hear · me — my · paramam — divine · vachaḥ — teachings · yat — which · te — to you · aham — I · prīyamāṇāya — you are my beloved confidant · vakṣhyāmi — say · hita-kāmyayā — for desiring your welfare

Chapter 10 · The Glories · ← → to move, d for depth

All 42 verses

  1. 10.1 भूय एव महाबाहो श्रृणु मे परमं वचः Because you are dear to me
  2. 10.2 न मे विदुः सुरगणाः प्रभवं न महर्षयः Not even the seers know
  3. 10.3 यो मामजमनादिं च वेत्ति लोकमहेश्वरम् Undeluded among mortals
  4. 10.4 बुद्धिर्ज्ञानमसंमोहः क्षमा सत्यं दमः शमः Even fear comes from me
  5. 10.5 अहिंसा समता तुष्टिस्तपो दानं यशोऽयशः The states of beings
  6. 10.6 महर्षयः सप्त पूर्वे चत्वारो मनवस्तथा Born of my mind
  7. 10.7 एतां विभूतिं योगं च मम यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः Knowing these glories
  8. 10.8 अहं सर्वस्य प्रभवो मत्तः सर्वं प्रवर्तते The wise worship with feeling
  9. 10.9 मच्चित्ता मद्गतप्राणा बोधयन्तः परस्परम् Enlightening one another
  10. 10.10 तेषां सततयुक्तानां भजतां प्रीतिपूर्वकम् I give the understanding
  11. 10.11 तेषामेवानुकम्पार्थमहमज्ञानजं तमः Standing in their own being

Arjuna said

  1. 10.12 परं ब्रह्म परं धाम पवित्रं परमं भवान् Arjuna answers in praise
  2. 10.13 आहुस्त्वामृषयः सर्वे देवर्षिर्नारदस्तथा All the seers say it
  3. 10.14 सर्वमेतदृतं मन्ये यन्मां वदसि केशव I hold it to be true
  4. 10.15 स्वयमेवात्मनाऽत्मानं वेत्थ त्वं पुरुषोत्तम You alone know yourself
  5. 10.16 वक्तुमर्हस्यशेषेण दिव्या ह्यात्मविभूतयः Tell me of the glories
  6. 10.17 कथं विद्यामहं योगिंस्त्वां सदा परिचिन्तयन् In what forms?
  7. 10.18 विस्तरेणात्मनो योगं विभूतिं च जनार्दन Your words are nectar

The Blessed One said

  1. 10.19 हन्त ते कथयिष्यामि दिव्या ह्यात्मविभूतयः Only the chief of them
  2. 10.20 अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः The self in every heart
  3. 10.21 आदित्यानामहं विष्णुर्ज्योतिषां रविरंशुमान् Vishnu, the sun, the moon
  4. 10.22 वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः Among the senses, the mind
  5. 10.23 रुद्राणां शङ्करश्चास्मि वित्तेशो यक्षरक्षसाम् Shiva, fire, and Meru
  6. 10.24 पुरोधसां च मुख्यं मां विद्धि पार्थ बृहस्पतिम् Skanda, and the ocean
  7. 10.25 महर्षीणां भृगुरहं गिरामस्म्येकमक्षरम् The single syllable
  8. 10.26 अश्वत्थः सर्ववृक्षाणां देवर्षीणां च नारदः The sacred fig
  9. 10.27 उच्चैःश्रवसमश्वानां विद्धि माममृतोद्भवम् Among men, the king
  10. 10.28 आयुधानामहं वज्रं धेनूनामस्मि कामधुक् Among causes of birth, desire
  11. 10.29 अनन्तश्चास्मि नागानां वरुणो यादसामहम् Among those who govern, Death
  12. 10.30 प्रह्लादश्चास्मि दैत्यानां कालः कलयतामहम् Among reckoners, Time
  13. 10.31 पवनः पवतामस्मि रामः शस्त्रभृतामहम् The wind, and the Ganges
  14. 10.32 सर्गाणामादिरन्तश्च मध्यं चैवाहमर्जुन Among arguers, the argument
  15. 10.33 अक्षराणामकारोऽस्मि द्वन्द्वः सामासिकस्य च Among letters, A
  16. 10.34 मृत्युः सर्वहरश्चाहमुद्भवश्च भविष्यताम् Death, and also fame
  17. 10.35 बृहत्साम तथा साम्नां गायत्री छन्दसामहम् The flowering spring
  18. 10.36 द्यूतं छलयतामस्मि तेजस्तेजस्विनामहम् The gambling of the deceitful
  19. 10.37 वृष्णीनां वासुदेवोऽस्मि पाण्डवानां धनंजयः Among the Pandavas, Arjuna
  20. 10.38 दण्डो दमयतामस्मि नीतिरस्मि जिगीषताम् The silence of secret things
  21. 10.39 यच्चापि सर्वभूतानां बीजं तदहमर्जुन The seed of all beings
  22. 10.40 नान्तोऽस्ति मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनां परंतप There is no end to them
  23. 10.41 यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा A fragment of my splendour
  24. 10.42 अथवा बहुनैतेन किं ज्ञातेन तवार्जुन With a single part of myself

Where this sits

Chapter 10 against the whole of it: who is speaking, verse by verse, and how much of the book this chapter is.

Who speaks across the whole Gita, with chapter 10 marked. The Glories runs from verse 373 to 414 of 701. Chapter 1: Arjuna's Despair — 47 verses Chapter 2: The Eternal — 72 verses Chapter 3: Action — 43 verses Chapter 4: The Lineage of Knowing — 42 verses Chapter 5: The Unwetted Leaf — 29 verses Chapter 6: The Windless Place — 47 verses Chapter 7: The Thread — 30 verses Chapter 8: The Two Paths — 28 verses Chapter 9: The Simple Offering — 34 verses Chapter 10: The Glories — 42 verses Chapter 11: The Cosmic Form — 55 verses Chapter 12: Devotion — 20 verses Chapter 13: The Field and Its Knower — 35 verses Chapter 14: The Three Strands — 27 verses Chapter 15: The Inverted Tree — 20 verses Chapter 16: Two Natures — 24 verses Chapter 17: Three Kinds of Faith — 28 verses Chapter 18: Release — 78 verses

The argument so far

  1. Chapter 1 Arjuna's nerve fails on the field, and the question that opens the book is not a spiritual one but a practical one he cannot answer.
  2. Chapter 2 The first answer is that Arjuna is not the body he is afraid of losing, and that grief for what cannot die is grief misplaced.
  3. Chapter 3 Withdrawing from action is not available to anyone alive; what is available is acting without gripping the result.
  4. Chapter 4 Action, knowledge and Krishna himself all have a deeper structure than they appear to, and knowing it is what makes action free.
  5. Chapter 5 What has to be renounced is attachment rather than activity — the leaf in water, unwetted.
  6. Chapter 6 The mind is trained the way anything is trained, by returning to the practice on the days it does not work.
  7. Chapter 7 Behind both matter and awareness there is one reality, and everything else is a thread strung on it.
  8. Chapter 8 Everything that appears is temporary; the work of yoga is to train attention toward the one thing that is not.
  9. Chapter 9 The highest knowledge turns out to ask for the simplest thing: what is offered matters less than the attention it is offered with.