Chapter 11 of 18
विश्वरूपदर्शनयोग Viśvarūpa Darśana Yoga The Cosmic Form
55 verses
Arjuna asks to see it and cannot bear what he sees, which is the book's reply to anyone who wants the vision rather than the practice.
Arjuna begins chapter 11 by saying his confusion is gone — and then asks to see. That order matters. The request is not made out of doubt. It is made by someone who has understood the teaching and wants sight as well.
He is warned only that his eyes are inadequate, and given divine ones. What follows is the most famous passage in the book: a form with mouths and eyes everywhere, facing every direction, and a light that a thousand suns rising together might be something like. The hedge is in the verse.
Four verses of really looking, and he cannot bear it. Then the vision stops being cosmic and he sees people he knows — Bhishma, Drona, Karna, and the chief warriors of his own side — rushing into the mouths like moths into a flame, some caught between the teeth with their heads crushed. He asks who this is and says plainly: I do not understand what you are doing.
The answer is I am time, the destroyer of worlds, followed by the half usually left off — even without you, none of them will remain. Be only the instrument.
And then the chapter does something no summary of it ever includes. Arjuna, stammering, apologises for having called him by name, for jokes made at meals and at play. He asks to be borne with as a father bears a son, a friend a friend, a lover the beloved. The terrible form is withdrawn, Sanjaya says Krishna consoled him, and what puts Arjuna back together is seeing the ordinary human face again.
मदनुग्रहाय परमं गुह्यमध्यात्मसंज्ञितम्
यत्त्वयोक्तं वचस्तेन मोहोऽयं विगतो मम
mad-anugrahāya paramaṁ guhyam adhyātma-sanjñitam
yat tvayoktaṁ vachas tena moho ’yaṁ vigato mama
By your grace I have heard your highest word, the deepest secret, about the self — and by it my confusion is gone.
He says the confusion is gone — and then asks for more.
moho 'yaṁ vigato mama. Chapter 2 opened with him unable to stand; here he reports the delusion lifted.
Which makes what follows harder to explain away. The request in 11.3 is not made from distress. It is made by someone who has understood and wants to see anyway.
Word by wordarjunaḥ uvācha — Arjun said · mat-anugrahāya — out of compassion to me · paramam — supreme · guhyam — confidential · adhyātma-sanjñitam — about spiritual knowledge · yat — which · tvayā — by you · uktam — spoken · vachaḥ — words · tena — by that · mohaḥ — illusion · ayam — this · vigataḥ — is dispelled · mama — my
Chapter 11 · The Cosmic Form · ← → to move, d for depth
All 55 verses
The Blessed One said
Sanjaya said
- 11.9 एवमुक्त्वा ततो राजन्महायोगेश्वरो हरिः And then he showed him
- 11.10 अनेकवक्त्रनयनमनेकाद्भुतदर्शनम् Many mouths and eyes
- 11.11 दिव्यमाल्याम्बरधरं दिव्यगन्धानुलेपनम् Facing every way
- 11.12 दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता A thousand suns
- 11.13 तत्रैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं प्रविभक्तमनेकधा The whole world in one place
- 11.14 ततः स विस्मयाविष्टो हृष्टरोमा धनञ्जयः His hair standing on end
Arjuna said
- 11.15 पश्यामि देवांस्तव देव देहे सर्वांस्तथा भूतविशेषसङ्घान् I see all the gods in you
- 11.16 अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रं पश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोऽनन्तरूपम् No end, no middle, no beginning
- 11.17 किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रिणं च तेजोराशिं सर्वतोदीप्तिमन्तम् Hard to look at
- 11.18 त्वमक्षरं परमं वेदितव्यं त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् You are the imperishable
- 11.19 अनादिमध्यान्तमनन्तवीर्य मनन्तबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम् The moon and sun your eyes
- 11.20 द्यावापृथिव्योरिदमन्तरं हि व्याप्तं त्वयैकेन दिशश्च सर्वाः The three worlds tremble
- 11.21 अमी हि त्वां सुरसङ्घाः विशन्ति केचिद्भीताः प्राञ्जलयो गृणन्ति Some, afraid, praise you
- 11.22 रुद्रादित्या वसवो ये च साध्या विश्वेऽश्िवनौ मरुतश्चोष्मपाश्च All of them gaze in wonder
- 11.23 रूपं महत्ते बहुवक्त्रनेत्रं महाबाहो बहुबाहूरुपादम् The worlds tremble, and so do I
- 11.24 नभःस्पृशं दीप्तमनेकवर्णं व्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रम् I find no steadiness
- 11.25 दंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि दृष्ट्वैव कालानलसन्निभानि I lose my bearings
- 11.26 अमी च त्वां धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्राः सर्वे सहैवावनिपालसङ्घैः And there are our own
- 11.27 वक्त्राणि ते त्वरमाणा विशन्ति दंष्ट्राकरालानि भयानकानि Heads crushed to powder
- 11.28 यथा नदीनां बहवोऽम्बुवेगाः समुद्रमेवाभिमुखाः द्रवन्ति As rivers run to the sea
- 11.29 यथा प्रदीप्तं ज्वलनं पतङ्गा विशन्ति नाशाय समृद्धवेगाः As moths into a flame
- 11.30 लेलिह्यसे ग्रसमानः समन्ता ल्लोकान्समग्रान्वदनैर्ज्वलद्भिः You lick up all the worlds
- 11.31 आख्याहि मे को भवानुग्ररूपो नमोऽस्तु ते देववर प्रसीद Tell me who you are
The Blessed One said
Arjuna said
- 11.36 स्थाने हृषीकेश तव प्रकीर्त्या जगत् प्रहृष्यत्यनुरज्यते च It is fitting
- 11.37 कस्माच्च ते न नमेरन्महात्मन् गरीयसे ब्रह्मणोऽप्यादिकर्त्रे Why should they not bow?
- 11.38 त्वमादिदेवः पुरुषः पुराण स्त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् The knower and the known
- 11.39 वायुर्यमोऽग्निर्वरुणः शशाङ्कः प्रजापतिस्त्वं प्रपितामहश्च A thousand times I bow
- 11.40 नमः पुरस्तादथ पृष्ठतस्ते नमोऽस्तु ते सर्वत एव सर्व From every side
- 11.41 सखेति मत्वा प्रसभं यदुक्तं हे कृष्ण हे यादव हे सखेति For whatever I said carelessly
- 11.42 यच्चावहासार्थमसत्कृतोऽसि विहारशय्यासनभोजनेषु At play, at rest, at meals
- 11.43 पितासि लोकस्य चराचरस्य त्वमस्य पूज्यश्च गुरुर्गरीयान् Nothing is like you
- 11.44 तस्मात्प्रणम्य प्रणिधाय कायं प्रसादये त्वामहमीशमीड्यम् As a father bears with a son
- 11.45 अदृष्टपूर्वं हृषितोऽस्मि दृष्ट्वा भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे Show me the other form
- 11.46 किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रहस्त मिच्छामि त्वां द्रष्टुमहं तथैव I wish to see you as before
The Blessed One said
Sanjaya said
Where this sits
Chapter 11 against the whole of it: who is speaking, verse by verse, and how much of the book this chapter is.
The argument so far
- 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.
- 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.
- Chapter 3 Withdrawing from action is not available to anyone alive; what is available is acting without gripping the result.
- Chapter 4 Action, knowledge and Krishna himself all have a deeper structure than they appear to, and knowing it is what makes action free.
- Chapter 5 What has to be renounced is attachment rather than activity — the leaf in water, unwetted.
- Chapter 6 The mind is trained the way anything is trained, by returning to the practice on the days it does not work.
- Chapter 7 Behind both matter and awareness there is one reality, and everything else is a thread strung on it.
- Chapter 8 Everything that appears is temporary; the work of yoga is to train attention toward the one thing that is not.
- 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.
- Chapter 10 Wherever something is most fully itself, the Divine is most visible in it — a list of glories given because the whole cannot be listed.