Chapter 11 · Verse 45·Spoken by Arjuna
अदृष्टपूर्वं हृषितोऽस्मि दृष्ट्वा भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे। तदेव मे दर्शय देव रूपं प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास
adṛiṣhṭa-pūrvaṁ hṛiṣhito ’smi dṛiṣhṭvā bhayena cha pravyathitaṁ mano me tad eva me darśhaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśha jagan-nivāsa
I am thrilled to have seen what was never seen before, and my mind trembles with fear. Show me again that earlier form. Be gracious, lord of the gods, home of the universe.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
rjuna names two opposite feelings at once. He has just seen the visva-rupa (the universal or cosmic form, the whole world held in Krishna's body), a thing 'never before seen' by him or by anyone else. Seeing it, he says he is hrishita, thrilled and gladdened; and at the same time his mind is pravyathita, deeply agitated, shaken by fear. The commentators stress that both reactions are real and stand together: the form is at once exceedingly wondrous and exceedingly fierce, so wonder and terror arrive in the same breath.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak
The fear comes specifically from the form's terrible, distorted, fierce aspect, not from the vision as such. Several commentators are precise here: it is the sight of the 'changed' or 'fierce' or 'devouring' form, the form that consumes the worlds, that strains the mind. So Arjuna is not recoiling from God; he is overwhelmed by the all-consuming face of cosmic power that he asked to see.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
Coming right after Arjuna's plea for pardon in the previous verse, this verse is his next request: he asks Krishna to withdraw the cosmic form and show 'that very form' he knew before. The commentators agree that 'tad eva rupam', that very form, points back to the familiar, gentle form Arjuna already loved, not to the universal form just witnessed. He wants the relationship to continue inside this new knowledge, so he asks the older, dear form to return rather than asking the vision merely to vanish.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Arjuna closes with three names of address that carry weight. He calls Krishna deva (God), devesha (Lord of the gods, ruler even of Indra, Brahma and the rest), and jagan-nivasa (dwelling-place of the world, the support of the whole universe), and he prays prasida, 'be gracious.' The commentators read these names as both praise and appeal: having seen with his own eyes that this is the Supreme Lord who rules even the gods and holds the world, Arjuna grounds his request in that recognition and asks for the grace of the return of the beloved form.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak
Divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators identify 'that very form' Arjuna wants as the familiar four-armed form, not the universal form just seen. On this reading the verse is essentially the seeker's plea for the vision to cease now that he has had enough: Arjuna names the double response of delight and fear and asks for the restoration of the prior, gracious form he is used to.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the requested form through the frame of grace and ranking. One develops the verse as a turn to the Lord who is beyond the gunas (beyond the three strands of nature): the devotee asks to be shown that beyond-the-gunas, four-armed form, which, being made of pure sattva and of 'maryada' (the path of regulated grace), is rated the best of forms by its peaceful character, even above the worship of the bare imperishable Brahman; this verse is taken as the textual warrant for that ranking. The other reads it as the anxiety of pushti (the path of pure grace): having been blessed with the sight of the Purushottama (the Supreme Person), the devotee fears his longing for another form was an offence and that the cherished face may not return, so he prays for grace that 'that very Purushottama-form' be shown again.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators read the verse as the devotee longing for the beloved personal form so the loving relationship can resume. One says the bhakta is not asking the universal form to vanish but the older familiar form to return, so the bond may continue inside the new knowledge. Others identify that form as Krishna's two-armed human shape, dearer than tens of millions of one's own lives, the very ocean of sweetness; they add that this human form, the root and source of all forms, was present even during the cosmic vision but veiled from Arjuna by Yogamaya (the Lord's concealing power). One sustained Marathi voice pours this out as a child's intimacy with a divine parent who indulged his every play-wish: now, unable to talk to or embrace the limitless Omnipresence, the devotee yearns to commune, consort and embrace, and finds the haven of rest and the fruit of all yoga in the four-armed Image, praying for help out of this distress to set his eyes on it again.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators keep the reading plain and reassuring. One notes that the cosmic form is overwhelming and terrifying to an ordinary person, while to a yogi it is encouraging and soul-elevating, and frames Arjuna simply as asking to see again the form Krishna wears as his friend. The other reads the verse as grounded hope: just as Krishna granted the universal form on request, so on this prayer for the deva-rupa (the divine personal form) Krishna will surely grant that too, and it is in this confidence that Arjuna prays.
Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If Arjuna himself asked to see the cosmic form, why does he now beg for it to be taken away and the familiar form restored?
Because the vision genuinely carries both joy and terror at once, and the terror is not a complaint against God but the natural effect of seeing the all-consuming, fierce face of cosmic power. Arjuna is thrilled by what he sees, yet his mind is deeply shaken by the form's devouring terribleness, so his plea is the honest response of a finite person to an overwhelming sight.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
And because what he asks to return is not a lesser thing but the form in which love and friendship can actually continue. He asks for 'that very form' he knew before, the familiar gracious shape, not so the cosmic truth is undone but so the relationship can go on inside the new knowledge. Having now seen with his own eyes that this friend is the Lord of the gods and the dwelling-place of the world, he asks, on the strength of that recognition, for the grace of the beloved form again.
Braided from 8 commentators
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Notice what Arjuna is really asking for. He does not ask the larger vision to be erased, as if the cosmic truth were too much and best forgotten. He asks the older, familiar, loved form to return, so that the relationship can continue inside the new knowledge. That is a quiet model for our own seeing. When something vast and overwhelming about reality breaks in on us, the point is not to live permanently inside the overwhelm, nor to pretend we never saw it. The point is to carry the larger knowing and then come back to the form we can actually love and speak to and rest in. The familiar face is not a step down from the cosmic vision; it is where the relationship gets to keep living.
Sit with this · Śrīdhara Svāmī
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