Chapter 11 · Verse 7·Spoken by Krishna
इहैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं पश्याद्य सचराचरम्। मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद्द्रष्टुमिच्छसि
ihaika-sthaṁ jagat kṛitsnaṁ paśhyādya sa-charācharam mama dehe guḍākeśha yach chānyad draṣhṭum ichchhasi
See now the whole universe, the moving and the unmoving, gathered together here in my body. See whatever else you wish to see.
Word by Word
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
rishna widens the invitation he has just begun. He has shown Arjuna the Adityas, the Vasus and other cosmic powers as his form; now he says, do not stop there. Here, in this one body of mine, gathered into a single place, behold the whole world, all of it, with everything that moves and everything that does not move. The word for the entire cosmos is jagat kritsnam, the world in its completeness, and it includes the moving (chara, living and changing things) and the unmoving (achara, the still and fixed). The point is the staggering concentration: the entire universe is offered to sight in one spot, in one body.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak
Several commentators sharpen the locus even further. It is not merely 'in my body' but in one part, one region, even a single limb of that body, that the whole cosmos stands gathered. Krishna is offering a vision that no ordinary effort could ever reach: a sight that could not be had even by wandering through the world for thousands of crores of years, or through tens of millions of births and lifetimes. What endless searching could never gather, grace now lays before Arjuna all at once, today, this very moment, in one place.
Braided from 8 commentators
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Puruṣottama
Krishna then folds in something personal. 'And whatever else you wish to see, see that too.' The commentators agree this points back to Arjuna's own anguish from earlier in the Gita: his doubt over victory and defeat, his question of whether his side should conquer or be conquered, even the very war-question 'how shall I slay these?' that opened the dialogue. The cosmic vision is not abstract spectacle. The same body that holds all worlds also holds the answer to the doubt pressing on Arjuna's heart, for the cutting-off of that doubt.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The name Krishna uses, Gudakesha, is read as part of the message. It means conqueror of sleep, master of sleep (gudaka, sleep or torpor). Used here, the address is a quiet command: shake off all drowsiness and dullness, be wide awake and fully attentive, for what is about to be shown demands the whole of your seeing.
Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This school reads the verse as the doctrinal anchor of the whole chapter: the entire cosmic field has its locus in the Lord's own body. The phrasing is parsed deliberately. 'Gathered in one place' marks the concentration, 'the whole world' marks the scope, and 'in my body' marks the locus. The verse fastens a teaching the chapter will then exhibit: the universe in its entirety abides within the Lord, in a single region of a single body, as that which is grounded in him.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
This school reads the verse as a confirmation of the reality of the seen world, not its cancellation. The world the eye sees by day is not unreal. Standing in the Lord's body, it is shown to be his very form, and the Vishvarupa is the showing-forth of this world as the body it has always been, not its erasure. One source supports this by invoking Vyasa's Brahma-Sutra reasoning that the world is 'not non-being, since it is perceived' and is unlike a dream, since their characters differ; and it adds that no delusion can be imputed to so trustworthy a teacher as Krishna without falling into pointlessness. The verse is also tied to the earlier claim that the Lord stands supporting all this world with a single fragment of himself.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
This school stresses that the vision is given by grace and roots the body itself as the cause and support of the universe. The cosmos seen here cannot be reached by any wandering or effort; it is shown 'by my grace,' in a body that is the very ground of the world. One source pictures the universes shooting forth from the figure like sprouts of grass at the root of a wish-fulfilling tree, or floating like motes in a sunbeam at the joints of its limbs, and adds that whatever lies even beyond the universe is open to Arjuna's sight, nothing blocking it; it also notes the tender detail that when Krishna paused, Arjuna stood mute, and the Lord, wondering at his silence, turned to look at him still eager for the vision. This school also reads the verse as the bodily fulfillment of the earlier spoken claim that the Lord stands supporting the world with one fragment of himself: what was said in speech is now offered in body.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Advaita Vedānta
This school reads the verse closely as Krishna extending the invitation and emphasizes the cutting-off of doubt. The whole world, unseeable even by wandering for thousands of crores of years, is set before Arjuna in one place; and whatever else he doubts, victory, defeat, cause, the past, the future, the distant, near, gross, or subtle, that too he may see, so that his doubt is severed. One source parses the grammar carefully, noting how the locatives ('in my body,' 'in one place') connect, and reads the verse simply as 'if you wish, then see here.'
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrī Ānandagiri
A Seeker Asks
If the whole universe is gathered into one place in Krishna's body, is the world being declared unreal, or is its reality being affirmed?
The verse itself does not cancel the world; it concentrates it. Krishna says the whole world, with all that moves and does not move, stands gathered in one place in his body. The teaching is that the cosmos has its locus, its ground and support, in the Lord, not that the cosmos vanishes.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva
One line of reading presses this point directly: the world the eye sees by day is not unreal. Standing in the Lord's body, it is shown to be his very form, and the Vishvarupa is the showing-forth of this world as the body it has always been, not its erasure. On this view it would be wrong to read the vision as proof that the seen world is a delusion.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Another line emphasizes a different gift: this is a sight unreachable by any ordinary effort, given by grace, set before Arjuna all at once in a single body. The weight falls less on whether the world is real or unreal and more on the scope of what is being shown and the doubt it is meant to cut off, including Arjuna's own anguish over the coming battle.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Notice the name Krishna chooses for this moment: Gudakesha, conqueror of sleep. The address carries an instruction. Shaking off all torpor, with full attentiveness, see. Before a vision this vast, half-attention is no attention at all. The drowsiness here is not only literal sleep; it is the dullness and inner slackness that lets the greatest sight pass unseen. So when you turn toward something meant to wake you, do not bring a divided, sleepy gaze. Gather yourself, become wide awake, and give the whole of your seeing to what is set before you.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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