Chapter 11, Verse 10
अनेकवक्त्रनयनमनेकाद्भुतदर्शनम् | अनेकदिव्याभरणं दिव्यानेकोद्यतायुधम् ||११-१०||
anekavaktranayanamanekādbhutadarśanam . anekadivyābharaṇaṃ divyānekodyatāyudham ||11-10||
Meaning
11.10 With numerous mouths and eyes, with numerous wonderful sights, with numerous divine ornaments, with numerous divine weapons uplifted (such a form He showed).
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Sanjaya begins to describe the indescribable, and the word that dominates is aneka — 'numerous', repeated again and again. The form has countless mouths and eyes, countless marvels, countless divine ornaments, countless raised weapons. Language strains under the weight of infinity; all it can do is multiply.
The imagery holds a tension that will deepen as the chapter unfolds. The divya-abharana, divine ornaments, speak of glory and beauty; the udyata-ayudha, weapons held aloft, hint at terror and the power to destroy. From the very first description, the cosmic form unites splendour and dread. This is honest spirituality. The Reality that sustains all things is also the Reality that consumes them; creation and dissolution belong to the same source. To behold the Divine fully is to see that its beauty and its fierceness are not contradictions but one undivided truth.
💡 Key Takeaway
The fullness of the Divine unites dazzling beauty with awesome power in a single, boundless reality.
Related Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः | नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च ||११-५||
śrībhagavānuvāca . paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi śataśo.atha sahasraśaḥ . nānāvidhāni divyāni nānāvarṇākṛtīni ca ||11-5||
11.5 The Blessed Lord said Behold, O Arjuna, forms of Mine, by the hundreds and thousands, of different sorts, divine, and of various colours and shapes.
पश्यादित्यान्वसून्रुद्रानश्विनौ मरुतस्तथा | बहून्यदृष्टपूर्वाणि पश्याश्चर्याणि भारत ||११-६||
paśyādityānvasūnrudrānaśvinau marutastathā . bahūnyadṛṣṭapūrvāṇi paśyāścaryāṇi bhārata ||11-6||
11.6 Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Asvins and also the Maruts; behold many wonders never seen before, O Arjuna.
इहैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं पश्याद्य सचराचरम् | मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद् द्रष्टुमिच्छसि ||११-७||
ihaikasthaṃ jagatkṛtsnaṃ paśyādya sacarācaram . mama dehe guḍākeśa yaccānyad draṣṭumicchasi ||11-7||
11.7 Now behold, O Arjuna, in this, My body, the whole universe centred in one including the moving and the unmoving and whatever else thou desirest to see.