Vibhuti Yoga
Vibhuti Yoga • 42 verses
Krishna reveals his divine manifestations and glories, showing how his presence can be perceived in the greatest and most excellent examples of everything in creation. This chapter helps the devotee see the divine in the world around them.
Chapter Overview
Arjuna wants to know where to look. If the divine is everywhere, everywhere is too large to hold in the mind. Give me something to fix on.
Krishna answers with a list, and the list is the teaching. Among lights, the sun. Among mountains, Meru. Among rivers, the Ganga. Among words, the single syllable Om. Among seasons, the flowering spring.
The pattern is consistent: wherever anything reaches its finest form, that is where to look. Not the average, not the ordinary — the peak of the thing.
He includes what you might not expect. Among cheats, he is gambling. Among the splendid, splendour. He does not carve the world into holy and unholy halves.
At the end he stops the list himself. There is no end to this, he says, and the whole catalogue was only a doorway. Whatever you meet that is glorious or beautiful or strong, understand it came from a fragment of him.
Key Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | भूय एव महाबाहो शृणु मे परमं वचः | यत्तेऽहं प्रीयमाणाय वक्ष्यामि हितकाम्यया ||१०-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . bhūya eva mahābāho śṛṇu me paramaṃ vacaḥ . yatte.ahaṃ prīyamāṇāya vakṣyāmi hitakāmyayā ||10-1||
The Blessed Lord said: Again, O mighty-armed Arjuna, listen to my supreme word which I will declare to thee who who art beloved, for thy welfare.
न मे विदुः सुरगणाः प्रभवं न महर्षयः | अहमादिर्हि देवानां महर्षीणां च सर्वशः ||१०-२||
na me viduḥ suragaṇāḥ prabhavaṃ na maharṣayaḥ . ahamādirhi devānāṃ maharṣīṇāṃ ca sarvaśaḥ ||10-2||
Neither the hosts of the gods nor the great sages know My origin; for in every way I am the source of all the gods and the great sages.
यो मामजमनादिं च वेत्ति लोकमहेश्वरम् | असम्मूढः स मर्त्येषु सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते ||१०-३||
yo māmajamanādiṃ ca vetti lokamaheśvaram . asammūḍhaḥ sa martyeṣu sarvapāpaiḥ pramucyate ||10-3||
He who knows Me as unborn and beginningless, as the great Lord of the worlds, he, among mortals, is undeluded and he is liberated from all sins.
बुद्धिर्ज्ञानमसम्मोहः क्षमा सत्यं दमः शमः | सुखं दुःखं भवोऽभावो भयं चाभयमेव च ||१०-४||
buddhirjñānamasammohaḥ kṣamā satyaṃ damaḥ śamaḥ . sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ bhavo.abhāvo bhayaṃ cābhayameva ca ||10-4||
Intellect, wisdom, non-delusion, forgiveness, truth, self-restraint, calmness, happiness, pain, existence or birth, non-existence or death, fear and also fearlessness.
अहिंसा समता तुष्टिस्तपो दानं यशोऽयशः | भवन्ति भावा भूतानां मत्त एव पृथग्विधाः ||१०-५||
ahiṃsā samatā tuṣṭistapo dānaṃ yaśo.ayaśaḥ . bhavanti bhāvā bhūtānāṃ matta eva pṛthagvidhāḥ ||10-5||
Non-injury, eanimity, contentment, austerity, beneficence, fame, ill-fame (these) different kinds of alities of beings arise from Me alone.