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Chapter 11 · Verse 16
🏹 Arjuna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 11, Verse 16

अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रं पश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोऽनन्तरूपम्। नान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस्तवादिं पश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप॥

anekabāhūdaravaktranetraṁ paśyāmi tvāṁ sarvato'nantarūpam | nāntaṁ na madhyaṁ na punastavādiṁ paśyāmi viśveśvara viśvarūpa ||

Word by Word 13 words
अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रम्
an not eka one bāhu arm udara belly vac to speak) → vaktra (mouth, face nī to lead) → netra (eye

with many arms, bellies, mouths, and eyes

पश्यामि
dṛś to see

I see, I behold

त्वाम्
tvad you

you

सर्वतः
sarva all tas from, on every side

on all sides, everywhere

अनन्तरूपम्
an not anta end rūp form

of endless form, with form that has no limit

न
na not

not, no

अन्तम्
anta end, limit

end

मध्यम्
madhya middle

middle

पुनः
punar again

again, moreover

तव
tvad you

your, of you

आदिम्
ādi beginning

beginning

विश्वेश्वर
viś to enter, to pervade) → viśva (all, universe īś to rule, to be lord

O Lord of the universe

विश्वरूप
viśva all, universe rūp form

O You whose form is the universe

The form keeps growing. "I see You with arms beyond counting, bellies beyond counting, faces and eyes beyond counting, stretching away in every direction," says. "And though I look and look, I cannot find where You end, or where Your middle is, or where You ever began. O Lord of all worlds, O You whose body is the whole universe — You have no edges at all."

कथा

No Beginning, No End

From the mythological

tried to do what he always did when something was too big to understand: he tried to measure it.

When he stood before a mountain, his eyes climbed it from base to peak. When he looked at the sea, he searched for the far shore. His mind liked to find the edges of things: the top, the bottom, the start, the finish. That was how he made sense of the world.

So now he tried to measure the form in front of him.

He looked for the arms — and lost count. Arm beyond arm beyond arm, some lifting, some lowering, some holding weapons that flashed like lightning, spreading out in every direction farther than his eyes could travel. He looked for the faces — and there were faces everywhere he turned, faces above faces, eyes beyond eyes, so many that they were like stars on a clear night, too many to ever number.

"Let me at least find where it ends," thought, and he sent his gaze out as far as it would go, to the very rim of the vision.

But there was no rim. Wherever he looked there was more — more form, more light, more world, going on and on without any wall to stop it.

"Then let me find the middle," he thought, "or the beginning." But how do you find the middle of something with no edges? How do you find where something starts, when it stretches back forever in every direction?

And understood, with a shiver, that he was trying to measure the immeasurable. This form had no beginning, because it had always been. It had no end, because it would never cease. It had no middle, because you can only have a middle when you have two ends to be between.

His little measuring mind, so good at mountains and seas, simply ran out of room.

"O Lord of the universe," he breathed, "O You whose very body is the universe — I cannot find Your edges. There are none. You are without beginning, without middle, without end."

चिन्तनम्

Some things, like a number that goes on forever, have no end at all. Can you think of something you have tried to imagine that was just too big to picture? How did it make you feel?