Sanskrit
हन्त ते कथयिष्यामि दिव्या ह्यात्मविभूतयः । प्राधान्यतः कुरुश्रेष्ठ नास्त्यन्तो विस्तरस्य मे ॥ १९ ॥
hanta te kathayiṣyāmi divyā hy ātmavibhūtayaḥ prādhānyataḥ kuruśreṣṭha nāsty anto vistarasya me
Translation
Blessed be thou! I will declare to thee My divine glory by its chief characteristics, O best of the Kurus; there is no end to details of Me.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna’s answer opens with a disclaimer that frames everything through verse 39: he will give only the “chief characteristics” (prādhānyataḥ) because “there is no end to details of” him. This caveat, stated before a single example is given, is repeated and expanded in verse 40 — the list to come was never meant to be read as exhaustive. Prādhānyataḥ… nāsty anto vistarasya me — “the principal ones only; My extent has no end” — is the disclaimer that governs the whole list. Verses 40–42 return to it: what follows is a sample, and BG 10.41 hands Arjuna the rule for extending it himself.
Study deeper
Word by word
- hanta te kathayiṣyāmiहन्त ते कथयिष्यामि
- well then, I shall tell you (hanta + te + kathayiṣyāmi)
- divyā hy ātmavibhūtayaḥदिव्या ह्य् आत्मविभूतयः
- the divine glories of My Self (divyāḥ + hi + ātma-vibhūtayaḥ)
- prādhānyataḥ kuruśreṣṭhaप्राधान्यतः कुरुश्रेष्ठ
- [only] the chief ones, O best of the Kurus (prādhānyataḥ + kuru-śreṣṭha)
- nāsty anto vistarasya meनास्त्य् अन्तो विस्तरस्य मे
- there is no end to My extent (na + asti + antaḥ + vistarasya + me)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Before naming a single manifestation, Krishna tells Arjuna the answer cannot be complete — “there is no end to details of Me.” Stating an answer’s limitation before giving it is an unusual rhetorical order; it means every item from verse 21 onward should be read as illustrative rather than as an attempt at coverage, a caveat easy to forget by the time the list runs long.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you share advice or a plan, state upfront that it's illustrative rather than exhaustive — this verse tells Arjuna "there is no end to details of Me" before naming a single example. Flagging incompleteness before the list starts keeps the listener from mistaking a few instances for the full picture.
Professional
- When presenting examples to support an architecture decision, say explicitly at the outset that the list is representative, not exhaustive — this verse states its own incompleteness before giving a single instance. It prevents reviewers from later treating a gap in your examples as a gap in your reasoning.
Family & Social
- When giving a partial account of something to family — your week, your reasoning — flag upfront that it's a sample, not the whole story, the way this verse warns of its own incompleteness before the list even begins. A flagged gap doesn't read as concealment later; an unflagged one might.
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