Sanskrit
अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रम् पश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोऽनन्तरूपम् । नान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस्तवादिम् पश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप ॥
anekabāhūdaravaktranetraṃ paśyāmi tvāṃ sarvato'nantarūpam nāntaṃ na madhyaṃ na punas tavādiṃ paśyāmi viśveśvara viśvarūpa
Translation
With mouths, eyes, arms, breasts multitudinous, I see Thee everywhere, unbounded Form. Beginning, middle, end, nor source of Thee, Infinite Lord, infinite Form, I find;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The address “Viśveśvara, viśvarūpa” — Lord of the universe, universe-formed — is where the chapter’s traditional title comes from, spoken here by Arjuna himself rather than assigned from outside. Losing beginning, middle, and end (nāntaṃ na madhyaṃ na… tavādiṃ) is presented as a perceptual problem before it’s a metaphysical claim: Arjuna isn’t reasoning his way to infinitude, he’s reporting that his eyes have nothing to land on, no edge to use as an orientation point. The address viśveśvara, viśvarūpa — “Lord of the universe, Universe-formed” — is where the chapter’s title comes from, spoken by Arjuna. Losing beginning, middle, and end is first a perceptual problem: his eyes have no edge to orient by.
Study deeper
Word by word
- anekabāhūdaravaktranetraṃअनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रं
- with countless arms, bellies, mouths, and eyes (aneka-bāhu-udara-vaktra-netram)
- paśyāmi tvāṃ sarvato'nantarūpamपश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोऽनन्तरूपं
- I see you, infinite in form on every side (paśyāmi + tvām + sarvataḥ-ananta-rūpam)
- nāntaṃ na madhyaṃ na punas tavādiṃनान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस् तवादिं
- no end, no middle, nor again your beginning (na + antam + na + madhyam + na + punaḥ + tava + ādim)
- paśyāmi viśveśvara viśvarūpaपश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप
- I see, O Lord of the universe, O Universe-formed (paśyāmi + viśva-īśvara + viśva-rūpa)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Unlike most chapter titles in this text, which name a yoga being taught from outside the narrative, this one — Viśvarūpa Darśana, vision of the universal form — is lifted directly from a word Arjuna cries out in the middle of his own overwhelm. The label wasn’t assigned after the fact by a teacher categorizing the content; it’s the participant’s own spontaneous naming of what’s happening to him, kept as the permanent name for the experience.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're in the middle of an overwhelming experience, the words that surface spontaneously from you in that moment are often the truest name for it — worth writing down as they happen, rather than waiting to construct a tidier label for it afterward.
Professional
- When naming a major incident or initiative for the record, consider using the language the person who lived through it first reached for, rather than a sanitized label assigned afterward by someone who wasn't there — the participant's own words are often the more accurate name.
Family & Social
- When someone you love says something raw and spontaneous in the middle of a hard moment, that phrase is often the truest description of what they're going through — worth holding onto and returning to, rather than letting a calmer, later retelling replace it.
Ask yourself
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