Sanskrit
नभः स्पृशं दीप्तमनेकवर्णम् व्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रम् । दृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा धृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो ॥
nabhaḥspṛśaṃ dīptam anekavarṇaṃ vyāttānanaṃ dīptaviśālanetram dṛṣṭvā hi tvāṃ pravyathitāntarātmā dhṛtiṃ na vindāmi śamaṃ ca viṣṇo
Translation
Radiant, Thou touchest heaven, rainbow-hued, with opened mouths and shining vast-orbed eyes. My inmost self is quaking, having seen, my strength is withered, Vishnu, and my peace.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
“Pravyathitāntarātmā” — the inner self itself shaking, not just the body — marks the point where Arjuna’s distress stops being describable in the purely physical terms of chapter 1 (dry mouth, trembling limbs) and becomes something closer to existential vertigo: loss of dhṛti (steadiness, the very quality praised in the sthitaprajña portrait of chapter 2) and śama (peace). The address “Viṣṇu” here, not “Krishna,” is pointed — he’s naming the cosmic aspect precisely because the familiar name no longer feels adequate to what’s in front of him. Pravyathita-antar-ātmā — the inner self shaking, not just the body — is existential vertigo: loss of dhṛti and śama, the very steadiness the sthitaprajña portrait of chapter 2 was built on. He says “Viṣṇu,” not “Krishna” — the familiar name no longer fits.
Study deeper
Word by word
- nabhaḥspṛśaṃ dīptam anekavarṇaṃनभःस्पृशं दीप्तं अनेकवर्णं
- touching the sky, blazing, many-hued (nabhaḥ-spṛśam + dīptam + aneka-varṇam)
- vyāttānanaṃ dīptaviśālanetramव्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रं
- with gaping mouths and blazing wide eyes (vyātta-ānanam + dīpta-viśāla-netram)
- dṛṣṭvā hi tvāṃ pravyathitāntarātmāदृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा
- seeing you, my inmost self shaken (dṛṣṭvā + hi + tvām + pravyathita-antaḥ-ātmā)
- dhṛtiṃ na vindāmi śamaṃ ca viṣṇoधृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो
- I find no steadiness, nor peace, O Viṣṇu (dhṛtim + na + vindāmi + śamam + ca + viṣṇo)
Commentary
Site Commentary
In the same breath that he admits losing his steadiness, Arjuna also stops calling Krishna by the name he’s used all along and reaches for “Viṣṇu” instead — a small but real change in how he’s addressing his own friend. Fear doesn’t just change what a person feels; it can change the very name they reach for when speaking to someone familiar, as if the relationship itself has to be renegotiated under enough pressure.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice if, under real distress, you start relating to people close to you more formally or distantly than usual — that shift in how you address someone is itself informative about how much ground the fear has covered, not just a detail to overlook.
Professional
- If you notice yourself becoming unusually formal with a colleague or manager you're normally casual with during a stressful period, treat that shift in register as a signal worth naming out loud — the change often surfaces before you can articulate what's actually wrong.
Family & Social
- If someone close to you starts speaking to you more formally or distantly during a hard time, don't take it personally as distance — it may be a sign of how much strain they're actually under, showing up first in how they address you before they can say what's wrong.
Ask yourself
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