Sanskrit
किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रहस्तमिच्छामि त्वां द्रष्टुमहं तथैव । तेनैव रूपेण चतुर्भुजेन सहस्रबाहो भव विश्वमूर्ते ॥
kirīṭinaṃ gadinaṃ cakrahastam icchāmi tvāṃ draṣṭum ahaṃ tathaiva tenaiva rūpeṇa caturbhujena sahasrabāho bhava viśvamūrte
Translation
Diademed, mace and discus in Thy hand. Again I fain would see Thee as before; Put on again Thy four-armed shape, O Lord, O thousand-armed, of forms innumerate.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
It’s worth noticing exactly what Arjuna asks for here — not yet the ordinary two-armed human charioteer, but the four-armed form with diadem, mace, and discus: recognizably divine, recognizably Vishnu’s iconography, but bounded and familiar rather than infinite. The full return to the human Krishna doesn’t happen until verses 50 and 51; this request marks a middle step in the descent, a form Arjuna can address as “deva” without it swallowing the horizon the way the cosmic vision has. Even the plea itself can’t quite let go of superlatives — “sahasrabāho,” thousand-armed — as if the vocabulary of awe hasn’t fully released him yet. Arjuna asks not yet for the two-armed charioteer but for the four-armed Viṣṇu — recognisably divine, but bounded and familiar. A middle step in the descent; even the plea keeps a superlative, sahasra-bāho, “thousand-armed.””
Study deeper
Word by word
- kirīṭinaṃ gadinaṃ cakrahastamकिरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रहस्तं
- diademed, mace-bearing, discus-in-hand (kirīṭinam + gadinam + cakra-hastam)
- icchāmi tvāṃ draṣṭum ahaṃ tathaivaइच्छामि त्वां द्रष्टुं अहं तथैव
- I wish to see you just so (icchāmi + tvām + draṣṭum + aham + tathā + eva)
- tenaiva rūpeṇa caturbhujenaतेनैव रूपेण चतुर्भुजेन
- in that same four-armed form (tena + eva + rūpeṇa + catur-bhujena)
- sahasrabāho bhava viśvamūrteसहस्रबाहो भव विश्वमूर्ते
- become [it], O thousand-armed, O Universe-formed (sahasra-bāho + bhava + viśva-mūrte)
Commentary
Site Commentary
There’s a small contradiction worth noticing in the ask itself: Arjuna requests the bounded four-armed form, but addresses the request to “sahasrabāho,” thousand-armed — a superlative, not a limit. Even the language of stepping back down carries a trace of the vocabulary he’s trying to step back down from, which suggests how incompletely a mind can disengage from awe even while actively asking to.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're trying to scale back from an intense experience toward something more manageable, don't expect a clean break — you'll likely still describe the smaller version using language borrowed from the intensity you're stepping down from, and that's a normal, incomplete transition.
Professional
- When a team asks to return from crisis mode to normal operating cadence, expect some carryover language and habits from the crisis to persist for a while even in the calmer request — a request to de-escalate rarely arrives fully de-escalated itself.
Family & Social
- After an intense family conflict, when someone asks to 'get back to normal,' don't expect their request itself to sound fully calm — some of the heightened language will linger even in the ask to step down, and that's a normal part of coming down.
Ask yourself
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