Sanskrit
पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः । नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च ॥
paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi śataśo'tha sahasraśaḥ nānāvidhāni divyāni nānāvarṇākṛtīni ca
Translation
Behold, O Pârtha, a Form of Me, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, various in kind, divine, various in colours and shapes.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna answers instantly — no hesitation, no negotiation over whether Arjuna is ready. But notice the grammar of the answer itself: Arjuna asked to see “Thy Form” (singular, verse 3), and what’s offered back is “forms” — plural, hundredfold, thousandfold, from the very first word. The mismatch is the whole chapter in miniature: there was never going to be one shape to look at. Arjuna asked to see the form, singular (BG 11.3); Krishna answers with rūpāṇi, plural, “by hundreds and thousands,” from the first word. The mismatch is the chapter in miniature — there was never one shape to look at.
Study deeper
Word by word
- paśya me pārtha rūpāṇiपश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि
- behold My forms, O Pārtha (paśya + me + pārtha + rūpāṇi)
- śataśo'tha sahasraśaḥशतशोऽथ सहस्रशः
- by hundreds and by thousands (śataśaḥ + atha + sahasraśaḥ)
- nānāvidhāni divyāniनानाविधानि दिव्यानि
- of many kinds, divine (nānā-vidhāni + divyāni)
- nānāvarṇākṛtīni caनानावर्णाकृतीनि च
- and of many colours and shapes (nānā-varṇa-ākṛtīni + ca)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna’s answer opens with an imperative, not an explanation — “paśya,” behold, is the first word, and understanding is left to follow whatever gets seen. He doesn’t first tell Arjuna what the vision means and then show it: he puts the raw sight in front of him and lets meaning arrive afterward, in Arjuna’s own words, starting at verse 15. Some things have to be encountered before they can be explained.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're facing something big and unfamiliar, don't wait until you fully understand it before engaging with it — sometimes the encounter has to come first, and the understanding forms afterward, in your own words, from what you actually experienced.
Professional
- When onboarding someone to a complex system, resist over-explaining before they've touched it — put the real thing in front of them first and let their own account of what they see drive the explanation that follows.
Family & Social
- When someone asks to understand a hard experience you've been through, sometimes the honest answer is 'come see this with me' rather than a full explanation up front — let them encounter it, then help them make sense of what they saw.
Ask yourself
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