Sanskrit
पश्यादित्यान्वसून्रुद्रानश्विनौ मरुतस्तथा । बहून्यदृष्टपूर्वाणि पश्याश्चर्याणि भारत ॥
paśyādityān vasūn rudrān aśvinau marutas tathā bahūny adṛṣṭapūrvāṇi paśyāścaryāṇi bhārata
Translation
Behold the Âdityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Ashvins and also the Maruts; behold many marvels never seen ere this, O Bhârata.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The imperative “paśya” (behold) is repeated three times across this single verse — a rhetorical drumbeat that will keep recurring through the whole vision. The content is a roll call of the Vedic pantheon (Âdityas, Vasus, Rudras, Ashvins, Maruts) — the point isn’t the specific census so much as the claim underneath it: every deity Arjuna already knows how to name is about to turn out to be contained inside the person he’s been talking to. Paśya — “behold” — is drummed three times in this one verse, and will keep recurring through the vision. The pantheon roll-call (vibhūti from chapter 10) is now shown as contained, not merely represented.
Study deeper
Word by word
- paśyādityān vasūn rudrānपश्यादित्यान् वसून् रुद्रान्
- behold the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Rudras (paśya + ādityān + vasūn + rudrān)
- aśvinau marutas tathāअश्विनौ मरुतस् तथा
- the two Aśvins and the Maruts (aśvinau + marutaḥ + tathā)
- bahūny adṛṣṭapūrvāṇiबहून्य् अदृष्टपूर्वाणि
- many things never seen before (bahūni + adṛṣṭa-pūrvāṇi)
- paśyāścaryāṇi bhārataपश्याश्चर्याणि भारत
- behold marvels, O Bhārata (paśya + āścaryāṇi + bhārata)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice the order of disclosure: Krishna starts the roll call with beings Arjuna can already name — Âdityas, Vasus, Rudras, deities he’s grown up worshipping — before the description tips, a few verses later, into forms with no name at all. The vision doesn’t open with the unprecedented; it opens with the familiar and only then escalates past it, which is what makes the later strangeness legible as escalation rather than a completely alien opening.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you have to introduce someone to something genuinely overwhelming, start with what they can already recognize and let the unfamiliar parts arrive after that anchor is set — beginning with the strangest part first makes it harder to place anything that follows.
Professional
- When rolling out a system that will eventually look very different from what your team knows, frame the first version in terms of categories they already use, and only introduce the genuinely new concepts once that familiar ground is under them.
Family & Social
- When breaking difficult news to family, start with what they already understand about the situation before adding the parts that will be hardest to take in — familiar ground first makes the escalation bearable instead of disorienting.
Ask yourself
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