Sanskrit
न तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुमनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा । दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ॥
na tu māṃ śakyase draṣṭum anenaiva svacakṣuṣā divyaṃ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ paśya me yogam aiśvaram
Translation
But verily thou art not able to behold Me with these thine eyes; the divine eye I give unto thee. Behold My sovereign Yoga.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The mechanically important verse of the whole opening: ordinary human sight (sva-cakṣuṣā, “with your own eyes”) is explicitly ruled out as inadequate, and Krishna has to grant a separate faculty — the divya cakṣuḥ, divine eye — before anything can be shown at all. It’s a deliberate piece of narrative housekeeping: the text is telling you in advance that what follows isn’t available to ordinary perception, so nothing about Arjuna’s overwhelm in the verses ahead should be read as a failure of nerve. His equipment was upgraded and it still nearly breaks him. The mechanically decisive verse: ordinary sight is ruled out, and a separate faculty — the divya cakṣuḥ — must be granted before anything is shown. The text tells you in advance that nothing ahead is a failure of nerve: the equipment was upgraded and still nearly breaks him.
Study deeper
Word by word
- na tu māṃ śakyase draṣṭumन तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुं
- but you are not able to see Me (na + tu + mām + śakyase + draṣṭum)
- anenaiva svacakṣuṣāअनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा
- with this eye of yours (anena + eva + sva-cakṣuṣā)
- divyaṃ dadāmi te cakṣuḥदिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः
- I give you a divine eye (divyam + dadāmi + te + cakṣuḥ)
- paśya me yogam aiśvaramपश्य मे योगं ऐश्वरं
- behold My sovereign yoga (paśya + me + yogam + aiśvaram)
Commentary
Site Commentary
This capacity isn’t earned by Arjuna’s effort — it’s simply given, mid-sentence, because the plain fact is his own eyes were never going to be enough no matter how hard he tried to see harder. That’s a quieter claim than it looks: some kinds of readiness aren’t built by trying, they’re granted by someone or something outside the person who needs them, and no amount of self-improvement substitutes for the thing actually being provided.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're straining to perceive or handle something and it still isn't working, consider that the gap might not be effort — some situations need a different kind of help or vantage point altogether, not a harder version of what you're already doing.
Professional
- If a team keeps failing to see a systemic problem no matter how hard they analyze with their existing tools, the fix may be new instrumentation or a different vantage point entirely, not more effort applied to the same dashboards.
Family & Social
- If someone you care about can't perceive what you're trying to show them despite real effort on both sides, offer them a genuinely different way in — a different setting, a different medium — rather than just repeating the same explanation more forcefully.
Ask yourself
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