​Gita 11.10 The first impression of the universal form is astonishing

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Bhagavad Gita 11.10 aneka-vaktranayanam aneka-adbhuta-darshanam aneka-divya-bhairanam divya-aneka-odhyata-yudham Here, Krishna in his universal form is being described by Sanjay. Sanjay speaks the whole Bhagavad Gita in one sense, but when he is repeating the speeches of others, then those speeches are not attributed to Sanjay.

It's like in a novel, we may have certain things which is called a narrative, where there is a narrator who is speaking something. And then within the narration, there are specific characters who are speaking some things. In one sense, everything that is being spoken in the novel is being spoken by the narrator.

That's how it has come to us. But it is not attributed to the narrator if it is spoken by some character within the narration. And that is just not spoken by any character, that is just simply described for the sake of informing the reader, that is considered as narrator's voice.

So, here it is Sanjay who is the narrator and he is describing the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is a revelation of the universal form done by Krishna. So, he will speak from verse 9 onwards till verse 14.

And then from 15 onwards, Arjuna will start speaking. So, here in the previous verses, he says, that Krishna who is Mahayogeshwar. Krishna described universal form briefly in three verses from 5 to 7. And then 8th he gave Arjuna the eyes to see.

And then in the 9th verse, the narrative focus shifts temporarily back to Sanjay's Dhritarashtra and Sanjay is addressing Dhritarashtra in the previous verse. And from that verse onwards till the 14th verse, Having spoken thus, That Lord who is Mahayogeshwar. He showed to Arjuna, he didn't give darshan.

The magnificent form that is there. Now, what is the magnificence of that form, the Aishwarya, Paramam Aishwarya that is there of the form? Some description of that will be given. Eka is singular.

Aneka is plural. The word aneka is non-specifically plural. That means, you know, many people came for a program.

Now, many can refer sometimes to say 20 people. It can refer to 200 people. It can refer for 2000 people.

It can refer to 20,000 people. So, many means simply more than a few. So, like that, eka and aneka.

Aneka simply is stressing that more than one person came. Many people came, we could say in English. So, here many heads are being seen.

Now, later on some indication will be given that these heads and arms, how many they are. That right from the earth up to the sky and all the space in between is covered. By you alone is everything pervaded.

That is what Arjuna will speak while adoring, while praising the universal form, describing and praising it. So, at this stage, at first perception, the feature that strikes is quite terrifying. Normally, when we look at a person, we especially if we live in a multicultural world, where there are hundreds of thousands of people from different backgrounds, then when we look at a person also, we are open to expecting.

In India, we may not know that. I only expect Indians or I may expect Manipuri Indians or Kashmiri Indians or a wide variety of Indians also. And then if I meet a foreigner, that is unusual.

If I meet not just a person who is genetically foreign, but a person who is a westerner, that would be even special, even more special. So, like that, when we observe, we have certain expectations that shape our observation. So, if we go to a marketplace in a village and suddenly we see an American over there, that's what you notice.

Oh, this person is a white-bodied person. This person is an American. So, like that, when the universal form is seen, the first feature that is seen or that is noticed, that strikes the eye, that is conspicuous, is aneek.

We have people who have certain features. Usually, we see people with two hands and one face. But here it is aneek-vaktranayanam.

There are many mouths. There are many eyes. Aneek-adbhut-darshanam.

There are many wonderful things to see. Aneek-divyabharanam. There are the garments, abharanam, that we are wearing also, divya.

And divya-aneek-odhyatayudham. And the paraphernalia, the weapons that are being used, they are also divya. They are also divine.

They are also transcendental. So, in this way, what is stressed is the extraordinariness of the vision that something which is being seen here in… what is being seen here is incredible. Nothing like this has been seen for a long, long time to come.

And adhrishtapurvam, as the word will be used earlier, word was used earlier and word will be used again to characterize the universal form, not been seen before. So, Sanjay while trying to convey the extraordinariness of the vision that is being revealed in the Kurukshetra war field, Sanjay says, there are many, many, far more than one, not just one. Aneek-vaktranayanam.

Aneek-adbhut-darshanam. So, at this particular point, that the form pervades the universe has not been talked about. And that will be talked about in dukkha.

That's an important fact. But what strikes the eye first is being mentioned. So, the first impression of the universal form is astonishing.

Sometimes in a make-up, some fancy dress party or in some kind of make-up competition, people may wear some clumsy dress, some kind of dresses or they may put on some kind of contraptions by which they seem to have a tail or they seem to have an extra set of hands or extra set of heads or whatever. That's what everyone talks about. That's what strikes the eye.

So, universal form is also like that. And here, the point stressed is how astonishing this is. More specifics will be described as the description goes on.

Arjuna will describe and even Sanjay will describe briefly. Arjuna will describe much more in detail. But the point of there being more than one face, more than one eye, many, many wonderful things to see.

Many, many wonderful things to see. Aneek-Aneek. And so the face was extraordinary.

The dress was extraordinary. And normally we see one person wearing one dress. But here in the one, there are many.

And there are thus different dresses that are being worn by the different manifestations within the universal form. And each manifestation has its own paraphernalia, has its own weapons. And thus there is Aneek-Aneek.

The word Aneeka, the repetition of the word Aneeka creates a poetic effect to this verse and that continues in the next verse also where the word Divya from here also is repeated later and thus the poetic impact is enhanced.