Gita 11.17 – The blinding brightness conveys the universal form’s glory

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human perception.

Thank you He is continuing his description of the magnificent universal form that he is beholding earlier he said Ashaam Vishweshwara Vishvarupa Lord I am seeing you majestic form which is the Vishvarupa and what is he saying in this Vishvarupa Kiritinam Gadhinam Chakrinam Chah Kiritinam, Kiriti is a crown Gadhinam Chakrinam Chah Gadhinam refers to Gada Chakrinam Chachakra refers to the disc so the lord or the person who is possessing all these things who is carrying all these things and he is carrying all these things is pointed to here Kiritinam Gadhinam Chakrinam Chah Tejorashim Sarvato Deetimantam Deetimantam It's effulgent glowing Tejorashim Sarvato that effulgence is spreading in all directions is glowing Pashyamitvam Durniriksham Samantad Pashyamitvam I am seeing you but you are difficult to see Durniriksham not at all easy to see Durniriksham Samantad in all directions Deeptanalarka Deetimaprameyam Deeptanalarka Deetimaprameyam Deeptanala is blazing fire Arka is of the sun Deetimaprameyam Yuti is the effulgence of the sunshine it is aprameyam immeasurable Prameyam is to measure aprameyam is that which is immeasurable so the stress of this verse primarily is that there is light blinding light that one cannot see anything normally we talk about blinding darkness if the place is dark then we have to group ahead with our hands and we can't see anything so we say darkness is blinding but we also talk about brightness being blinding on certain occasions say for example if you are driving a vehicle and then some big vehicle bigger vehicle with bigger lights comes from the opposite direction and it suddenly flashes its light the glare in the dark night can become so much that it can blind us so that is blinding darkness and blinding darkness is meant to it's blinding light you could say blinding brightness not darkness so brightness can also be blinding especially when it is sudden or when it is very strong so Arjuna is conveying that aspect he sees the universal form and it is taking some time for him to discern things just like if we go from a dark place to a place where the lights are there or say if we are in a place where power has been cut off and suddenly the power comes and we see light all around then our eyes take some time to adjust from the state of darkness, from the surrounding state of darkness to the surrounding state of illumination and during that time it is difficult for us to see so again the point is that light can make things difficult to see also and that is the case here with the universal form as Arjuna is perceiving it so in the future verses Arjuna will describe how he is actually perceiving things and he will describe also that which all people here he is seeing in the universal form so his capacity for discernment is there but that capacity for discernment is slowly coming because his eyes get adjusted to the light so in this verse he says that niriksham means to see aksha is in it the root aksha which refers to eyes is there in it dur means that which is difficult durlabha that which is difficult to attain so durniriksha is that which is difficult to see something can be difficult to see because it is too small sometimes in some text in some book the font size is very small then it becomes very difficult to read it and sometimes in some insurance papers or some other documents certain things are written in fine print so most people don't go about don't bother to read what is written in the fine print that's how they often get trapped when those documents later on the conditions given in the fine print create problems for them so the point is that something can be durniriksham something difficult to see because it is very small or it can be something because it is very far say some ship is coming from the distance and the people on the land are trying to make out whose flag is flying on top of that is it our flag or is it our enemy's flag so when something is very far away also it is difficult to discern but in this particular case it is because it is so bright it is not that it is too far or it is too small the universal form is close to Arjuna and universal form is huge universal form is huge Arjuna is not able to see durniriksham he is finding it difficult to see because it is so bright so initially he describes some broad outlines and the contours kiridinam galinam chakrinam he is able to see some things he is able to see the crown the chakra and the gada now the chakra and gada are typically the ayudha the paraphernalia of lord Vishnu later on in our Krishna will Arjuna will specifically refer to Vishnu also so Vishnu is the majestic form of god and this verse gives a hint that Vishnu is also manifest here by talking about chakra now Krishna also uses chakra for fighting and Krishna is also he has his and he is he has a he has a mace also but usually he does not use these it is Krishna is especially Vrindavan never uses weapons and Krishna is especially when he is in the mood of the Mahabharata or the Bhagavatam it is not he is not specifically carrying around the chakra with him constantly so unlike Vishnu for whom chakra is his constant accompaniment it is not for Krishna Krishna does summon the chakra whenever he needs if he is facing some enemy whom he wants to wants to overcome but usually Krishna does not carry the chakra with him so here by reference to chakra it's conveyed that it's a hint is provided that this is Vishnu who is being manifested or at least the Vishnu form is one of the many forms that are manifested over him so normally if we have a source of light say if we have bulb then the bulb itself is has light in it and from there light spreads everywhere so like that this universal form is effulgent and from it effulgence is spreading in all directions and closer we are to the bulb the stronger the light is so like that in all directions the effulgence is spreading at this point the heat from the universal form specifically the burning sensation coming by seeing the universal form being close to the universal form they are not talked about at this stage later on there may transition in Arjuna's emotion from amazement confusion to fear and when that happens he will also talk about how the fire is blazing and the fire is confusing and fire is disconcerting but here it is that the effulgence is going around and the effulgence is blinding the word the word comes twice in B and D and so both fire and sun are compared over here basically the point is to convey the blinding brightness of the vision that Arjuna is seeing now this was hinted at earlier when Sanjay said that actually I have seen in the Bhagavad Gita he said that in the twelfth text he has said that if thousands of suns were rising at the same time the kind of effulgence that would come that is the kind of effulgence I am seeing over here so that same point which is metaphorically stated here it is further elaborated by saying that the form is difficult to behold because there is effulgence coming from all directions Arjuna will continue this description in the next verses and we will discuss them as we move forward Thank you.