📿 Shloka Collection

Divi Surya-sahasrasya

Gita 11.12 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11 — Vishwarupa Darshana Yoga
दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता ।
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ॥
Divi surya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthita
Yadi bhah sadrishi sa syad bhasas tasya Mahatmanah
दिवि
in the sky
सूर्यसहस्रस्य
of a thousand suns
युगपत् उत्थिता
rising simultaneously
महात्मनः भासः
the radiance of that great soul

This is perhaps the most famous verse in the entire Vishwarupa Darshana — and one of the most quoted in all of the Gita. Sanjay says: if a thousand suns were to rise together in the sky at the same moment, their combined brilliance might — just might — approach the radiance of that great soul.

Notice the careful language. Sanjay does not say a thousand suns would equal the radiance. He says 'sadrishi sa syat' — it might be similar. Even his most extreme comparison falls short. He is using the brightest thing a human being can imagine — a thousand suns blazing at once — and admitting that it is still only an approximation.

One sun lights the entire world. One sun is too bright to look at directly. Now a thousand, rising together, their light merging into a single overwhelming blaze. And even that is just a doorway into understanding what Sanjay saw. The verse does not describe the Vishwarupa. It describes the failure of all comparisons to reach it.

This shloka is the single most iconic verse of Chapter 11. Robert Oppenheimer famously recalled a related verse from this chapter after the first nuclear test in 1945, though the verse he quoted was 11.32. This verse — 11.12 — captures the luminous, awe-filled dimension of the vision.

In the next shloka (11.13), the perspective shifts from Sanjay's simile back to what Arjuna actually saw: the entire universe, divided into many parts, gathered in the one body of the God of gods.

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