Tvam Adi-Devah Purushah Puranah

Arjuna is building a portrait of the divine, and each stroke adds a new dimension. Original God. Ancient Being. The supreme treasure of the universe. The knower. The thing to be known. The supreme abode. The one by whom everything — everything — is pervaded.

The phrase 'param nidhanam' — supreme treasure, ultimate resting place — is worth pausing on. A treasure is something precious that you seek. A resting place is where you arrive at the end of a long journey. Krishna is both: the goal of seeking and the end of seeking. The destination and the peace that comes with arriving.

And then the final declaration: 'By You, all this universe is pervaded.' Not created and set aside. Not built and then abandoned. Pervaded — present in every atom, every moment, every being. Like salt dissolved in water, present everywhere but visible nowhere. Arjuna addresses Krishna as 'Anantarupa' — one of infinite forms — because no single form, no single name, no single description can ever contain what he is seeing.

This shloka is in the Trishtup meter. The term 'param dhama' (supreme abode) reappears in Chapter 15 (verse 6) as 'paramam padam' — the supreme destination from which no one returns. Arjuna is using the same vocabulary here, recognizing Krishna as that ultimate destination.

In the next shloka (11.39), Arjuna will name Krishna as Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon, Prajapati — identifying Him with every major Vedic deity — and offer a thousand salutations.