Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10, Verse 40

Chapter 10 – Vibhuti Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

नान्तोऽस्ति मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनां परन्तप ।
एष तूद्देशतः प्रोक्तो विभूतेर्विस्तरो मया ॥

Transliteration

nānto.asti mama divyānāṃ vibhūtīnāṃ parantapa .
eṣa tūddeśataḥ prokto vibhūtervistaro mayā ॥

Meaning

There is no end to My divine glories, O scorcher of foes. What I have told you is only a brief indication of their vast extent.

Word meanings

न – not
अन्तः – end
अस्ति – is
मम – My
दिव्यानाम् – divine
विभूतीनाम् – of glories
परन्तप – O scorcher of foes
एषः – this
तु – but
उद्देशतः – by way of example, briefly
प्रोक्तः – has been told
विभूतेः – of glory
विस्तरः – extent
मया – by Me

Anvaya (word order)

परन्तप, मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनाम् अन्तः न अस्ति; एषः तु विभूतेः विस्तरः मया उद्देशतः प्रोक्तः ।

Explanation

Closing His account of glories, Krishna makes an important clarification: ‘There is no end to My divine glories.’ In verse 19 He said the same, ‘there is no end to My expansion.’ Now at the close He returns to it, so that Arjuna will not imagine the Lord is present only in the things He has listed.

Esha tuddeshatah proktah, ‘this I have told only by way of indication’. Uddesha means a hint or example. A teacher explaining a mathematical principle gives a few examples, and the student must then solve thousands of problems alone. In the same way Krishna has given a few examples to provide a way of seeing. Now Arjuna, and we, must apply that vision to everything in life.

Shankara says that no one could ever fully describe or know the Lord’s glories, and so only the principal ones were mentioned. Ramanuja adds that His glories are countless and what was told describes only a small fraction of them.

The address parantapa, scorcher of foes, is meaningful too. As Arjuna burns his enemies, he must now burn away the limits of his own vision. A seeker who has once learned to see that every excellence belongs to God no longer needs a list; he begins to recognise the Lord everywhere on his own.

Context

In verse 39 Krishna declared Himself the seed of all beings. Here He explains that His glories are endless and that what He described was only a sample. In the next verse He gives a universal rule for recognising His glory anywhere.

Life lesson

God’s greatness cannot be confined to any list. Scripture gives us a way of seeing; applying it in life is our task. Practise each day seeing a glimpse of God in some new thing or person.

Key terms

Uddesha: brief indication, example
Vibhuti-vistara: the extent of the glories
Ananta: endless
Parantapa: scorcher of foes, Arjuna