Gita Ch-11. Slo-31.

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :

Chapter-11. ( Visvarupa-darsana-yogam)

Slokam-31.( O Lord of lords, so fierce of form, please tell me who You are. I offer my obeisances unto You; please be gracious to me. I do not know what Your mission is, and I desire to hear of it.)


akhyahi  me  ko  bhavanugrarupah

namostute  devavara  prasida,

vijnatumicchami  bhavantamadyam

na  hi  prajanami  tava  pravrttim.


ugra-rupah  bhavan   kah  =   You  with  fierce  form (fearsome  form ), who  are  You;

me  akhyahi  =  please  tell  me  ( who  are  you );

te  namah  astu  =  Pranam, Namaskaram,  unto  You;

devavara!  prasida  = Oh  Lord,  be  gracious;

adyam  bhavantam  =  the  beginning  of  all  Purushan,  unto  your  lotus  feet;

vijnatum-icchami  =  I  wish  to  know;

tava   pravrttim  =  Your  activity/action  (mission),  what  are  you;

na  hi  prajanami  =  going  to  do - I  am  not  understanding.


The Supreme Lord Krishna manifested His visvarupa or divine universal form of wonderful and terrible visage to exhibit His unlimited and absolute sovereign power.

Now that Arjuna's request of seeing the visvarupa has been granted he beseeches further to know Lord Krishna's intention and purpose for exhibiting it and he desires to know who Lord Krishna truly is apart from the visvarupa.

He addresses Lord Krishna as deva-vara meaning Lord of all lords and is curious as to the reason why He exhibited to His surrendered bhakta or devotee the terrible visages with many mouths and teeth along with His wonderful form of cosmic glory.

Arjuna is now desiring to see Lord Krishna's pleasing and charming, sublime humanlike form.

Lord Krishna exhibited His all powerful visvarupa to show Arjuna in no uncertain terms that without any effort He will destroy all the kings and warriors that are arrayed in the Kaurava army and this does not depend at all upon Arjuna and the Pandava army.

Lord Krishna is prepared to annihilate the complete Kaurava army if need be and to assert this conviction He exhibited the terrible visages of the visvarupa is to remind Arjuna of this.


Now there is greater curiosity.

An enquiry for more details is beseeched to understand further who Lord Krishna actually is.

In normal existence one knows another by their attributes and how one represents themselves but one does not know them by their actual inherent nature as it is not disclosed.

It is not that Arjuna did not know otherwise he would have not addressed Lord Krishna in this verse as Vishnu meaning He who is all pervasive and in previous verses as Acutya meaning He who is infallible, Keshava meaning He who controls Brahma and Shiva, Vasudeva meaning He from whom everything emanates, etc.

The purpose of the query is know the special attributes inherent within the Supreme Lord Krishna's divine transcendental nature and their qualities and activities.


Arjuna had previously requested Lord Krishna to see His visvarupa or divine universal form.

When Lord Krishna exhibited the terrifying aspect of the visvarupa Arjuna became unbalanced and agitated and becoming bewildered stated : -

"namo'stu te deva-vara" meaning I offer obeisance to you, and asked the question to Lord Krishna : -

Who are you of such terrible form? Arjuna saw the terrible external form of the visvarupa but could not know Lord Krishna's intention for exhibiting it.

Now he wishes to know who and what Lord Krishna is beyond the external manifestation of the visvarupa.


At this time a curious puzzlement overcame Arjuna and He humbly became very respectful and supplicating himself before the Supreme Lord Krishna confessed that he could not comprehend the inclination of the Supreme Lords actions and requests Him to reveal His intentions regarding His visvarupa because it was impossible to fathom.

To be continued  ....