आख्याहि मे को भवानुग्ररूपो
नमोऽस्तु ते देववर प्रसीद।
विज्ञातुमिच्छामि भवन्तमाद्यं
न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिम्।।11.31।।
11.31 Tell me who You are, fierce in form. Salutation be to you, O supreme God; be gracious. I desire to fully know You who are the Prima One. For I do not understand Your actions!
11.31 Tell me, who Thou art, so fierce of form. Salutations to Thee, O God Supreme: have mercy. I desire to know Thee, the original Being. I know not indeed Thy working.
11.31. Please, tell me who You are with a terrible form; O the Best of gods ! Salutation to You, please be merciful. I am desirious of knowing You, the Primal One in detail; for I do not clearly comprehend Your behaviour.
11.31 आख्याहि tell? मे me? कः who (art)? भवान् Thou? उग्ररूपः fierce in form? नमः salutation? अस्तु be? ते to Thee? देववर O God Supreme? प्रसीद have mercy? विज्ञातुम् to know? इच्छामि (I) wish? भवन्तम् Thee? आद्यम् the original Being? न not? हि indeed? प्रजानामि (I) know? तव Thy? प्रवृत्तिम् doing.No Commentary.
11.31 Akhyahi, tell; me; kah, who; bhavan, You are; ugrarupah, fierce in form. Namah, salutation; astu, be; te, to You; deva-vara, O supreme God, foremost among the gods. Prasida, be gracious. Icchami, I desire; vijnatum, to fully know; bhavantam, You; adyam, who are the Primal One, who exist in the beginning. Hi, for; na prajanami, I do not understand; tava, Your; pravrttim, actions!
11.31 Akhyahi etc. I do not clearly comprehend Your behaviour : I.e. with what intention this terrific nature of this sort [has been assumed by You].
11.31 Who are You of this terrible form, what do You intend to do? I wish to know. For I do not know Your intended actions. Tell me this. Salutations to You, O Supreme God! Salutations to You, Lord of everything! Say with what object and for what purpose You have assumed this form of the destroyer. Assume a pleasing form. The Lord, the charioteer of Arjuna, being estioned, What is Your intention in assuming a terrible form when revealing Your cosmic sovereignty out of overflowing love for Your proteges? - He spoke to the following effect: The manifestation of a terrible form by Me is to point out that I Myself am operative for the annihilation of the entire world of kings headed by the sons of Dhrtarastra, without any effort on your (Arjunas) part. Reminding Arjuna of this, is to goad him to fight:
No commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur.
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.
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 Krishnas divine transcendental nature and their qualities and activities.
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 Arjunas request of seeing the visvarupa has been granted he beseeches further to know Lord Krishnas 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 Krishnas 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.
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 Arjunas request of seeing the visvarupa has been granted he beseeches further to know Lord Krishnas 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 Krishnas 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.
Aakhyaahi me ko bhavaanugraroopoNamo’stu te devavara praseeda; Vijnaatumicchaami bhavantamaadyamNa hi prajaanaami tava pravrittim.
ākhyāhi—tell; me—me; kaḥ—who; bhavān—you; ugra-rūpaḥ—fierce form; namaḥ astu—I bow; te—to you; deva-vara—God of gods; prasīda—be merciful; vijñātum—to know; ichchhāmi—I wish; bhavantam—you; ādyam—the primeval; na—not; hi—because; prajānāmi—comprehend; tava—your; pravṛittim—workings
