Vishwaroopa Darshana Yoga

Arjuna says the earlier teaching has cleared his confusion, then asks to behold Krishna's lordly form, the form full of power and majesty. He asks on a condition, leaving the judgment of his fitness to the Lord. Krishna grants it, but first gives Arjuna a divine eye, since the ordinary eye of flesh cannot reach this sight. Sanjaya, the narrator, then reports the vision to the blind king. Arjuna sees the whole world gathered in one body: countless mouths, eyes, and arms, no beginning, middle, or end, bright as a thousand suns. Wonder turns to terror as the form blazes and its mouths devour the warriors of both armies. Krishna names himself Time, the destroyer of worlds, and tells Arjuna the men are already slain; his part is only to be the instrument. Arjuna praises, begs pardon for his past familiarity, and asks for the gentle, familiar form again. Krishna restores it and says this sight comes by devotion and grace, not by ritual or study alone. Here the schools diverge: Advaita Vedanta reads the cosmic form as a pointer beyond all form, while Vishishtadvaita and Bhakti read it as confirming the embodied Lord one loves.