Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 10, Verse 42
अथवा बहुनैतेन किं ज्ञातेन तवार्जुन।
विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत्।।
विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत्।।
atha vā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna
viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekānśena sthito jagat
also searched as "athava bahunaitena kim jnatena tavarjuna"
Translation
But of what use is all this extensive knowledge to you, O Arjuna? I sustain this whole universe with only a fragment of My power.
Vāṇi's rendering
Why so many words? I hold up this entire world with one fragment of myself.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अथatha | and now; but then |
| वाvā | or — taken with atha, 'or rather' |
| बहुनाbahunā | by much, by all this abundance (sandhi: bahunā + etena → bahunaitena) |
| एतेनetena | by this, by what has been listed |
| किम्kiṁ | what use, to what end |
| ज्ञातेनjñātena | by knowing, by being known |
| तवtava | to you (sandhi: tava + arjuna → tavārjuna) |
| अर्जुनarjuna | Arjuna |
| विष्टभ्यviṣṭabhya | having propped up, holding firm, bearing the weight of |
| अहम्aham | I (sandhi: viṣṭabhya + aham → viṣṭabhyāham) |
| इदम्idaṁ | this |
| कृत्स्नम्kṛtsnam | entire, whole, without remainder |
| एकांशेनekānśena | with a single portion, by one fragment |
| स्थितःsthitaḥ | I stand, I remain established |
| जगत्jagat | the moving world, all that lives and turns |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 Verse 42 mean?
Krishna ends his long recital of glories by dismissing it. The list was never meant to be memorised; it was meant to turn the eye. Whatever is splendid anywhere is a fragment of him, and a single fragment is enough to hold up the entire moving world. The catalogue closes because its work is done.
What does athava bahunaitena kim jnatena tavarjuna mean?
Roughly: what will all this knowing do for you, Arjuna? It is Krishna's gentle impatience with detail. He has named mountains, rivers, seasons, weapons — and then asks what the tally is worth. Knowing more items is not the same as knowing the one who stands beneath every item.
Why does Krishna say he sustains the world with only one fragment?
Because scale must be broken, not extended. If Krishna claimed the whole of himself was spent on this universe, the mind could still measure him. Ekāṁśena refuses that. All the galaxies and all the grief press on one splinter of him, and the splinter is not strained.
How do I use this verse when I feel overwhelmed?
Stop adding. The verse ends a list precisely when the list gets long, which is the instruction. You do not need one more insight, one more explanation, one more account of how it all fits. The world is already being held. Set down the part of the weight that was never on your shoulders.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
A whole chapter of names, and then Krishna stops. Arjuna has been given lists — the peak of mountains, the first of rivers, the syllable inside speech — and now Krishna says the counting was never the point. One fragment holds up everything. Not most of it, not the visible part. Everything. So the glory Arjuna was cataloguing was a doorway, not an inventory; there is no corner of the world where the holding is absent. You have been shown enough. What remains is not more information but a different way of standing in what you already see — held, by something that has barely begun.