Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 11, Verse 13
तत्रैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं प्रविभक्तमनेकधा।
अपश्यद्देवदेवस्य शरीरे पाण्डवस्तदा।।
अपश्यद्देवदेवस्य शरीरे पाण्डवस्तदा।।
tatraika-sthaṁ jagat kṛtsnaṁ pravibhaktam anekadhā
apaśyad deva-devasya śarīre pāṇḍavas tadā
also searched as "tatraikastham jagat krtsnam pravibhaktam anekadha"
Translation
There, Arjuna beheld the whole universe, with its manifold divisions gathered together in one single spot within the body of the God of gods.
Vāṇi's rendering
There Arjuna saw the whole universe, divided endlessly yet one, within the body of the god of gods.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तत्रtatra | there, in that vision |
| एकस्थम्eka-sthaṁ | standing in one place, gathered into a single point |
| जगत्jagat | the world, all that moves |
| कृत्स्नम्kṛtsnaṁ | whole, entire, nothing left out |
| प्रविभक्तम्pravibhaktam | divided, parcelled out |
| अनेकधाanekadhā | in countless ways |
| अपश्यत्apaśyat | he saw (the final t appears as d before the next word) |
| देवदेवस्यdeva-devasya | of the god of gods |
| शरीरेśarīre | in the body |
| पाण्डवःpāṇḍavaḥ | the son of Pandu, Arjuna (ḥ becomes s before the next word) |
| तदाtadā | then, at that moment |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11 Verse 13 mean?
It records what Arjuna actually saw: the entire universe, split into numberless forms, held in one place within Krishna's body. The divisions are not denied. They are seen for the first time as divisions within something single. Manyness and oneness stop being rival claims.
What does tatraikastham jagat krtsnam pravibhaktam anekadha teach?
Eka-sthaṁ and anekadhā sit in the same line — gathered in one, divided in countless ways. The Gītā refuses to choose. Your life is genuinely many things, many people, many conflicting duties. All of it is standing in one place. Seeing that does not simplify the world; it changes who you take yourself to be.
Why is Krishna called the god of gods here?
Because the gods themselves appear inside the body Arjuna is looking at. Whatever a person might worship, whatever power he might appeal to, is already contained here. Deva-devasya is not flattery. It names the fact that there is nothing standing outside this form to appeal to.
Does this verse mean the world is an illusion?
No. Arjuna sees the world as it is — kṛtsnaṁ, whole, nothing subtracted. The armies are still there, the war is still coming. What dissolves is the belief that the parts are separately real, each defending its own ground. The field remains. Its fences do not.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna asked to see, and now he is seeing. Not a vision of somewhere else — the whole universe, the same one he has been living in, standing in a single place. Divided endlessly: gods, worlds, armies, his cousins, himself. And one. Krishna has not assembled these things; they were never apart. What breaks open in Arjuna is not new information but the loss of a partition he had been maintaining all his life — my side, their side. Look at the divisions you keep in your own accounting. They are real. They are also all in one body, and you are inside it.