Kṣetra No. 7
In one breath, Arjuna is delighted and afraid. And he asks for the same thing twice.
In chapter 11 the vision turns to fire. At 11.25 Arjuna sees mouths like the flames at the end of time and loses all sense of direction. I don’t know where I am, he says, and I find no peace. Then he asks for one thing: prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa. Be gracious, Lord of the gods, home of the universe.
Twenty verses later, at 11.45, his state has changed. Seeing what was never seen before, he is delighted, and his mind is filled with awe. He asks Kṛṣṇa to show the familiar form again, and ends with the same words, letter for letter: prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa.
Terror asks for grace. Delight asks for grace. The prayer does not change with the weather inside him.
Most people pray when life is hard. Arjuna prays the same prayer when it is good.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
11.25 and 11.45 are 20 verses apart.
Both end with the same line, prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa.
One is spoken in terror, the other in delight.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita, speaker labels as printed.
दंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि
दृष्ट्वैव कालानलसन्निभानि।
दिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म
प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास।।
danṣṭrā-karālāni ca te mukhāni dṛṣṭvaiva kālānala-sannibhāni diśo na jāne na labhe ca śarma prasīda deveśa jagan-nivāsa
Viewing Your mouths, presenting awe-generating fangs and looking like the consuming fire of final destruction, I know not the quarters of the globe nor do I find repose. Be gracious, O Lord of the Devas! O Abode of the universe!
अदृष्टपूर्वं हृषितोऽस्मि दृष्ट्वा
भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे।
तदेव मे दर्शय देव रूपं
प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास।।
adṛṣṭa-pūrvaṁ hṛṣito ’smi dṛṣṭvā bhayena ca pravyathitaṁ mano me tad eva me darśaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśa jagan-nivāsa
Seeing something never seen before, I am delighted. But my mind is also filled with awe. Show me, O Lord! Your other form. O Lord of the gods! Be gracious, O Abode of the universe!
These two verses come from one long scene of Arjuna speaking, and the mood of each is the opposite of the other. In 11.24 he says his inner being trembles and he finds no peace. 11.25 goes on: the mouths with fearful fangs look like the fire at the end of time, he loses his sense of direction and finds no rest, and he asks the Lord of the gods, the home of the universe, to be gracious. 11.26 begins to name the warriors he sees. Then at 11.44 he bows and asks to be borne with, as a father bears with a son and a friend with a friend. 11.45 says he is delighted at seeing what was never seen before, and that his mind is also filled with awe, and again he asks for grace and for the other form. 11.46 describes it: crowned, with mace and discus in hand. The prayer is the same in terror and in delight. Read the scene in chapter 11 and what the Gītā says about fear.