टीका

Commentary

Krishna now responds to Arjuna’s prayers, and His first words reveal the motivation behind the cosmic vision: mayaa prasannena — “because I was pleased with you.” The entire revelation of the Vishwarupa was an act of divine grace, not something Arjuna earned through ritual or austerity. Krishna was pleased with His devotee’s sincere desire to know Him fully, and so He revealed what He had never revealed before.

The phrase aatma-yogaat — “by My own mystic power” — is crucial. The universal form was not created for the occasion; it was revealed. It already exists as Krishna’s eternal reality, but it is normally hidden from material perception. Krishna used His own internal potency (yoga-maya) to grant Arjuna the capacity to perceive it. This distinguishes the vision from any kind of mystical hallucination or meditation experience — it was generated by God’s power, not by the devotee’s imagination.

Four adjectives describe this form: tejomayam (full of blazing effulgence, radiant like a thousand suns), vishvam (universal, containing all of existence), anantam (infinite, without boundary or limit), and aadyam (original, the primordial source of everything). These are not poetic exaggerations — they describe the actual nature of the Supreme Being’s cosmic manifestation.

Most significantly, Krishna states that this form has never been seen before by anyone other than Arjuna: tvad anyena na drishta-poorvam. This makes Arjuna’s experience unique in all of cosmic history. Not the gods, not the sages, not even Brahma had been granted this particular vision. It was reserved for Arjuna alone, as a special act of love from friend to friend, from God to devotee.