Verse 11.16

Verse 11.16: “With manifold arms, bellies, mouths and eyes, Thee possessing countless forms, I behold in all directions. Neither end, nor middle, nor again any beginning of Thee do I behold, O Lord of the universe, that dost possess every form (in the universe). (266)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Looking around with the light of the spiritual eye, I see myriads of arms as if the whole space of the sky was shooting forth arms on all sides. So too I behold thy hands busy, doing all actions in one and the same moment. And boundless are thy bellies, meeting my eyes like treasures of whole universes opened on the great void (the unmanifested Brahman). And a single glance meets a thousand of the heads that turn up by crores in a moment as if the tree of the supreme Brahman, laden with fruit borne on thousands of heads, has bent low. Thus, Oh Omnipresent Lord, are visible on all sides myriads of faces as also multitudes of rows of their eyes. This is nothing: even all talk of heaven and earth, and nether regions and the eight quarters and mid-air (sky) has ceased, and I behold all and the one in the image of the Divine Presence, curiously wondering if there be a secluded nook, as small as an atom, wherein you are not. I find none such: so fully you have pervaded all being.

By thine infinite Presence, I behold, Oh Anant, is packed the entire extent of Being—a compact mass of the five gross elements stored in the world. I mused, whence thou mayst be coming, whether thou art standing or sitting, what mother’s womb bore thee, how big is thy figure, of what age mayst thou be, and of what appearance, and what may be beyond this, and what indeed may be thy support; now as I behold the light that illumines all, thyself are thine own support; born of no other being, thou art the self-existent being without beginning, self-same for all time: neither standing nor sitting, neither tall nor short: Oh God, thou art all everywhere, below and above. Oh, thou art like thyself than anything else: thou art as old as Eternal Being and thy parts are thy own Being. In short, oh Anant, as I see again and again, thyself art everything that belongs to thee. Yet, one blemish do I see in thine all-pervading Presence—Naught it has, a beginning or a middle, or an end. These have I searched in all places, and not a trace of these is visible: without doubt, there thou art without beginning, middle and without end.

Thus have I seen thee All-pervading Being. From thine all-filling Presence body forth severally many incarnations, making thee as it were clothed in myriad coloured garments; or as if the separate beings were the trees and creepers growing on thy mountain-high Presence, and the splendid ornaments are the flower and fruit thereof. Oh Lord thou art the big ocean of Being, on which are tossed separate beings as waves: or, thou art a big tree laden with fruit of these separate images: or thou art like the earth, peopled with all kinds of beings, or like the sky studded with clusters of stars. So is thine all-pervading Presence revealing myriads of divine images. On thy body these spring like hair. A single part of this presence witnesses the birth and decay of whole universes. And who may this supreme Person be, that pervades all universes on all sides? Well, it is none other than the self-same person that drives the chariot for me (Lord Krishna).

And methinks, Oh Mukunda, the all-pervading spirit of the universe, thou yet reveal thyself in this limited form of bewitching beauty to make thy devotees blessed in thy grace. Oh how beauteous is thy four-armed person of brownish colour, so charming to eyes and mind alike, so easily to be clasped by two hands in an embrace. Oh Thou, the Omnipresent Lord of the entire Universe! Thou wear this beautiful body out of thy divine grace, and what a pity that mortal men reckon thee no better! May that be as it is! The blemish of my human vision is now washed off: thou hast fitted my eyes with divine transcendent sight: so here I am seeing thy divine glory in full and in its grandeur. Only this day did I realise that this human figure sitting behind the crocodile-shaped front of the chariot is verily the Divine Spirit that fills the universe.