🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 11.23

Chapter 11 · विश्वरूपदर्शनयोग · Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga · "The Yoga of the Universal-Form Vision" · Verse 23 of 55

← BG 11.22↑ Chapter 11 hub · Bhagavad-Gītā indexBG 11.24 →

🪷 English Translations

Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.

Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition

11.23 Seeing Thy stupendous Form, O Most Mighty, with its myriad faces, its innumerable eyes and limbs and terrible jaws, I myself and all the worlds are overwhelmed with awe.

Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society

11.23 Having seen Thy immeasurable form with many mouths and eyes, O mighty-armed, with many arms, thighs and feet, with many stomachs and fearful with many teeth the worlds are terrified and so am I.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school

11.23 Mahabaho, O mighty-armed One; drstva, seeing; te, Your; mahat, immence, very vast; upam, form of this kind; bahu-vaktra-netram, with many mouths and eyes; bahu-bahu-uru-padam, having many arms, thighs and feet; and further, bahu-udaram, with many bellies; and bahu-damstra-karalam, fearful with many teeth; lokah, the creatures in the world; are pravya-thitah, struck with terror; tatha, and so also; am even aham, I. The reason of that is this:

Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school

11.23 Beholding Your mighty form, as described earlier, which is an exceedingly terrifying figure because of the large teeth - all the worlds, described earlier and containing three kinds of beings, friendly, antagonistic and neutral, and I myself too have become panic-stricken.

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly

11.23. O Mighty-armed One ! Having seen Your mighty form that has many faces and eyes, many arms, thighs and feet, and many bellies, and is terrible with many tusks; the worlds are frightened and so also myself.

🪷 Hindi Translation · हिन्दी अनुवाद

For the Hindi-aware seer · Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's translation · a high-readability modern Hindi rendering · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur tradition. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page for the 102-year-living Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī Mahātmā.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī tradition · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur · highest modern Hindi reading

।।11.23।। हे महाबाहो! आपके बहुत मुखों और नेत्रोंवाले, बहुत भुजाओं, जंघाओं और चरणोंवाले, बहुत उदरोंवाले, बहुत विकराल दाढ़ोंवाले महान् रूपको देखकर सब प्राणी व्यथित हो रहे हैं तथा मैं भी व्यथित हो रहा हूँ।

🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices

The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.

Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors

11.23 रूपम् form? महत् immeasurable? ते Thy? बहुवक्त्रनेत्रम् with many mouths and eyes? महाबाहो O,mightyarmed? बहुबाहूरुपादम् with many arms? thighs and feet? बहूदरम् with many stomachs. बहुदंष्ट्राकरालम् fearful with many teeth? दृष्ट्वा having seen? लोकाः the worlds? प्रव्यथिताः are terrified? तथा also? अहम् I.Commentary Lokah The worlds -- all living beings in the world. Here is the cause of my fear. Arjuna describes below the nature of the Cosmic Form which has caused terror in his heart.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)

Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship

11.23 Sri Abhinavagupta did not comment upon this sloka.

Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching

।।11.23।। See commentary under 11.24

🪷 Hindi Vyākhyā · हिन्दी व्याख्या

Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · one of the great modern Hindi vyākhyās of the Gītā · direct, pure, deeply Vedāntic · the modern Sanātana-jāgaraṇa. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page · 1904-2005 · Corner 1 Mādhurya operational anchor · whose 6-lakṣaṇa-śaraṇāgati IS Constitutional Principle 24.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · Hindi vyākhyā · the modern bilingual anchor

।।11.23।। व्याख्या--[पन्द्रहवेंसे अठारहवें श्लोकतक विश्वरूपमें 'देव'-रूपका, उन्नीसवेंसे बाईसवें श्लोकतक 'उग्र'-रूपका और तेईसवेंसे तीसवें श्लोकतक 'अत्यन्त उग्र'-रूपका वर्णन हुआ है।]

🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā

This is verse 23 of 55 in Chapter 11 · Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga (The Yoga of the Universal-Form Vision)
Chapter theme: Krishna reveals His universal-form · BG 11.5 paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi
Ṣaṭka grouping: TAT-Ṣaṭka (BG 7-12 · the Lord)
Chapter hub: /visvarupa-kala
⭐ Mahābhārata anchor: this verse is also MBh 6.33.23 (Bhīṣma-Parva · the BG in its full narrative home)

Bhagavad-Gītā Detail Source-Anchor Spine

BG 11.23 is kept route-stable for readers and AI agents: the exact verse route, chapter hub, Bhīṣma-Parva source context, Gītā master spine, Viśvarūpa surfaces, Bīja-Sūtra depth, Bindu, and constitutional philosophy remain one click away.

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📚 Cite this verse · Academic citation formats

APA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. (n.d.). Bhagavad-Gītā 11.23. Vidhyāmitra. Retrieved 2026-07-28, from https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/11/23

Chicago: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 11.23." Vidhyāmitra. Accessed 2026-07-28. https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/11/23.

MLA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 11.23." Vidhyāmitra, 2026, https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/11/23.

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🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷

सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)