Verse 11.5

पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः ।

नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च ॥

11.5

Transliteration

paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi śataśo'tha sahasraśaḥ |

nānāvidhāni divyāni nānāvarṇākṛtīni ca ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

The Blessed Lord said Behold, O Arjuna, forms of Mine, by the hundreds and thousands, of different sorts, divine, and of various colours and shapes.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

behold
my
O Partha
forms
by hundreds
and
by thousands

of many kinds
divine
of many colours and shapes
and

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

Krishna grants the request at once. His first word is paśya, behold, and he will repeat it several times in the next verses, as if guiding Arjuna's gaze. He speaks not of one form but of hundreds and thousands, varied in kind, colour and shape. The cosmic form (viśvarūpa) is not a single image but a teeming multiplicity. The verse marks a shift in the Gita from listening to looking. Until now Arjuna has received teaching; from here, for a while, he will be a witness, and the dialogue will take on the character of a vision.