Chapter 11 · Verse 31·Spoken by Arjuna
आख्याहि मे को भवानुग्ररूपो नमोऽस्तु ते देववर प्रसीद। विज्ञातुमिच्छामि भवन्तमाद्यं न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिम्
ākhyāhi me ko bhavān ugra-rūpo namo ’stu te deva-vara prasīda vijñātum ichchhāmi bhavantam ādyaṁ na hi prajānāmi tava pravṛittim
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Word by Word
Reading set · 5 translations · 3 commentaries
Translation · 5 voices
Tell me who You are, fierce in form. Salutations to You, O Supreme God; be gracious. I desire to fully know You, who are the Prime One. For I do not understand Your actions!
Swami Gambiranandaafter Śaṅkara's bhāṣya· paired with Śaṅkara
Tell me, who are You with this terrible form? Salutations to You, O Supreme God. Be gracious to me. I desire to know You, the Primal One. I do not know Your activities.
Swami Adidevanandaafter Rāmānuja's bhāṣya· paired with Rāmānuja
Please tell me who You are with a terrible form, O Best of gods! Salutations to You; please be merciful. I am desirous of knowing You, the Primal One, in detail, for I do not clearly comprehend Your actions.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayanafter Madhva's bhāṣya· paired with Madhva
Tell me, who you are, so fierce of form. I offer my salutations to you, O God Supreme; have mercy on me. I desire to know you, the original Being. I do not indeed know your workings.
Swami SivanandaThe Bhagavad Gita
Tell me then, who are You, who wears this dreadful form? I bow before You, O Mighty One! Have mercy, I pray, and let me see You as You were at first. I do not know what Your intentions are.
Shri Purohit SwamiThe Geeta
Tell, declare to me, who are You of fierce form, of cruel shape? Salutation be to You, O best of the gods, O chief of the gods; be gracious, show favour. I wish to know, to understand particularly, You, the primal one, the one who was at the beginning; for I do not understand Your activity, Your working. The Blessed Lord said.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
Who are you, of an exceedingly terrible form, set out to do what? This I wish to know of you. I do not know your intended activity. Tell me this. Salutation be to you, best of gods; be gracious. Salutation be to you, Lord of all; having said 'with this intent I have made manifest this withdrawer-form, to do thus', become also of gracious form. Asked the intent in His making manifest a terrible form, He who, by the excess of tender love for those who take refuge in Him, shows the lordship of the universe, the Blessed One, the charioteer of Partha, states His own intent: that, even without Partha's exertion, I myself am set out to slay the whole kingly world, Duryodhana foremost; this is My making manifest of a terrible form, in order to make that known; and that making-known is to set Partha to act.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
It is only to learn some further attribute that Arjuna asks 'who are you?', with 'tell me'. Just as someone, though he knows another's name and the rest, asks 'who are you?' in order to learn his class. For if Arjuna did not know Him at all, then the address 'O Vishnu' (11.30) would not occur, nor 'you are the imperishable' (11.18) and the like.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.