divyamaalyaambaradharam divyagandhaanulepanam |
sarvaashcharyamayam devamanantam vishvatomukham || 11 ||
Wearing divine garlands and clothes, anointed with divine fragrances, all of these wonderful (sights) were shining and infinite, with faces on all sides.
divyam : divine
aalyaa : garlands
ambara : clothes
dharam : wearing
gandhaan : anointed
anulepanam : anointed with
sarvaashcharyam : all wonderful
ayam : these
devam : shining
anantam : infinite
vishvatomukham : faces on all sides
Sanjaya continues the description of Ishvara’s cosmic form in this shloka. Shri Krishna, after giving a hint of Ishvara’s destructive power to Arjuna, showed his soumya roopa or his pleasing form. In other words, all the five senses and the mind enjoyed taking in this pleasant form. To that end, Arjuna saw Ishvara dressed up in fine clothes and garlands, as well as anointed with divine perfumes.
Another aspect of this form that it did not have a “centre”. Whenever we try to worship God, we always choose either an idol or an image so that we can focus our thoughts. However, many of us tend to get fixated on one deity, image or idol and consequently shun other deities. Sanjaya, in describing the cosmic form, noted that it had “infinite faces”. In other words, whenever Arjuna tried to pinpoint one face and say “this is Ishvara”, he would fail. Shri Krishna did this to remove any prior conceptions of Ishvara that Arjuna would have harboured.
Now, we always need to keep one thing in mind when we contemplate the cosmic form - there is oneness behind all the diversity. It is all one being, ultimately. Just like the millions of cells, tissues and organs in our body serve one person, all the diversity seen in the cosmic form serves one Ishvara. Our minds are used to dividing things, cutting up things. The cosmic form is meant to reverse that process and unify everything.
Sanjaya used the word “devam” which means shining to describe this form. He elaborates on this in the next shloka.
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