BG 11.34 — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 11.34Chapter 11 · Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · triṣṭubh

द्रोणं च भीष्मं च जयद्रथं च कर्णं तथान्यानपि योधवीरान् ।

मया हतांस् त्वं जहि मा व्यथिष्ठा युध्यस्व जेतासि रणे सपत्नान् ॥

droṇaṃ ca bhīṣmaṃ ca jayadrathaṃ ca

karṇaṃ tathānyān api yodha-vīrān

mayā hatāṃs tvaṃ jahi mā vyathiṣṭhā

yudhyasva jetāsi raṇe sapatnān

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

These men are already slain by Me, Droṇa and Bhīṣma, Jayadratha and Karṇa and the rest. Be the instrument, strike, and do not tremble. Fight, and you will conquer.

ekras · bhāṣya

Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna, and the other yodha-viras — slain by Me, you slay. Do not tremble. Fight, and you will conquer the rivals in rana. The verse names the four. Each is a person Arjuna has known across his life — Drona his teacher, Bhishma his grandfather-figure, Jayadratha his enemy, Karna his secret brother.

Krishna names each because the disciple's hesitation rests on each name.

Shankara reads the verse precisely. Each name is the disciple's specific concern. Drona, Bhishma — moral debt. Jayadratha — the killer of Abhimanyu. Karna — the unrecognized brother. By naming each, Krishna pre-empts the disciple's specific reason for hesitation. Maya hatan — already slain by Me — applies to each. Tvam jahi — you slay — is the visible task. Ma vyathishthah — do not tremble — is the inner instruction. Yudhyasva jeta asi — fight, you will conquer — is the assurance.

Madhusudana reads each name as its own door of hesitation that Krishna closes. The chapter's pastoral care is precise: Arjuna's hesitation has names, and Krishna addresses each by name.

Ramanuja reads with characteristic warmth: Bhagavan names each so Arjuna does not have to navigate the moral landscape alone; the structural answer applies to each named person.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: each named warrior is a paratantra; svatantra Hari has already received them.

Vallabha reads through pushti-marga: the prasada holds even the named individuals; the bhakta's task is to be the instrument.

Shridhara reads cleanly: each named, all already slain, fight, conquer.

Context

where

Chapter 11 · Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga · meter triṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 11.33

Rise and fight; these enemies are already slain by Me. Win glory, enjoy the kingdom you conquer, and be only the instrument, Savyasācin.

What's going on

These men are already slain by Me, Droṇa and Bhīṣma, Jayadratha and Karṇa and the rest. Be the instrument, strike, and do not tremble. Fight, and you will conquer.

Sūtras through this verse (46)

AbhinavaguptaclassicalB

Recognition, not additionbetween

11.1Now: experience what was taught.───→here11.34───→11.55See the world as Śiva's own body.

RāmānujaclassicalB

The śāstra is one bracket (2.12 → 18.66)between

11.1Arjuna confirms the bracket from inside.───→here11.34───→18.66The teaching closes with one command.

VallabhaclassicalA

Two paths — rule-bound and grace-onlybetween

10.14Faith comes only from the Lord's own giving.───→here11.34───→11.55Grace-soul acts only when the Lord wills.

show all 46

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerstation

───→here11.34───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalG

Saṃvit: one referent under many namesstation

───→here11.34───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerbetween

11.8The eye is given, never earned by work.───→here11.34───→11.49Cosmic returns to gracious; ananya means non-dual.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departurebetween

9.4He pervades, yet is not in any of it.───→here11.34───→11.46Cosmic and gracious one self-luminous.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalH

Bhakti as non-dual recognitionbetween

9.22Consciousness tending its own self-knowing modes.───→here11.34───→11.49Ananya bhakti is non-dual recognition.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalI

Anugraha: grace as the active powerbetween

11.8The eye is given; seeing is grace.───→here11.34───→11.35By grace-nature, the secret discloses itself.

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)between

11.1The aiśvarya-delusion now to be removed.───→here11.34───→12.1Sa-guṇa or nir-guṇa, which path wins?

RāmānujaclassicalD

Karma-yoga as kainkarya (worship)between

9.27Whatever you do, do it as offering.───→here11.34───→11.55Five clauses, one shelter: mat-karma-kṛt.

RāmānujaclassicalE

Bhakti as continuous recollectionbetween

10.10I give the buddhi-yoga to those who love.───→here11.34───→11.54Undivided love beholds it.

RāmānujaclassicalH

Prapatti / śaraṇāgati — universal upāyabetween

9.32Even the lowest birth reaches Me through this.───→here11.34───→11.55Five clauses for the one who is Mine.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

11.13Arjuna sees all at once.───→here11.34───→13.2The whole vibhūti clinches sāmānādhikaraṇya.

RāmānujaclassicalJ

Śeṣa-śeṣī · pati-vrata similebetween

9.34Set toward Me, the seeker's whole posture.───→here11.34───→11.55He is the one telos.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalE

Field and field-knower as Parameśvaraapproach

───→here11.34───→13.1One knower in every field — Parameśvara.

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktaapproach

───→here11.34───→13.20Both natures cause the body's binding.

Madhusūdanaclassicalmadhusudan_bhagavad_arpana

Madhusudan Bhagavad Arpanabetween · other

9.22Yogakshema as offering returned───→here11.34───→11.55Five offering-clauses

MadhusūdanaclassicalD

Offer the act to the Lord and it stops bindingbetween

9.22The undivided ones the Lord himself sustains.───→here11.34───→11.55The whole Gītā distilled to five offering-clauses.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesbetween

9.22Constant thought of Me is self-contemplation itself.───→here11.34───→11.55The five-clause crystal is bhakti named whole.

MadhusūdanaclassicalF

Every middle chapter opens with a bow to the teacherbetween

11.1I worship the unborn, the self-luminous teacher.───→here11.34───→11.55With awe I praise him, Kāśirāja, my teacher.

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanbetween

10.8From Me everything flows; wise ones know this and worship.───→here11.34───→11.55The crystal verse names the saguṇa in absolute form.

MadhusūdanaclassicalK

Arjuna's grief has two roots, not onebetween

11.1Arjuna marks the universal moha cured.───→here11.34───→18.73Confusion gone, memory gained — the cure complete.

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

11.16Aneka- is not just two-or-more.───→here11.34───→13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not just utterance.

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsbetween

11.16Many-armed is Viṣṇu, not a pantheon.───→here11.34───→12.1Beyond avyakta is puruṣa, and Viṣṇu.

JayatīrthaclassicalF

Bhakti-tāratamya: gradation among devotees, gradation in fruitbetween

9.25Each worship reaches its own destination.───→here11.34───→11.55Five-clause sādhana names the apex.

JayatīrthaclassicalG

Citation as proof — śruti, smṛti, MB, Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pañcarātrabetween

11.16Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.4.78 settles aneka-.───→here11.34───→15.1Aṣṭādhyāyī 3.2.4 settles aśvattha.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

11.16Aneka- means many; no upacāra needed.───→here11.34───→13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not paraphrase.

VallabhaclassicalB

Grace alone — the technical markbetween

9.32The unsheltered take shelter and reach Me.───→here11.34───→11.54Undivided love — sādhana stripped, grace-clothed.

VallabhaclassicalG

The Lord plays — calf-affection, not contractbetween

9.32The unsheltered run to their cowherd-Lord.───→here11.34───→11.54The form revealed is Krishna in blue, not abstract.

VallabhaclassicalH

Stilling the mind — into the Lordbetween

6.47Stilling the mind into Vāsudeva — not into nothing.───→here11.34───→11.54Vision opens only to the love-stilled mind.

VallabhaclassicalI

A closed three-source citation gridbetween

9.32Even the unsheltered reach the highest goal.───→here11.34───→11.54Bhāgavata + Brahmasūtra fuse at the vision-verse.

VallabhaclassicalJ

Strategic silence — pointers, not absencesbetween

11.21The cosmic-form catalogue is bracketed.───→here11.34───→11.45The frame, not the catalogue, carries the doctrine.

ŚrīdharaclassicalB

The Lord descends out of compassionbetween

11.1By high compassion He showed the world-form.───→here11.34───→11.43Teacher, and teacher's teacher beyond compare.

ŚrīdharaclassicalC

Devotion is both the way and the homebetween

9.34Mind on Me, bowed to Me — you reach Me.───→here11.34───→11.54By undivided love alone — knowable, seen.

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessbetween

9.22The undivided are my one foundation.───→here11.34───→11.54Undivided love alone unlocks the world-form.

ŚrīdharaclassicalD

The path that turns no one awayexit

9.32Women, śūdras, all, also reach the goal.───→here11.34───→

VedāntadeśikaclassicalB

Prapatti — bhakti's access for those the long path defeatsbetween

9.34Mind on Me, devoted — you reach Me.───→here11.34───→11.54Bhakti without rival is the seeing-instrument.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

9.1Chapter 7's residue of wonder forces 9's disclosure.───→here11.34───→11.54The saguṇa-bhakta privileged ahead of 12.1.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalJ

Sañjaya's frame — evidentiary, not ornamentalbetween

1.2Dṛṣṭvā tu — Sañjaya speaks to be heard later.───→here11.34───→11.50Sañjaya names the viśva-rūpa as witness.

Ekrasmodernbhakti

Bhakti — devotion pathbetween · v2

9.30Even the wrong-doer───→here11.34───→11.54Only by undivided bhakti

RamsukhdasclassicalF

Surrender — the single shelterbetween

9.30Even a great wrongdoer, fixed on Me, is good.───→here11.34───→11.55Five clauses join into one shelter.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here11.34───→

Ekrasmodernforgiveness

Forgivenessapproach · other

───→here11.34───→12.13Friendly, compassionate

Gauravmodernkarma_yoga_hand

Karma Yoga Handbetween

11.32Wrist, kalai. Kala, time. 'Kalo'smi loka-kshaya-krit pravriddhah.' Gaurav arrive───→here11.34───→18.47Pointing finger. Svadharma. 'Shreyan svadharmo vigunah para-dharmat svanushthita

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingbetween

10.42With one part I pervade this whole world, and stand.───→here11.34───→11.55Acting for Me, holding Me supreme — that is the road.

Śabda · lemmas (20 unique · 22 occurrences)

सपत्नान् sapatna — rival, enemy · accusative masculine plural noun
जेतासि √ji — to conquer, win (verbal root) · future indicative peri 2nd person singular verb
युध्यस्व √yudh — to fight (verbal root); battle · present imperative 2nd person singular verb · also at 2.18, 3.30
वीरान् vīra — hero, warrior · accusative masculine plural noun

show all 20

च ca ×3 — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
द्रोणम् droṇa — Droṇa (the brahmin warrior-teacher of the Pāṇḍavas + Kauravas) · accusative masculine singular noun
भीष्मम् bhīṣma — Bhīṣma (the Kuru patriarch); also: terrible, frightful · accusative masculine singular noun
जयद्रथम् jayadratha — Jayadratha (king of Sindhu, Kaurava ally) · accusative masculine singular noun
कर्णम् karṇa — Karṇa (the half-brother of the Pāṇḍavas); also: ear · accusative masculine singular noun
तथा tathā — thus, in that manner; likewise
अन्यान् anya — other, different · accusative masculine plural noun
अपि api — also, even, although
योध yodha — warrior, fighter (from √yudh) · compound
मया mad — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · instrumental singular noun
हतान् √han — to slay, kill, strike (verbal root) · accusative masculine plural participle noun
त्वम् tvad — you (2nd person pronoun stem) · nominative singular noun
जहि hā — to abandon, give up (verbal root); also: alas (interjection) · present imperative 2nd person singular verb
मा mā — do not (prohibitive); also: to measure (verbal root)
व्यथिष्ठाः √vyath — to tremble, be agitated (verbal root) · past jus 2nd person singular verb
रणे raṇa — battle, war · locative masculine singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01When you hesitate before a necessary action because the opponent seems too formidable — Droṇa-class, Bhīṣma-class — what would it mean to discover that the outcome is already 'decided by a force larger than your effort'?
02The Lord says 'these are already slain by Me — you are nimitta-mātra (instrument only)': in what situations does the nimitta framing liberate action, and in what situations does it become a cover for avoiding moral accountability?

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03Each school reads 'mā vyathiṣṭhāḥ' differently — Advaita as dissolving the false agent, Viśiṣṭādvaita as trust in Bhagavān's delegation, Dvaita as obedience to Hari's will, Śuddhādvaita as stepping into prārabdha-current. Which removal of fear do you actually experience when you act from your best self?
04Madhusūdana notes the three 'ca' particles deliberately echo Arjuna's prior invincibility-doubt. What does it mean for scripture to name your specific fears back to you before dissolving them — is that a pedagogical move or a compassionate one?
05Jayadratha's case is peculiar: the boon that protects him also guarantees his killer's head will shatter — but divine foreknowledge voids the threat. Where in your own life do you avoid an action because of a contingent consequence that closer inspection reveals to be illusory?
06The assurance 'jetāsi' (you will conquer) is given before the battle. How does receiving a prior assurance of outcome change the quality of the effort you bring — does it produce relaxation, carelessness, or something else?
07Śrīdhara links this verse to Arjuna's doubt in BG 2.6 ('we do not know which is better'). The Lord's answer to 'I don't know what to do' is not philosophical argument but a list of names plus 'they are already handled': what does that suggest about the register in which existential paralysis is most effectively addressed?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Before a high-stakes professional confrontation with someone you regard as vastly more capable — your Droṇa, your Bhīṣma — sit for two minutes and ask: 'Who is the one who is afraid here?' Not to suppress the fear but to locate the doer who believes the outcome depends solely on him. If you can find the edge of that doer, the action that follows is clean rather than contracted. The nimitta-mātra frame is not passivity; it is action without the extra weight of self-proving.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

When you are reluctant to give honest feedback to a mentor, elder, or beloved colleague because it feels like betrayal — Rāmānuja's reading applies: if the correction has been 'delegated' to you by the situation (you are the one who sees it, you are the one positioned to say it), then withholding it is not loyalty but failure of kainkarya. The cruelty-test: would a loving sovereign who sees the full picture want this said? If yes, say it without guilt.

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Dvaita

In a negotiation or dispute where you hold a weaker position but your cause is just: Madhva's reading counsels neither bravado nor despair but simple obedience to what the situation calls for. You are paratantra (dependent); the outcome is Hari's. Your job is to show up correctly, not to guarantee the result. This is not fatalism — Arjuna still fights — but it removes the distortion of outcome-anxiety from your preparation.

Śuddhādvaita

When a project or initiative you have been resisting feels like it has prārabdha-momentum — the team is already moving, the conditions have already aligned, the 'kāla' (time) is already doing the work — Vallabha's frame says: step in, do your dharma in this moment, and let the stream carry the outcome. The Puṣṭi-mārga application is: pick up the instrument (keyboard, phone, pen) and let your hands do what they know, without requiring yourself to will it into existence.

Bhakti

When you receive a direct assurance from someone you deeply trust — 'I've already handled it, just do your part' — Śrīdhara's reading asks: can you actually receive that assurance without re-litigating the risk? The bhakti everyday-application is the practice of letting the Lord's word land. In secular translation: when a trustworthy collaborator says 'the path is clear,' can you move without spending the next hour checking their work?

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's exhaustive enumeration of each warrior's specific powers before dissolving them suggests a method: when paralyzed by a multi-front challenge, name every specific threat fully and precisely (not vaguely as 'it's hard') — write them down as Madhusūdana writes them out — and only then apply the dissolving frame. The sequence matters: acknowledgment of real difficulty first, then 'hatānāṃ hanane ko vā pariśramaḥ' (what effort does it cost to defeat the already-defeated?). Skipping the enumeration produces false reassurance; doing it produces genuine release.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 11, Verse 34: Krishna to Arjuna — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga