Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 11, Verse 40: Krishna to Arjuna — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Obeisance before you, obeisance behind you, obeisance to you in all directions, O All (sarva). Because you pervade the entire world — samāpnoṣi (you fully pervade it) through the singular ātman — you therefore are the All: nothing whatsoever exists apart from you. Śaṅkara reads 'ananta-vīrya' (infinite capacity) and 'amita-vikrama' (immeasurable prowess) not as epithets of a personal deity but as descriptions of the undivided power that belongs to Brahman alone: vīrya (power, sāmarthya) and vikrama (heroic reach, parākrama) are infinite precisely because they are not localised in any limited subject. The prostrations in all directions are meaningful only because directionality itself is dissolved into the non-dual ground.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'sarvam samastam jagat samāpnoṣi — sarvam samyak ekena ātmanā vyāpnoṣi yataḥ, tataḥ tasmāt asi bhavasi sarvaḥ tvam; tvayā vinābhūtam na kiñcit asti iti abhiprāyaḥ.'

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Prostrations before and behind, prostrations from every quarter, O All — because you pervade all sentient and insentient existence (cit-acit-vastujāta) as their inner Self (ātmatayā), the entire manifold bears your form (tvat-prakāratva) and is therefore properly designated by your name. Rāmānuja ties this verse back to the earlier 'tvam akṣaram sad-asat' (BG 11.37) and 'vāyur yamah agniḥ' (BG 11.39) series: each cosmic identity-statement was made possible by ātmatayā-vyāpti — the relationship in which the universe constitutes your body (śarīra) and you alone are the śeṣin. Infinite vīrya and amita-vikrama are the powers of the Lord who holds all things within himself as qualifications (viśeṣaṇas) without ceasing to be the one independent reality.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'yataḥ tvam sarvam cit-acid-vastujātam ātmatayā samāpnoṣi, ataḥ sarvasya cid-acid-vastujātasya tvac-charīratayā tvat-prakāratvāt sarva-prakāraḥ tvam eva sarva-śabda-vācyaḥ asi.'

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva reads the verse under the heading 'how is it fitting to say sthāne (11.36)?' — and answers with the epithet mahātmā: the Lord is pūrṇa (completely full, unconditioned) and ātmā in the sense the Mahābhārata itself defines — 'that which obtains, takes, consumes objects, and whose being is continuous: that is called ātmā.' Infinite vīrya and vikrama belong exclusively to Hari as the independently real (svatantra), not as properties shared with or borrowed from creation. The prostrations in every direction are an acknowledgment of his absolute supremacy (sarvottamatva), within which every jīva remains forever distinct and dependent. The parallel Mahābhārata citation anchors the claim in śruti-smṛti testimony, the only valid means of knowing Hari's nature.

  divergence: Madhva: 'pūrṇaś cāsāv ātmā ceti mahātmā... yac cāpnoti yad ādatte yaś cātti viṣayān iha, yaś cāsya santato bhāvas tasmād ātmeti bhaṇyate.' Bhāṣya covers 11.37–11.40 together.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha opens the theological ground beneath the epithet: 'paraṃ brahma tu kṛṣṇo hi sac-cid-ānandakaṃ bṛhat — the supreme Brahman is indeed Kṛṣṇa, vast, of the nature of existence-consciousness-bliss.' The two aspects — one the transcendent and one the immanent manifold — do not divide Kṛṣṇa but express his śuddha (pure, untainted) plenitude. Ananta-vīrya is therefore not raw cosmic force but the ānanda-śakti (the power-of-bliss) by which Kṛṣṇa freely becomes and pervades the entire prapañca (world-display) as his own play (līlā). Arjuna's prostrations in all directions are the natural gesture of a soul recognising that every surface, every direction, is Kṛṣṇa's own rūpa (form).

  divergence: Vallabha: 'paraṃ brahma tu kṛṣṇo hi sac-cid-ānandakaṃ bṛhat, dvi-rūpaṃ tad dhi sarvaṃ syād ekaṃ tasmād vilakṣaṇam — ananta-vīrya; viśvaṃ vyāpnoṣi sarva-prapañca-rūpas tvam eveti arthaḥ.'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads the verse as a single continuous act of namaskāra (reverential obeisance) to the Lord who is sarva-ātman — the Self of all. The simile he chooses is precise: as gold (suvarṇa) pervades its modifications — bracelet (kaṭaka), earring (kuṇḍala) — while remaining gold, so the Lord pervades all forms while retaining his own svarūpa (essential nature). Ananta-vīrya (infinite capacity) and amita-vikrama (immeasurable prowess) explain why such ubiquitous presence is possible without diminishment: capacity and heroic reach are not distributed across the world but remain undivided in the bhagavat. The devotee's obeisance is therefore directed at once to every object it meets, since every object is a face of that undiminished presence.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'sarvam viśvam samyag antar-bahiś ca sarvātmanāpi samāpnoṣi vyāpnoṣi suvarṇam iva kaṭaka-kuṇḍalādi svakāryam vyāpya vartase sarva-rūpo asi.'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana preserves the Advaita conclusion — 'tvad-atiriktam kim api nāsti — nothing whatsoever exists beyond you' — but reads it through the grammar of rapturous praise rather than arid negation. He carefully parses the compound: ananta-vīrya (infinite vīrya, defined as śārīra-bala, bodily power) and amita-vikrama (immeasurable vikrama, defined as śikṣā — the skilled application of weapons), showing that Arjuna draws a deliberate contrast with finite warriors like Bhīma (strength without skill) or Duryodhana (skill without proportionate strength). In the Lord both are limitless and simultaneous. The prostrations from every direction enact what jñāna comprehends: since sac-cid-rūpa (existence-consciousness nature) is the ground of all directional space, the worshipper who bows in every direction bows to the one reality that underlies every apparent elsewhere.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'sarvam samastam jagat samāpnoṣi samyag ekena sad-rūpeṇāpnoṣi sarvātmanā vyāpnoṣi tatas tasmāt sarvo'si — tvad-atiriktam kim api nāsti ity arthaḥ.'