Bhagavad Gita 11.12 · BG 11.12
Chapter 11Verse 12
Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga
दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता। यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः॥
divi sūrya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthitā, yadi bhāḥ sadṛśī sā syād bhāsas tasya mahātmanaḥ
Translation
If the light of a thousand suns were to blaze up in the sky all at once, it might resemble the brilliance of that great being.
The moment
Arjuna has asked to see Krishna's universal form, and Krishna has given him divine sight to see it. In this verse the narrator, Sanjaya, tries to describe what Arjuna sees.
What it means
What Arjuna sees is so bright that ordinary words fail. The best Sanjaya can offer is that a thousand suns blazing in the sky at once might come close.
Going deeper
The verse became famous far outside India in 1945. J. Robert Oppenheimer is said to have thought of this line while watching the first atomic bomb test. Years later he quoted another verse from the same chapter, 'Now I am become death'.
In the Gita itself, the image is about scale. The divine is too vast for human sight, so Krishna has to give Arjuna special eyes just to see it.
In your life
When something moves you so much you can't describe it, a birth or a mountain or a piece of music, let it stay beyond words for a moment. The Gita's own narrator runs out of language here, and doesn't pretend otherwise.
If a thousand suns rose at once, it might come close to that light.
Keep reading
2.22
The body is worn like clothing. What's underneath it doesn't end.
2.14
This too shall pass. Meet both joy and sorrow with the same steady heart.
2.11
You keep grieving what you were never able to hold onto. The wise don't.
6.32
Feel someone else's pain and joy as if they were your own. That's the real measure.