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Chapter 10 · Verse 40
🪈 Krishna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 10, Verse 40

नान्तोऽस्ति मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनां परन्तप। एष तूद्देशतः प्रोक्तो विभूतेर्विस्तरो मया॥

nānto'sti mama divyānāṁ vibhūtīnāṁ parantapa | eṣa tūddeśataḥ prokto vibhūtervistaro mayā ||

Word by Word 14 words
न
na not

not, no

अन्तः
anta end, limit

end, limit

अस्ति
as to be

there is

मम
mad my, of me

of My, My

दिव्यानाम्
div to shine) → divya (heavenly, divine

of the divine, heavenly

विभूतीनाम्
vi forth bhū to be, to become) → vibhūti (glory, manifestation

of the glories, of the magnificent manifestations

परन्तप
param others, foes tap to scorch, to burn

O scorcher of foes (Arjuna)

एषः
etad this

this

तु
tu but, indeed

but, however

उद्देशतः
ud forth diś to point, to indicate

by way of example, as a brief hint

प्रोक्तः
pra forth vac to speak

has been spoken, declared

विभूतेः
vibhūti glory, manifestation

of My glory

विस्तरः
vi apart stṛ to spread

the extent, the spreading-out

मया
mad by me

by Me

calls "scorcher of foes" and tells him a wonderful thing: "There is no end to my divine glories." All the marvels he has just listed — the sun, the ocean, the mountain, the holy river — are only a few examples, a tiny taste. If he tried to name them all, the list would never, ever finish.

कथा

The List That Never Ends

An original story

"Keep going," said Kiran. "Tell me more."

They were on the riverbank in the cool of the evening, the wide river sliding past in sheets of pink and orange. All afternoon Thatha had been listing wonders — the way Krishna does in the Gita — and Kiran, who loved superlatives more than sweets, could not get enough.

"The biggest mountain," Thatha had said. "The brightest star. The widest river. The oldest tree."

"More!" Kiran had begged. "What's the greatest of the birds? The greatest of the snakes? The greatest of the fishes?"

And Thatha had answered each one, smiling, while the sun sank lower.

Now Kiran flopped onto his back in the warm sand and stared up at the darkening sky, where the first stars were pricking through. "Don't stop," he said. "There must be more. The greatest of the... of the... clouds! The greatest of the smells! The greatest of the songs!"

Thatha laughed — a great, kind, rolling laugh that startled a heron into the air.

"Kanna," he said, settling back against a rock, "do you know what himself says, right in the middle of his own list?"

"What?"

"He stops. He turns to and says: *there is no end to my glories.* Everything I have named is just a hint. A few examples. If I tried to name them all, we would be here forever and never reach the bottom of the basket."

Kiran thought about that. Above him, more and more stars were coming out — ten, fifty, a thousand, more than he could ever count, scattered across the whole sky like spilled rice. He tried to count them and gave up almost at once.

"So if we listed all night..." Kiran said slowly.

"We would not finish."

"And all week?"

"We would not finish."

"And our whole *lives?*"

"Not even close, kanna." Thatha's voice was soft and full of wonder. "And that is the most beautiful part. The glory of the One isn't a box you can fill up and close. It pours and pours and never empties. Every single thing you will ever love, your whole life long, is one more drop from a spring that has no bottom."

Kiran lay very still, looking up at the uncountable stars, and felt something open up inside him as wide as the sky.

चिन्तनम्

If you tried to list all the most wonderful things in the world, do you think you could ever finish? Where would you even begin?