Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    223/254 page 215
    3 Thus having said, the mighty Lord of all Displayed to Arjuna his form supreme, Endowed with countless mouths and countless eyes, With countless faces turned to every quarter, With countless marvellous appearances, With ornaments, and wreaths, and robes divine, With heavenly fragrance and celestial weapons. It was as if the firmament were filled, All in an instant with a thousand suns, Blazing with dazzling lustre, so beheld he The glories of the universe collected In the one person of the God of gods.1 Arjuna with every hair on his body bristling with awe, bows his head at this vision, and folding his hands in reverence, gives utterance to a passionate outburst of enthusiastic adoration, which is here abridged : I see thee, mighty Lord of all, revealed In forms of infinite diversity. I see thee like a mass of purest light, Flashing thy lustre everywhere around. I see thee crowned with splendour like the sun, Pervading earth and sky, immeasurable, Boundless, without beginning, middle, end, Preserver of imperishable law, The everlasting Man ;2 the triple world Is awe-struck at this vision of thy form, Stupendous, indescribable in glory. Have mercy, God of gods ; the universe Is fitly dazzled by thy majesty, Fitly to thee alone devotes its homage. structive to contrast the simplicity of the Gospel scene: ‘ 11 is face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light’ (Matt. xvii. 2; Mark ix. 3). 1 In the Udyoga-parvan of the Maha-bharata (4419-4430) Krishna reveals his form in the same way to the assembled princes, who are obliged to close their eyes at the awful sight, while the blind Dhrita-rashtra is gifted with divine vision that he may behold the glorious spectacle (4437). 2 Sanatanah purushah (XL 18) may be translated ‘ the eternal Spirit.’
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3