Chapter 11 · Verse 48 · Vishwaroopa Darshana Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 11.48
Sanskrit
न वेदयज्ञाध्ययनैर्न दानै र्न च क्रियाभिर्न तपोभिरुग्रैः। एवंरूपः शक्य अहं नृलोके द्रष्टुं त्वदन्येन कुरुप्रवीर।।11.48।।
Transliteration
na veda-yajñādhyayanair na dānair na cha kriyābhir na tapobhir ugraiḥ evaṁ-rūpaḥ śhakya ahaṁ nṛi-loke draṣhṭuṁ tvad anyena kuru-pravīra
In plain words
You've been trying so hard—studying, working, striving, controlling, earning your way to clarity or healing or peace. Krishna says: that's not how grace works. The deepest things you're searching for—meaning, healing, a way forward—cannot be muscled into existence. They arrive only when you stop grasping and open your heart completely to what is, to what you cannot see or control, to something larger than your effort alone.
Word by Word
The Lord declares that no amount of ritual, study, charity, or severe austerity can reveal His cosmic form—only through the grace of pure devotion and divine will does such vision become possible. This is not a limitation but an invitation: Krishna is saying that His transcendent nature cannot be earned or achieved through effort alone; it must be received through surrender.
In our modern lives, this teaches us that the deepest truths—about ourselves, others, and the sacred—cannot be grasped through willpower or intellectual striving, but only through opening the heart completely.
Listen
Bhagavad Gita 11.48 — BG 11.48
Your Mantra Prescription
This mantra is prescribed for clarity and purpose. Is that what you're going through?
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