Bhagavad Gita 11.12
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 splendour of a thousand suns were to arise together at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of that great-souled one.
Reflection
When you compare a vast reality to a known one, can you also name what the comparison misses?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eleven
A comparison arrives. If a thousand suns rose together in the sky, that splendour might be like the splendour of that great-souled one. Divi surya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthita. The conditional matters. The comparison is offered as a possibility, not a fact. A thousand suns at once is already unimaginable, and even that is only a likeness. The splendour exceeds the most extreme image the human imagination can build. The verse is famous because it gives the reader a handhold for what cannot be held. It also makes clear what kind of vision Arjuna is now inside. The light pouring out of the form is the same light as the sun's, raised by orders of magnitude past the threshold of bearing.