किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रहस्तंइच्छामि त्वां द्रष्टुमहं तथैव ।तेनैव रूपेण चतुर्भुजेनसहस्रबाहो भव विश्वमूर्ते ॥
kirīṭinaṃ gadinaṃ cakrahastaṃicchāmi tvāṃ draṣṭumahaṃ tathaivatenaiva rūpeṇa caturbhujenasahasrabāho bhava viśvamūrte
I would see Thee even as before crowned and with Thy mace and discus. Assume Thy four-armed shape, O thousand-armed, O Form universal.
Gītā 11·46The form of the transcendent and universal Being is to the strength of the liberated spirit a thing mighty, encouraging and fortifying, a source of power, an equalising, sublimating, all-justifying vision; but to the normal man it is overwhelming, appalling, incommunicable. The truth that reassures, even when known, is grasped with difficulty behind the formidable and mighty aspect of all-destructive Time and an incalculable Will and a vast immeasurable inextricable working. But there is too the gracious mediating form of divine Narayana, the God who is so close to man and in man, the Charioteer of the battle and the journey, with his four arms of helpful power, a humanised symbol of Godhead, not this million-armed universality.
