1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 11 - Viswarupa Darsana Yoga - Sloka 31

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of Bhagavad Gita published by Ramakrishna Mission

The Cosmic Vision Defined 15-31

1 Gita Sloka  every day - Chapter 11 - Viswarupa Darsana Yoga - Sloka 31

Akhyahi me ko bhavan ugra rupah namah astu te deva vara prasida I

Vigyatum icchami bhavantam adhyam na hi pragyanami tava pravrittim  II sloka 31

आख्यायि मे को भवान् उग्र रूपः नमः अस्तु ते देव वर प्रसिद I

विज्ञातुं इचचामि भवन्तं आध्यम् न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिं II श्लोक 31 

Tell me who you are, so fierce in form. I bow down to you O God Supreme! Have mercy! I desire to know you, the Primal One. I know not your purpose. 

The calm, charming and beautiful form of the God attracts devotees. Being drawn to him in this way is deemed as devotional worship. His terrific form arrests the attention of the devotee in another way. And getting absorbed in it is also a form of worship.  The fully qualified devotee is he who accepts the sublime and terrific aspects of God with equal devotion and absorption. Fear is conquered by the worship of the fearful. But Arjuna like many an ordinary devotee is not prepared for the worship of this terrifying form.

That Iswara is everything is being realized by Arjuna. But what all is comprised in everything is not known to him and it is impossible for him to know. A man and his activities are inter related. Knowing his activities is one of the ways of knowing the man, to some extent atleast. Similarly God can be known in a way through his doings. And that is teh supplication of Arjuna. The Lord deigns to reveal his purpose in the next sloka.