divi sūrya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthitā
yadi bhāḥ sadṛiśhī sā syād bhāsas tasya mahātmanaḥ
divi — in the sky;
sūrya — suns;
sahasrasya — thousand;
bhavet — were;
yugapat — simultaneously;
utthitā — rising;
yadi — if;
bhāḥ — splendor;
sadṛiśhī — like;
sā — that;
syāt — would be;
bhāsaḥ — splendor;
tasya — of them;
mahā-ātmanaḥ — the great personality
In this verse, Arjuna is expressing something truly amazing he has just seen. He is trying to explain how bright and powerful that sight was. Imagine the sun shining in the sky; it is bright and can sometimes be hard to look at. But what Arjuna saw was even more intense and overwhelming than that.
To help the people listening understand what he is talking about, Sanjaya, the narrator, is giving a comparison. He explains that if many thousands of suns were to rise in the sky all at once, their combined brightness might begin to give some idea of how brilliant and radiant the form of God that Arjuna saw was. But even with this comparison, the image is still not quite accurate.
Both Sanjaya and Dhrtarastra were not actually present during this event, but they could talk about it as if they were because of a special ability that Sanjaya had—he could see what was happening on the battlefield, thanks to the sage Vyasa. So, while they couldn't witness it directly, he is using words to paint a picture in the minds of others.
This is significant because it shows how divine and beyond normal human understanding the universal form of God is. It's a way of showing that the power and beauty of God are beyond any ordinary comparisons we have in life. Just like how we might struggle to describe an incredible work of art or a stunning view to someone who can't see it, Sanjaya uses this simile of the light of countless suns to help people visualize the indescribable glory of the divine form Arjuna experienced.
In essence, this verse tells us about the extraordinary and magnificent nature of the divine, suggesting that it is beyond what we can fully grasp, yet there are ways to hint at its greatness through familiar references.