Bhagavad Gita 10.40
नान्तोऽस्ति मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनां परन्तप | एष तूद्देशतः प्रोक्तो विभूतेर्विस्तरो मया ||
nānto'sti mama divyānāṁ vibhūtīnāṁ parantapa | eṣa tūddeśataḥ prokto vibhūter vistaro mayā ||
Translation
There is no end to my divine glories, O scorcher of foes. What I have spoken is only an indication of the extent of my glory.
Reflection
Will you read the catalogue as exhaustive or as opening a recognition?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Ten
The closing of the catalogue and the honest admission. There is no end to Krishna's divine vibhutis. What He has spoken is only an indication, an uddesha, of their extent. The verse rules out the wrong way of using the catalogue. The list is not a complete map. It is a finger pointing at a country. The reader who treats the list as exhaustive will read only the items in it; the reader who treats the list as representative will use the items as the entry points to a country he will keep recognising in forms not on the list. The phrase uddesha-tah is meant to be remembered. Whenever the practitioner finds a form not on the list and the recognition rises in him anyway, he is reading the chapter correctly.