Bhagavad Gita 10.42
अथवा बहुनैतेन किं ज्ञातेन तवार्जुन | विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत् ||
athavā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna | viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat ||
Translation
But what is the need of all this detailed knowledge for you, O Arjuna? With a single fragment of myself I stand supporting this whole world.
Reflection
What stays true even after the long catalogue is set down again?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Ten
The chapter closes by setting the entire catalogue down. What use is all this detail. Krishna stands supporting this whole world with a single fragment of Himself. Ekamshena, with one fragment, is the final word of the long list. The hundreds of vibhutis the catalogue has named are themselves only a representative scattering of a single fragment of His being. The verse is the cleanest restatement of the asymmetry the chapter opened with. The container is not what it contains. The source is not exhausted by even the most striking of its forms. The student is left exactly where he was meant to be. He has the list to use; he has the principle to extend it; and he has the closing admonition that what he has been given is small compared with what gives it. The eleventh chapter is about to show him exactly that.