Bhagavad Gita 11.15
अर्जुन उवाच | पश्यामि देवांस्तव देव देहे सर्वांस्तथा भूतविशेषसंघान् | ब्रह्माणमीशं कमलासनस्थमृषींश्च सर्वानुरगांश्च दिव्यान् ||
arjuna uvāca | paśyāmi devāṁs tava deva dehe sarvāṁs tathā bhūta-viśeṣa-saṁghān | brahmāṇam īśaṁ kamalāsana-stham ṛṣīṁś ca sarvān uragāṁś ca divyān ||
Translation
Arjuna said: O god, I see in your body the gods, and all the various hosts of beings, the lord Brahma seated on the lotus throne, and all the seers and the divine serpents.
Reflection
What revered figures of your life would you place inside the one body if asked to map it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eleven
The hymn begins. I see the gods in your body. I see the various hosts of beings. I see Brahma seated on the lotus. I see all the seers and the divine serpents. The verbs are all pashyami, I see, repeating like a chant. Arjuna names what is appearing in front of him. The order of beings he was raised to revere is here, every level of it, inside one body. The named figures hold up a traditional cosmology. Brahma on the lotus throne is the creator of the world. The seers are the authors of the hymns. The serpents are the figures of the underworld. Top to bottom of the visible order, all in one place. The naming is its own act of recognition.