Introduction
What Arjuna sees is beyond any sensory perception, something that could be experienced in that moment in time, impossible to express. Suddenly the scene changes in these verses. Arjuna is terrified. What he is seeing now is quite different from what he expected when he asked to see Krsna's divine form. Arjuna is now incoherent. What he keeps saying is neither logical nor well thought out. What he sees he reproduces to the best of his mental abilities. He says, 'You are without origin, middle, or end, with unlimited power. You spread throughout the heavens and through all other directions. O Supreme Soul, Paramatman, after having seen your wonderful form, all the worlds and the whole Universe are trembling with fear.
All the celestial beings are shuddering before this form, and entering into this formless form, some of them afraid, offering prayers with folded hands, along with hosts of realized sages praising this form in silent acceptance and wonderment.' There is no other record so clear about the cosmic frequency of the universal form as in the Gita.
What Arjuna perceives is what is always present, but which he normally has no capability to see. Now he sees Krsna in all His manifestations, from the highest to the lowest frequency levels of energy, with nothing filtered. But suddenly the form seems to change from the magnificent, comforting, and expanded form, to one that is now disturbing. It is still not clear to Arjuna what is happening, but he can anticipate that something he is about to see is not going to be as pleasant as what he had seen so far.
As long as these are under your control, you feel as if you are a leader; your ego is strong. But the moment these are taken away from you, you feel at a loss and no more a leader. You are just a drop in the ocean. He is afraid of that and is not able to stay in that same state.
What Arjuna sees disturbs him. 'O All pervading Visnu! I see You with your many radiating colors, burning fire in your gaping mouth, heating up the entire Universe with radiance, touching the sky, and Your form unnerves me. My heart trembles in fear, and I have no courage or peace to behold You.' Until now Arjuna was saying there was no beginning, middle, or end. Now he says the form is touching the sky; an indication that he is settling, coming down from the experience. Arjuna says he wants equilibrium, meaning that he wants his mind to be under his intellectual control. He wants to know the cause and effect, and feel that they are in his control.
The wave in the ocean is part of the ocean. As long as it feels itself to be part of the ocean. However, when the wave experiences its own identity, creates its own identity, it no longer feels itself a part of the ocean. It feels itself to be a separate entity. When it is time to merge back into that ocean, it is afraid. When it looks back at the ocean, with a feeling of separation, it feels afraid. When Arjuna had his first glimpse of the cosmic Vision of Krsna, he identified with the Vision. There was no separation. Now, suddenly there is separation. Along with separation, there is fear.