Sanskrit
दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता । यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ॥
divi sūryasahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthitā yadi bhāḥ sadṛśī sā syād bhāsas tasya mahātmanaḥ
Translation
If the splendour of a thousand suns were to blaze out together in the sky, that might resemble the glory of that Mahâtman.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Probably the most quoted single image outside the “Time, the destroyer of worlds” line in verse 32 — and it’s worth noticing what kind of comparison it actually is. This is Sanjaya’s own simile, not Arjuna’s or Krishna’s: the narrator reaching for the largest available unit of brightness he has and explicitly conceding it as only an approximation (“that might resemble”), not an equivalence. The vision exceeds even the narrator’s best analogy before Arjuna has said a word about it himself.