ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with Arjuna's confident belief that his delusion has been dispelled. He has by now heard the supreme mystery of adhyatma, in the Lord's declarations of his own glories. Arjuna has forgotten that in Chapter VIII the adhyatma was explained as the self-nature (sva-bhava) in every man, not only the Lord outside. Again, he has heard the Lord say (X.20) 'I am the Self in the heart of all beings,' but he could not incorporate that into his experience. There was an unspoken reservation: 'but not in me.' He could not apply the divine adhyatma glory to his own inner self. Similarly in 11.17 it is said that the Self is everywhere: but in nearly all hearers there is an inner whisper: 'Yes, but not exactly here.'
