Text 8

na tu mam sakyase drastum
anenaiva sva-caksusa
divyam dadami te caksuh
pasya me yogam aishvaram

Translation

But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give you divine eyes. Behold My mystic opulence! 

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada 

A pure devotee does not like to see Krishna in any form except His form with two hands; a devotee must see His universal form by His grace, not with the mind but with spiritual eyes. To see the universal form of Krishna, Arjuna is told not to change his mind but his vision. The universal form of Krishna is not very important; that will be clear in subsequent verses. Yet because Arjuna wanted to see it, the Lord gives him the particular vision required to see that universal form. 

Devotees who are correctly situated in a transcendental relationship with Krishna are attracted by loving features, not by a godless display of opulences. The playmates of Krishna, the friends of Krishna and the parents of Krishna never want Krishna to show His opulences. They are so immersed in pure love that they do not even know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In their loving exchange they forget that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that the boys who play with Krishna are all highly pious souls and after many, many births they are able to play with Krishna. Such boys do not know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They take Him as a personal friend. 

Therefore Shukadeva Gosvami recites this verse: 

ittham satam brahma-sukhanubhutya
dasyam gatanam para-daivatena
mayasritanam nara-darakena
sakam vijahruh krita-punya-punjah 

“Here is the Supreme Person, who is considered the impersonal Brahman by great sages, the Supreme Personality of Godhead by devotees, and a product of material nature by ordinary men. Now these boys, who have performed many, many pious activities in their past lives, are playing with that Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.12.11) 

The fact is that the devotee is not concerned with seeing the vishva-rupa, the universal form, but Arjuna wanted to see it to substantiate Krishna’s statements so that in the future people could understand that Krishna not only theoretically or philosophically presented Himself as the Supreme but actually presented Himself as such to Arjuna. Arjuna must confirm this because Arjuna is the beginning of the parampara system. Those who are actually interested in understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, and who follow in the footsteps of Arjuna should understand that Krishna not only theoretically presented Himself as the Supreme, but actually revealed Himself as the Supreme. 

The Lord gave Arjuna the necessary power to see His universal form because He knew that Arjuna did not particularly want to see it, as we have already explained.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

Arujna should not think that this is some form caused by magical trick or material illusion. For the purpose of giving him faith that the form which contains this whole universe is sac cid ananda, he speaks this verse.

By your material eyes (anena) you cannot see me, my purely spiritual form. Saknose stands for saknosi. Therefore, I give you divine (divyam) eyes. See with those divine eyes. By letting him see with those eyes, the Lord's intention was to give a little astonishment to Arjuna, who was thinking of himself as a material person.

Actually, because he is a principal associate of the Lord, and therefore previously had appeared as Nara along with the Narayana avatara, Arjuna does not have material eyes like ordinary material persons. What is the logic in giving spiritual eyes to Arjuna because he cannot see a mere fragment of the Lord, when that same Arjuna with his very eyes directly realizes the sweetness of his Lord?

But on the other hand it can be said that the superior eye which sees only the great sweetness of Krishna's human pastimes, like the ananya bhakta, does not at all accept the glories of the Lord's pastimes in relation to the devatas (deva lila). One who has tasted the juice of the white lotus cannot relish sugar candy with his tongue. Thus the Lord, wanting to show the majesty of his pastimes with the devatas (deva lila) in order to cause astonishment in Arjuna who had requested just that, gave to Arjuna non- human eyes suitable for seeing deva lila (divyam). The intention of giving such eyes will be explained at the end of the chapter.