O all-pervading Vishnu, seeing You with Your many radiant colors touching the sky, Your gaping mouths, and Your great glowing eyes, my mind is perturbed with fear. I can neither maintain my steadiness nor my mental equilibrium.

The inner collapse: Arjuna cannot maintain his balance. He cannot find steadiness (dhṛti) or calm (śama). The mind that has been schooled in equanimity through eighteen chapters of teaching is undone in an instant by the direct vision of the Divine in its total form. Some truths cannot be approached philosophically — they must be met directly, and they are overwhelming.