sarvam etad rtam manye yanmām vadasi keśava |
na hi te bhagavan vyaktim vidurdevā na dānavāh ||10.14||
All this, which you have told me, Keśava (Krsna)! I consider true. Indeed, neither the celestial nor the rāksasas know your manifestation (they do not know what you are), O Lord!
What you have been saying I consider to be rtam - absolute true, the word rtam is used instead of satyam here. Satyam is the truthful expression of something as we know. What we express outside is as we see it inside. But what we know might not be the fact. Therefore rtam means the truth that can never be negated. Everybody sees the effect of the creation, but nobody sees the cause including those exalted beings like celestial and rāksasa.
svayam evātmanātmānam vetta tvam purusottama |
bhūtabhāvana bhūteśa devadeva jagatpate ||10.15||
You yourself know yourself with your own mind, Purusottama (Krsna)! The creator of all beings! The ruler of all beings! The Lord of the Gods! The Lord of creation!
ātmanam tvām svayam vettha - you yourself know the truth of yourself, not being taught by anybody. ātmanā - through your own mind. That is why Lord Krsna speaks as Īśvara at all time and is called as purusottama - the most exalted among human being. He is addressed as bhūtabhāvana - one who creates all beings, with their unique body-mind-sense-complex appropriate to their karma. bhūteśa - the ruler of all beings, as the very innerself. devadeva - the Lord of all gods and jagatpate - the Lord of this entire creation.
vaktum arhasyaśesena divyā hyātmavibhūtayah |
yābhirvibhūtibhirlokān imāmstvam vyāpya tisthasi ||10.16||
You indeed are capable of telling in full the extraordinary glories of yourself, the glories by which you remain pervading these worlds.
vaktum arhasyaśesena - you are capable of revealing without leaving anything out. Revealing your own glories which are not of this world - divyā hyātmavibhūtayah. Only you are eligible to talk about all these glories by which you remain pervading all these worlds - yābhirvibhūtibhirlokān imāmstvam vyāpya tisthasi.
katham vidyām aham yogimstvām sadā paricintayan |
tesu tesu ca bhāvesu cintyo'si bhagavan mayā ||10.17||
The greatest of the yogin! Ever contemplating, how can I know you? In which forms are you to be meditated upon by me, O Lord!
Everything here is Īsvara alone, but to appreciate Īsvara as purusah because of whom the object is an object, one should have the firm vision. Before this vision is firm, we need to train the mind to be always clear and focus on this vision, therefore contemplation upon Īsvara's glories is needed. Therefore Arjuna asks in which form among all forms - tesu tesu ca bhāvesu, you become the object of meditation - cintyo'si. There are particular manifestations identified as special by śāstra and purāna. The glory which made them popular is Īsvara and thus they become a focus of meditation. So Lord Krsna tells those special glories where one can mediate upon.
vistarenātmano yogam vibhūtim ca janārdana |
bhūyah kathaya trptirhi śrnvato nāsti me'mrtam ||10.18||
Please describe (me) again in detail the wonder and the glory of yourself, Janārdana (Krsna)! because I, the listener of this nectar, have no satisfaction.
Unmanifest power of Īśvara like omniscience and omnipotence, called yogam in this verse. It manifest in the creation as glories - vibhūtayah. Arjuna asks to describe this amrtam - nectar that satisfies and gives happiness. For Arjuna, there cannot be enough of it - trptih nāsti me. The more he listens, the more he wants to hear.
Now Lord Krsna speaks.
śrībhagavān uvāca
hanta te kathayisyāmi divyā hyātmavibhūtayah |
prādhānyatah kuruśrestha nāstyanto vistarasya me ||10.19||
Śrībhagavan said:
Well now, Arjuna, the best of the Kurus! I will tell you My divine glories in keeping with their prominence; because there is no end to a detailed description of My glories.
aham ātmā gudākeśa sarvabhūtāśayasthitah |
aham ādiśca madhyam ca bhūtānām anta eva ca ||10.20||
Gudākeśa (Arjuna)! I am the self, who resides in the hearts of all beings and I am the cause of the creation, sustenance, and resolution of all beings/things.
Lord Krsna says kathayisyāmi - I will explain to you divyā hyātmavibhūtayah - those special heavenly glories. Since Arjuna asked for the form which can be meditated upon, therefore the first one Lord Krsna told him is aham ātmā - I am the self. Instead of glorifying Īśvara as another entity, the gloriest of his glories is this oneness alone. Meditate upon Īśvara who is sarvabhūtāśayasthitah - one who obtains in the intellect of all beings, as the very self - pratyag-ātmā, which is me alone. Seeing this equation between Īśvara, me, and the world again and again.
One also can meditate upon Īśvara as aham ādih bhūtānām - I am the beginning of all beings, as the efficient and material cause of the creation. The one because of whom the creation of all things takes place. Then madhyam ca - I am the sustaining cause, as the very existence itself. And antah ca - I am the resolution ground of them. Since nothing is separate from Īśvara, one can meditate upon anything, but one only see our tendency surfacing as an admirer with reference to certain object. Therefore he lists out certain things which can invoke him more easily.
ādityānām aham visnurjyotisām raviramśumān |
marīcirmarutām asmi naksatrānām aham śaśī ||10.21||
Among the ādityas I am Vishnu; among the luminaries I am the Sun, the one who has rays; among the maruts I am Marīci, and among the luminaries seen at night I am the Moon.
vedānām sāmavedo'smi devānām asmi vāsavah |
indriyānām manaścāsmi bhūtānām asmi cetanā ||10.22||
Among the Vedas I am the Sāmaveda; among the Gods I am Indra; among the means of knowing I am the mind, and of the embodied beings I am the faculty of cognition.
rudrānām śankaraścāsmi vitteśo yaksaraksasām |
vasūnām pāvakaścāsmi meruh śikharinām aham ||10.23||
Among the rudras I am Śankara; I am Kubera among the yaksas and rāksasas; among the vasus I am Fire, and among the snow-peaked mountains I am Meru.
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