top of page

Īśvara is the first guru

Updated: Oct 6, 2021

vāyuryamo 'gnirvarumah śaśānkah

prajāpatistvam prapitāmahaśca |

nama namaste 'stu sahasrakrtvah

punaśca bhūyo 'pi namo namaste ||11.39||

You are the Lord of air, Lord Death, Lord of fire, Lord of water, presiding diety of the moon, Prajāpati, and the ultimate great grandfather, the Creator. One thousand repeated salutation to you. Again and again indeed, repeated salutations to you.


All these devatas, Arjuna appreciates, are not separated from Īśvara. Arjuna can't express his feeling other than doing namaskara (salutation) again and again.


nama purastād atha prsthataste

namo 'stu te sarvata eva sarva |

anantavīryāmitavikramastvam

sarvam samāpnosi tato 'si sarvah ||11.40||

Salutation to you in the front (in the east), salutations to you at the back (in the west), indeed (salutation) to you in all directions, O Lord, the one who is everything! You are the one of infinite strength and immeasurable prowess and you completely pervade everything. Therefore, you are everything.


Generally we do prostration in front of the person, but now Arjuna sees the Lord everywhere, he doesn't really know the front of the Lord is anymore, therefore he prostrates to all direction. In fact Lord is not just everywhere, but he pervades every object in the universe, he is everything - tato 'si sarvah.


sakheti matvā prasabham yad uktam he krsna he yādava he sakheti |

ajānatā mahimānam tavedam

mayā pramādāt pranayena vāpi ||11.41||

Ignorant of this glory of yours, thinking of you as a (mere) friend, whatever that was said lightly by me, as "O Krsna! O Yādava! O Friend!" out of carelessness or, out of intimacy, and further...


yaccāvahāsārtham asatkrto'si

vihāraśayyāsanabhojanesu |

eko'thavāpyacyuta tatsamaksam

tatksāmaye tvām aham aprameyam ||11.42||

...out of jest you have been slighted, Acyuta (Krsna)! while walking, lying down, sitting and eating, alone or even in public. For (all) that, may I ask pardon of you, the one who cannot be known?


Because of not knowing the glory of the Lord, Arjuna was too casual when talking and addressing to Lord Krsna, even making fun of him, due to the friendship. Therefore he asks for pardon, but he also makes an excuse for himself that he has done all these because of his ignorance about the real nature of the Lord which can't be perceived.


pitāsi lokasya carācarasya

tvam asya pujyaśca gururgarīyān |

na tvatsamo 'styabhyadhikah kuto 'nyo

lokatraye 'pyapratimaprabhāva ||11.43||

Lord, the one whose glories are unparalleled! You are the father of this world of sentient beings and insentient objects and you are the most worshipful of it (and its) first teacher. Even in the three worlds, there is no one equal to you, how can there be another who is superior?


Īśvara is the cause, the father-pitāsi of the world-lokasya, consisting of cara-moveable (sentient) and acara-unmoveable (inert). This entire world can be seen in these two divisions. Since everything here is Īśvara alone, therefore he is the most worshipful-pujyaśca, because everything we worship is him alone. He is the most important guru-gururgarīyān since we might have a lot of guru here in this world, but he is the first teacher in this lineage of teaching, therefore he is called sampradaya-krt.


There is no one equal to you, not here nor in other worlds. How can there be other who is superior if everything is him alone? Arjuna addresses Krsna here as apratimaprabhāva - the one whose glory is matchless. Pratima is that by which you are able to illustrate something, a replica like a statue. It is created to resemble the form of a person and we recognise it as a representation of him/her. There is no pratimā of Īśvara which is close to his reality, because everything is him alone. How can we put everything in one form, when this limited mind can't even perceive everything in this world.


tasmāt pranamya pranidhāya kāyam

prasādaye tvām aham īśam īdyam |

piteva putrasya sakheva sakhyuh

priyah priyāyārhasi deva sodhum ||11.44||

Therefore, saluting, properly laying down my body, I seek the blessing of you who are the worshipful Lord. O Lord! You should forgive (my mistakes) as a father would (the mistakes) of a son, as a friend of a friend, and as a beloved of (his) beloved.


tasmāt - therefore, saluting you - pranamya, properly bringing down my body - kāyam pranidhāya. I seek your blessing - prasādaye, the Lord - īsam, who is the most worshipful - īdyam. Arjuna seeks for forgiveness from the Lord, just like a father forgives his son - piteva putrasya. When Arjuna reflects his relationship with the Lord as creator of the world, he is like a son with reference to his physical gross body. When Arjuna seeks Krsna to forgive him as a friend regarding to their friendship, he also sees Īśvara as antaryāmi - the inner-self which is always there like a friend whenever the mind goes. And when Arjuna is seeking his true nature as sat-cit-ānanda, the Lord should forgive him as his beloved - ānanda.

Recent Posts

See All

There is always victory

vyāsaprasādācchrutavān etad guhyamahaṁ param । yogaṁ yogeśvarāt kṛṣṇāt sākṣāt kathayataḥ svayam ॥18.75॥ By the grace of Vyāsa, I have...

My doubts have gone

Thus concluding, Bhagavān himself says that the one who teaches this knowledge is the most beloved to him. Further, the one who studies...

Sannyāsa

Next verse is summing up sannyāsa as yoga/means in terms of lifestyle, called vividisā-sannyāsa. sarvadharmān parityajya māmekaṁ śaraṇaṁ...

Comments


bottom of page