Guest guest Posted July 4, 2004 Report Share Posted July 4, 2004 I have a question about Bhagavad Gita 2.17 Prabhupada translation to this verse: "Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible." Another translation I found (by the American Gita Society): "The Spirit pervades this entire universe and is indestructible." So basically this translation translate the word "sarvam" as "this entire unicerse" instead as "the entire body". My question is: How correct is the second translation? Is this simply a different way to interpret the verse? Or is it just plain wrong? Yours: Omer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2004 Report Share Posted July 5, 2004 achintya, "Omer" <kligman@n...> wrote: > So basically this translation translate the word "sarvam" as "this > entire unicerse" instead as "the entire body". > > My question is: > How correct is the second translation? Is this simply a different > way to interpret the verse? Or is it just plain wrong? A lot of impersonalist commentators translate that way. It is not grammatically incorrect. "Sarvam idam" means "all this." So, what is the "this?" Prabhupada's translation seems to make more sense in context, since it is the difference between the spirit soul and body which is being discussed here. Thus, he takes "all this" to refer to "this body." Even if it is argued that "all this" refers to the entire universal creation, still is not necessarily Advaitic. After all, individual jiivaatmaa-s are everywhere. I recall Srila Prabhupada writing something to the effect that there are living entities even in the sun and on the moon, or else the statement of the shaastra regarding the all-pervasiveness of the jiivas would not be correct. I cannot recall what context that was in. Note that this is not the same thing as saying that paramaatman is all-pervasive. In this latter case, the "all-pervasiveness" is literal, as the Supreme Brahman pervades everything, because all things are of His energies, and furthermore He pervades it again in His brahmajyoti feature and again in His paramaatman feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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