BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:4

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 4:4

 

arjuna uvaca

aparam bhavato janma

param janma vivasvatah

katham etad vijaniyam

tvam adau proktavan iti

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

arjunah uvaca--Arjuna said; aparam- junior; bhavatah--Your;

janma--birth; param--superior; janma--birth; vivasvatah--of the

sun-god; katham--how; etat--this; vijaniyam--shall I understand;

tvam--You; adau--in the beginning; proktavan--instructed; iti--thus.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Arjuna said: The sun-god Vivasvan is senior by birth to You. How am I

to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to

him?

 

PURPORT

 

Arjuna is an accepted devotee of the Lord, so how could he not believe

Krsna's words? The fact is that Arjuna is not inquiring for himself

but for those who do not believe in the Supreme Personality of Godhead

or for the demons who do not like the idea that Krsna should be

accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead; for them only Arjuna

inquires on this point, as if he were himself not aware of the

Personality of Godhead, or Krsna. As it will be evident from the Tenth

Chapter, Arjuna knew perfectly well that Krsna is the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, the fountainhead of everything and the last

word in transcendence. Of course, Krsna also appeared as the son of

Devaki on this earth. How Krsna remained the same Supreme Personality

of Godhead, the eternal original person, is very difficult for an

ordinary man to understand. Therefore, to clarify this point, Arjuna

put this question before Krsna so that He Himself could speak

authoritatively. That Krsna is the supreme authority is accepted by

the whole world, not only at present but from time immemorial, and the

demons alone reject Him. Anyway, since Krsna is the authority accepted

by all, Arjuna put this question before Him in order that Krsna would

describe Himself without being depicted by the demons, who always try

to distort Him in a way understandable to the demons and their

followers. It is necessary that everyone, for his own interest, know

the science of Krsna. Therefore, when Krsna Himself speaks about

Himself, it is auspicious for all the worlds. To the demons, such

explanations by Krsna Himself may appear to be strange because the

demons always study Krsna from their own standpoint, but those who are

devotees heartily welcome the statements of Krsna when they are spoken

by Krsna Himself. The devotees will always worship such authoritative

statements of Krsna because they are always eager to know more and

more about Him. The atheists, who consider Krsna an ordinary man, may

in this way come to know that Krsna is superhuman, that He is

sac-cid-ananda-vigraha--the eternal form of bliss and knowledge--that

He is transcendental, and that He is above the domination of the modes

of material nature and above the influence of time and space. A

devotee of Krsna, like Arjuna, is undoubtedly above any

misunderstanding of the transcendental position of Krsna. Arjuna's

putting this question before the Lord is simply an attempt by the

devotee to defy the atheistic attitude of persons who consider Krsna

to be an ordinary human being, subject to the modes of material

nature.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.