Gita Satsangh Chapter 11 Verses 39 to 40

[Guest guest]

Gita Satsangh Chapter 11 Verses 39 to 40

(Verse Translation by Swami Gambirananda, Gita Bhasya and commentary

by Swami Chinmayanandaji)

 

Vaayuryamo'gnirvarunah shashaankah Prajaapatistwam prapitaamahashcha;

Namo namaste'stu sahasrakritwah Punashcha bhooyo'pi namo namaste.

Verse 39

 

39. You are Air, Death, Fire, the god of the waters, the moon, the

Lord of the creatures, and the Greater-grandfather. Salutations!

Salutation be to You a thousand times

salutation to You again and again! Salutation!

 

You are vayuh, Air

yamah, Death

and agnih, Fire

varunah, the god of the waters

sasankah, the moon

prajapatih, the Lord of the creatures- Kasyapa and others [see note

on p.2.-Tr.]

and pra-pitamahah, the Great-grandfather, i.e. the Father ever of

Brahma (Hiranyagarbha). Namo, salutations

namah, salutation

astu, be

te, to You

sahasra-krtvah, a thousand times. Punah ca bhuyah api namo te,

salutation to You again and again

namah, salutation!

 

The suffix krtvasuc (after sahasra) indicates performance and

repetition of the act of salutation a number of times. The words

punah ca bhuyah api (again and again) indicate his own

dissatisfaction [Dissatisfaction with only a few salutations.] owing

to abundance of reverence and devotion.

So far Arjuna was chanting the glories of the God in His

transcendental form. A devotee (Upasaka) may wonder what exactly the

relationship of the Supreme with his particular Lord-of-the-heart

(Upasya) is. The forms and names of Deities conceived of, and

fervently prayed to in ancient times, are generally representations

of the manifested phenomenal powers.

 

In the Vedic period, Vayu (the Wind), Yama (the Destroyer), Agni (the

Fire), Varuna (the Sea-god), Shashanka (the Moon) and Prajapati (The

Creator) were considered as Deities for reverence and devotion,

concentration and growth of the seeker's inner personality. These

gods were involved in those days through chanting and worship,

through rituals and sacrifices, and therefore, they were the only

popular concepts of God even in the minds of the educated. Oftentimes

and everywhere, " means " have a tendency to get misunderstood as the

very " goal. " Arjuna, here in his true understanding, indicates the

Infinite, the Source of all potentialities, the Lord, as nothing

other than Krishna, the Infinite.

 

That the Supreme Lord, in fact, expressing through various functions,

Himself plays the part of these Deities is an acceptable view from

the standpoint of Vedanta. In our own times it is usual for the

devotees to invoke the Lord and assert that 'the Lord of their heart'

is the Lord of all Lords. To this Lord of all Lords, Arjuna

prostrates.

 

Namah purastaadatha prishthataste Namo'stu te sarvata eva sarva;

Anantaveeryaamitavikramastwam Sarvam samaapnoshi tato'si sarvah.

Verse 40

 

40. Salutation to You in the East and behind. Salutation be to You

on all sides in deed, O All! You are possessed of infinite strength

and infinite heroism. You pervade everything

hence You are all!

 

Namah, salutation to You

purastat, in the East

atha, and

even prsthatah, behind. Salutation be sarvatah, on all sides

eva, indeed

te, to You who exist everywhere

sarva, O All! Tvam, You

are ananta-virya-amita-vikramah, possessed of infinite strength and

infinite heroism. virya is strength, and vikramah is heroism.

Someone though possessing strength for the use of weapons etc. [Ast.

reads 'satru-vadha-visaye, in the matter of killing an enemy'.-Tr.]

may lack heroism or have little heroism. But You are possessed of

infinite strength and infinite heroism.

 

Samapnosi, You pervade, interpenetrate

sarvam, everything, the whole Universe, by Your single Self. Tatah,

hence

asi, You are

sarvah, All, i.e., no entity exists without You.

 

The Supreme dwells everywhere within, without, above, below and

around, and there is no place where He is not. This is not an

original idea at all. This has been the constant state of actual

experience of all the great Rishis of the Upanishads.

The Lord, to whom Arjuna thus mentally prostrates from all sides, is

not only the All-pervading Essence like space in the Universe, but is

also the " womb " from which all power and daring flow out. Wherever

there is an incentive to act, or a capacity to achieve, it is all a

ray of His infinite potentiality. The Supreme as Pure Existence

dwells everywhere, in everything and in all beings. Since nothing can

exist without Existence, He, as Pure Existence, penetrates all, and

in fact He alone is the All. Ocean alone is all the waves; mud alone

is all the mud-pots.

 

I HAVE BEEN A SINNER DUE TO LACK OF 'RIGHT KNOWLEDGE' OF THY

GREATNESS, AND SO VERY MUCH LIVED FOOLISHLY IN THE PAST. THEREFORE:

'Since I am guilty of not knowing Your greatness, therefore,'-

[Guest guest]

Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Explanation and Commentary:

 

These are all glories of Bhagavan. He himself is vayuh, air or the

God of air and also yamah, Lord Death. He is agnih, the Lord of fire

and varunah, the presiding deity of Avater. Arjuna

appreciates, " they are not separate from you. " Then again, " You are

the presiding deity of the moon, sasankah and you are prajapatih, one

of the first created beings and praphamahah, our ultimate great

grandfather, the creator. " From parambrahma Brahmaji was born. He is

called pitamahah, grandfather. Therefore by saying prapitawah,

great grandfather, he is saying, " You are param brahma. " Repealed

salutations to you, namah namah te astu. " How many times? One

thousand, sahasrakrtvah.

 

Not only that, " Again and again also, salutations to you, punah ca

bhuyah api namah namah te. " Once you say a thousand times, what

does it mean to then say, " Again I salute you. " ? Arjuna is not

satisfied. His sraddha is so great and so much devotion has been

invoked in him seeing the cosmic form of the Lord, he wants to do

something. He can only prostrate. What else can he do? He repeatedly

prostrates and still finds that he is not satisfied. Whatever he does

is not enough. When people are overwhelmed with appreciation they

typically say things like, " I don't know what to say to you. I don't

know what to do for you. " That is Arjuna's condition. He does not

know what to do. And Bhagavan does not want anything either. All

Arjuna can do is keep falling at his feet. And this is what he is

doing. Therefore punah ca bhuyah api namo namaste 111. But he cannot

really do a thousand or more namaskaras. He has no lime for all

that; the war is about to begin. So what he cannot do physically, he

does verbally.

 

Then where should he prostrate? Generally you prostrate only at the

feet, in front of the person. But Arjuna does not know which is the

front or back here; everything is Parames'vara.

 

Salutations to you in the east, then in the west salutations to you,

indeed (salutations) to you in all directions, one who is everything.

You who are of infinite strength and infinite prowess completely

pervade everything. Therefore, you are everything.

 

Now he says, " namah purastat. salutations to you in the east. " In a

temple, the Lord generally faces the east but here Arjuna is saluting

the Lord in the eastern direction. Not only that " Salutations to you

in the west, atha prsthatah te namah astu. " In fact, " Let there be

salutations to you in all directions, te sarvatah eva sarva, " Why?

Because he is seeing Bhagavan in all directions. He is not only the

east and -west, but south, north and all the directions in between,

northwest, northeast etc.

 

Arjuna addresses him here as the one who is everything, sarva. He

goes on. " You are of limitless power, ananta-vlrya, and immeasurable

prowess, amita-vikramah. " Arjuna recognizes Bhagavan here as having

infinite strength and infinite prowess. Thus, 'You completely pervade

everything, samapnosi. " The prefix sam added to apnosi gives the

sense of pervading without anything left out. " You pervade every

object in the universe. Nothing is outside you. " " Because of

that, you are everything, tatah asi sarvah. " Sankara says the

intention is to say, " Without you there is no object at all. "

Arjuna is seeing that Bhagavan is the one who is in all these forms.

All the nama rupas are sustained by him and are him. So without him,

an object will have no existence at all.

 

Arjuna and Krishna had many escapades together as youths. Remembering

how lightly he treated Krishna then and even recently when he asked

him to be his charioteer and ordered him to station the chariot

between the armies, Arjuna is having some remorse. He knew Krishna

was extraordinary and had even heard he was an avatara but he had no

idea what that really meant. He never thought he was Paramesvara and

therefore treated him in a way that he now regrets. Arjuna asks for

his pardon.

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

In verse 39, Arjuna identifies the Lord with Vayu, Yama and other

gods worthy of salutation. Arjuna further states that all those other

gods represents only a fraction of His being. Therefore, He alone is

worthy of receiving salutations from all in every respect. Arjuna's

repeated use of the indeclinable `Namah' with the adverbial compound

`Sahasrakrtvah' shows his deep reverence for the Lord. It should be

pointed out that Arjuna's reverence was mixed with fear and that may

explain why he did not feel tired of bowing to Him, and wanted to go

on with his salutations.

 

In the first half of verse 40 Arjuna has already addressed the Lord

as `Sarva'. In the latter half he establishes His universal

character. There is no iota of space where He is not; there is no

particle of matter that is not permeated by Him. Therefore, He is all

in all. Apart from God the world had no reality whatsoever in the

eyes of Arjuna.

 

These verses further confirm that Arjuna still sees Krishna as a

separate entity (duality). The most recent discussions (contrasting

Arjuna and Prahlada) that correspond to verses 37 and 38 are equally

valid for these verses also.

 

With my warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " Ram Chandran " <ramvchandran

wrote:

>

> Namaste:

>

> In verse 39, Arjuna identifies the Lord with Vayu, Yama and other

> gods worthy of salutation. Arjuna further states that all those

other

> gods represents only a fraction of His being. Therefore, He alone

is

> worthy of receiving salutations from all in every respect. Arjuna's

> repeated use of the indeclinable `Namah' with the adverbial

compound

> `Sahasrakrtvah' shows his deep reverence for the Lord. It should

be

> pointed out that Arjuna's reverence was mixed with fear and that

may

> explain why he did not feel tired of bowing to Him, and wanted to

go

> on with his salutations.

 

 

Namaste all.

 

May I supplement the above with a few observations on the Sanskrit

word 'Namah'?

 

'Namah' means 'Salutation'. But that is only the thin end of the

wedge. The connotation of the Sanskrit word 'namah' is of far greater

significance.

 

There is an in-built connotation of 'na mama' in the

word 'namah' . 'na mama' means 'not mine'. Nothing is mine.

Everything is Yours, Oh Lord, is the connotation. So when we do

the 'namah' (salutation) to the Lord, it means we are placing

everything we have been calling as ours at the feet of the Lord.

This is one sure way of practising the concept of advaita in the real

world.

 

In Krishna Yajur Veda (Black Resecension of Yajur Veda) there is a

whole chapter (4th Kanda, 5th chapter) called the 'Rudra-prashna'.

It is a repeated prostration to the Lord Rudra-Shiva. 300 different

names of the Lord are mentioned and at each mention of the name in

the dative case the word 'namah' is there in the text itself. That

is why the chapter itself is called 'namakam'. This chapter is one

of the most important chapters in all the four Vedas. It is recited

in all ritual worship, in temples, in homes, in congregations and

during public religious performances. The whole chapter is repeated

11 times, by 11 or multiples of 11 people, for 11 days in a row and

the whole process is repeated periodically. All of this because of

the inbuilt meaning of prostration and surrender in the

word 'namah'. Arjuna naturally knows this and so says " I shall say

namah to you thousand times " .

 

The Taittiriya Upanishad extols the greatness of the word 'namah' as

follows.

*taM nama ity-upAsIta / namyante asmai kAmAH *

meaning, " Worship Him (That) with 'namaH'. Then such a one will have

at one's feet all Desires " . In other words, if we worship the LMord

with the word 'namah', Desires (that usually haunt us and drag us

down the spiritual ladder) will bow at our feet and obey us. This is

the Upanishadic sanction for the use of the word 'namaH'.

 

The last verse in IshAvAsyopanishad (which contains only 18 verses)

emphasizes the importance of the word namah in the verse which itself

is a prayer to be uttered at the moment of death.

*agne naya supathA rAye asmAn vishvAni deva vayunAni vidvAn /

yuyodhyasmat juhurAnam-eno bhUyishhTAnte nama uktim vidhema //*

 

This happens not only as the last verse of the Upanishad, but also

as the last word of the entire Shukla Yajur Veda (White Rescension

of Yajur Veda).

 

Meaning: Oh Fire-God, Show us the right path, lead us to eternal

freedom, Thou who knowest all. Preserve us from the deceitful

attraction of sin. To thee we offer our salutations with devotion,

again and again.

 

That is why we say 'namaste' (namah te - Prostrations to You)) when

we greet somebody in the Indian Hindu fashion. The namah is not only

to the outer personality that stands before us but more so to the

Inner Spirit that manifests in the person standing before us.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

Namah to everybody, again and again.

profvk

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " Ram Chandran " <ramvchandran wrote:

> In verse 39, Arjuna identifies the Lord with Vayu, Yama and other

> gods worthy of salutation. Arjuna further states that all those other

> gods represents only a fraction of His being. Therefore, He alone is

> worthy of receiving salutations from all in every respect. Arjuna's

> repeated use of the indeclinable `Namah' with the adverbial compound

> `Sahasrakrtvah' shows his deep reverence for the Lord. It should be

 

praNams Shri Ram Chandranji and Professorji,

 

By using the word Namah so many times, it also seems

that Arjuna is exactly following the injunction that the

Lord gave in the verse 9.34. There, the Lord used the

word namaskuru, and clearly said that the devotee should

bow down to Him.

 

9.34. Having your mind fixed on Me, be devoted to Me,

sacrifice to Me, and *bow down* to Me. By concentrating

your mind and accepting Me as the supreme Goal, you shall

surely attain Me who am thus the Self.

 

Arjuna, being the good student he is, did exactly as he

was told, when the occasion came.

 

Two etymological observations:

According to these links,

http://vedabase.net/n/namaskuru

http://vedabase.net/n/namah

it seems that (1.) there are the *only two* occasions when the

Lord gives the instruction to bow down to Him by

using the word namaskuru and (2.) this chapter (11)

is the only location where the word namah is used in the

whole of Gita. Can the scholars of this group kindly confirm

these observations?

 

Assuming that there are only two references by the

Lord, the other reference is in 18.65:

 

18.65. Have your mind fixed on Me, be My devotee,

be a sacrificer to Me and *bow down* to Me. (Thus) you will

come to Me alone. (This) truth do I pormise to you. (For) you

are dear to Me.

 

The contrast of Arjuna's reactions to these two (similar sounding)

injunctions of the Lord cannot be starker. For the former, he

says (in chapter 10) " please show me your glories " . This is

because, his curiosity has yet been satisfied.

 

For the latter injunction, one of the first things he says is

" I will do as you want me to do " 18.73, using the words

karishye-vachaham-tava.

 

Why is there a difference in the reactions of Arjuna?

 

Because in chapters 13-15, he had his ignorance removed by

the gyana teaching of the Lord (or the asi of tat-tvam-asi).

His curiosity has been satiated.

 

Also, the Lord followed up 18.65 with 18.66, where He

used gives the Sharanagati injunction (the third secret of

Gita).

 

Is this reasoning correct? Kindly correct any mistakes

in this reasoning

 

I join Professorji in saying to everyone Namah to

everyone and everything.

Ramakrishna

[Guest guest]

Namaskar to Profvkji and Sri Ramakrishna:

 

I want to bring to the attention of a lengthy article on " Namo Namah "

by Paramacharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi of Kanchi Kamakoti

Peetam which is available at:

http://www.kamakoti.org/miscl/namoh1.html

 

In the following paragraph, Paramacharya articulates the reasoning

for everyone of us to do namaskara:

 

" I have dwelt at length on the greatness and importance of Namaskara

(Namaskara Mahamityam). You may wonder why I chose this topic to talk

on. One respectable person was referring to the sadness to the steady

decline among people in general in the qualities of humility and

reverence, in vinaya bhava. I started thinking about it and possible

antidote for it. I thought of placing before you the outcome of that

contemplation. It seems that ever since loud voices have started

being made about equality, freedom, self-respect and so on, decline

in the wealth called vinaya started, leading us to ways of

indiscipline and violence. Talking about " rights " and " rights " , we

are led into " fights " . Viewed in the economic and social context, it

is not as if that these new perceptions are without a justification.

I accept that without any objection. But everything must operate

within limits. If the new approaches are actualized in practice

within properly defined limits, things will be in their places, the

present day condition of calls and other social conflicts will ease

and conditions for peace, brotherhood and unity will be created. How

to regulate, how to set limits in these matters? The only way is to

increase the wealth of " vinaya " in the whole of society. Will

economic wealth alone give fullness to life? Certainly not. We have

to seek spiritual wealth and with the help of that, regulate the

pursuit for economic wealth. Vinaya is the only route to spiritual

wealth. How do you get vinaya? Impelled with the basic desire to seek

vinaya, seeking the saints and doing namaskara to them is the only

way. This kriya will help raise, from what is already " basic " (latent,

dormant, underlying) in us, a visible edifice. The timeless and

enduring living tradition of this country has the power to convert

and soften the most stubborn conceit and self-arrogation. If a little

effort is forthcoming, in course of time, desirable changes in

mentality will be felt. "

 

Paramacharya's observations are quite profound and he concludes with

the statement below:

 

" You have the namaskara bhagya, which I did not and cannot get. I

pray to Narayana, saying " Namo Namah " , that all of you may make full

use of the namaskara bhagya, and receive the highest blessings in

life. And I do namaskara to HIM. "

 

Namo Namah!

 

Ram Chandran

 

advaitin , " Ramakrishna Upadrasta "

<ramakrsn wrote:

>

>

> Is this reasoning correct? Kindly correct any mistakes

> in this reasoning

>

> I join Professorji in saying to everyone Namah to

> everyone and everything.

> Ramakrishna