Shrimad Bhagavad-gita

by Narayana Gosvami | 2013 | 327,105 words

The Bhagavad-gita Verse 4.6, English translation, including the Vaishnava commentaries Sarartha-varsini-tika, Prakashika-vritti and Rasika-ranjana (excerpts). This is verse 6 from the chapter 4 called “Jnana-Yoga (Yoga through Transcendental Knowledge)”

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 4.6:

अजोऽपि सन्न् अव्ययात्मा भूतानाम् ईश्वरोऽपि ।
सन् प्रकृतिं स्वाम् अधिष्ठाय सम्भवाम्य् आत्म-मायया ॥ ६ ॥

ajo'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro'pi |
san prakṛtiṃ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā
|| 6 ||

ajaḥ–unborn; api–although; san–being; avyaya-ātmā–imperishable body; bhūtānām–of all beings; īśvaraḥ–the Lord; api–although; san–being; prakṛtim–nature (consisting of eternality, knowledge and bliss); svām–My original; adhiṣṭhāya–situated; sambhavāmi–I fully manifest; ātma-māyayā–by My yogamāyā potency.

Although My form is unborn and indestructible, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, still I appear through My yogamāyā potency in My original form of eternality, cognizance and bliss.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

Śrī Bhagavān is explaining the tattva, or reality, of His birth. “Although I am unborn, I manifest in various species, such as demigods, humans and animals.” One may ask, “What is so wonderful about this? In reality, the jīva is also unborn, and when his gross body is destroyed, he also accepts another birth.” In response, Śrī Bhagavān says, avyayātmā. “My body is imperishable, whereas the body of the jīva is perishable. Moreover, the unborn nature of the jīva is of a different type. His birth is due to his bodily identificaton, which has arisen out of ignorance. As the Supreme Controller, I am non-different from My body, and consequently, My quality of being both born and unborn is perfectly natural. Such a nature, which is impossible to find elsewhere, is wonderful and beyond the scope of logic and reason. Therefore, it is not possible to compare My birth to that of the jīva, who takes birth in high and low species as a result of his piety and sin.” To clarify this further, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, “Even though I am the Supreme Controller of the jīvas, which means that I am free from the control of karma, still I accept birth.”

The following doubt may be raised: “The jīva also takes bodies in various species, such as demigods, humans and animals, as a result of the activities of his subtle body, and these cause his bondage. You, the Supreme Lord, do not have a subtle body. You are all-pervading and the controller of all principles, including time (kāla) and action (karma). It is said in the Śrutis that You desired to become many: ‘bahu-syām–I can become many’. According to this statement, You are everything in the entire universe. However, You specifically express ‘evam-bhūto’py ahaṃ sambhavāmi–although I appear to be everything in the universe, still I personally manifest Myself.’ From this it is understood that You take birth only to manifest Your eternal form, which is categorically distinct from the whole universe.”

This being the case, one may inquire, “What is the nature of these bodies of Yours?” In response to this, Śrī Bhagavān says in the second half of this verse, “prakṛtiṃ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā–I appear through My yogamāyā potency in My original form of eternality, cognizance and bliss.” If the word prakṛti is taken to indicate the external deluding potency, or māyā-śakti, the meaning here becomes ‘Parameśvara, the presiding controller of material nature, becomes the universe with the help of this potency’. However, this does not describe the specific nature of Śrī Bhagavān. In the Sanskrit dictionary it is said, “saṃsiddhi-prakṛtis tv ime svarūpaṃ ca svabhāvaś ca svarūpa (constitutional form) and svabhāva (intrinsic nature) are synonyms for saṃsiddhi (perfection) and prakṛti.” For this reason, the word prakṛti mentioned in this verse indicates svarūpa. The nature of this form of Bhagavān is eternal, full of knowledge and all-blissful (sac-cid-ānanda).

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī says, “Your svarūpa is not composed of the deluding potency but is transcendental and composed of sac-cid-ānanda. Therefore, Your prakṛti, or constitutional form, is the embodiment of śuddha-sattva, pure, transcendental goodness.”

According to Śrī Rāmānujācārya, prakṛti means ‘nature’, or svabhāva. “Remaining situated in Your svabhāva, that is, fully retaining Your divinity, You manifest Your own form by Your independent will only.” If we accept prakṛti to mean ‘nature’, or svabhāva, then the use of these qualifying adjectives–sac-cid-ānanda-ghana (concentrated eternity, knowledge and bliss) and eka-rasa (uniformly composed of one substance) distinguish Śrī Bhagavān’s form from māyā. Svām means ‘one’s own form’. It is said in the Śrutis, “sa bhagavataḥ kasmin pratiṣṭhitaḥ sva-mahimni–Śrī Bhagavān is situated in full possession of all His divine glory.” According to Śrī Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, when Bhagavān appears, He still remains situated in His svarūpa. He behaves like an embodied living entity, although there is no difference between His body and His actual self.

One may raise the question, “Since You are eternal, when You accept indestructible forms such as Matsya and Kūrma, are Your past and present forms also simultaneously perceptible?” In response Bhagavān says ātma-māyayā. “This act is performed by My internal potency, or yogamāyā. My svarūpa is both concealed and manifested by this internal potency, which is the special function of My knowledge potency, or cit-śakti. I appear only with the help of this yogamāyā, who is manifesting My present svarūpa and who is concealing My previous forms.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī writes in his commentary, “I appear only by My internal potency, known as yogamāyā or ātmamāyā, the potency of complete and infallible knowledge, strength, prowess and so on.”

Śrī Rāmānujācārya writes in his commentary, “Śrī Bhagavān appears through His own knowledge potency, ātmamāyā. Māyā vayunaṃ jñānam. In this context the word māyā is a synonym for knowledge. This is also confirmed by the Sanskrit dictionary. Śrī Bhagavān knows the pious and impious actions of the eternal living entities only with the help of this potency.”

According to Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, “It is simply due to illusion that one applies the conception of the body and the embodied to Me, Bhagavān Vāsudeva, for I am transcendental to all such duality.”

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Prakāśikā-vṛtti

(By Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja; the explanation that illuminates the commentary named Sārārtha-varṣiṇī)

The Kūrma Purāṇa states, “deha-dehī-vibhāgaś ca neśvare vidyate kvacit–in regard to Śrī Bhagavān, there is no distinction between the body and the embodied.”

In regard to the living entity, however, the body is different from the embodied soul. In other words, his gross and subtle bodies are different from him, the jīvātmā. This is further clarified in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 17.132):

deha-dehīra, nāma-nāmīra kṛṣṇe nāhi ‘bheda
jīvera dharma–nāma-deha-svarūpe ‘vibheda

In regard to Kṛṣṇa there is no distinction between His name (nāma) and the possessor of the name (nāmī), nor between His body (deha) and the embodied (dehī). The embodied living entity’s nature, name and body, however, are different from his eternal, spiritual constitution.

Bhagavān is unborn (aja). By His own will He accepts the shelter of His internal potency, or cit-śakti, in the form of yogamāyā, and by manifesting His eternal body in this material world, He performs simple and natural pastimes as though an ordinary boy. That said, His body consisting of eternality, cognizance and bliss is not covered by a gross or subtle body. The atomic living entity, on the other hand, being overpowered by the influence of Bhagavān’s deluding potency, accepts a subtle and a gross body according to the impressions created by his previous actions, and in this way he again takes birth.

In conclusion, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has commented that Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna, “Although you and I appear in this world again and again, there is a specific difference between your descent and Mine. I am Īśvara, the controller of all living entities; I am without birth; and My form is immutable. I appear through the agency of My own knowledge potency, the cit-śakti, whereas the jīvas take birth in this world under the influence of My deluding potency, which deprives them of the memory of their past lives. Jīvas have to accept a subtle body as a result of their previous actions, and as a result of taking shelter of that subtle body, they have to repeatedly take birth. My appearance, however, in demigod, animal and other forms, occurs solely by My own will. Unlike the jīvas, My supremely pure conscious body is not covered by a subtle and a gross body. In this mundane plane, I manifest that very same eternal body that exists naturally in the spiritual realm of Vaikuṇṭha.

“Someone may inquire, ‘How is it possible for the Transcendental Personality to manifest in the material world, along with His realm?’

“Now hear My response. My yogamāyā-śakti is inconceivable and consequently beyond comprehension. No amount of reasoning, however clever, will allow one to understand and measure the activities of yoga-māyā. It is your duty to at least understand by intuitive knowledge that I, Bhagavān, endowed as I am with inconceivable potency, am not bound by any rules governing the mundane plane. By My mere will, all the entities of Vaikuṇṭha can easily manifest their supremely pure forms in this material world. In other words, I can transform the complete material phenomenal manifestation into spiritual existence. My all-spiritual form, which is beyond all material laws, is completely pure, even when it manifests in the material world. What doubt can there be about this? That māyā, which controls the jīva, is also My energy, but understand that when I use the phrase ‘My energy’, or ‘prakṛti’, it only refers to the spiritual potency, or cit-śakti. Although My potency is one without a second, in My presence that potency is the spiritual potency, and for the jīvas bound by karma, it appears as the deluding māyā potency. This potency, endowed with its respective influences and various types of majestic, mystic powers, forces them to rotate in the cycle of birth and death.”

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