Verse 11.37

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 11.37:

कस्माच् च ते न नमेरन् महात्मन् गरीयसे ब्रह्मणोऽप्य् आदि-कर्त्रे ।
अनन्त देवेश जगन्-निवास त्वम् अक्षरं सद्-असत् तत् परं यत् ॥ ३७ ॥

kasmāc ca te na nameran mahātman garīyase brahmaṇo'py ādi-kartre |
ananta deveśa jagan-nivāsa tvam akṣaraṃ sad-asat tat paraṃ yat || 37 ||

kasmāt–why; ca–and; te–to You; na nameran–should they not offer obeisances?; mahātman–O great person; garīyase–who are greater; brahmaṇaḥ–than Lord Brahmā; api–even; ādi-kartre–and who are the original creator; ananta–O unlimited person; deva-īśa–Lord of the gods; jagat-nivāsa–O refuge of the universe; tvam–You; akṣaram–the imperishable; sat-asat–to cause and effect; tat–that; param–transcendental; yat–which.

O Mahātma (great soul)! O Deveśa (Lord of the demigods)! O Ananta (unlimited one)! O Jagan-nivāsa (refuge of the world)! You are even greater than Lord Brahmā. You are the original creator and You are the infinite spirit, brahma, the imperishable reality beyond both cause and effect. Why, then, should they not offer obeisances to You?

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

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

Arjuna said, “Why will they not offer obeisances to You? Certainly they will.” Here, the word sat means ‘effect’, and asat means ‘the cause’; thus, “That person who is superior to and beyond both sat, the effect, and asat, the cause, is You, the immutable, infinite spirit (akṣara brahma).”

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Prakāśikā-vṛtti

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

In the previous verse, Arjuna explained that Śrī Bhagavān is worshipful for Lord Brahmā and so forth. In this verse, he is establishing that Śrī Bhagavān is the soul of everyone. “Demigods, sages, Gandharvas and other beings like them will indeed pay obeisances to You. They cannot exist without doing so, because You are one without a second, inconceivable and endowed with wonderful potencies. You are the Supreme Person, superior to everyone. You are the origin of Lord Brahmā, who is the creator of the universe, and therefore, You are even superior to him.”

Arjuna also said, “Only Śrī Bhagavān is worshipable for all, but not only that, since He is the soul of everyone, He is also everything.” He is superior to and distinct from the imperishable brahma-tattva, jīva-tattva and prakṛti-tattva. Although He is different from all these, they manifest from His inconceivable potency, the acintya-śakti. Therefore, He also exists as everything.

All things are not Śrī Bhagavān, nor is anything equal to Him. Everything is the effect, or result, of His potency. From this point of view, He alone is everything, because no other object or reality exists independent of Him. Thus He is called the unparalleled Absolute Truth, or parama-tattva. The Śrutis state, “sarvaṃ khalv idaṃ brahma–indeed, everything is brahma” (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14.1). They also state neha nānāsti kiñcana (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.19 and Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.11). This means that everything, such as the jīva and the inert world, is brahma. There is nothing except brahma.

In contrast to this, the Śrutis state:

nityo nityānāṃ cetanaś cetanānām
eko bahūnāṃ yo vidadhāti kāmān

Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.13)

Parabrahma is the prime eternal among all eternal beings and the prime conscious entity among all conscious entities.

According to this verse, the jīvas are eternal, conscious and unlimited in number, but Parabrahma is the one and only Supreme Eternal and the supreme conscious being. Subsequently, the final conclusion of the Vedas is the principle of acintya-bhedābheda–the Supreme Lord’s inconceivable and simultaneous oneness and difference from His various potencies. This is the purest of all philosophical conclusions.