Yoga through Beholding the Cosmic Form of God
Verse 11.39
वायुर्यमोऽग्निर्वरुणः शशाङ्कः प्रजापतिस्त्वं प्रपितामहश्च। नमो नमस्तेऽस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः पुनश्च भूयोऽपि नमो नमस्ते।।11.39।।
vāyur yamo ’gnir varuṇaḥ śhaśhāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaśh cha namo namas te ’stu sahasra-kṛitvaḥ punaśh cha bhūyo ’pi namo namas te
Word Meanings
vāyuḥ—the god of wind; yamaḥ—the god of death; agniḥ—the god of fire; varuṇaḥ—the god of water; śhaśha-aṅkaḥ—the moon-God; prajāpatiḥ—Brahma; tvam—you; prapitāmahaḥ—the great-grandfather; cha—and; namaḥ—my salutations; namaḥ—my salutations; te—unto you; astu—let there be; sahasra-kṛitvaḥ—a thousand times; punaḥ cha—and again; bhūyaḥ—again; api—also; namaḥ—(offering) my salutations; namaḥ te—offering my salutations unto you
Translation · English
You are Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the moon, the Creator, and the great-grandfather. I offer my salutations to You a thousand times, and again I offer my salutations to You.
Deep Meaning · English
In this verse, Arjuna moves beyond mere wonder into a state of utter surrender, recognizing that the Divine is not merely a distant creator, but the very substratum of all cosmic forces. By naming Vayu (wind), Yama (death), Agni (fire), Varuna (water), and the Moon, Arjuna acknowledges that the fundamental energies that sustain and dissolve life are but expressions of Krishna's immanent presence. He addresses Krishna as 'Prapitamaha'—the great-grandfather—signifying that Krishna is the origin of even the progenitors of humanity, the very source of the ancestral lineage of the universe. This shifts the seeker's perception from seeing distinct, powerful deities to seeing one singular, infinite Being who manifests as the laws of nature itself. The repeated salutations—'a thousand times' and 'again and again'—represent the soul's natural expansion into humility when faced with the infinite. It is an acknowledgment that intellect, language, and logic are insufficient to encompass the vastness of the Divine. Arjuna is effectively surrendering his dualistic perception, realizing that the 'other' he is praying to is actually the same force that powers his own existence. This is the moment where the ego dissolves in the face of the totality, transitioning from a relationship of friendship to one of absolute adoration and submission, which is the hallmark of true Bhakti.
True spiritual realization dawns when we cease to view cosmic forces as independent powers and surrender to them as the manifold expressions of the one Divine Source.
Connected Verses
Provides the broader vision of the cosmic body where Arjuna first sees all these manifestations unified in one form.
Krishna declares He is the 'Self' seated in the hearts of all beings, which aligns with Arjuna identifying Him as the core of every cosmic deity.
Confirms the concept that all existence is pervaded by Krishna in His unmanifest form, echoing the universality Arjuna experiences.
Krishna explicitly states that everything rests on Him like pearls on a string, mirroring the idea that all elemental forces are threaded through His being.
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