Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10, Verse 3

Chapter 10 – Vibhuti Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

यो मामजमनादिं च वेत्ति लोकमहेश्वरम् ।
असम्मूढः स मर्त्येषु सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते ॥

Transliteration

yo māmajamanādiṃ ca vetti lokamaheśvaram .
asammūḍhaḥ sa martyeṣu sarvapāpaiḥ pramucyate ॥

Meaning

One who knows Me as unborn, beginningless and the great Lord of the worlds, he among mortals is undeluded and is freed from all sins.

Word meanings

यः – who
माम् – Me
अजम् – unborn
अनादिम् – beginningless
च – and
वेत्ति – knows
लोकमहेश्वरम् – the great Lord of the worlds
असम्मूढः – undeluded
सः – he
मर्त्येषु – among mortals
सर्वपापैः – from all sins
प्रमुच्यते – is fully freed

Anvaya (word order)

यः माम् अजम् अनादिं च लोकमहेश्वरं वेत्ति, सः मर्त्येषु असम्मूढः (सन्) सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते ।

Explanation

The previous verse said that even gods and sages do not fully know the Lord. Is He then unknowable? No: here Krishna explains in what way He is to be known and what follows from it. He is to be known through three qualities: aja, anadi and loka-maheshvara.

Aja, unborn. The Lord descends as an avatara, but He is not born under compulsion of karma as ordinary beings are. Anadi, beginningless. In the last verse He said He is the beginning of all; here He adds that He Himself has no beginning. Shankara notes that aja denies birth and anadi makes clear that He has no cause. Loka-maheshvara, the great Lord of the worlds: the gods are rulers in their spheres, but He is the ruler of all rulers.

One who knows Him thus is asammudha, free from delusion. The greatest form of delusion is to mistake the Lord for an ordinary man, as 9.11 described. One who recognises the unborn Supreme behind Krishna’s human form is truly wise.

‘He is freed from all sins.’ Ramanuja explains that knowledge of the Lord’s nature gives rise to devotion, and that devotion destroys all the sins that obstruct reaching Him. Real knowledge is not mere information but a power that transforms the heart.

Context

In verse 2 Krishna said that His glory is unknown even to gods and sages. Here He states the fruit of knowing Him as unborn, beginningless and Lord of the worlds. In the next two verses He explains that all the qualities of beings, intellect, knowledge, forgiveness and the rest, arise from Him alone.

Life lesson

Do not reduce God to a single figure or image; He is unborn, without beginning and Lord of all. This understanding frees us from delusion and purifies the heart. Contemplating His greatness is itself a way of release from sin.

Key terms

Aja: unborn, not born through karma
Anadi: without beginning
Loka-maheshvara: great Lord of all worlds
Asammudha: free from delusion