Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11, Verse 37

Chapter 11 – Vishvarupa Darshana Yoga · Speaker: Arjuna

Sanskrit verse

कस्माच्च ते न नमेरन्महात्मन्
गरीयसे ब्रह्मणोऽप्यादिकर्त्रे ।
अनन्त देवेश जगन्निवास
त्वमक्षरं सदसत्तत्परं यत् ॥

Transliteration

kasmācca te na nameranmahātman garīyase brahmaṇo.apyādikartre .
ananta deveśa jagannivāsa tvamakṣaraṃ sadasattatparaṃ yat ॥

Meaning

And why should they not bow to You, O great-souled One, who are greater even than Brahma and his very first cause? O Infinite, Lord of the gods, Abode of the universe, You are the Imperishable — the manifest, the unmanifest, and That which lies beyond them both.

Word meanings

कस्मात् – why, for what reason
च – and
ते – they (the hosts of the perfected); to You
न नमेरन् – should not bow down
महात्मन् – O great-souled One
गरीयसे – to the greater, the weightiest
ब्रह्मणः अपि – even than Brahma
आदिकर्त्रे – to the original creator
अनन्त – O Infinite
देवेश – O Lord of the gods
जगन्निवास – O Abode of the world
त्वम् – You
अक्षरम् – the Imperishable
सत् – the manifest, being
असत् – the unmanifest, non-being
तत्परम् – that which is beyond them
यत् – which

Anvaya (word order)

महात्मन्, ब्रह्मणः अपि गरीयसे आदिकर्त्रे ते (ते सिद्धसङ्घाः) कस्मात् च न नमेरन् ? अनन्त, देवेश, जगन्निवास, यत् सत् असत् तत्परम् (च) अक्षरम्, (तत्) त्वम् (असि) ।

Explanation

In the previous verse Arjuna saw demons fleeing in terror and the companies of the perfected bowing in reverence. Now he gives the reason for that reverence. The One before him is greater even than Brahma, the four-faced creator, for Brahma himself arises from Him. The question ‘why should they not bow?’ is really an exclamation: not bowing would be the strange thing.

Three vocatives follow, each born of what Arjuna is actually seeing. Ananta, the Infinite, without limit of space, time or object; Devesha, the ruler of all the gods who appear within the cosmic form; Jagannivasa, the dwelling-place in whom the entire universe resides. These are not borrowed titles but descriptions drawn from vision.

The second half is philosophically dense. Shankara reads sat as the manifest effect and asat as the unmanifest cause, and says that the Imperishable beyond both is also You: effect, cause and the pure Reality transcending them are finally one. Ramanuja takes sat and asat as matter in its effected and causal states, and ‘that beyond’ as the liberated self; all of these form the body of the Lord, so He is rightly called all of them. Madhva stresses that the Lord is the independent master of every such category.

The teaching of 9.19, ‘I am both being and non-being’, here returns from Arjuna’s own lips. What he once heard as doctrine he now speaks as experience.

Context

This is the second verse of Arjuna’s hymn to the Cosmic Form (11.36–46). Having described the bowing of the perfected in 11.36, he explains why such homage is fitting, and in 11.38 continues by naming Krishna the primal God and ancient Person.

Life lesson

Bowing to the source of all is not servility but simple truthfulness. When we recognise that our very existence flows from that source, pride softens naturally into humility.

Key terms

Adikarta: the first creator, cause even of Brahma
Jagannivasa: the abode in whom the world dwells
Sat-asat: the manifest effect and the unmanifest cause
Akshara: the imperishable supreme Reality