Devanagari
नमस्त आशिषामीश मनवे कारणात्मने ।
नमो धर्माय बृहते कृष्णायाकुण्ठमेधसे ।
पुरुषाय पुराणाय साङ्ख्ययोगेश्वराय च ॥ ४२ ॥
Verse text
namas ta āśiṣām īśa
manave kāraṇātmane
namo dharmāya bṛhate
kṛṣṇāyākuṇṭha-medhase
puruṣāya purāṇāya
sāṅkhya-yogeśvarāya ca
Synonyms
namaḥ
—
offering obeisances
;
te
—
unto You
;
āśiṣām īśa
—
O topmost of all bestowers of benediction
;
manave
—
unto the supreme mind or supreme Manu
;
kāraṇa
—
ātmane — the supreme cause of all causes
;
namaḥ
—
offering obeisances
;
dharmāya
—
unto one who knows the best of all religion
;
bṛhate
—
the greatest
;
kṛṣṇāya
—
unto Kṛṣṇa
;
akuṇṭha
—
medhase — unto one whose brain activity is never checked
;
puruṣāya
—
the Supreme Person
;
purāṇāya
—
the oldest of the old
;
sāṅkhya
—
yoga — īśvarāya — the master of the principles of sāṅkhya-yoga
;
ca
—
and .
Translation
My dear Lord, You are the topmost of all bestowers of all benediction, the oldest and supreme enjoyer amongst all enjoyers. You are the master of all the worlds’ metaphysical philosophy, for You are the supreme cause of all causes, Lord Kṛṣṇa. You are the greatest of all religious principles, the supreme mind, and You have a brain which is never checked by any condition. Therefore I repeatedly offer my obeisances unto You.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O bestower of Svarga! I offer respects to you. I offer respects to the form of all mantras, the cause of all actions. I offer respects the Lord who is dharma personified, to Kṛṣṇa, the omniscient, perfect Lord, who preaches Sāṅkhya and yoga in various avatāras.
He offers respects to the Lord as the giver of results for prescribed activities. O Lord who awards Svarga (āśīyām īśa)! I offer respects to the form of all mantras (manave), to the form who causes all karmas (kāraṇātmaṇe). He offers respects to the Lord in the form of bhakti, as its viṣaya, it object. I offer respects to the Lord who is dharma, to Kṛṣṇa. He is the establisher of Sāṅkhya and yoga, as avatāra forms such as Kapila and Dattātreya.
Purport
The words
kṛṣṇāya akuṇṭha-medhase
are significant in this verse. Modern scientists have stopped their brainwork by discovering the theory of uncertainty, but factually for a living being there cannot be any brain activity which is not checked by time and space limitations. A living entity is called
aṇu,
an atomic particle of the supreme soul, and therefore his brain is also atomic. It cannot accommodate unlimited knowledge. This does not mean, however, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, has a limited brain. What Kṛṣṇa says and does is not limited by time and space. In
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.26)
the Lord says:
vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana
“O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.”
Kṛṣṇa knows everything, but one cannot know Kṛṣṇa without being favored by Him. Thus for Kṛṣṇa and His representative there is no question of a theory of uncertainty. What Kṛṣṇa says is all perfect and certain and is applicable to the past, present and future. Nor is there any uncertainty for one who knows exactly what Kṛṣṇa says. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is based on
Bhagavad-gītā
as it is, as spoken by Lord Kṛṣṇa, and for those who are engaged in this movement, there is no question of uncertainty.
Lord Kṛṣṇa is also addressed herein as
āśiṣām īśa.
The great saintly personalities, sages and demigods are able to offer benedictions to ordinary living entities, but they in turn are benedicted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without being benedicted by Kṛṣṇa, one cannot offer benediction to anyone else. The word
manave,
meaning “unto the supreme Manu,” is also significant. The supreme Manu in Vedic literature is Svāyambhuva Manu, who is an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. All the Manus are empowered incarnations of Kṛṣṇa (
manvantara-avatāra
). There are fourteen Manus in one day of Brahmā, 420 in one month, 5,040 in one year, and 504,000 Manus in the lifetime of Brahmā. Since all the Manus are directors of human society, ultimately Kṛṣṇa is the supreme director of human society. In another sense, the word
manave
indicates the perfection of all kinds of
mantras.
The
mantra
delivers the conditioned soul from his bondage; so simply by chanting the
mantra
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, one can gain deliverance from any condition.
Kāraṇātmane:
everything has a cause. The theory of chance is repudiated in this verse. Because everything has its cause, there is no question of chance. Because so-called philosophers and scientists are unable to find the real cause, they foolishly say that everything happens by chance. In
Brahma-saṁhitā
Kṛṣṇa is described as the cause of all causes; therefore He is addressed herein as
kāraṇātmane.
His very personality is the original cause of everything, the root of everything, and the seed of everything. As described in the
Vedānta-sūtra
(1.1.2),
janmādy asya yataḥ:
the Absolute Truth is the supreme cause of all emanations.
The word
sāṅkhya-yogeśvarāya
is also significant herein, for Kṛṣṇa is described in
Bhagavad-gītā
as Yogeśvara, the master of all mystic powers. Without possessing inconceivable mystic powers, one cannot be accepted as God. In this Age of Kali, those who have a little fragmental portion of mystic power claim to be God, but such pseudo Gods can only be accepted as fools, for only Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person who possesses all mystic and yogic perfections. The
sāṅkhya-yoga
system popular at the present moment was propounded by the atheist Kapila, but the original
sāṅkhya-yoga
system was propounded by an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa also named Kapila, the son of Devahūti. Similarly, Dattātreya, another incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, also explained the
sāṅkhya-yoga
system. Thus Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all
sāṅkhya-yoga
systems and mystic
yoga
powers.
The words
puruṣāya purāṇāya
are also worthy of special attention. In
Brahma-saṁhitā,
Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the
ādi-puruṣa,
the original person, or the original enjoyer. In
Bhagavad-gītā,
Lord Kṛṣṇa is also accepted as
purāṇa-puruṣa,
the oldest person. Although He is the oldest of all personalities, He is also the youngest of all, or
nava-yauvana.
Another significant word is
dharmāya.
Since Kṛṣṇa is the original propounder of all kinds of religious principles, it is said,
dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam
(
Bhāg.
6.3.19
). No one can introduce a new type of religion, for religion is already there, having been established by Lord Kṛṣṇa. In
Bhagavad-gītā
Kṛṣṇa informs us of the original
dharma
and asks us to give up all kinds of religious principles. The real
dharma
is surrender unto Him. In the
Mahābhārata,
it is also said:
ye ca veda-vido viprā
ye cādhyātma-vido janāḥ
te vadanti mahātmānaṁ
kṛṣṇaṁ dharmaṁ sanātanam
The purport is that one who has studied the
Vedas
perfectly, who is a perfect
vipra,
or knower of the
Vedas,
who knows what spiritual life actually is, speaks about Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, as one’s
sanātana-dharma.
Lord Śiva therefore teaches us the principles of
sanātana-dharma.