SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
tham uvAcha hrishIkeSa: prahasanniva bhAratha |
sEnayOrubhayOr madhyE sIthamAnamidham vacha: ||
word-by-word meaning (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
bhAratha – Oh dhritharAshtra who is a descendant in bharatha clan!
hrishIkESa: – krishNa
prahasan iva – with a smile
ubhayO: sEnayO: madhyE – in between the two armies
vishIdhantham – grieving
tham – towards arjuna
idham vacha: – these words
uvAcha – spoke
Simple Translation (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
Oh dhritharAshtra who is descendant in bharatha clan! Towards the grieving arjuna who is standing in between the two armies, krishNa with a smile, spoke these words.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
Sañjaya continued:
Bhārata1! With a smile did Hṛishīkeśa regard him (Arjuna), who thus stood sad between the two armies; and He spoke to him these words:
Beholding Arjuna overwhelmed with grief at not knowing the distinction between the true nature of body (matter) and soul (ātmā), and yet discoursing in a fashion that one, with a knowledge of soul existing as apart from body, would adopt, – a position of conflicting views for Arjuna -; beholding him, suddenly languishing into inactivity when both the armies were ready to engage in war, Paramapurusha lectured to him smilingly, commencing from verse:
‘Never at all was, that I was not, etc;’
and ending with,
‘I shall deliver thee from all sins, etc;’
embodying the three-fold doctrines of Karma-Yoga2, Jñāna-Yoga3, and Bhakti-Yoga4, which are the Means for acquiring the true knowledge of Ātmā (soul) Paramātma5 (Supreme Soul = God), and for attaining them.
Smilingly means, that Krishna discoursed on these most abstruse subjects of philosophy and religion as if it were but a pleasant recreation.
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- Dhṛitarāshtra. ↩
- Yoga here means method, path or means. ‘Karma-Yoga‘ is thus ‘the method of Works’ or doing deeds of virtue as inculcated in Scriptural and other ethical codes. ↩
- ‘Jñāna-Yoga‘ is ‘the Method of Knowledge.’ ↩
- ‘Bhakti-Yoga‘ is ‘the Method of Loving Devotion.’ By these Methods one is to know (1) his Soul, (2) know his God, and (3) find them. I use the word ‘find’ so that it might suit the moksha-idea of any of the three Schools, Dvaita, Advaita or Viśishtādvaita. Throughout my translation, I retain the original expressions Karma-Yoga, Jñāna-Yoga, and Bhakti-Yoga, as far as possible, the convenience of which will be evident. ↩
- Supreme Spirit, the Unexcelled or the Peerless Spirit ↩