10.42 atha vA bahunaithEna

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 10

<< Chapter 10 verse 41

SlOkam – Original

atha vA bahunaithEna kim gyAnEna thavArjuna |
vishtabhyAham idham kruthsnam EkAmSEna sthithO jagath ||

word-by-word meaning

arjuna – Oh arjuna!
athavA – but
bahUnA EthEna gyAnEna – of this knowledge which is explained in many different ways
thava kim – what is the use for you?
aham – I
idham kruthsnam jagath – all this world
EkAmSEna – with a fraction of (my ability)
vishtabhya sthitha: – sustaining

Simple Translation

Oh arjuna! But what is the use of this knowledge which is explained in many different ways, for you? I am sustaining all this world with a fraction of my ability.

Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam

‘But, what use is to you, Arjuna! all this vast knowledge. Abiding therein, I am in the Kosmos with but a fraction (of Me).’

What all that may be given to you as knowledge
on this subject is to no account. In whatever condition this Universe may be, —whether in the subtle unmanifest state or gross manifest state[1. In the modern language of philosophy, the subtle state, is the ‘Absolute Reality’ and the gross state, the ‘Relative Reality’. Herbert Spencer may be considered the modern oracle of Rāmānuja, when he says: ‘Noumenon and Phenomenon are here presented in their primordial relation as two sides of the same change, of which we are obliged to regard the last as no less real than the first’. First Principles, p: 170. In other words the ‘Unknowable’ is necessarily correlated to the ‘Knowable’.], -whether as regards its essentiality or its perpetuity, or as regards its ramifying out into various activities— this Universe, the compound of chit (conscious) and achit (unconscious) substances, is all planned out in such a manner as never to overstep the workings of My will. It is upheld but by an iota —a ten-thousandth part of a ten-thousandth part (say)— of my Transcendent Power. Says the Blessed Parāśara:

‘This Kosmic force is but the ten-thousandth of a ten-thousandth part.’[2. Vish: Pur: I-9-63. ‘Yasyā-yutāyutāmśāmśe viśva-śaktir mayi sthitā.’ Also vide, Stotra-Ratna, by Āḷavandār, 1(typo?) & 12.]

OM TAT SAT

Thus closes The Tenth Discourse,

Named The Vibhūti-Vistara-Yoga,

or The Book of Divine Glories,

With Śri Rāmānuja’s commentary thereon,

In the colloquy between Śri Kṛishṇa and Arjuna,

In the Science of Yoga,

In the Divine Wisdom of the Upanishads,

or the Chants of Śrī Bhagavān,

The Bhagavad Gītā.

>> Chapter 11 Introduction

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