SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
<< Chapter 15 verses 3 and 3.5
SlOkam – Original
tham Eva chAdhyam purusham prapadhyEdh yatha: pravruththi: prasruthA purANI ||
word-by-word meaning
Adhyam – being the primeval lord for everything
yatha: purANI pravruththi: prasruthA – from whom, (the AthmAs’) connection with matters related to the three qualities is continuing since time immemorial
tham purusham Eva – only that supreme lord
prapadhyEth – should surrender (to have the ignorance etc removed).
Simple Translation
The jIvAthmA should surrender (to have the ignorance etc removed) to that supreme lord only, who is the primeval lord for everything and from whom, (the AthmAs’) connection with matters related to the three qualities, is continuing since time immemorial.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘Let Him the Primal Purusha alone be sought as the Refuge —He from Whom is the old will (or impulses) derived.’
He is Primal or the Beginning of everything, as declared in such Stanzas as:
‘By Me the Presider, matter begets all the Mobiles and the Immobiles’ (Gi: IX-10).
‘I am the Origin of all, from Me operates everything.’ (Gi: X-8).)
‘Naught whatsoever higher than I the Primal Purusha; exists, Dhanañjaya!’ (Gi: VII-6.5);
and let Him therefore be sought as the Refuge, inasmuch as all old material instincts in the shape of attachment for Guṇa-charged enjoyments proceed from Him, the all-Creator (vide, Gi: XIV 3 and 4).
I Myself have already declared:—
‘Verily is this My divine Māyā Guṇa-full, hard to surmount. Those who resort to Me alone as their Refuge, do pass this Māyā.’ (Gi: VII-14).
A variant in this Stanza is ‘prapady-cyataḥ’. Instead of ‘prapadyed-yataḥ’. In this case the division of the former compound term would be ‘prapadya, iyataḥ’; The interpretation of the Stanza would then stand thus:-
‘By the mere step taken (iyata) viz., of having taken Him as Refuge, all those (spiritual) instincts of old will awaken in him. Instincts are impulses which are means dispel all ignorance etc. They are called old because they are the instincts of the ancient moksha-seekers, (mumukshus) for they of old sought Me alone as their Asylum, and became released from bondage.’
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