Sanskrit
उच्चैःश्रवसमश्वानां विद्धि माममृतोद्भवम् । ऐरावतं गजेन्द्राणां नराणां च नराधिपम् ॥ २७ ॥
uccaiḥśravasam aśvānāṃ viddhi mām amṛtodbhavam airāvataṃ gajendrāṇāṃ narāṇāṃ ca narādhipam
Translation
Uchchaishravas of horses know me, nectar-born; Airâvata of lordly elephants, and of men the Monarch.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The first place in the list where the category is humanity itself, represented here by kingship in the abstract. It quietly anticipates verse 37, where Krishna will name a specific, present human being — Arjuna himself — as a vibhuti rather than an office or a type. Narāṇāṃ ca nara-adhipam — “among men, the king” — names the office; BG 10.37 will name the person in the chariot. The list moves from type to individual.
Study deeper
Word by word
- uccaiḥśravasam aśvānāṃउच्चैःश्रवसं अश्वानां
- among horses, Uccaiḥśravas (uccaiḥśravasam + aśvānām)
- viddhi mām amṛtodbhavamविद्धि मां अमृतोद्भवं
- know Me, sprung from the nectar (viddhi + mām + amṛta-udbhavam)
- airāvataṃ gajendrāṇāṃऐरावतं गजेन्द्राणां
- among lordly elephants, Airāvata (airāvatam + gaja-indrāṇām)
- narāṇāṃ ca narādhipamनराणां च नराधिपं
- and among men, the king (narāṇām + ca + nara-adhipam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Uchchaihshravas and Airavata are given by name — this exact horse, this exact elephant — but the human example collapses to a title, “the king,” with no one named to hold it. The list is willing to be maximally specific about mythic animals while staying deliberately vague about which human deserves the honor, a reticence it drops ten verses later when it finally names Arjuna outright.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice when you default to a safe abstract category — 'a good employee,' 'a good friend' — instead of naming a specific, concrete instance, including yourself. Naming a specific person or moment is a bigger, more honest claim than gesturing at a type.
Professional
- Praising 'the team' abstractly costs you nothing and lands with almost no weight — naming a specific person's specific contribution is the harder, more valuable claim, and it's usually the one your report actually remembers.
Family & Social
- Praising a role abstractly, like calling someone 'a good parent,' is easy and forgettable — naming one specific real instance of what they did is a bigger act of testimony, and it costs you only the willingness to be concrete.
Ask yourself
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