Sanskrit
त्वमादिदेवः पुरुषः पुराणस्त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् । वेत्ताऽसि वेद्यं च परं च धाम त्वया ततं विश्वमनन्तरूप ॥
tvam ādidevaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇas tvam asya viśvasya paraṃ nidhānam vettā'si vedyaṃ ca paraṃ ca dhāma tvayā tataṃ viśvam anantarūpa
Translation
First of the Gods, most ancient Man Thou art. Supreme receptacle of all that lives; Knower and known, the dwelling-place on high; In Thy vast Form the universe is spread.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The epithets stop describing Krishna from outside and start collapsing distinctions around him instead: “vettā ‘si vedyaṃ ca,” Thou art the knower and the known — subject and object folded into the same referent. This kind of paired-opposite naming is a stotra convention as much as a philosophical claim, but the vocabulary (“puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ,” the ancient Person) reaches directly back to Vedic cosmology, the same figure whose dismemberment the Puruṣa Sūkta uses to explain how the world came to be divided into its parts. Vettā ‘si vedyaṃ ca — “you are the knower and the known” — folds subject and object into one referent. This paired-opposite naming is a stotra convention as much as a claim; puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ reaches straight back to the Puruṣa Sūkta.
Study deeper
Word by word
- tvam ādidevaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇasत्वं आदिदेवः पुरुषः पुराणस्
- you are the primal God, the ancient Person (tvam + ādi-devaḥ + puruṣaḥ + purāṇaḥ)
- tvam asya viśvasya paraṃ nidhānamत्वं अस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानं
- you are the supreme treasure-house of this universe (tvam + asya + viśvasya + param + nidhānam)
- vettā'si vedyaṃ ca paraṃ ca dhāmaवेत्ताऽसि वेद्यं च परं च धाम
- you are the knower and the known, and the supreme abode (vettā + asi + vedyam + ca + param + ca + dhāma)
- tvayā tataṃ viśvam anantarūpaत्वया ततं विश्वं अनन्तरूप
- by you the universe is pervaded, O one of infinite form (tvayā + tatam + viśvam + ananta-rūpa)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Once a description folds knower and known into the same referent, there is no remaining vantage point outside the claim from which to assess it — you can’t verify from a distance a subject that has already absorbed the position an observer would need. That collapse of the observing platform, more than the size of the vision, may be what actually makes it impossible to hold a normal, evaluative stance toward this figure.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Some experiences — grief, falling in love, a genuine crisis of belief — remove your ability to evaluate them from a safe outside distance while you're inside them. Recognize when you're in one of those and stop expecting yourself to assess it with the detachment you'd apply to something you're merely observing.
Professional
- When you're the one who built the system, wrote the code, or made the call, you've lost the outside vantage point needed to review it objectively — bring in someone who wasn't the author, rather than trusting your own judgment on work you're too close to see clearly.
Family & Social
- When you're the subject of a family conflict as much as a participant judging it, you don't have the outside vantage point objectivity requires — asking someone genuinely outside the situation is often the more honest move than trusting your own read.
Ask yourself
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