Sanskrit
वायुर्यमोऽग्निर्वरुणः शशाङ्कः प्रजापतिस्त्वं प्रपितामहश्च । नमो नमस्तेऽस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः पुनश्च भूयोऽपि नमो नमस्ते ॥
vāyur yamo'gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṃ prapitāmahaś ca namo namas te'stu sahasrakṛtvaḥ punaś ca bhūyo'pi namo namaste
Translation
Thou art Vâyu and Yama, Agni, moon, Varuna, Father, Grandsire of all; Hail, hail to Thee! a thousand times all hail! Hail unto Thee! again, again all hail!
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A second, more pointed one-upping of the Vedic pantheon: Krishna is not just Prajāpati, the traditional “grandsire” of beings, he is “prapitāmahaḥ,” the great-grandfather, a step further back than even the standard epithet for Brahmā allows. The verse’s second half abandons epithet-naming altogether for pure repetition — “namo namas te,” hail, hail to Thee, doubled and doubled again — and the shift itself is telling: once the vocabulary of comparison runs out, what’s left is not a stronger claim but a chant, praise turning into something closer to mantra than to argument. Prapitāmaha, “great-grandfather,” puts Krishna a step further back than even Brahmā’s standard epithet. Then epithet-naming is abandoned for pure repetition — namo namas te, doubled and doubled: once comparison runs out, praise turns to chant, closer to mantra than argument.
Study deeper
Word by word
- vāyur yamo'gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥवायुः यमोऽग्निः वरुणः शशाङ्कः
- you are Wind, Yama, Fire, Varuṇa, the Moon (vāyuḥ + yamaḥ-agniḥ + varuṇaḥ + śaśāṅkaḥ)
- prajāpatis tvaṃ prapitāmahaś caप्रजापतिस् त्वं प्रपितामहश् च
- you are Prajāpati and the great-grandsire (prajāpatiḥ + tvam + prapitāmahaḥ + ca)
- namo namas te'stu sahasrakṛtvaḥनमो नमस् तेऽस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः
- homage, homage to you, a thousand times (namaḥ + namaḥ + te + astu + sahasra-kṛtvaḥ)
- punaś ca bhūyo'pi namo namasteपुनश् च भूयोऽपि नमो नमस्ते
- and again, once more, homage, homage to you (punaḥ + ca + bhūyaḥ + api + namaḥ + namaḥ + te)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The form mirrors the claim: a verse describing a being beyond every rank the pantheon has to offer doesn’t end when the vocabulary runs out, it just repeats the same salutation again, and then repeats it once more. Endlessness is being enacted here rather than just asserted — the words about a being without limit are themselves reluctant to stop.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you've said everything precise you know how to say about how much someone means to you and it still doesn't feel complete, repetition is a legitimate way to keep expressing what ran out of new words — saying it again isn't redundancy, it's honesty about the limit of vocabulary.
Professional
- When you've exhausted every specific, ranked argument for why a decision matters and people still aren't convinced, plain repetition of the core point, undecorated, sometimes does more work than reaching for yet another new angle — repetition can be a deliberate close, not a failure of persuasion.
Family & Social
- If 'I love you' or 'thank you' starts to feel too small to hold what you mean, saying it again plainly, rather than hunting for a bigger word, is often exactly right — some things are better enacted through repetition than argued through escalating vocabulary.
Ask yourself
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