Sanskrit
उपद्रष्टाऽनुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरः । परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥
upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ paramātmeti cāpy ukto dehe 'smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ
Translation
Supervisor and permitter, supporter, enjoyer, the great Lord, and also the supreme Self; thus is styled in this body the supreme Spirit.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Six names for the same principle from six angles: upadrashta (witness/overseer), anumanta (the one who permits or consents), bharta (supporter), bhokta (experiencer), maheshvara (great lord), and paramatma (supreme self) — the fullest single-verse portrait purusha gets in the chapter. “Witness” and “permitter” are doing the most philosophical work here: they describe a self that observes and, in some sense, consents to what nature does, without itself performing the action — the exact distinction verse 30 makes explicit. Six names for one principle: upadraṣṭā (witness), anumantā (permitter), bhartā, bhoktā, maheśvara, paramātmā. “Witness” and “permitter” carry the most weight: a self that observes and, in some sense, consents to what nature does, without performing the action — exactly BG 13.30’s distinction.
Study deeper
Word by word
- upadraṣṭānumantā caउपद्रष्टानुमन्ता च
- the witness and the permitter (upadraṣṭā + anumantā + ca)
- bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥभर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरः
- the supporter, the experiencer, the great Lord (bhartā + bhoktā + maha-īśvaraḥ)
- paramātmeti cāpy uktoपरमात्मेति चाप्य् उक्तो
- and also called the supreme Self (parama-ātmā + iti + ca + api + uktaḥ)
- dehe 'smin puruṣaḥ paraḥदेहे ऽस्मिन् पुरुषः परः
- in this body, the supreme Spirit (dehe + asmin + puruṣaḥ + paraḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Six names arrive in one breath — witness, permitter, supporter, experiencer, great lord, supreme self — and none of them is offered as sufficient on its own. The accumulation is the argument: purusha resists being pinned to a single term better than any single term, however carefully chosen, ever could.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- If one word never quite captures who you are — parent, engineer, seeker — stop hunting for the single correct label and let the accumulation of several partial ones stand in for the whole, the way this verse names the self six different ways rather than picking one.
Professional
- When a role or system resists a one-line job description, don't force it into a single label — list the several partial descriptions that each capture one true angle, the way six names here do more work together than any one of them could alone.
Family & Social
- If you keep trying to sum up a long relationship in one sentence, consider that several partial descriptions, stacked together, will say more truthfully than the search for one perfect line ever would.
Ask yourself
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