Sanskrit
यस्मात्क्षरमतीतोऽहमक्षरादपि चोत्तमः । अतोऽस्मि लोके वेदे च प्रथितः पुरुषोत्तमः ॥
yasmāt kṣaram atīto 'ham akṣarād api cottamaḥ ato 'smi loke vede ca prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ
Translation
Since I excel the destructible, and am more excellent also than the indestructible, in the world and in the Veda I am proclaimed the Supreme Spirit.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna now claims the title directly: because he exceeds both the perishable and the imperishable, he is proclaimed in the world and in the Veda as Purushottama, the highest Purusha. The logic is worth noting — supremacy is argued here by exclusion, beyond both categories named in verse 16, rather than by a positive description of what the third category actually is, which is characteristic of how the Gita tends to gesture at its most absolute claims rather than fully specify them. The name is derived, not just asserted: beyond kṣara, higher than akṣara — therefore Puruṣottama, “highest of persons.” This places the personal Krishna above the impersonal absolute, the same reversal as BG 14.27.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yasmāt kṣaram atīto 'hamयस्मात् क्षरं अतीतो ऽहं
- since I am beyond the perishable (yasmāt + kṣaram + atītaḥ + aham)
- akṣarād api cottamaḥअक्षराद् अपि चोत्तमः
- and higher even than the imperishable (akṣarāt + api + ca + uttamaḥ)
- ato 'smi loke vede caअतो ऽस्मि लोके वेदे च
- therefore I am, in the world and in the Veda (ataḥ + asmi + loke + vede + ca)
- prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥप्रथितः पुरुषोत्तमः
- celebrated as the Supreme Person (prathitaḥ + puruṣottamaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Supremacy here is argued entirely by exclusion — beyond the perishable, beyond the imperishable too — rather than by any positive description of what the third category actually is. That’s characteristic of how the Gita tends to handle its most absolute claims: it gestures at the boundary the concept transcends more readily than it specifies the concept’s own positive content, leaving the reader with a direction rather than a definition.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Site Commentary — Second Reading
“Loke vede ca” — in the world and in the Veda — pairs two authorities that don’t normally certify the same claim: common report and scriptural testimony. Krishna isn’t citing scripture alone, which would only persuade someone already inside that tradition, or popular consensus alone, which proves nothing about ultimate reality; he’s claiming the title is recognized on both counts at once. A supremacy that needed only one of the two would be a narrower, more contestable claim than the verse is actually making.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- You can sometimes only describe real growth by naming what you've moved beyond — old fears, old limits — well before you can positively describe what the new state actually is. That's a legitimate way to talk about change, not a dodge.
Professional
- When pitching why a new architecture is better, it's fine if the strongest argument you have right now is what limitations of the old approach it exceeds, even before the new model's positive properties are fully specified. That's an honest stage of design.
Family & Social
- You can describe how far a relationship has come by naming the old patterns you've both moved past, even before you can articulate positively what it has become instead. Naming the exceeded limitation is still real, legitimate progress worth acknowledging.
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