Bg 10.30
prahlādaś cāsmi daityānāṁ kālaḥ kalayatām aham
mṛgāṇāṁ ca mṛgendro ’haṁ vainateyaś ca pakṣiṇām
Bg 10.31
pavanaḥ pavatām asmi rāmaḥ śastra-bhṛtām aham
jhaṣāṇāṁ makaraś cāsmi srotasām asmi jāhnavī
Translation
30. I am 'Prahlada' among DAITYAS, 'Time' among reckoners, the 'Lord-of-beasts' (Lion) among animals, and 'Vainateya' (Garuda) among birds.
31. Among purifiers, I am the 'wind' ; among warriors, I am 'Rama, ' among fishes, I am the 'shark' ; among rivers, I am the 'Ganges. '
Commentary
I AM 'PRAHLADA' AMONG THE DAITYAS --- The Story of 'Prahlada,' very famous among the Hindus, is the story of a boy-devotee who, with adamantine faith and firm devotion, challenged his father Hiranyakashipu in defence of his own faith in Hari, and stood many a trial and persecution from his father.
AMONG RECKONERS I AM 'TIME' --- The logicians form among themselves a staunch group of Hindu philosophers, and they not only support the concept of pluralism, but also challenge the very existence of the God-Principle. They have, through their purely intellectual deductions, arrived at the final conclusion that Time is THE Eternal Factor, and the individual mind-and-intellect are instrumental causes to split It up and see in It the play of the past, the present, and the future. According to them, it is this "play of the mind" that bombards Time and makes It look as though It were finite and momentary. Perhaps Vyasa had this concept in his mind when he tried to bring this analogy to express the Infinite Substratum supporting the finite multiplicity.
There are some commentators who rather accept this analogy as a simple-looking direct statement; and, according to them, Time, which is beginningless and endless, is the ultimate measure of all things in the relative field.
AMONG BEASTS, I AM THE LORD OF BEASTS AND, AMONG BIRDS, I AM THE SON OF VINATA --- The majesty and grandeur, the dignity and "manliness" of the lion among animals, make him the Royal Lion. Its flight, its powers of perception, and the altitudes to which it can climb, make Garuda --- the King of birds.
OF CLEANSING AGENTS, I AM THE 'WIND' --- No antiseptic or sanitary equipment is as efficient to clean a place as the Sun and the wind. If the wind alone is indicated here it is because of Vyasa's perfect knowledge that wind can rise only when the Sun is hot. Where there is constant wind, there the Sun also must be available; in a cave there can be neither sunlight, nor movement of air.
OF THOSE WHO ARE WIELDERS OF WEAPONS, I AM 'RAMA' --- The hero of Ramayana, Sri Ramachandra was delineated by Valmiki, the first poet in India to use metrical compositions and write out a full-fledged Kavya, very elaborately, of a "perfect man" in all aspects of his existence: perfect as a son, as a husband, as a brother, as a friend, as a fighter, as a teacher, as a ruler, and even as a father. Such an all-round perfect one --- his perfections shining out all the more against the background of seeming imperfections and extremely irritating and confusing circumstances --- should necessarily be the noblest hand that ever wielded an honest bow to shoot out the most effective arrows!
OF THE FISHES I AM THE 'SHARK' AND OF THE RIVERS I AM JAHNAVI --- The story goes that Saint Jahnu drank the Ganges dry, and later, for the redemption of man, let her out to flow through his ears! The concept of the Ganges, we have indicated earlier, is a symbolism, freely used by the Hindus, to represent the "spiritual culture" of India. The wealth of the Rishi-knowledge, as it reaches a seeker, at the seat of his meditation, at first makes him swallow and dry it up. "Drinking at the fountain of Knowledge," "to satiate the thirst for knowledge," etc., are usual expressions in almost all languages of the world that have some slavery to the Mother of all Languages, Sanskrit.
Here the stream of knowledge is described as having flown out through Jahnu's ears; it is indeed a brilliant poetic concept to connect the term Shruti (heard), which means the contents of the Upanishads, comprising what the Masters declared to the world and what the disciples "heard" from them. In India, teachers come from time to time to reinterpret the Ancient Wisdom in the context of their own age, only after having gained their own personal experiences of Vedic Truth-declarations. Without the stamp of realisation, no teacher worth the name will dare come into the world to propagate the old Truth in new language.
Of the many names by which the sacred river Ganges is known in India, this particular name has been chosen here in order to emphasize the above-mentioned special implications.
AMONG FISHES I AM THE 'SHARK' --- the shark is the most dangerous fish in the ocean. So among fishes, Bhagawan declares Himself to be the 'shark.'
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
prahlādaś cāsmi daityānāṁ kālaḥ kalayatām aham
mṛgāṇāṁ ca mṛgendro ’haṁ vainateyaś ca pakṣiṇām
Bg 10.31
pavanaḥ pavatām asmi rāmaḥ śastra-bhṛtām aham
jhaṣāṇāṁ makaraś cāsmi srotasām asmi jāhnavī
Translation
30. I am 'Prahlada' among DAITYAS, 'Time' among reckoners, the 'Lord-of-beasts' (Lion) among animals, and 'Vainateya' (Garuda) among birds.
31. Among purifiers, I am the 'wind' ; among warriors, I am 'Rama, ' among fishes, I am the 'shark' ; among rivers, I am the 'Ganges. '
Commentary
I AM 'PRAHLADA' AMONG THE DAITYAS --- The Story of 'Prahlada,' very famous among the Hindus, is the story of a boy-devotee who, with adamantine faith and firm devotion, challenged his father Hiranyakashipu in defence of his own faith in Hari, and stood many a trial and persecution from his father.
AMONG RECKONERS I AM 'TIME' --- The logicians form among themselves a staunch group of Hindu philosophers, and they not only support the concept of pluralism, but also challenge the very existence of the God-Principle. They have, through their purely intellectual deductions, arrived at the final conclusion that Time is THE Eternal Factor, and the individual mind-and-intellect are instrumental causes to split It up and see in It the play of the past, the present, and the future. According to them, it is this "play of the mind" that bombards Time and makes It look as though It were finite and momentary. Perhaps Vyasa had this concept in his mind when he tried to bring this analogy to express the Infinite Substratum supporting the finite multiplicity.
There are some commentators who rather accept this analogy as a simple-looking direct statement; and, according to them, Time, which is beginningless and endless, is the ultimate measure of all things in the relative field.
AMONG BEASTS, I AM THE LORD OF BEASTS AND, AMONG BIRDS, I AM THE SON OF VINATA --- The majesty and grandeur, the dignity and "manliness" of the lion among animals, make him the Royal Lion. Its flight, its powers of perception, and the altitudes to which it can climb, make Garuda --- the King of birds.
OF CLEANSING AGENTS, I AM THE 'WIND' --- No antiseptic or sanitary equipment is as efficient to clean a place as the Sun and the wind. If the wind alone is indicated here it is because of Vyasa's perfect knowledge that wind can rise only when the Sun is hot. Where there is constant wind, there the Sun also must be available; in a cave there can be neither sunlight, nor movement of air.
OF THOSE WHO ARE WIELDERS OF WEAPONS, I AM 'RAMA' --- The hero of Ramayana, Sri Ramachandra was delineated by Valmiki, the first poet in India to use metrical compositions and write out a full-fledged Kavya, very elaborately, of a "perfect man" in all aspects of his existence: perfect as a son, as a husband, as a brother, as a friend, as a fighter, as a teacher, as a ruler, and even as a father. Such an all-round perfect one --- his perfections shining out all the more against the background of seeming imperfections and extremely irritating and confusing circumstances --- should necessarily be the noblest hand that ever wielded an honest bow to shoot out the most effective arrows!
OF THE FISHES I AM THE 'SHARK' AND OF THE RIVERS I AM JAHNAVI --- The story goes that Saint Jahnu drank the Ganges dry, and later, for the redemption of man, let her out to flow through his ears! The concept of the Ganges, we have indicated earlier, is a symbolism, freely used by the Hindus, to represent the "spiritual culture" of India. The wealth of the Rishi-knowledge, as it reaches a seeker, at the seat of his meditation, at first makes him swallow and dry it up. "Drinking at the fountain of Knowledge," "to satiate the thirst for knowledge," etc., are usual expressions in almost all languages of the world that have some slavery to the Mother of all Languages, Sanskrit.
Here the stream of knowledge is described as having flown out through Jahnu's ears; it is indeed a brilliant poetic concept to connect the term Shruti (heard), which means the contents of the Upanishads, comprising what the Masters declared to the world and what the disciples "heard" from them. In India, teachers come from time to time to reinterpret the Ancient Wisdom in the context of their own age, only after having gained their own personal experiences of Vedic Truth-declarations. Without the stamp of realisation, no teacher worth the name will dare come into the world to propagate the old Truth in new language.
Of the many names by which the sacred river Ganges is known in India, this particular name has been chosen here in order to emphasize the above-mentioned special implications.
AMONG FISHES I AM THE 'SHARK' --- the shark is the most dangerous fish in the ocean. So among fishes, Bhagawan declares Himself to be the 'shark.'
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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