Bhagavad Gita 15.17
Spoken by Krishna ☆ Key verse · Verse 17 of 20
उत्तमः पुरुषस् त्व् अन्यः परमात्मेत्य् उदाहृतः । यो लोकत्रयम् आविश्य बिभर्त्य् अव्यय ईश्वरः ॥
uttamaḥ puruṣas tv anyaḥ paramātmety udāhṛtaḥ | yo loka-trayam āviśya bibharty avyaya īśvaraḥ ||
Beyond both stands the uttama Puruṣa — Paramātmā, the inexhaustible Lord pervading and sustaining all three worlds.
Word by word (3)
- uttamaḥ puruṣas tv anyaḥ paramātmety udāhṛtaḥ
- — but yet another (tu anyaḥ) is the uttama (highest/supreme) Puruṣa, referred to/declared (udāhṛtaḥ) as Paramātmā — the Supreme Self beyond both kṣara and akṣara
- yo loka-trayam āviśya bibharti
- — who, entering (āviśya) the three worlds (loka-trayam — earth, atmosphere, heaven / waking, dream, deep sleep), sustains/upholds (bibharti) them
- avyaya īśvaraḥ
- — the inexhaustible (avyaya) Lord (Īśvara) — avyaya echoes the avyaya of V1 (aśvattha) and the avyayaṃ padam (V4); now the avyaya is the Puruṣottama Himself
But there is yet another, the Supreme Purusha — referred to as Paramātmā, the Highest Self. As the inexhaustible Lord, He enters and upholds the three worlds.
A modern analogy
In a hierarchy: workers (kṣara), management (akṣara), and the founder-owner (Puruṣottama). Management is unchanging within the company, but the founder transcends the entire company structure — he is both within it (bibharti, sustains it) and beyond it. The three worlds are inside the Puruṣottama like a thought inside consciousness — sustained, pervaded, held.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
But distinct is the Highest Spirit spoken of as the Supreme Self, the indestructible Lord who penetrates and sustains the three worlds. [1]
But there is another, the Supreme Purusha, called the Highest Self, the immutable Lord, who pervading the three worlds, sustains them. [4]
But the being supreme is yet another, called the highest self, who as the inexhaustible lord, pervading the three worlds, supports them. [9]
But the Highest Person is Other (than these two), called the Highest Self, the indestructible Lord who pervading the three worlds supports them. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
But why such detail, O Arjuna? With a single fragment of Myself I establish and uphold this entire universe.
I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
At creation, the Creator embedded yajna into existence itself — give and the cosmos gives back.
For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.
Verse 17 of 20 · back to Chapter 15