Bhagavat Gita a detailed study-chapter4The truth about action

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4. aparam bhavatho janma param janma vivasvathaH

kaTham ethath vijaaneeyaam thvam aadhou prokthavaan ithi

 

Arjuna said,

 

Your birth is later and that of the Sun was earlier. Then how can I understand your saying that you taught this yoga to the Sun.

 

Now, Arjuna, who has been hitherto considering Krishna as the son of Devaki, though with great reverence and adoration, comes out with a legitimate doubt. He expresses his disbelief that Krishna had expounded the yoga to the Sun as the birth of Krishna was much later than the Sun, who was of ancient origin.

 

But Arjuna was not totally unaware of the divinity of Krishna. He has seen that during the rajasuyayaga and during their exploits together before the war and also from Bheeshma and others. But he simply wanted to know the real truth about the incarnation of the Lord as Krishna, not for his own sake but for the others who may not understand it. Even though he knew who Krishna was he wanted it to be reiterated by Krishna Himself.

 

Sree Bhagavan uvaacha

 

5. bahooni me vyatheethaani janmaani thava cha arjuna

thaan aham vedha sarvaaNi na thvam vetTha paranthapa

 

Many lives have passed of Me and you, Arjuna, and I know them while you do not.

 

Now for the first time Krishna reveals His true identity as the Self of all., though it was hinted at in the third chapter of the Gita `mayi sarvaani karmaani sanyasya.' The Supreme Self is the sarvajna, omniscient, not being contaminated by karma and it is only the individual transmigratory self, jiva, who has limited knowledge due to karma. The pure self has no karma as Krishna asserts in the third chapter `na me partha asthi karthavyam.' As if sensing the question in the mind of Arjuna that if Krishna is none other than the Supreme Self why should He be born at all?

 

Krishna was explaining in the second chapter that though the bodies change the self changes not. This is what is meant here by saying "you have had may lives and so have I." the embodied soul, jeeva, goes on entering the cycle of birth and death but there is no birth for the real self. And for the Lord who is the inner self of all there is no birth at all. Then what did Krishna mean by saying that He also had many births and why? This is explained in the next three slokas.