Bhagavad Gita 7.24अव्यक्तं व्यक्ितमापन्नं मन्यन्ते मामबुद्धयः।परं भावमजानन्तो ममाव्ययमनुत्तमम् ॥
avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām
abuddhayaḥ paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam
Sanskrit recitation
What you worship shapes you · 7.20–7.30 · Teaching
Translation
The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable, and most excellent nature.
Hindi translation
बुद्धिहीन मनुष्य मेरे सर्वश्रेष्ठ अविनाशी परमभावको न जानते हुए अव्यक्त (मन-इन्द्रियोंसे पर) मुझ सच्चिदानन्दघन परमात्माको मनुष्यकी तरह ही शरीर धारण करनेवाला मानते हैं।
Meaning
The ignorant take Lord Krishna as a common mortal. They think that He has taken a body like ordinary human beings from the unmanifested state on account of the force of Karma of the previous birth. They have no knowledge of His higher, imperishable and selfluminous nature as the Highest Self. They think that He has just now come into manifestation, though He is selfexistent, eternal, beginningless, endless, birthless, deathless, changeless, infinite and unmanifest.
After Swami Sivananda
What you worship shapes you· 7.20–7.30→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 7.20Those whose wisdom has been taken away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following…
- 7.21Whatever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that same faith of his…
- 7.22Endowed with that faith, he engages in the worship of that form and obtains his desired…
- 7.23Verily, the reward (fruit) that accrues to those men of small intelligence is finite. The…
7.24The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My higher,…
- 7.25I am not manifest to all, veiled as I am by the Yoga-Maya. This deluded world does not…
- 7.26I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present, and the future; however, no one…
- 7.27O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth due to the delusion of the pairs of…
- 7.28But those men of virtuous deeds, whose sins have come to an end and who are freed from the…
- 7.29Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realize in…
- 7.30Those who know Me with the Adhibhuta (pertaining to the elements), Adhidaiva (pertaining…
Word-by-word→
- mama
- my
- mām
- me
- param
- Supreme
- avyayam
- imperishable
- bhāvam
- nature
- vyaktim
- possessing a personality
- avyaktam
- formless
- manyante
- think
- āpannam
- to have assumed
- anuttamam
- excellent
- abuddhayaḥ
- less intelligent
- ajānantaḥ
- not understanding
Read this when you feel
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