Chapter 11 · Verse 43·Spoken by Arjuna
पितासि लोकस्य चराचरस्य त्वमस्य पूज्यश्च गुरुर्गरीयान्। न त्वत्समोऽस्त्यभ्यधिकः कुतोऽन्यो लोकत्रयेऽप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव
pitāsi lokasya charācharasya tvam asya pūjyaśh cha gurur garīyān na tvat-samo ’sty abhyadhikaḥ kuto ’nyo loka-traye ’py apratima-prabhāva
You are the father of this world, of all that moves and does not move. You are its teacher, worthy of worship, greater than any teacher. There is none equal to you. How could anyone in all three worlds be greater, you of unrivaled power?
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
rjuna names the Lord as the father of the whole world, both the moving and the unmoving. The Sanskrit charachara means exactly this: chara, the things that move (humans, animals, birds), and achara, the things that stand still (trees, plants). The word translated 'father' is pita or janaka, the begetter, the one who brings everything forth. So the praise begins at the most basic relation any creature knows: the Lord is the source from whom all beings, living and lifeless, come. One commentator adds that the Lord not only begets this world but also sustains it.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda · Dhanapati Sūri · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Because the Lord is the father, He is also worthy of worship (pujya) and is the teacher (guru), and not just any teacher but the gariyan, the weightier one, the guru greater than all gurus. The commentators give reasons for each title. He is worthy of worship because He is the Lord of all and the creator of this world. He is the supreme teacher because He is the founder of the tradition of knowledge of dharma and the Self, the very source from whom even the Vedas and the great teachers received their light. So the verse moves from origin (father) to reverence (worthy of worship) to instruction (guru), building a complete picture of the Lord's standing in every relation that structures a person's life.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
The verse then makes a strong logical claim: there is none equal to the Lord, so how could there be anyone greater? The reasoning, given most fully by the Advaita and bhakti commentators, is that two supreme Lords cannot exist. If there were two independent Lords, the running of the world would collapse, because when one wished to create, the other might wish to destroy, and there would be no cause for them to agree. So there can be only one supreme Lord (paramesvara). And once you see that no one is even His equal, the question of anyone being greater simply has nowhere to land. The category 'greater than' has no further place to go.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Śrīla Baladeva · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
Arjuna closes by addressing the Lord as apratima-prabhava, of matchless or immeasurable power. Pratima means a measure or a likeness, the standard by which a thing is gauged; a-pratima means there is no such measure and no likeness. So the Lord's power (prabhava) cannot be measured against anything, because there is nothing to set beside Him for comparison. This is the same point as 'none equal, none greater,' now sealed in a single name: the Lord is not the chief among contenders but the only one, beyond all comparison.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Baladeva · Dhanapati Sūri · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar · Rāmānujācārya
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse as Arjuna's ground for asking forgiveness. The praise of the Lord as father, worthy of worship, and supreme teacher is the basis on which Arjuna pleads that his offences should be borne. As a father forgives his children, the Lord, being the father of all, should forgive. One commentator works out the 'greater teacher' point in technical terms: the Lord is the founder of the whole tradition of knowledge of dharma and the Self, and is the teacher even of the teachers, of the sutra and the rest. These commentators also spell out the proof that there cannot be two Lords: with two independent Lords each acting on his own mind, one might wish to create while another wishes to destroy, so ordinary usage and the world's working would collapse; therefore a plurality of the Lord is improper.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators stress that the Lord stands above all not by raw power alone but by His qualities, naming compassion (and the rest) first. There is none equal to the Lord by any quality whatever, compassion foremost; so there can be no one higher. One of them frames the whole verse as a display of the Lord's standing across all the relational categories that structure a person's life: parent, object of worship, and teacher. The uniqueness is fastened by the two asymmetry-arguments, no equal and no superior, and it is the Lord's gracious qualities, not mere might, that place Him above all.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the verse through the lens of loving relationship and grace. One hears Arjuna confessing that he is prakrta, of the lower stuff, and asking pardon precisely because the Lord's friendship has been granted to one of the lower stuff; the humble self-naming is itself part of the loving address, not its cancellation. The Lord is known as the worshipful and sattvic one, present in the great sacrifices, and because the sattvic dharmas are seated in Him the devotee asks His pardon. The other emphasizes that the asking-for-pardon stands on the rock of the verse's logic: the Lord is parent, weight, and guru, with none equal and far less anyone greater; one of them also offers a second reading of charachara as the standing and moving forms, or as the Brahmana and the Kshatriya.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators hear the verse as praise stripped of all competition. The Lord is not the chief among contenders; He is the only contender, the single supreme Lord (paramesvara), and the very category of 'greater than' has nowhere left to land. One supports the claim with scripture: 'Neither his equal nor his superior is seen.' Another expands the praise warmly: the Lord bears the whole world of living creatures and lifeless matter, He is the God of all gods including Vishnu and Shiva, the first primeval preceptor from whom even the Vedas received illumination, the Supreme Soul, profound and inscrutable, evenly just to all creatures, matchlessly unequalled in all perfections, the Absolute person without a second, whose majesty beggars description.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators keep the verse's plain force. One restates the argument simply: there cannot be two or more Lords, for if there were, all being independent and not of one mind, what one wished to create another might wish to destroy, and the world would not get on as it does; since none is equal, none can be superior, and as Creator the Lord is fit to be adored and is the greatest guru. Another renders it directly: being the father of this movable and immovable world, the Lord is worshippable and the Preceptor of preceptors, and in the three spheres there is none equal, so how can there be anyone greater? A third draws out the breadth: among the boundless world-systems, all moving beings (men, bodies, beasts, birds) and all unmoving beings (trees, creepers) have the Lord as the father who brings them forth and sustains them, as their object of worship, and as the great guru who gives them instruction (shiksha).
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If the Lord is my father and supreme teacher, why does Arjuna stand before this vision asking forgiveness rather than simply resting in that closeness?
Because in this verse the closeness and the asking for forgiveness are the same movement, not opposites. Arjuna builds his plea for pardon directly on the relationships he has just named: the Lord is the father of all, so as a father forgives his children, the Lord should bear his offences. The very intimacy is what gives Arjuna the standing to ask.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
The vision is overwhelming because Arjuna now sees that the Lord is not just a friend at his side but the begetter, the worthy of worship, and the teacher greater than all teachers, with none equal and none greater, of matchless power. Seeing this rightly does not push him away; it deepens the relationship into reverence. The same Lord is both the unmeasurable supreme and his own father.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva
And the asking is itself an act of trust, not distance. One commentator notes that Arjuna names himself as one of the lower stuff and asks pardon precisely because the Lord's friendship has been granted to one like him; the honest confession is part of the loving address, not its cancellation. To ask forgiveness of your father is to rest in him, not to be cut off from him.
Vallabhācārya
Contemplation
Notice how Arjuna asks for pardon. He does not pretend to be worthy. He names himself plainly as prakrta, one made of the lower stuff, and asks the Lord's forgiveness precisely because the friendship has already been granted to someone like him. The humility is not a cancellation of the closeness; the honest naming of his own smallness is itself part of the loving address. You can come to the Lord the same way. You do not have to clean yourself up first or hide what you are. You name yourself truthfully, lower stuff and all, and that very honesty becomes the form your love takes. The asking for pardon and the intimacy are not opposites here; they arrive together.
Sit with this · Vallabhācārya
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