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Ch 9 · Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga
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Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 9, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 9.17Chapter 9 · Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh
पिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहः ।
वेद्यं पवित्रम् ॐकार ऋक् साम यजुरेव च ॥
pitā← pitṛ(10 verses)nominative masculine singular nounfather; ancestor; the pitṛs (manes)attested in commentariesadvaitaजनयिता अहम् अस्य जगतः, माता जनयित्री, धाता कर्मफलस्य प्राणिभ्यो विधाता, पितामहः पितुः पिता, वेद्यं वेदितव्यम्, पवित्रंadvaita-bhaktiजनयिता माता जनयित्री धाता पोषयिता तत्तत्कर्मफलविधाता वा पितामहः पितुः पिता वेद्यं वेदितव्यं वस्तु पूयतेऽनेनेति पवित्रंham asya← idam(122 verses)genitive neuter singular nounthis (proximal demonstrative)attested in commentariesadvaitaजगतः, माता जनयित्री, धाता कर्मफलस्य प्राणिभ्यो विधाता, पितामहः पितुः पिता, वेद्यं वेदितव्यम्, पवित्रं पावनम् ओंकारः, ऋकviśiṣṭādvaitaस्थावरजङ्गमात्मकस्य जगतः तत्र तत्र पितृत्वेन मातृत्वेन धातृत्वेन पितामहत्वेनadvaita-bhaktiजगतः सर्वस्य प्राणिजातस्य पिता जनयिता माता जनयित्री धाता पोषयिता तत्तत्कर्मफलविधाता वा पितामहः पितुः पिता वेद्यं वेदितव jaga← jagant(18 verses)genitive neuter singular nounthe world, the moving (universe)to mātā← mātṛnominative feminine singular nounmotherattested in commentariesadvaitaजनयित्री, धाता कर्मफलस्य प्राणिभ्यो विधाता, पितामहः पितुः पिता, वेद्यं वेदितव्यम्, पवित्रं पावनम् ओंकारः, ऋक् साम यजुःśuddhādvaitaचाहम्। धाताऽन्वाधाता। यजमानश्चाहं ब्रह्मैव,ब्रह्मणा हुतं [4।24] इति पूर्वसूत्रितत्वात्। पितामहश्चाहं स्मार्त्ते श्राद्धadvaita-bhaktiजनयित्री धाता पोषयिता तत्तत्कर्मफलविधाता वा पितामहः पितुः पिता वेद्यं वेदितव्यं वस्तु पूयतेऽनेनेति पवित्रं पावनं शुद्धि dhātā← dhātṛ(3 verses)nominative masculine singular nouncreator, ordainer (from √dhā 'place'); epithet of Brahmāattested in commentariesadvaitaकर्मफलस्य प्राणिभ्यो विधाता, पितामहः पितुः पिता, वेद्यं वेदितव्यम्, पवित्रं पावनम् ओंकारः, ऋक् साम यजुःbhaktiकर्मफलविधाता, वेद्यं ज्ञेयं वस्तु, पवित्रं शोधकं प्रायश्चित्तात्मकं वा, ओंकारः प्रणवः, ऋग्वेदादयो वेदाश्च अहमेव, स्पष्टadvaita-bhaktiपोषयिता तत्तत्कर्मफलविधाता वा पितामहः पितुः पिता वेद्यं वेदितव्यं वस्तु पूयतेऽनेनेति पवित्रं पावनं शुद्धिहेतुर्गङ्गास्न pitāmahaḥ← pitāmaha(4 verses)nominative masculine singular noungrandfather (pitṛ + mahat); epithet of Bhīṣma; also of Brahmāattested in commentariesadvaitaपितुः पिता, वेद्यं वेदितव्यम्, पवित्रं पावनम् ओंकारः, ऋक् साम यजुःadvaita-bhaktiपितुः पिता वेद्यं वेदितव्यं वस्तु पूयतेऽनेनेति पवित्रं पावनं शुद्धिहेतुर्गङ्गास्नानगायत्रीजपादि
vedyaṃ← vid(21 verses)nominative neuter singular gdv nounto know; to find (verbal root) pavitram← pavitra(4 verses)nominative neuter singular nounpure, purifying oṃkāra← oṃkāranominative masculine singular nounthe syllable Oṃ (oṃ + kāra) ṛk sāma← sāman(4 verses)nominative neuter singular nounsong, sacred chant (the Sāmaveda) yaju← yajusnominative neuter singular nounyajus formula; Yajurvedar eva← eva(174 verses)indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle) ca← ca(391 verses)and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip
meaning

I am the father of this world, its mother, its sustainer, its grandsire; I am what is to be known, the purifier, the syllable *Om*, and the three Vedas.

Bhāṣyakāra purports

  • Śaṅkaraadvaita

    Brahman alone is the sole matrix of this world: the generator (pitā), the generatrix (mātā), the dispenser of action-fruits (dhātā), and the father of fathers (pitāmaha) — all relational roles resolved back into the one non-dual substratum. What is to be known (vedyam) is that same Brahman, the purifier (pavitram) is that same Brahman, the syllable Oṃkāra is its upāsanā-vehicle, and the three Vedas are its revealed verbal form. Śaṅkara's terse listing resists elaboration: each name strips away a separate reification of relationship until only the relationless Absolute remains.

    divergence: Śaṅkara enumerates: pitā janaẏitā, mātā janaẏitrī, dhātā karmaṗhalasya prāṇibhyo vidhātā — each gloss deflationary, collapsing the relational term into its causal function, then pointing that function back to Brahman. The verse is read as a systematic negation of independent agents.

  • Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

    The Lord — present as inner controller of the entire moving and unmoving world (sthāvarajaṅgamātmaka jagat) — is himself the father, mother, and grandsire at each of those relational stations; he is not metaphorically so but really so, as the indwelling self of all beings who constitute his body. Whatever is to be known (vedyam), whatever purifies (pavitram), is he alone; and the Praṇava (Oṃkāra), as the seed-syllable of the Vedas, is himself — just as the three Vedas are himself. Rāmānuja reads this verse as Bhagavān's declaration of total interiority: he does not transcend relation but saturates every relational role from within.

    divergence: Rāmānuja glosses dhātā as 'cetanaviśeṣa outside the mother-father pair yet causative of birth,' preserving precise ontological distinction between relational roles rather than collapsing them. Vedakaś ca vedabījabhūtaḥ praṇavaḥ aham eva — the Praṇava is Bhagavān as the generative ground of scriptural cognition.

  • Madhvadvaita

    *Pitā* (father), *mātā* (mother), *dhātā* (sustainer), *pitāmahaḥ* (grandsire) — Hari alone is the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) ground of every relational category named in this verse. Each *jīva* enacts such roles only as a *paratantra* (eternally dependent) instrument; the ontological weight of the relation falls wholly on Bhagavān. *Vedyaṃ pavitram oṃkāra ṛk sāma yajur eva ca* — the knowable, the purifier, the sacred syllable, and the three Vedas are not autonomous sources standing apart from Hari; they are his own self-disclosure, and *bheda* (real distinction) between him and them is never cancelled. This is the *pañca-bheda* (five-fold real distinction) operating at the level of cosmic and epistemic relations: Lord distinct from *jīva*, Lord distinct from matter, and the instruments of *jñāna* (knowledge) themselves subsisting in dependence on the one *svatantra* Hari. *Sarvottamatva* — Hari's absolute supremacy — is precisely what the verse's accumulation of relational titles points toward: he exceeds every category while being its real support.

    divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading applies *pañca-bheda* and *sarvottamatva* directly to the mūla's catalogue of relational and Vedic titles.

  • Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

    Vallabha reads the verse through the lens of the cosmic yajña (brahma-yajña): Kṛṣṇa is simultaneously the yajamāna (sacrificer), the pitā (begetter), the dhātā-anvadhātā (maintainer and re-maintainer), and the pitāmaha who instructs the three Vedic śrāddha generations. The Praṇava is him as the first syllable sounded in every mantra; the Ṛk is padabaddha vākya (metered speech), the Sāman is gītiyukta vākya (melodic speech), the Yajus is speech free of both meter and melody — and the cakāra includes the Atharvāṅgirasa, making all four Vedas his verbal body. In Puṣṭi-mārga, this is pure prasāda: the entire cosmos of relation and knowledge flows as Kṛṣṇa's self-gift.

    divergence: Vallabha provides unusually detailed tri-part Vedic classification — Ṛk as pādabaddha, Sāman as gītiyukta, Yajus as pādagītibhyāṃ rahita — and explicitly notes that cakāra collects Atharvāṅgirasa. The yajña frame (brahmaṇā hutam [4.24] as pūrva-sūtrita) anchors the reading in his earlier commentary.

  • Śrīdharabhakti

    Śrīdhara Svāmī provides a clean devotional-philological gloss: dhātā is karmaṗhala-vidhātā (the one who allots fruits of action); vedyam is the knowable object (jñeya vastu); pavitram is either the purifier or the prāyaścitta-form (the means of atonement); Oṃkāra is Praṇava; and the Vedas in their three branches are all Bhagavān alone. The voice is spare ('spaṣṭam anyat' — the rest is clear) and trusts the devotee to hear the verse's own music: every form of cosmic relationship and every means of knowledge resolves into the one beloved Lord.

    divergence: Śrīdhara's gloss is brief and largely philological; the rendering above expands his terminal spaṣṭam anyat into its implied devotional consequence without over-reading the commentary. HTML/JS artifacts were absent from this payload; Devanāgarī text was clean.

  • Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

    Madhusūdana Sarasvatī synthesizes: Brahman who is Kṛṣṇa is pitā (janayitā), mātā (janayitrī), dhātā (either poshayitā — nourisher — or tattat-karmaṗhala-vidhātā), and pitāmaha (the father's father). Vedyam is the knowable Brahman; pavitram is the cause of purification — Gaṅgā-snāna and Gāyatrī-japa are examples, not ends. Oṃkāra is the sādhana for knowing Brahman (veditavye brahmaṇi vedanasādhana). The Ṛk is metered verse (niyatākṣarapādā), the Sāman is metered with melody (gītiviśiṣṭā), and the Yajus is unmetered and unmelodied; cakāra includes the Atharvāṅgirasa. For Madhusūdana the verse is both Advaita metaphysics (all these are the one Brahman) and bhakti invitation (all these forms are Kṛṣṇa whom you may love).

    divergence: Madhusūdana uniquely glosses dhātā with two options (poshayitā OR karmaṗhala-vidhātā) and gives Gaṅgā-snāna and Gāyatrī-japa as concrete examples of pavitram — grounding the Advaita abstraction in devotional life. His Oṃkāra gloss (veditavye brahmaṇi vedanasādhanam) explicitly links upāsanā to jñāna.

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