Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 - JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 4

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Adidevananda's translation of Ramanuja Gita Bhashya, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

The Advent & acts of the Incarnation - 4-9

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 4 -JnanaKarmaSanyasa Yoga - Sloka 4

Arjuna Uvacha

Aparam bhavato janma param janma vivasvatah I

Katham etat vijaniyam tvam adau proktavan iti II sloka 4

अपरं भवतः जन्म परम् जन्म विवस्वतः ।

कथं एतत् विजानीयां त्वां आदौ प्रोक्तवान इति ।। श्लोक ४

Arjuna said

Later was your birth, and earlier the birth of Vivasvan. How then am I to understand that you taught it in the beginning?

According to teh calculation of time, your birth was indeed later, contemporaneous with our births. And the birth of Vivasvan was at  earlier time, reckoned as 28 cycles of units of 4 yugas each. How can I understand as true that you taught it in the beginning?

Now, there is no contradiction here, for it was quite possible that He had taught Vivasvan in a former birth. The memory of what was done in former births is quite natural for great men. This should not be taken to mean that Arjuna does not know the son of Vasudeva, the speaker, as the Lord of All. Because he (Arjuna) says later on, "You are the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Light and Supreme Purifier. All the seers proclaim You as the eternal Divine Purusa, the Primal Lord, unborn and all pervading. So also proclaim the divine sage Narada, Asita, Devala & Vyasa. You yourself also are saying this to me" (10.12-13)

Arjuna had heard repeatedly from Bhishma and others during the Rajasuya sacrifice of Yudhishtra