Shloka
अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः |
अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ||१०-२०||Transliteration
ahamātmā guḍākeśa sarvabhūtāśayasthitaḥ .
ahamādiśca madhyaṃ ca bhūtānāmanta eva ca ||10-20||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
10.20. O coneror of sleep ! I am the Soul residing in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning, and the middle and also the very end of beings.
Shri Purohit Swami
10.20 O Arjuna! I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all beings; I am the beginning and the life, and I am the end of them all.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
10.20 See Comment under 10.42
Sri Ramanuja
10.20 I am the Self dwelling in the heart of all beings who constitute My body. What is called ‘Self’ is in every way the supporter, controller and the principal of a body. It is further declared: ‘And I am seated in the hearts of all; from Me are memory, knowledge and their removal’ (15.15), and ‘The Lord dwells, O Arjuna in the heart of every being causing them to spin round and round by His power, as if set on a wheel’ (18.61). The Srutis also declare: ‘He who, dwelling in all beings, is within all beings, whom all beings do not know, whose body all beings are, who controls all beings from within, is your Inner Controller, immortal Self (Br. U., 3.7.15); and ‘He who, dwelling in the self is within the self, whom the self does not know, whose body the self is, and who controls the self from within, He is your Inner Controller and Immortal Self’ (Sata. Br., 14.5.30). Thus, I am the Self of all beings and I am their beginning, the middle and also the end. The meaning is that I am the cause of their origination, sustentation and dissolution.
Thus, having explained that the Lord’s immanence in all beings, which are His manifestations having Him, as their Self, is the ground for naming them in the manner of Samanadhikaranya or co-ordinate predication with Him (i.e., predication that they are He Himself), Sri Krsna proceeds to present some specific or distinguished manifestations in the same style of co-ordinate predication. As the Lord abides as the Self in all, the final significance of all terms culminates in Him. Terms such as god, man, bird, tree etc., though they signify the respective physical forms of those objects, they culminate through them in the selves in them as their final significance. Just like that here it is going to be stated in the conclusion of the account of the manifestations of the Lord, that the Lord’s immanence in them all as their Self is the basis for describing them in such co-ordinate predication (as He Himself). The text ‘There is nothing, moving or unmoving, apart from Me’ (10.39) says that they are inseparable from Him, and this inseparability is the result of their being under His control. This has been initially declared in the words ‘All proceed from Me’ (10.8).
[This word Samanadhikaranya is translated by some also as ‘grammatical co-ordination.’ It is a context in which a number of words, usually having varying denotations, are used to signify an identical object. This kind of co-ordinate relation occurs in all the following verses in which Sri Krsna eates Himself with various objects having different denotations as Atman, Visnu among the Adityas, Indra, Marici, Sankara, Kubera, etc. Further explanation is given in the commentary.]
Sri Shankaracharya
10.20 Gudakesa, O Gudakesa-gudaka means sleep, and isa means master; master of that (sleep) is gudakesa, i.e. one who has conered sleep; [See also under 1.24.-Tr.] or, one who has got thick hair; aham, I; am the atma, Self, the indwelling Self; who is to be ever-meditated on as sarva-bhuta-asaya [Asaya-that in which are contained the impressions of meditations (upasanas), actions and past experiences.]-sthitah, residing in the hearts of all beings. And, by one who is unable to do so, I am to be meditated on through the following aspects. I am capable of being meditated on (through them) becasue aham, I; am verily the adih, beginning, the origin; and the madhyam, middle, continuance; ca, as also; the antah, end, dissolution; bhutanam, of (all) beings. ‘I am to be meditated upon thus also:’
Swami Adidevananda
10.20 I am the Self, O Arjuna, dwelling in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings.
Swami Gambirananda
10.20 O Gudakesa, I am the Self residing in the hearts of all beings, and I am the beginning and the middle as also the end of (all) beings.
Swami Sivananda
10.20 I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the hearts of all beings; I am the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
10.20 अहम् I? आत्मा the Self? गुडाकेश O Gudakesa? सर्वभूताशयस्थितः seated in the hearts of all beings? अहम् I? आदिः the beginning? च and? मध्यम् the middle? च and? भूतानाम् of (all) beings? अन्तः the end? एव even? च and.Commentary O Gudakesa I am the soul (Pratyagatma) which exists in the hearts of all beings and I am also the source or origin? the middle or stay? and the end of all created beings. I am the birth? the life and the death of all beings. Meditate on Me as the innermost Self.Gudakesa means either coneror of sleep or thickhaired.He who is able to meditate on the Self with Abheda Bhavana (attitude of nonduality)? is a alified aspirant (Adhikari) of the first class. He who is not able to meditate on the Self should think of the Lord in those things which are mentioned below. This type of meditation is for the aspirants of the middle class.