Shloka
ज्ञानयज्ञेन चाप्यन्ये यजन्तो मामुपासते |
एकत्वेन पृथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतोमुखम् ||९-१५||Transliteration
jñānayajñena cāpyanye yajanto māmupāsate .
ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham ||9-15||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
9.15. [Of them] some worship Me by knowledge-sacrifice and others by offering sacrifices; [thus] they worship Me, the Universally-faced [either] as One [or] as Many.
Shri Purohit Swami
9.15 Others worship Me with full consciousness as the One, the Manifold, the Omnipresent, the Universal.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
9.13-15 Mahatmanah etc., upto Visvato-mukham. Divine nature i.e., of goodness. Offering sacrifices : i.e., by means of sacrifices with the external materials. But others worship Me with knowledge-sacrifice only. Hence through knowledge some [worship Me] as One, while others [worship Me] as Many through the action-Yoga. However all conceive Me alone, as their highest goal. But, action certainly abounds in the idea of duality, because it is coextensive with hosts of different causes (karakas). So how can it lead to the Absolute state ? It is answered [as] :
Sri Ramanuja
9.15 Other high-minded persons worship Me by singing My names, etc., already described; and they also perform the sacrifice called knowledge. They worship Me, who, by being ‘characterised by diversity in various ways’ in the form of the cosmos, is a multiform, namely, having all entities as modes (Prakaras) and also as One (the Prakari). The purport is this: The Lord Vasudeva alone, having the body comprising animate and inanimate entities in an extremely subtle form (in the state of Cosmic dissolution) incapable of distinctness by name and form, resolves by His unfailing true will power: ‘May I become embodied in gross animate and inanimate entities, distinguished variously by name and form.’ He alone then abides, with the variegated cosmos as His body, comprising gods, animals, men and immobile things. They worship Me by contemplating on Me thus.
Therefore Sri Krsna declares: ‘I, having the universe for My body, alone abide’.
Sri Shankaracharya
9.15 Anye, others, giving up others forms of adoration; ca, verily; upasate, worship; mam, Me, God; yajantah, by adoring, glorifying; api, exclusively; jnana-yajnene ekatvena, through the sacrifice of the knowledge of oneness-knowledge of God itself being the sacrifice; and that knowledge consists in the realization of the highest truth that the supreme Brahman is verily one. Adoring with that (knowledge) they worship Me. And some others Me prthaktvena, multifariously-in different forms as the sun, moon, etc. They worship (Me) by thinking that, Visnu who is God Himself exists in different forms as the sun etc. Still others worship Me thinking that, that very God who is visvatomukhah, mulitiformed, who has His facr everywhere, i.e., who is the Cosmic Person; exists bahudha, variously. In numerous ways they worship Him, the Cosmic Person, who has His face everywhere. ‘If they worship in numerous ways, how is it that they worship You alone?’ Hence the Lord says:
Swami Adidevananda
9.15 Others, too, besides offering the sacrifice of knowledge, worship Me as One, who, characterised by diversity in numberless ways, is multiformed (in My Cosmic aspect).
Swami Gambirananda
9.15 Others verily worship Me by adoring exclusively through the sacrifice of the knowledge of oneness; (others worship Me) multifariously, and (others) as the multiformed existing variously.
Swami Sivananda
9.15 Others also sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice worship Me, the All-faced, as one, as distinct, and as manifold.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
9.15 ज्ञानयज्ञेन with the wisdomsacrifice? च and? अपि also? अन्ये others? यजन्तः sacrificing? माम् Me?,उपासते worhsip? एकत्वेन as one? पृथक्त्वेन as different? बहुधा in various ways? विश्वतोमुखम् the Allfaced.Commentary Others too sacrificing by the wisdomsacrifice? i.e.? seeing the Self in all? adore Me the One and the manifold? present everywhere. They regard all the forms they see as the forms of God? all sounds they hear as the names of God. They give all objects they eat as offerings unto the Lord in vaious ways.Some adore Him with the knowledge that there is only one Reality? the Supreme Being Who is ExistenceKnowledgeBliss. They identify themselves with the Truth or Brahman. This is the Monistic view of the Vedantins. Some worship Him making a distinction between the Lord and themselves with the attitude of master and servant. This is the view of the Dualistic School of philosophy. Some worship Him with the knowledge that He exists as the various divinities? Brahma? Vishnu? Rudra? Siva? etc.Visvatomukham Others worship Him who has assumed all the manifold forms in the world? Who exists in all the forms as the Allfaced (the one Lord exists in all the different forms with His face on all sides? as it were). (Cf.IV.33)