Chapter4 Shloka4 - Shrimad Bhagvad Gita

Shrimad Bhagvad Gita

Chapter 4 : Jnana Yoga - The Yoga of knowledge

Ch 04 : Sh 04

अर्जुन उवाच
अपरं भवतो जन्म परं जन्म विवस्वतः ।
कथमेतद्विजानीयां त्वमादौ प्रोक्तवानिति ॥

Transliteration

arjuna uvāca
aparaṃ bhavato janma paraṃ janma vivasvataḥ |
katham etad vijānīyāṃ tvam ādau proktavān iti || 4 ||

Translation

Arjuna said: Your birth was recent, and the birth of Vivasvan long ago. How then am I to understand that you taught it in the beginning?

Purport

This is a very interesting conversation. In earlier Shloka Bhagvan Shri Krishna told how he taught Yoga first to Vivasana, the deity of light. Arjuna got confused and asked a very innocent question. He told, O Krishna, Vivasana is the ancient deity and existed at the start of the creation and you took birth in our time. You might be having similar age as mine, how then you taught Yoga to Vivasna, the ancient deity.