Bhagavad Gita BG 11.39

Chapter 11, Verse 39 — Meaning, Translation & Explanation

वायुर्यमोऽग्निर्वरुणः शशाङ्कः प्रजापतिस्त्वं प्रपितामहश्च । नमो नमस्तेऽस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः पुनश्च भूयोऽपि नमो नमस्ते ॥

vayur yamo 'gnir varuNah shashankah prajapatis tvam prapitamahash ca namo namas te 'stu sahasra-krtvah punash ca bhuyo 'pi namo namas te

Meaning

You are Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon, Prajapati, and the Great-Grandsire. Salutations, a thousand times salutations to You! Again and again, salutations, salutations to You!

Understanding

Arjuna recognizes all the cosmic powers as forms of the one Krishna. Vayu (the wind-god, the life-force/prana). Yama (the god of death and dharma). Agni (fire — the priest of the cosmos, the transformer). Varuna (the cosmic law, the god of waters and cosmic order). Shashankah (the moon — soma, the mind, the nourishing nectar). Prajapati (the Lord of Creatures, the creative principle). Prapitamahash ca (and the Great-Grandsire — Brahma himself, but also the great ancestral ground). Namo namas te 'stu sahasra-krtvah (salutations, salutations to you a thousand times). Punash ca bhuyo 'pi namo namas te (and again, again, even more — salutations, salutations). The repetition of namas is itself the practice — each 'namo namas' is a bow, a dissolution of the separate self before the All.

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