Cluster 0670 — BG-18.78 — Where Krishna and Arjuna Stand: The Final Verse and the Pasayadan

Original (Sanskrit): यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः । तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥७८॥ ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे मोक्षसंन्यासयोगो नाम अष्टादशोऽध्यायः ॥१८॥

Where the Lord-of-Yoga Krishna is, where Partha the bow-bearer is — there abide fortune, victory, flourishing, and unshakeable moral-order: this is my conviction. So says not Krishna but Sanjaya, the narrator, stepping forward at the very last to stake his own settled judgment. This is the Gita's final verse, the closing bookend of the whole narration that began with Dhritarashtra's question at BG-1.1. With it the Bhagavad-Gita ends, sealed by the OM-TAT-SAT colophon of the eighteenth chapter, MOKSHA-SANNYASA-YOGA.

And here too the Dnyaneshwari ends. Jnaneshvar makes this final cluster — one hundred and eighty-five ovis — the culmination of his entire work. It does not merely gloss a verse; it gathers the whole Gita into one sloka, then opens out into the grand colophon of the book: the praise of the Gita's seven hundred verses, the humility of the translator who dares render Vyasa's Sanskrit into Marathi, the doxology to his guru Nivrittinath, the Nath lineage descending from Shiva through Matsyendra, Goraksa, and Gahini, the autobiographical signature, and finally the Pasayadan — the universal benediction-prayer that is perhaps the most loved passage in all of Marathi literature. This reading walks that arc.

Where-X-there-Y: the cascade of inseparable presence

The cluster opens with Sanjaya disclaiming all but one certainty, then pouring out a cascade of natural co-presences.

चंद्रु तेथें चंद्रिका । शंभु तेथें अंबिका । संत तेथें विवेका । असणें कीं जी ॥१६३३॥

रावो तेथें कटक । सौजन्य तेथें सोयरीक । वन्हि तेथें दाहक । सामर्थ्य कीं ॥१६३४॥

Sanjaya begins (1632) by saying he does not know the rest of the particulars — "जी येरयेरांचें मी नेणें" — but this one thing he knows: where Krishna and Partha are, there life and victory surely abide. To prove the inseparability of Krishna's presence from fortune, he runs through a chain of things that simply cannot be apart. Where the moon, there moonlight (chandra-chandrika). Where Shambhu (Shiva), there Ambika. Where the saint, there discernment (vivek). Where the king, there his army; where graciousness, there kinship; where fire, there its power to burn.

The chain widens into an ethical and spiritual register (1635-1638): where compassion, there dharma; where dharma, there the coming of happiness; and in happiness, Purushottama abides. Then a seasonal image — where spring, there groves; where grove, there blossoms; in the blossoms, the embraces of the bees (1636). Then the interior path: where the guru, there knowledge; in knowledge, self-vision; in that vision, settled peace (1637). And finally the source-and-radiance seal: where the sun, there light (1638). The structure is always the same — the second term cannot fail to be present where the first is. This is the grammar of the verse itself, its yatra…tatra correlative, rendered as an unbroken law of natural entailment.

Where Krishna stands, there Lakshmi — the domain of grace

Having established the law, Jnaneshvar lands it on its referent.

तैसे सकल पुरुषार्थ । जेणें स्वामी कां सनाथ । तो श्रीकृष्ण रावो जेथ । तेथ लक्ष्मी ॥१६३९॥

आणि आपुलेनि कांतेंसीं । ते जगदंबा जयापासीं । अणिमादिकीं काय दासी । नव्हती तयातें ? ॥१६४०॥

Just so, he says, all the goals of life are fulfilled where the Lord stands as their master — and where King Shri-Krishna is, there Lakshmi is. This is the direct gloss of the verse's "tatra shrih." And then the magnification: the world-mother Jagadamba herself is his own consort, and the eight siddhis — anima and the rest — are nothing but her handmaids (1640). What fortune, then, could possibly be lacking where he stands?

Turning to "vijayah" (victory), Jnaneshvar exploits a happy pun. Krishna is victory's very form, vijaya-svarupa, in his own person (1641); and Arjuna is famed precisely by the name Vijaya (1642). So with Shri present and these two standing together, victory is not a hope but a certainty bound to that very place. The praise of the domain then turns hyperbolic: the wild thickets of Krishna's country would out-vie the wish-granting kalpataru (1643); its stones would become wish-gems and its earth turn to gold (1644); its rivers would run with nectar (1645); even his idly scattered words might be called Veda, and embodied beings there become sacchidananda while still in the flesh (1646). The hyperbole is not idle: it dramatizes the totality of bhuti, the flourishing that the verse promises wherever Krishna abides.

The grace upon Arjuna — source glorified in its derivative

A subtle theological worry surfaces: if Arjuna is so exalted, is Krishna's greatness somehow diminished? Jnaneshvar answers it carefully.

येथ गुरुत्वा येतसे उणें । ऐसें झणें कोण्ही म्हणे । वन्हि प्रकाश दीपपणें । प्रकाशी आपुला ॥१६५१॥

आणि पुत्रें मी सर्व गुणीं । जिणावा हे बापा शिराणी । तरी ते शारङ्गपाणी । फळा आली ॥१६५३॥

The grace that rests on Arjuna is like the cloud born of the ocean — finer in usefulness than the ocean itself (1649); like the philosopher's stone that turns iron to gold (1650). But let no one say that Krishna's greatness is thereby lessened: fire manifests its own light through the lamp, the source glorified, not diminished, in its derivative (1651). By the Lord's own power Partha is so much, and yet the very praise of Partha amounts to the Lord's own honor (1652). It is as a father rejoices when a son outdoes him in every virtue — a crown upon the father — so the Sharangapani has, as it were, borne fruit in Arjuna's surpassing (1653). The parent is fulfilled in the child; the source shines in what it sustains.

In short (1654), such has Partha become by Krishna's grace. The place where he stands is victory's own home; where victory does not come to him, victory itself would be falsified (1655). The whole cascade is then gathered into a one-to-one rendering of the verse:

म्हणौनि जेथ श्री तेथें श्रीमंतु । जेथ तो पंडूचा सुतु । तेथ विजय समस्तु । अभ्युदयो तेथ ॥१६५६॥

Where Shri, there the prosperous lord; where Pandu's son stands with Krishna, there entire victory and there all rising fortune. And Sanjaya seals it with an oath: if your mind holds firm by Vyasa's truth, take these words as utterly certain (1657); where the beloved-of-Shri and the throng of devotees are, there is happiness and the gain of all blessing (1658). Then, dramatically, arm uplifted, he swears: should these words prove otherwise, may I not bear Vyasa's very mark (1659).

The whole Bharata in one verse — the Gita as the seven hundred

With the oath, the verse-exposition proper closes, and Jnaneshvar pulls back to survey the scale of what has been said.

एवं भारताचा आवांका । आणूनि श्लोका येका । संजयें कुरुनायका । दिधला हातीं ॥१६६०॥

तैसें शब्दब्रह्म अनंत । जालें सवालक्ष भारत । भारताचें शतें सात । सर्वस्व गीता ॥१६६२॥

Thus, gathering the whole scope of the Bharata into a single sloka, Sanjaya placed it into the hand of the Kuru-lord (1660). The image for distilling the vast: as one who cannot tell how great a fire is sets it on the tip of a blade of grass to gauge it, attempting to reckon the sun's own measure (1661) — the immeasurable brought to a graspable point. So the infinite word-brahman became the Bharata of one-hundred-and-twenty-five-thousand verses, and of that Bharata the seven hundred verses are its whole essence — the Gita (1662). And of those seven hundred, this final sloka is the very purport, the full outpouring (purnodgaru) of Vyasa's disciple Sanjaya (1663); by this one sloka alone the whole brood of ignorance is utterly conquered (1664).

Then comes a garland of praises of those seven hundred verses, each more dazzling than the last. They are the pillars raised in the assembly-hall of the Self-king (1666); the Gita is the Saptashati, the goddess of seven hundred mantras who has delighted in the slaying of the buffalo-demon of delusion (1667); whoever serves her in mind, deed, and word she makes an emperor of the empire of self-bliss (1668). The verses are a grape-arbor for the weary travellers of the world's road (1670); they are bees on the lotus of the Gita, waves on its sea, the very horses of Hari's chariot (1675). Among seven hundred each surpasses the other — which then could be set apart and singled out for praise (1678)? In the Gita there is no early or late verse, no greater or lesser, for here the thing-meant and the word-meaning are one and the same: Krishna alone (1683). The Gita, Jnaneshvar declares, is the very embodied form of the Lord — "गीता जाणा हे वाङ्ग्मयी । श्रीमूर्ति प्रभूचि" (1685): she is not a text that yields its meaning and then fades, but is wholly Parabrahman itself (1686).

The translator's humility — the sparrow before the eagle

Now the voice turns personal. Jnaneshvar, who has dared render the Sanskrit into Marathi, measures himself against Vyasa and the great commentators, and finds his own daring needs an apology.

व्यासादिकांचे उन्मेख । राहाटती जेथ साशंक । तेथ मीही रंक येक । चावळी करीं ॥१७१०॥

पांख फुटे पांखिरूं । नुडे तरी नभींच स्थिरू । गगन आक्रमी सत्वरू । तो गरुडही तेथ ॥१७१३॥

Where even the insights of a Vyasa move hesitantly, he says, there I too, a mere pauper, prattle (1710). Yet the Gita is a gentle Lord who wears the flower-garland of Vyasa's speech — surely she will not refuse even my coarse weed-leaves (1711). The defense is a string of beautiful images of scale. When elephant-herds come to drink at the milk-ocean's shore, is the little mosquito forbidden the water (1712)? The fledgling whose wings have grown flutters low, while the eagle sweeps the sky at once — yet both are in the same heaven (1713). When the king-swan's gait has become the wonder of the earth, are other creatures forbidden to walk (1714)? A small pot draws deep water by its own capacity; a mouthful is filled by its own measure (1715). As a child follows the print of the father's stride and, though it cannot match the pace, still arrives (1722) — so, taking Vyasa's track and asking the commentators the way, even unworthy I will not fail to reach (1723).

This is the humility-of-the-translator, the vyasa-magova: the disciple following the master's footprints, claiming no greatness of his own, only the licence of love to render the great text in the speech of his own people.

The Nath lineage — Shiva to Matsyendra to Goraksa to Gahini to Nivritti

The humility resolves into its true ground: the grace of the guru. And Jnaneshvar names the whole lineage of that grace, the Nath paramparа through which the teaching reached him.

तो सर्वोपकारी समर्थु । सद्गुरु श्रीनिवृत्तिनाथु । राहाटत असे मजही आंतु । रिघोनियां ॥१७२९॥

ना आदिगुरु शंकरा । लागोनि शिष्यपरंपरा । बोधाचा हा संसरा । जाला जो आमुतें ॥१७५९॥

The all-benefiting, all-capable Sadguru Shri-Nivrittinath, he says, dwells within me, having entered in (1729). It is the guru's name that turned a mountain-koli into one who made the three worlds one (1731); as sandalwood scents the trees around it until they too become sandalwood, so the guru transmutes the disciple (1732). Then Jnaneshvar narrates the descent of the lineage. What Shiva — the Tripurari — once spoke into the ear of his consort beside the milk-ocean (1752) was overheard, hidden in the belly of a fish, and so came into the hand of Matsyendra (1753). Matsyendra on the Saptashringi mended the broken-limbed Chaurangi and restored him whole (1754); the seal of unwavering samadhi he gave to Goraksa, the fish-born (1755); Goraksa consecrated Gahininath into that station (1756-1757); and Gahini, seeing the affliction of the age, gave the command of that lineage to Nivrittinath (1758).

He states it plainly: "from the primal guru Shankara onward, by the succession of disciples, this stream of enlightenment came down to us" (1759). And the charge laid upon Nivritti — and through him upon Jnaneshvar — was this: take all of it, and for the souls being devoured by the dark age, run swiftly to their aid in every way (1760). Already compassionate, and now bearing the guru's command, Nivritti became like the rain-cloud swelling in the monsoon (1761); and out of pity for the afflicted, in the guise of composing the meaning of the Gita, he rained down this very book in the flavor of peace (1762). The lineage is not decoration. It is the answer to the humility: the book is not Jnaneshvar's doing but the guru's grace pouring through him.

The autobiographical signature — the puppet on the master's string

Having named the lineage, Jnaneshvar signs the work with a confession of his own smallness and a clear statement of who has truly authored it.

वांचूनि पढे ना वाची । ना सेवाही जाणें स्वामीची । ऐशिया मज ग्रंथाची । योग्यता कें असे ? ॥१७६५॥

सायिखडेयाचें बाहुलें । चालवित्या सूत्राचेनि चाले । तैसा मातें दावीत बोले । स्वामी तो माझा ॥१७६९॥

What he received by the guru's succession — the wealth of samadhi that was his own — the master gave to him fully through this book (1764). And yet, he says, I who neither study nor recite, nor even know how to serve my master well — what fitness do I have for such a book (1765)? But truly the Guru-lord, making me his instrument, has under the pretext of this composition protected the world (1766). I do not know how a word is fashioned, how one climbs into meaning, what is even called an ornament of speech (1768). Like the puppet of a marionette that moves by the puppeteer's string, my master, pointing me forward, speaks (1769). Therefore for any merit or fault I am not to be specially blamed, for I have been made-into-this-book by the teacher himself (1770). The famous signature-line of the whole work appears in this stretch — Jnanadeva saying that his every breath should become a composition, and asking, what is the guru's grace not able to do? — "श्रीगुरुकृपा काय नोहे । ज्ञानदेवो म्हणे" (1735).

He then turns to the assembly of saints, the sant-sabha, asking their indulgence for whatever falls short (1771-1774), and declares himself wholly fulfilled by having reached their feet: "मज संत जोडुनि तुम्हीं । दिधलेति तेणें सर्वकामीं । परीपूर्ण जालों" — by your having joined me to the saints, I have become complete in every wish (1775).

The Pasayadan — the universal benediction

And now, the work all but finished, Jnaneshvar asks of the Lord not a private boon but a benediction for the whole world. This is the Pasayadan, the request for the "grace-gift."

आतां विश्वात्मकें देवें । येणें वाग्यज्ञें तोषावें । तोषोनि मज द्यावें । पसायदान हें ॥१७९४॥

जे खळांची व्यंकटी सांडो । तयां सत्कर्मीं रती वाढो । भूतां परस्परें पडो । मैत्र जीवाचें ॥१७९५॥

दुरिताचें तिमिर जावो । विश्व स्वधर्मसूर्यें पाहो । जो जें वांछील तो तें लाहो । प्राणिजात ॥१७९६॥

Now, he prays, may the God who is the soul of all be pleased by this sacrifice-of-words, and being pleased, grant me this grace-gift (1794). And the gift he asks is entirely for others: may the crookedness of the wicked fall away, may their delight grow in good works, may all beings meet one another in the friendship of soul to soul (1795). May the darkness of evil depart, may the world behold the sun of its own dharma, may every living creature obtain whatever it desires (1796). May the host of those steadfast in God meet these beings ceaselessly upon the earth, raining down every blessing (1797) — they who are walking wish-trees, towns of living wish-gems, speaking oceans of nectar (1798), spotless moons, suns without heat: may such saints be the kinsmen of all, always (1799). In short, may all the three worlds, filled with every joy, worship the primal Person unbrokenly (1800). And especially for those who live by this book, may victory both seen and unseen be theirs (1801).

To this prayer the Lord of the universe answers, "this shall be the grace-gift" — "हा होईल दानपसावो" — and by that boon, the text says, Jnanadeva became happy: "येणें वरें ज्ञानदेवो । सुखिया झाला" (1802). The benediction is the moral summit of the entire work: a man who has just composed a masterpiece asks nothing for himself but the welfare of the whole living world.

The colophon — the place, the lineage, and the OM-TAT-SAT seal

The last ovis place the completed work in time and space, name its author and his lineage one final time, and seal the chapter and the book.

तेथ महेशान्वयसंभूतें । श्रीनिवृत्तिनाथसुतें । केलें ज्ञानदेवें गीते । देशीकार लेणें ॥१८०६॥

शके बाराशतें बारोत्तरें । तैं टीका केली ज्ञानेश्वरें । सच्चिदानंदबाबा आदरें । लेखकु जाहला ॥१८११॥

The work, he records, was made in the great Maharashtra country, on the bank of the Godavari, at the ancient sacred field where the holy Mahalaya dwells (1803-1804). There, sprung from the line of Mahesha (Shiva), the son of Shri-Nivrittinath, Jnanadeva made of the Gita this ornament-in-the-native-tongue, this deshikar lene (1806). Thus the fair discourse that Krishna and Arjuna held in the famous Bhishma-parva of the Bharata (1807) — the essence of the Upanishads, the home of all sciences, the lake at which the supreme swans drink (1808) — its eighteenth and crowning pinnacle is complete; so says Jnanadeva, the servant of Nivritti (1809). May all beings, again and again, by the merit-wealth of this book, be made full in every joy (1810). And the dating: in the Shaka year twelve-hundred-and-twelve the commentary was made by Jnaneshvar, and Sacchidananda-baba lovingly became its scribe (1811).

With the Sanskrit OM-TAT-SAT colophon — naming the chapter MOKSHA-SANNYASA-YOGA, the eighteenth — both the Bhagavad-Gita and the Dnyaneshwari come to their close. (The verses that follow in the printed source, beginning "श्रीशके पंधराशें साहोत्तरीं," are the later editorial colophon of Eknath, who purified the text some three centuries afterward — not part of Jnaneshvar's original.)

Cluster summary

Core teaching: Wherever the Lord-of-Yoga Krishna and the bow-bearing Partha stand united, there — fixed and certain — abide fortune (shri), victory (vijaya), flourishing (bhuti), and unshakeable moral-order (niti). The union of God and the surrendered soul is itself the locus of all auspiciousness. This is Sanjaya's final, sworn conviction (matir mama), the phala-shruti that closes the Gita. Jnaneshvar unfolds the verse's yatra…tatra correlative through a cascade of inseparable presences — moon and moonlight, Shiva and Ambika, saint and discernment — before naming the referent: where Krishna is, there Lakshmi, there victory, there every flourishing.

Chapter-arc position: BG-18.78 is the final verse of the eighteenth chapter, MOKSHA-SANNYASA-YOGA, and of the entire Bhagavad-Gita — spoken not by Krishna but by Sanjaya, closing the narration-frame that Dhritarashtra opened at BG-1.1, and immediately sealed by the OM-TAT-SAT colophon. The Gita and the Dnyaneshwari both close here. Jnaneshvar makes this one-hundred-and-eighty-five-ovi cluster the culmination of the whole work: from the where-X-there-Y presence-chain he moves into the grand colophon proper — the praise of the Gita as the seven-hundred-verse essence of the Bharata; the humility of the translator who renders Vyasa's Sanskrit into Marathi (the sparrow before the eagle, the child after the father's stride); the doxology to his guru Nivrittinath; the Nath lineage descending Shiva → Matsyendra → Goraksa → Gahini → Nivritti; the autobiographical signature of Jnanadeva as the puppet on the master's string; the incomparable Pasayadan benediction asking grace not for himself but for the whole living world; and the closing Shaka-1212 colophon-date with the Sacchidananda-baba scribe-attribution. The work that began by promising to make the Gita's wisdom available in the native tongue ends by praying that all beings, by its merit, be made full in every joy.