Verse 11.38

त्वमादिदेवः पुरुषः पुराणस्-

त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् ।

वेत्तासि वेद्यं च परं च धाम

त्वया ततं विश्वमनन्तरूप ॥

11.38

Transliteration

tvamādidevaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇas-

tvamasya viśvasya paraṃ nidhānam |

vettāsi vedyaṃ ca paraṃ ca dhāma

tvayā tataṃ viśvamanantarūpa ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

Thou art the primal God, the ancient Purusha, the supreme refuge of this universe, the knower, the knowable and the supreme Abode. By Thee is the universe pervaded, O Being of infinite forms.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

you
the first god
person
ancient

you
of this
universe
supreme
resting place

the knower
are
the known
and
supreme
and
abode

by you
pervaded
the universe
O one of endless forms

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

Arjuna gathers more titles: the first god, the ancient person, the ultimate resting place of the world. Then he says something subtle: Krishna is both the knower and what is to be known. The divine is not only the object of Arjuna's vision but also the awareness that sees. He is also the highest dwelling and the one by whom the universe is spread out. Several of these phrases repeat what Arjuna said earlier in the hymn and what Krishna taught in earlier chapters, as if Arjuna is now confirming the teaching from his own experience.