🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 7.8
Chapter 7 · ज्ञानविज्ञानयोग · Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga · "The Yoga of Knowledge & Realization" · Verse 8 of 30
रसोऽहमप्सु कौन्तेय प्रभास्मि शशिसूर्ययोः।
प्रणवः सर्ववेदेषु शब्दः खे पौरुषं नृषु।।7.8।।
🪷 English Translations
Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.
Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition
7.8 O Arjuna! I am the Fluidity in water, the Light in the sun and in the moon. I am the mystic syllable Om in the Vedic scriptures, the Sound in ether, the Virility in man.
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
7.8 I am the sapidity in water, O Arjuna; I am the light in the moon and the sun; I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, sound in ether and virility in men.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
7.8 Kaunteya, O son of Kunti, aham, I; am rasah, the taste, which is the essence of water. The idea is that water is depedent on Me who am its essence. This is how it is to be understood in every case. Just as I am the essence of water, similarly, asmi, I am; the prabha, effulgence; sasi-suryayoh, of the moon and the sun; pranavah, (the letter) Om; sarva-vedesu, in all the Vedas. All the Vedas are established on Me who am that Om. So also (I am) sabdah, the sound; khe, in space, as the essence. Space is established on Me who am that (sound). In the same way, nrsu, in men; (I am) paurusam, manhood- the ality of being man, from which arises the idea of manhood. Men are established on Me who am such.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
7.8 - 7.11 All these entities with their peculiar characteristic are born from Me alone. They depend on Me; inasmuch as they constitute My body, they exist in Me alone. Thus I alone exist while all of them are only My modes.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
7.8. O son of Kunti ! I am the taste in waters; the light in the moon and the sun; the best hymn (OM) in the entire Vedas; the sound that exists in the ether (or the mystic hymnal sound in the entire Vedas-a sound that is in the ether); and the manly vigour in men.
🪷 Hindi Translation · हिन्दी अनुवाद
For the Hindi-aware seer · Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's translation · a high-readability modern Hindi rendering · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur tradition. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page for the 102-year-living Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī Mahātmā.)
🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī tradition · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur · highest modern Hindi reading
।।7.8।। हे कुन्तीनन्दन ! जलोंमें रस मैं हूँ, चन्द्रमा और सूर्यमें प्रभा (प्रकाश) मैं हूँ, सम्पूर्ण वेदोंमें प्रणव (ओंकार) मैं हूँ, आकाशमें शब्द और मनुष्योंमें पुरुषार्थ मैं हूँ।
🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices
The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.
Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors
7.8 रसः sapidity? अहम् I? अप्सु in water? कौन्तेय O Kaunteya (son of Kunti)? प्रभा light? अस्मि am (I)? शशिसूर्ययोः in the moon and the sun? प्रणवः the syllable Om? सर्ववेदेषु in all the Vedas? शब्दः sound? खे in ether? पौरुषम् virility? नृषु in men.Commentary In Me all beings and the whole world are woven as a cloth in the warp. In Me as sapidity the water is woven in Me as light? the sun and the moon are woven in Me as the sacred syllable Om all the Vedas are woven in Me as virility all men are woven.The manifestations of the Lord are described in the verses 8? 9? 10 and 11. (Cf.XV.12)
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
7.8 Kaunteya, O son of Kunti, aham, I; am rasah, the taste, which is the essence of water. The idea is that water is depedent on Me who am its essence. This is how it is to be understood in every case. Just as I am the essence of water, similarly, asmi, I am; the prabha, effulgence; sasi-suryayoh, of the moon and the sun; pranavah, (the letter) Om; sarva-vedesu, in all the Vedas. All the Vedas are established on Me who am that Om. So also (I am) sabdah, the sound; khe, in space, as the essence. Space is established on Me who am that (sound). In the same way, nrsu, in men; (I am) paurusam, manhood- the ality of being man, from which arises the idea of manhood. Men are established on Me who am such.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
7.8 - 7.11 All these entities with their peculiar characteristic are born from Me alone. They depend on Me; inasmuch as they constitute My body, they exist in Me alone. Thus I alone exist while all of them are only My modes.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
7.8 Raso 'ham apsu etc. I am that [basic] taste which has not yet devolped as to have the classification of sweetness and so on, and which is being tasted in all waters. Similarly, the light : That [light] which is devoid of gentleness and fierceness etc. (The sound that exist] in the ether in the sky. The sound that etc. Here the emphasis is on all sounds, as they are attributes of the ether. Or, the passage denotes that empty basic sound which, being exclusively an attribute of th ether; which does not depend on any other external cuases like union and partition [of some objects]; which exists in the ether within the cave of the Brahman; which is ite intelligible to the groups of Yogins with attentive heart (mind); which bears the name Anahata; and which pervades the entire groups of the Vedas - that sound represents the Absolute. Manly vigour ; that lusture by means of which one is identified as a man throughout the earth.
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।7.8।। See commentary under 7.9.
🪷 Hindi Vyākhyā · हिन्दी व्याख्या
Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · one of the great modern Hindi vyākhyās of the Gītā · direct, pure, deeply Vedāntic · the modern Sanātana-jāgaraṇa. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page · 1904-2005 · Corner 1 Mādhurya operational anchor · whose 6-lakṣaṇa-śaraṇāgati IS Constitutional Principle 24.)
🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · Hindi vyākhyā · the modern bilingual anchor
।।7.8।। व्याख्या--[जैसे साधारण दृष्टिसे लोगोंने रुपयोंको ही सर्वश्रेष्ठ मान रखा है तो रुपये पैदा करने और उनका संग्रह करनेमें लोभी आदमीकी स्वाभाविक रुचि हो जाती है। ऐसे ही देखने, सुनने, मानने और समझनेमें जो कुछ जगत् आता है उसका कारण भगवान् हैं (7। 6); भगवान्के सिवाय उसकी स्वतन्त्र सत्ता है ही नहीं-- ऐसा माननेसे भगवान्में स्वाभाविक रुचि हो जाती है। फिर स्वाभाविक ही उनका भजन होता है। यही बात दसवें अध्यायके आठवें श्लोकमें कही है कि 'मैं सम्पूर्ण संसारका कारण हूँ, मेरेसे ही संसारकी उत्पत्ति होती है,--ऐसा समझकर बुद्धिमान् मनुष्य मेरा भजन करते हैं। ऐसे ही अठारहवें अध्यायके छियालीसवें श्लोकमें कहा है कि 'जिस परमात्मासे सम्पूर्ण जगत्की प्रवृत्ति होती है और जिससे सारा संसार व्याप्त है, उस परमात्माका अपने कर्मोंके द्वारा पूजन करके मनुष्य सिद्धिको प्राप्त कर लेता है।' इसी सिद्धान्तको बतानेके लिये यह प्रकरण आया है।]
'रसोऽहमप्सु कौन्तेय'--हे कुन्तीनन्दन ! जलोंमें मैं 'रस' हूँ। जल रस-तन्मात्रासे (टिप्पणी प0 403) पैदा होता है; रस-तन्मात्रामें रहता है और रस-तन्मात्रामें ही लीन होता है। जलमेंसे अगर 'रस' निकाल दिया जाय तो जलतत्त्व कुछ नहीं रहेगा। अतः रस ही जलरूपसे है। वह रस मैं हूँ।
'प्रभास्मि शशिसूर्ययोः'--चन्द्रमा और सूर्यमें प्रकाश करनेकी जो एक विलक्षण शक्ति 'प्रभा' है (टिप्पणी प0 404), वह मेरा स्वरूप है। प्रभा रूप-तन्मात्रासे उत्पन्न होती है रूपतन्मात्रामें रहती है और अन्तमेंरूपतन्मात्रामें ही लीन हो जाती है। अगर चन्द्रमा और सूर्यमेंसे प्रभा निकाल दी जाय तो चन्द्रमा और सूर्य निस्तत्त्व हो जायँगे। तात्पर्य है कि केवल प्रभा ही चन्द्र और सूर्यरूपसे प्रकट हो रही है। भगवान् कहते हैं कि वह प्रभा भी मैं ही हूँ।
🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā
- This is verse 8 of 30 in Chapter 7 · Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga (The Yoga of Knowledge & Realization)
- Chapter theme: Krishna-Tattva · BG 7.7 mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat · Krishna IS the thread
- Ṣaṭka grouping: TAT-Ṣaṭka (BG 7-12 · the Lord)
- Chapter hub: /krishna
- ⭐ Mahābhārata anchor: this verse is also MBh 6.29.8 (Bhīṣma-Parva · the BG in its full narrative home)
Bhagavad-Gītā Detail Source-Anchor Spine
BG 7.8 is kept route-stable for readers and AI agents: the exact verse route, chapter hub, Bhīṣma-Parva source context, Gītā master spine, Viśvarūpa surfaces, Bīja-Sūtra depth, Bindu, and constitutional philosophy remain one click away.
📚 Cite this verse · Academic citation formats
APA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. (n.d.). Bhagavad-Gītā 7.8. Vidhyāmitra. Retrieved 2026-07-27, from https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/7/8 Chicago: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 7.8." Vidhyāmitra. Accessed 2026-07-27. https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/7/8. MLA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 7.8." Vidhyāmitra, 2026, https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/7/8. Canonical URL:
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🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷
सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)