Devanagari
स्वयमेवात्मनात्मानं वेत्थ त्वं पुरुषोत्तम ।
भूतभावन भूतेश देवदेव जगत्पते ॥ १५ ॥
Verse text
svayam evātmanātmānaṁ
vettha tvaṁ puruṣottama
bhūta-bhāvana bhūteśa
deva-deva jagat-pate
Synonyms
svayam
—
personally
;
eva
—
certainly
;
ātmanā
—
by Yourself
;
ātmānam
—
Yourself
;
vettha
—
know
;
tvam
—
You
;
puruṣa-uttama
—
O greatest of all persons
;
bhūta-bhāvana
—
O origin of everything
;
bhūta-īśa
—
O Lord of everything
;
deva-deva
—
O Lord of all demigods
;
jagat-pate
—
O Lord of the entire universe.
Translation
Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own internal potency, O Supreme Person, origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of gods, Lord of the universe!
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
15. O supreme among the creators, the lord of creators of all creators, the performer of pastimes, the master of all in this universe, You alone know Yourself by Yourself.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
15. O supreme among the creators, the lord of creators of all creators, the performer of pastimes, the master of all in this universe, You alone know Yourself by Yourself.
Translation (Bhurijana Dasa)
Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own internal potency, O Supreme Person, origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of gods, Lord of the universe!
(com) Five addresses due to affectionate emotions of Arjuna.
Visvanath:
"You know Yourself by Yourself eva only, signifies Lord's birth and activities are difficult to understand and even devotees only understand how the Lord performs His inconceivable pastimes, such as Lord's birth, although unborn. Krsna also, doesn't use any other means to know Himself other than Himself. Therefore You are the best person amongst all persons, not only that but You are bhuta bhavan, the creator of all living entities. You are not only creator, but controller, but also You are playing with them as if toys, You are also protecting them."
best, creator, controller, player with, protector of ‑ all living entities.
These other addresses are adjectives of Purushottam, best person, father of living entities, controller, worshipable Deity (deva deva), protector.
Gita Bhushan:
"You Yourself know Yourself with Your own knowledge as they are. Others know something about You, only You know everything about Yourself."
"How do You protect this world? Through Your teachings to the living entities."
Purport
The Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, can be known by persons who are in a relationship with Him through the discharge of devotional service, like Arjuna and his followers. Persons of demonic or atheistic mentality cannot know Kṛṣṇa. Mental speculation that leads one away from the Supreme Lord is a serious sin, and one who does not know Kṛṣṇa should not try to comment on Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is the statement of Kṛṣṇa, and since it is the science of Kṛṣṇa, it should be understood from Kṛṣṇa as Arjuna understood it. It should not be received from atheistic persons.
As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.11) :
vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jṣānam advayam brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate
The Supreme Truth is realized in three aspects: as impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā and at last as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So at the last stage of understanding the Absolute Truth, one comes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A common man or even a liberated man who has realized impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā may not understand God’s personality. Such men, therefore, may endeavor to understand the Supreme Person from the verses of Bhagavad-gītā, which are being spoken by this person, Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes the impersonalists accept Kṛṣṇa as Bhagavān, or they accept His authority. Yet many liberated persons cannot understand Kṛṣṇa as Puruṣottama, the Supreme Person. Therefore Arjuna addresses Him as Puruṣottama. Yet one still may not understand that Kṛṣṇa is the father of all living entities. Therefore Arjuna addresses Him as Bhūta-bhāvana. And if one comes to know Him as the father of all the living entities, still one may not know Him as the supreme controller; therefore He is addressed here as Bhūteśa, the supreme controller of everyone. And even if one knows Kṛṣṇa as the supreme controller of all living entities, still one may not know that He is the origin of all the demigods; therefore He is addressed herein as Deva-deva, the worshipful God of all demigods. And even if one knows Him as the worshipful God of all demigods, one may not know that He is the supreme proprietor of everything; therefore He is addressed as Jagat-pati. Thus the truth about Kṛṣṇa is established in this verse by the realization of Arjuna, and we should follow in the footsteps of Arjuna to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Therefore, You alone know about Yourself. Your devotee knows that actually You do have birth and are also without birth, though such a condition is difficult to exist. But he also does not know by which method it can happen. You alone (eva) know that. You know through Yourself (ātmanā) alone, not through any other means. Therefore, among all the puruṣa avatāras, who are creators of the mahat-tattva and other elements, You are supreme (uttama). Not only are You supreme among them. You are the lord of those lords up to Brahmā, who have become the creators of all material bodies (bhūtā-bhāvana-bhūteśa). Not only are You the lord of all of them, You are also the performer of pastimes (deva ), [Note: The word deva comes from the root div and means “one who plays.”] taking the devas as instruments in Your pastimes (deva-deva ). Moreover, out of Your infinite mercy, You are the master of those like me (just a dāsa) dwelling within the universe (jagat-pate). All four of these terms starting with puruṣottama and ending with jagat-pate are in the vocative case.
Another meaning is as follows. These words may be taken as terms describing the nature of being the supreme person (puruṣottama). You are father of all creatures (bhūtā-bhāvana). But since sometimes a father is not respected, Arjuna says “You are the controller of all creatures (bhūteśa).” But sometimes even a controller is not so worthy of worship. Therefore he says “You are the deva among all the devas.” Though the devas are worshipable, sometimes they do not give protection. Therefore he says “You are the protector of the universe (jagat-pate).”
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
You know completely about Yourself by Your own power of knowledge. Those who are devotees among the devas and dānavas substantially known Your form as described, but they do not know that form as it really is. That is suggested by the word eva. O Lord of all people (puruṣottama)! Further delineating His lordship of all people, Arjuna continues to address Kṛṣṇa. O Source of all creatures (bhūta bhāvana)! Though He is the source, He may not be respected. Therefore he says, O controller of all living beings (bhūteśa)! Although He is the controller, He may not be worthy of worship. Therefore Arjuna says, O person who is worshipped by those who are worthy of worship (devadeva)! Though a person is worthy of worship, He may not protect others. Therefore he says, O one who protect of the universe, by giving means of livelihood and teachings to both the good and evil people (jagat pate)! In this way Your true nature has been described perfectly.
Surrender Unto Me
Here Arjuna calls Krsna, 'Purusuttama', which means Supreme Person. But He Himself, the Supreme Person, is the only one who knows Himself completely.
And then after describing Krsna as the Supreme Person, Arjuna uses many adjectives to glorify that Supreme Person. He call Him: 'the origin of all', 'the creator', 'Lord of everything', 'the controller', 'the Lord of the universe', 'the protector' ...etc.
In this way Arjuna is glorifying Krsna and taking shelter of Him.
[2. Arjuna asks Krsna of His opulences so he can always think of and remember Krsna. (16‑18) ]