Devanagari
श्रीश्रुतय ऊचु:
जय जय जह्यजामजित दोषगृभीतगुणां
त्वमसि यदात्मना समवरुद्धसमस्तभग: ।
अगजगदोकसामखिलशक्त्यवबोधक ते
क्वचिदजयात्मना च चरतोऽनुचरेन्निगम: ॥ १४ ॥
Verse text
śrī-śrutaya ūcuḥ
jaya jaya jahy ajām ajita doṣa-gṛbhīta-guṇāṁ
tvam asi yad ātmanā samavaruddha-samasta-bhagaḥ
aga-jagad-okasām akhila-śakty-avabodhaka te
kvacid ajayātmanā ca carato ’nucaren nigamaḥ
Synonyms
śrī
—
śrutayaḥ ūcuḥ — the Vedas said
;
jayajaya
—
victory to You, victory to You
;
jahi
—
please defeat
;
ajām
—
the eternal illusory potency of Māyā
;
ajita
—
O unconquerable one
;
doṣa
—
to create discrepancies
;
gṛbhīta
—
who has assumed
;
guṇām
—
the qualities of matter
;
tvam
—
You
;
asi
—
are
;
yat
—
because
;
ātmanā
—
in Your original status
;
samavaruddha
—
complete
;
samasta
—
in all
;
bhagaḥ
—
opulences
;
aga
—
nonmoving
;
jagat
—
and moving
;
okasām
—
of those who possess material bodies
;
akhila
—
of all
;
śakti
—
the energies
;
avabodhaka
—
O You who awaken
;
te
—
You
;
kvacit
—
sometimes
;
ajayā
—
with Your material energy
;
ātmanā
—
and with Your internal, spiritual energy
;
ca
—
also
;
carataḥ
—
engaging
;
anucaret
—
can appreciate
;
nigamaḥ
—
the Vedas. .
Translation
The śrutis said: Victory, victory to You, O unconquerable one! By Your very nature You are perfectly full in all opulences; therefore please defeat the eternal power of illusion, who assumes control over the modes of nature to create difficulties for conditioned souls. O You who awaken all the energies of the moving and nonmoving embodied beings, sometimes the Vedas can recognize You as You sport with Your material and spiritual potencies.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The śrutis said: Victory, victory to You, O unconquerable one! By Your very nature You are perfectly full in all opulences; therefore please defeat the eternal power of illusion, who assumes control over the modes of nature to create difficulties for conditioned souls. O You who awaken all the energies of the moving and nonmoving embodied beings, sometimes the Vedas can recognize You as You sport with Your material and spiritual potencies.
KB 10.87.14
“The Vedic reciters, or the personified Vedas, sing thus: ‘O unconquerable Lord, You are the Supreme Personality. No one is equal to You or greater than You. No one can be more glorious in his activities. All glories unto You! All glories unto You! By Your own transcendental nature You fully possess all six opulences. As such, You are able to deliver all conditioned souls from the clutches of māyā. O Lord, we fervently pray that You kindly do so. All the living entities, being Your parts and parcels, are naturally joyful, eternal and full of knowledge, but due to their own faults they imitate You by trying to become the supreme enjoyer. Thus they disobey Your supremacy and become offenders. And because of their offenses, Your material energy has taken charge of them. Thus their transcendental qualities of joyfulness, bliss and wisdom have been covered by the clouds of the three material qualities. This cosmic manifestation, made of the three material qualities, is just like a prison house for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls are struggling very hard to escape from material bondage, and according to their different conditions of life they have been given different types of engagement. But since all engagements are based on knowledge supplied by You, the conditioned souls can execute pious activities only when You mercifully inspire them to do so. Therefore, without taking shelter at Your lotus feet one cannot surpass the influence of the material energy. Actually, we, as personified Vedic knowledge, are always engaged in Your service by helping the conditioned souls understand You.’ ”
This prayer of the Vedas personified illustrates that the Vedas are meant for helping the conditioned souls to understand Kṛṣṇa. All the śrutis, or personified Vedas, offered glories to the Lord again and again, singing, “Jaya! Jaya!” This indicates that the Lord is the most glorious. Of all His glories, the most important is His causeless mercy upon the conditioned souls in reclaiming them from the clutches of māyā.
There are unlimited numbers of living entities in different varieties of bodies, some moving and some standing in one place, and the conditioned life of these living entities is due only to their forgetfulness of their eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the living entity wants to lord it over the material energy by imitating the position of Kṛṣṇa, he is immediately captured by the material energy and, according to his desire, is offered one variety of the 8,400,000 different kinds of bodies. Although undergoing the threefold miseries of material existence, the illusioned living entity falsely thinks himself the master of all he surveys. Under the spell of the material energy, represented by the threefold material qualities, the living entity is so entangled that he is not at all able to become free unless he is graced by the Supreme Lord. The living entity cannot conquer the influence of the material modes of nature by his own endeavor, but because material nature is working under the control of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is beyond its jurisdiction. Except for Him, all living entities, from Brahmā down to the ant, are conquered by the contact of material nature.
Because the Lord possesses in full the six opulences of wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, He alone is beyond the spell of material nature. Unless the living entity is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he cannot approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yet the Lord, by His omnipotency, can dictate from within as the Supersoul how a living entity can gradually come to Him even while performing his ordinary work. As the Lord advises in the Bhagavad-gītā, “Whatever you do, do it for Me; whatever you eat, first offer it to Me; whatever charity you want to give, first give it to Me; and whatever austerities and penances you want to perform, perform them for Me.” In this way the karmīs are directed gradually to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa directs the philosophers to approach Him gradually by discriminating between Brahman and māyā, for at last, when one is mature in knowledge, he surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa. As Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, “After many, many births, the wise philosopher surrenders unto Me.” The yogīs are also directed to concentrate their meditation upon Kṛṣṇa within the heart, and by such a continuous process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness they can also become free from the clutches of the material energy. The devotees, however, are engaged in devotional service with love and affection from the very beginning, and therefore the Lord personally directs them so that they can approach Him without difficulty or deviation. This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Only by the grace of the Lord can the living entity understand the exact position of Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.
Purport
According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the twenty-eight verses of the prayers of the personified
Vedas
(texts 14-41) represent the opinions of each of the twenty-eight major
śrutis.
These chief
Upaniṣads
and other
śrutis
concern themselves with various approaches to the Absolute Truth, and among them those
śrutis
are supreme which emphasize pure, unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The
Upaniṣads
direct our attention to the Personality of Godhead by first negating what is distinct from Him and then defining some of His important characteristics.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī interprets the first words of this prayer,
jaya jaya,
to mean “please reveal Your superexcellence.” The word
jaya
is repeated out of either reverence or joy.
“How should I reveal My excellence?” the Lord might ask.
The
śrutis
answer by requesting Him to mercifully destroy the ignorance of all living beings and attract them to His lotus feet.
The Lord says, “But Māyā, who imposes ignorance on the
jīvas,
is full of good qualities [
gṛbhīta-guṇām
]. Why should I oppose her?”
“Yes,” the
Vedas
answer, “but she has taken on the three modes of nature to bewilder the conditioned souls and make them falsely identify with their material bodies. Her modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, moreover, are tainted [
doṣa-gṛbhīta
] because You are not manifest in their presence.”
The
śrutis
go on to address the Lord as
ajita,
implying that “only You cannot be conquered by Māyā, whereas others, like Brahmā, are defeated by their own faults.”
The Lord responds, “But what proof do you have that she cannot conquer Me?”
“The proof lies in the fact that in Your original state You have already realized the perfection of all opulences.”
At this point the Lord might object that merely destroying the ignorance of the
jīvas
will not suffice to bring them to His lotus feet, since the
jīva
soul, even after his ignorance is dispelled, cannot attain the Lord without engaging in devotional service. As the Lord states in His own words,
bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ:
“I am attainable only through devotional service.” (
Bhāg.
11.14.21
)
To this objection the
śrutis
reply, “My Lord, O You who awaken all energies, after creating the intelligence and senses of the living entities, You inspire them to work hard and enjoy the fruits of their labor. In addition, by Your mercy You awaken their ability to pursue the progressive paths of knowledge, mystic
yoga
and devotional service, allowing them to advance toward You in Your aspects of Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, respectively. And when
jṣāna,
yoga
and
bhakti
mature, You empower the living beings to directly realize You in each of Your three aspects.”
If the Lord were to ask for authoritative evidence to support this statement by the personified
Vedas,
they humbly reply, “We ourselves are the evidence. On some occasions — such as now, the time of creation — You consort with Your external, Māyā potency, whereas You are always present with Your internal energy. It is at times such as the present, when Your activity is outwardly manifest, that we, the
Vedas,
can recognize You in Your play.”
Thus endowed with authority by their personal association with the Supreme Lord, the
śrutis
promulgate the processes of
karma, jṣāna,
yoga
and
bhakti
as various means for the conditioned souls to employ their intelligence, senses, mind and vitality in search of the Absolute Truth.
In many places the
Vedas
glorify the transcendental, personal qualities of the Supreme. The following verse appears in the
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
(6.11), the
Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad
(
Uttara
97), and the
Brahma Upaniṣad
(4.1):
eko devaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ
sarva-vyāpī sarva-bhūtāntarātmā
karmādhyakṣaḥ sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ
sākṣī cetāḥ kevalo nirguṇaś ca
“The one Supreme Lord lives hidden inside all created things. He pervades all matter and sits within the hearts of all living beings. As the indwelling Supersoul, He supervises their material activities. Thus, while having no material qualities Himself, He is the unique witness and giver of consciousness.”
The Supreme’s personal qualities are further described in the following quotations from the
Upaniṣads:
Yaḥ sarva-jṣaḥ sa sarva-vid yasya jṣāna-mayaṁ tapaḥ.
“He who is all-knowing, from whom the potency of all knowledge comes — He is the wisest of all” (
Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad
1.1.9);
sarvasya vaśī sarvasyeśānaḥ:
“He is the Lord and controller of everyone” (
Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad
4.4.22); and
yaḥ pṛthivyāṁ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā āntaro yaṁ pṛthivī na veda:
“He who resides within the earth and pervades it, whom the earth does not know.” (
Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad
3.7.3)
The Lord’s role in creation is mentioned in many statements of the
śruti.
The
Bṛhad-āraṇyaka
Upaniṣad
(1.2.4) states,
so ’kāmayata bahu syām:
“He desired, ‘I will become many.’” The phrase
so ’kāmayata
(“He desired”) here implies that the Lord’s personality is eternal, for even prior to the creation the Absolute Truth experienced desire, and desire is an attribute unique to persons. The
Aitareya Upaniṣad
(3.11) similarly states,
sa aikṣata tat-tejo ’sṛjata:
“He saw, and His power sent forth the creation.” Here the word
tat-tejaḥ
refers to the Lord’s partial expansion Mahā-Viṣṇu, who glances upon Māyā and thus manifests the material creation. Or
tat-tejaḥ
may refer to the Lord’s impersonal Brahman feature, His potency of all-pervasive, eternal existence. As described in
Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā
(5.40):
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes.”
In summing up this verse, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays:
jaya jayājita jahy aga-jaṅgamā-
vṛtim ajām upanīta-mṛṣā-guṇām
na hi bhavantam ṛte prabhavanty amī
nigama-gīta-guṇārṇavatā tava
“All glories, all glories to You, O unconquerable one! Please defeat the influence of Your eternal Māyā, who covers all moving and nonmoving creatures and who rules over the modes of illusion. Without Your influence, all these Vedic
mantras
would be powerless to sing of You as the ocean of transcendental qualities.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"O unconquerable Lord! May you remain in all your glories (jaya jaya). May you reveal all your excellent qualities." Jaya is repreated twice out of great respect or joy.
"By what means should I reveal my glories?"
"By being merciful to the jivas, but letting them attain the sweetness of your lotus feet. Destroy that ignorance (ajam) which in unfavorable for attaining your feet of all the jivas with stationary and moving bodies (agajagad okasam)."
"But Maya is full of good qualities. How does she act unfavorably for the jivas’ attaining me?"
"She has the quality of covering knowledge, making the jivas accept false identity in material bodies (dosa ghrbita gunan)." Another meaning is:
"She possesses the modes of nature (sattva, raja and tama) which hide your presence. Her qualities produce anarthas which are not favorable for attainment of your lotus feet."
(In the word "ghrbhita," bh is a substitute for h (ghrhita), permitted in prayers.)
"O unconquerable one (ajita), you cannot be conquered by her, but others such as Brahma are conquered by her qualities."
"You say that I am unconquered by her, what is the symptom of that?"
"Because (yat) you are endowed with all powers (samavaruddha samasta bhaga) through your svarupa (atmana)--because you have complete control over maya."
"But even if ignorance slackens, one cannot attain me except by bhakti, for concerning bhakti I have said, ‘bhaktya aham ekaya grahyah’ (sb 11.14.21) ‘I am obtained only by unalloyed devotion.’"
"O awakener of all saktis! Having created intelligence, the senses, mind and pranas, you arouse all the saktis of the jivas such as the sakti for doing work and enjoying the fruit of work. In the same way, you, by your mercy, awaken all the saktis for executing jnana and bhakti yoga in order to attain you in your forms of Brahman, paramatma and bhagavan. And when theses practices are mature, you then awaken the saktis to give realization of Brahman, paramatma and bhagavan"
"What is the proof of this?"
Here the srutis themselves speak, but out of humility they speak in the third person.
"The srutis (nigamah) serve you, who only at the time of creation (kvacit) engage in activities with your external energy (ajaya), but at all times engage in activities with your internal energy (atmana). Our serving you (describing you) produces the proof of your carrying out these functions. In other words, we the srutis establish that you act at the time of creation and destruction of the material world, and that you act at all times for devotees’ realization of yourself. Therefore the statement of the Brahmopanisad is correct in saying that you created the intelligence, senses, mind for the benefit of the jivas."
Thus the Lord, Brahman, is endowed with eternity, full knowledge and bliss.
Here are the proofs:
Eko devah sarvabhutesu gudhah sarva vyapi sarva bhutantaratma
Karmadhyaksah sarvabhutadhivasah saksi cetah kevalo nirgunas ca
The one Lord is hidden in all living beings, pervades everywhere, and is the soul within all living being. The Lord is the controller of action, resides in all entities, is the witness, consciousness, one, without material qualities.
Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.11
Yah sarva jnah sarvavit yasya jnanamayam tapah
He is complete knowledge, endowed with cit sakti.
Mundaka upanisad 1.1.9
Sarvajna means complete knowledge. Sarva vit means the cit sakti of the Lord whose quality is to awaken all saktis, which can be realized only by her grace. Jnanamayam means filled with recollection or inference. Tapa means glorious powers.
sarvasya vasi sarvasyesanah
He remembers everything, as all glories, controls all, is worshipped by all because he gives the fruits of karma
Brhad aranyaka 4.4.22
Vasi means power to control. Isana means giver of fruits of all karma, therefore he is worshipped by all.
yah prthivyam tisthan prthivyam antarah
He is all pervading, and remains hidden from all, difficult to understand.
Brhad aranyaka3.7.3
He resides in the earth because he is all pervading. Being within the earth means that no one knows him.
So’kamayata bahu syam
The Lord desired: may I become many.
Taittiriya upanisad 2.6.1
The Lord has desire which existed before the creation. Because that desire is purely spiritual it indicates his auspicious qualities.
sa iksata
Aitareya upanisad
The Lord decided to create.
tat tejo’ srjat
The Lord creates by his amsa, mahavisnu, or by his all pervasive nature.
Chandogya Upanisad 6.2.2
Satyam vijnanam anandam brahma
Brahman has qualities of satya, vijnana and ananda.
Taitiriya 2.1.2
( It looks like many of the references given in bhagavatam are not correct. Some of the quotes look like two texts merged together. I could not vind so kamayata bahusyam together in one upanisad. Others I could not trace. )
.
yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-kotim-
kotsivv asesa-vasudhadi-vibhuti-bhinnam
tad brahma niskalam anantam asesa-bhutam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes." (Brahma-samhita 5.40)
Madiyam mahimanams ca param brahmeti sabditam
vetsyasy anugrhitam me samprasair rtam hrdi
You will be thoroughly advised and favored by Me, and because of your inquiries, everything about My glories, which are known as paraṁ brahma, will be manifest within your heart. Thus you will know everything about Me.
(SB 8.24.38)
satyam jnanam anantam yad brahma-jyotih sanatanam
yad dhi pasyanti munayo gunapaye samahitah
Lord Krsna revealed the indestructible spiritual effulgence, which is unlimited, conscious and eternal. Sages see that spiritual existence in trance, when their consciousness is free of the modes of material nature. (SB 10.28.15)
Brahmano hi pratisthaham
I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman
Bhagavad Gita 14.27
These statements show the Lord as Brahman, paramatma and bhagavan (and their relationship).
Yato va imani bhutani jayante
From him all entities are born.
Taitiriya Upanisad 3.1.1.
This verse show his creative aspect.
Aksayam ha vai caturmasya yajinah sukrtam bhavati
One who has worshiped by means of the vows of caturmasya attains pious credits which never become depleted.
Apastambha Srauta Sutra, Black Yajur Veda 8.1.1
This verse shows the process of karma.
Brahmavid apnoti param
Attaining knowledge of brahman one attains the supreme.
Taitiriya Upanisad 2.12
Tam eva viditva atimrtyum eti
Knowing him, one surpasses death.
Svetasvatara Upanisad 3.8.
These verses show the process of jnana.
Satam caika ca hrdayasya nadyas tasam murdhanam abhinim sritaika tayordhvam anayan amrtatvam
There are one hundred and one subtle nerve channels which emanate from the heart. One of these extends to the top of head; by passing up through it one transcends death. Chandogya Upanisad 8.6.6.
This verse shows the process of yoga.
Bhakti alone leads to the Lord.
saccidanandaika rase bhakti yoge tisthati
He is revealed through bhakti yoga, in the one rasa of eternity, knowledge and bliss.
Gopal Tapani Upanisad Uttara 79
This verse demonstrates the process of bhakti.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Having shown in verse 2 that the Lord is directly indicated by praṇava, the leaders of all the great Upaniṣads of twenty-eight varieties, which are expansions of the praṇava, begin to speak in order harmonize the conclusion of all the śrutis by delineating the essential qualities of the Lord while refuting condemned opinions not approved by the śrutis. First they reveal their first cherished desire while joking, in a way befitting a bard. O Lord unconquerable by māyā! You must reveal your supreme qualities (jaya jaya)! Repeating the word jaya they indicate, “Why do you not reveal those qualities?” “It will be detrimental to me to cause injury to māyā who is the cause of variety in this world.” You have full powers because of your svarūpa-śakti, full of the highest bliss (ātmanā). Māyā is insignificant. Śrīdhara Svāmī will say “Māyā has no affect on the master of a host of desire cows of continuous bliss and knowledge.” Nārada has said:
viśuddha-vijñāna-ghanaṁ sva-saṁsthayā
samāpta-sarvārtham amogha-vāñchitam
Let me surrender to you, Bhagavān. You are the condensed form of pure knowledge and by you are bliss itself you have forms with many qualities. SB 10.37.22
“What is the proof that I have such a svarūpa-śakti?” You awaken material and spiritual śaktis of the jīvas (okāṇ) in the material (agat) and spiritual (aga) worlds. You give śakti to all the śaktis.
Since matter is inert, and the operating of its śaktis is similar, to awaken them, you use your svarūpa-śakti, with spiritual form. Awaking the spiritual cit-śaktis is also caused by the svarūpa-śakti since it is the shelter of all śaktis. “You understand this by logic but you cannot be the witnesses. There should be direct observers of these śaktis. Those near me do not know the truth about me. They only serve me. To that extent, your words prove nothing.” We Vedas serve you who sometimes perform actions as a puruṣa with māyā (ajayā) for pastimes of creation of the universes, and who sometimes perform actions in the form of Svayam Bhagavān with your svarūpa-śakti full of bliss (ātmanā) in pastimes of pure bliss. Therefore defeat māyā.
Actually the Vedas do not speak using secondary meaning of words (guṇa-vṛttayaḥ). But in order to reject that idea, to confirm the truth, they directly speak about the Lord, mentioning his svarūpa-śakti, by taking support of his various qualities. They describe him by calling him “unconquerable (ajita).” By the special word, in the form of his spiritual name, the śrutis make him turn and face them. The reason they serve him (anucaret) is bhakti alone. This is the conclusion brought out.
The śrutis confirm this. Satyaṁ jñanam anantaṁ brahma: the supreme Lord is existence, knowledge and bliss. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad) Vijñānam ānandaṁ brahma: the Lord is knowledge and bliss. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad) Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇam ca vidyate: the Lord has no senses and no body. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad) Tam eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvam: all things shine because he shines. (Katha Upaniṣad 2.2.5)
yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśānte mahātmanaḥ
The meaning of scripture is revealed to the person who has devotion to guru as much as he has devotion to the Lord. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
O Lord unconquered by māyā (ajita)! The Vedas act as your servants (anucaret). Though they should say “We act as your servants” they describe themselves in the third person out of great humility and obedience.
Conquer over māyā. Remove māyā completely. “But as sattva-guṇa, māyā is your assistant. Why remove her?” Even sattva-guṇa is contaminated with māyā’s disturbing nature (doṣa).
“It is not proper to remove māyā since she is the cause of some pastimes.” By your cit śakti emanating from yourself (ātmanā) you are full of all powers to perform all your sweet pastimes. What use is māyā?
“Then how will the jīvas realize me, filled with the astonishing cit śakti, and take up bhakti?”
Without your mercy in the form of giving śakti (akhila-śakty-avabodhaka), the jīvas (aga-jagad-okasām) cannot take to bhakti.
“How is it known that I perform pastimes using all my śaktis?” The Vedas serve you, who act as the puruṣa, using māyā for the pastime of creating the world and who sometimes act as Nārāyaṇa and other forms using the cit śakti for pastimes of pure bliss. They know about your pastimes by serving you.