Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 10, Verse 3

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Visnuswami

Sridhara Swami's Commentary

Here Lord Krishna is revealing the result of such realization of Him. One who realizes that the Supreme Lord Krishna is verily the origin of everything and the controller of everyone having no beginning or cause as He alone is the cause of all; is free from delusion and illusion and has absolved all reactions from their actions.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Madhvacarya

Madhvacarya's Commentary

The word anadim meaning without beginning contains two root words within it. Ana which means that which energises everything and adi which means that which is the origin of everything. Therefore Lord Krishna is the energising cause of all without beginning. Thus the word ajam being unborn and anadim have both been established.

Now begins the summation.

Ana can also denote the original primal breath. Thus the Supreme Lord is even prior to it. It may appear to one not use to discriminating that anadim and ajam have similar meanings but that would be a misconception. While ajam means unborn, anadim denotes He existed before the manifestation of the primal breath of creation. At that time nothing else existed except the resonant sound of OM which was vibrating within the Supreme Lord's transcendental heart. When the eternal, transcendental sound vibration OM manifested impulse in the primal breath that impulse manifested into the brahman the spiritual substratum pervading all existence and then into the phenomena of myriad effusions of variegated creations and diverse forms corresponding to the various and diverse parts of the anthropomorphic spiritual form of the Supreme Lord.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Ramanuja

Ramanuja's Commentary

One who is never born is ajam or without birth. This attribute connotes the Supreme Lord Krishna as contra-distinguished from the transitory insentient matter and the sentient beings bound by samsara or the perpetual cycle of birth and death. The term anadim meaning without beginning differentiates the Supreme Lord from the muktas or liberated beings in the spiritual worlds who although having become birthless did have a beginning at the time of their liberation. The nature of liberation implies being freed from bondage at some time and is thus characterised by previously being associated with the material manifestation and duality. Hence the term anandi denotess that the Supreme Lord never had contact or association with duality and materialism due to the fact that He is transcendental to duality and everything material, The Svetasvatara Upanisad VI.XIX beginning niravadyam meaning the Supreme Lord is perfection, confirms this. it sometime had to be freed from a state of bondage. Thus the spiritually intelligent among mortals are those who realise that the Lord Krishna is the Supreme Lord over all other gods and lords being completely different from them in essence and in substance. The spiritually intelligent also realise that Lord Krishna is the antithesis and eternally contrary to anything associated with evil and unrighteousness. The word asammudhah means those who are not deluded, alluding to the spiritual intelligent which comprises being free from the illusion of perceiving anything as equal to the Supreme Lord, being free from the illusion of believing that anything is separate from the Supreme Lord and being free from the illusion of not identifying oneself as being an eternal, infinitesimal portion of the Supreme Lord. Thus one who is asammudhah is free from the defects and impediments of karma or reactions to sinful actions which is great obstacle in the development of bhakti or loving devotion to the Supreme Lord.

Another angle of vision is that as in the world the emperor although the most powerful monarch amongst humans, he still is like all others subject to old age, disease and death. Yet he has been awarded emperor by the Supreme Lord due to some act of merit. This holds true also for Indra the king of all the demigods and even higher with Brahma the architect of the material existence, both were also awarded their posts by the Supreme Lord as a result of great acts of merit. Although they live for millions of years by Earth time calculations for them it is as 100 years and at the end of that time they die also and transmigrate into another form in another existence. Even exalted beings come under the three-fold bhavanas of material existence being karma bhavana like Janaka and others, brahman bhavana like Sanaka and Sanatana and ubhaya bhavana like Brahma himself and are subject to birth and death according to their acts. The Vedic scriptures confirms this. In Vishnu Purana VI.VII.IIL it states that: Therefore they are all accountable for their acts. The Svetasvatara Upanisad VI.VIII states: Yo brahmanan vidadhati meaning He who creates Brahma. This also applies to any mortal who has acquired the eight main siddhis or perfections such as anima or manima etc.

But the Supreme Lord is loka-maheshvaram the Supreme Lord of all beings in all worlds.

Loka is the total cosmos being the aggregate total of all sentient and non-sentient categories in conditions of inactive latency or active patency. The sentient includes both muktas or liberated beings as well as baddhas or not liberated beings. So all this is under the Supreme Lord's control and rule.

1) Maha is greatness and consists of the Supreme Lord being the storehouse of unlimited attributes of glorious qualities and His always being the eternal antithesis of all that is unrighteous, demoniac and evil. 2) Isvarah means Lord as being the supreme, sovereign ruler eternally, independent of all.

Thus the Supreme Lord is completely unlike all others, singular unto Himself alone, independent and superior to all. One who does not incur the error of including the Supreme Lord Krishna amongst all the various other lesser gods and who understands Him to be the sole cause, the sole source and the sole origin of all creation, verily realises Him and by His grace is relieved from all reactions to previous actions.

Thus by illustrating how meditation on the factual absolute nature of the Supreme Lord removes the obstacles impeding the blossoming of bhakti or loving devotion unto the Supreme Lord causing such bhakti to become inaugurated; Lord Krishna will next explain how bhakti may be activated by deep and profound meditation on His sublime transcendental divine qualities and attributes.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Nimbaditya

Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary

Lord Krishna confirms the fact that real knowledge about His transcendental rupa or form is difficult to be understood by even the demigods and great sages. Ignorance about Lord Krishna and His Supreme position as the prime cause and origin of all gods and great sages is the obstinate obstacle that limits and impedes the jivas or embodied beings from developing bhakti which is exclusive loving devotion to the Supreme Lord. Whoever knows Him in reality as the unborn without beginning as the Supreme Lord of all creation and the Supreme Controller of all existence. The Svetasvatara Upanisad III.IV states: He alone is the source and origin of all the demigods. Those lacking in knowledge may surmise that the Supreme Lord Krishna rulership is just localised of the complete cosmic manifestation and may hypothecate that His power is the same as any other god; but such offensive thinking is not productive and a foolish misnomer, so to neutralise any such concoctions Lord Krishna uses the words loka-mahesvaram or the Supreme controller of the complete cosmic manifestation throughout the entire realm of all creation. The Svetasvatara Upanisad VI.VII states: He who is the Supreme God of all gods, the Paramount Divinity of all divinities, the Ultimate Ruler of all rulers is to be known as the adorable Lord. Those who know Lord Krishna as the Supreme Lord of all lords are not deluded and do not possess the great delusion of considering any other god as being equal to or the same as Him. Such blessed beings become free from all reactions to all their past and present actions and have crossed all obstacles enabling them to develop bhakti or loving devotion to Him.

The conclusion is that by all means one should avoid such delusion because those who erroneously considers that any other god from any other belief is equal to or the same as the Supreme Lord Krishna or any of His authorised incarnations and expansions as revealed in Vedic scriptures, are all greatly ignorant and sinful beings in whom loving devotion for the Supreme Lord will never germinate. The Pancaratra texts confirm: That one of deluded mind who foolishly speaks of the Supreme Lord Krishna as equal to any other god even once is an evil person from a sub-human class. There is no being more low than this being.