Quiz · 15.12–15.20
The supreme person
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 15.18, what case is akṣarāt (अक्षरात्), and what question does it answer beside uttamaḥ (उत्तमः)?
Answer
Ablative singular. It answers "than." He is higher even than the imperishable. In the same verse kṣaram (क्षरम्) is accusative with atītaḥ (अतीतः): he has gone beyond the perishable. The two cases are two relations.
2
apohanam (अपोहनम्) meets ca (च) in 15.15. What is recited, and which sandhi makes it?
Answer
apohanañ ca (अपोहनञ्च). m (म्) before c (च्) is written as the palatal nasal ñ (ञ्), the nasal of the same class as c (च्). The word is still apohanam (अपोहनम्), the taking away of memory and knowledge.
3
What does 15.18 say, in one sentence?
Answer
Because I have gone beyond the perishable, and am higher even than the imperishable, I am celebrated in the world and in the Veda as the supreme person.
4
Where do 15.12–15.20 sit in the talk between Arjuna (अर्जुन) and Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण)?
Answer
Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) turns from the portion in the living to the powers that hold the world, and he claims them in the first person. The light in the sun, the moon, and fire is his. He enters the earth and supports beings, becomes the moon and nourishes the plants, and as the fire in the body digests food. He is seated in the heart of all; from him come memory, knowledge, and their loss; he is what all the Vedas are to know. Then he counts. Two persons: the perishable, which is all beings, and the imperishable, called the unchanging. A third, the supreme person, enters the three worlds and bears them. He is higher than both, and therefore celebrated as puruṣottama (पुरुषोत्तम). Who knows him thus worships him with his whole being. The chapter closes on that teaching as the most secret, and on the one who knows it as having done what was to be done.
5
Say where he is seated, and the name that puts him above both persons. Which failure shows the count stopped at two?
Answer
hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (हृदि सन्निविष्टः), and puruṣottamaḥ (पुरुषोत्तमः), higher than kṣara (क्षर) and than akṣara (अक्षर). If the answer stops at the two persons of 15.16, stay here. The sitting is the third.