7.19
बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यते ।
वासुदेवः सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभः ॥
bahūnāṃ janmanām ante jñānavān māṃ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) is speaking, to Arjuna (अर्जुन).
The verse
At the end of many births, the one who has knowledge comes to me: Vāsudeva (वासुदेव) is all. That great self is very hard to find.
नेपालीमा
धेरै जन्मको अन्त्यमा ज्ञानी मकहाँ आउँछ, वासुदेव नै सबै हुन् भनेर। त्यो महात्मा पाउन साह्रै गाह्रो छ।
Where it sits
This is the center of the second stretch. The one who knows, singled out in 7.17 and called his self in 7.18, at last comes to him with a sentence: he is all. 7.7 said nothing is higher and all is strung on him. Here a person says it.
Split: बहूनाम् + जन्मनाम् + अन्ते + ज्ञानवान् + माम् + प्रपद्यते + वासुदेवः + सर्वम् + इति + सः + महा-आत्मा + सु-दुर्लभः
bahūnām + janmanām + ante + jñānavān + mām + prapadyate + vāsudevaḥ + sarvam + iti + saḥ + mahā-ātmā + su-durlabhaḥ
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| देवनागरी | Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| बहूनाम् | bahūnām | genitive plural of bahu (बहु) | of many. |
| जन्मनाम् | janmanām | genitive plural of janman (जन्मन्) | of births. |
| अन्ते | ante | locative singular | at the end. |
| ज्ञानवान् | jñānavān | nominative of jñānavat (ज्ञानवत्) | the one who has knowledge. |
| माम् | mām | accusative | me. |
| प्रपद्यते | prapadyate | present, 3rd singular, middle | he comes to. |
| वासुदेवः | vāsudevaḥ | nominative | Vāsudeva (वासुदेव). Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण), the son of Vasudeva (वसुदेव). |
| सर्वम् | sarvam | nominative singular, neuter | all. |
| इति | iti | indeclinable | thus. It closes the thought he has come to. |
| सः | saḥ | nominative | he. |
| महा-आत्मा | mahā-ātmā | nominative | a great self. |
| सु-दुर्लभः | su-durlabhaḥ | nominative singular | very hard to find. su (सु) "very," durlabha (दुर्लभ) "hard to obtain." |
The phrases
बहूनाम् जन्मनाम् अन्ते ज्ञानवान् माम् प्रपद्यते bahūnām janmanām ante jñānavān mām prapadyate puts a time on the coming. Not at the first impulse. At the end of many births, the one who has knowledge comes to him. The verb is prapadyate (प्रपद्यते), the singular of the verb in 7.14 and 7.15.
वासुदेवः सर्वम् इति vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti is the thought he comes with. Vāsudeva (वासुदेव) is all. iti (इति) marks it as what is said, or known, not as a new sentence of the narrator. saḥ mahā-ātmā su-durlabhaḥ (सः महा-आत्मा सु-दुर्लभः) is Kṛṣṇa's (कृष्ण) comment on that person. A great self, and very hard to find. The saḥ (सः) is again recited sa (स).
Sanskrit in this line
iti (इति) after sarvam (सर्वम्) closes a quotation. The words inside it are vāsudevaḥ sarvam (वासुदेवः सर्वम्). What follows, saḥ mahā-ātmā (सः महा-आत्मा), is about the person who has come to that, not about Vāsudeva (वासुदेव).
सर्वम् + इति sarvam + iti is recited sarvam iti (सर्वमिति). m (म्) before a vowel becomes m (म्) and joins. The iti (इति) is not a suffix on sarva (सर्व). janmanām (जन्मनाम्) is genitive plural of the consonant stem janman (जन्मन्), ending --nām (नाम्), not the --ānām (आनाम्) of an a (अ)-stem. bahūnām janmanām (बहूनाम् जन्मनाम्) is "of many births," and ante (अन्ते) is "at the end of" that genitive.
Say it back
The end of many births, then the sentence he comes with. If sarvam (सर्वम्) becomes "the important one," or if iti (इति) is left off so that the narrator is the one asserting it as a fresh claim, stay here.