X: 33

Chapter 10, Verse 33

“I am the first letter ‘A.’

Among grammatical compounds,

I am the Dvandva.

I am time eternal,

Sustaining everyone,

And dispensing the fruits of action.”

Swami Satchidananda:

“The first letter of nearly all languages is the letter ‘A.’  Although we say ‘A’ (rhyming  with ‘bay’) in English, the most natural sound of the letter is ‘ah.’  Words and sounds have beginnings, but there is no beginning for consciousness.  The audible ‘ah’ sound has a beginning, but beneath it there is always a silent ‘ah’ going on within.  So Krishna explains in so many words, ‘I am like the letter ‘A,’ which runs through all other letters.  So I am there in everything.  That’s why ‘A’ is the most important; it’s my Vibhuti, my manifestation.’

As the dispenser of fruits, Krishna is the law giver.  He is the law of nature…if you do this, you get that.  This is the law of action and reaction. In this law we see the Vibhuti of the Lord.”

Sri Aurobindo:

“This spirit, this divine, is in outward form the destroyer, time, who undoes all these finite forms.  This is his most evident power of becoming and the essence of the whole universal movement.

In himself he is the infinite, in whom the world and all its action are securely seated, the spirit who conceals and reveals himself for ever in his innumerable infinity of souls and in the wonder of their actions and in the beauty of their forms.  346, 347

He is thus the infinite universal, and he is in each individual and in everything that is, the one force within, the infinite energy that throws itself out in these multitudes, the immeasurable will and mighty power of motion and action that forms out of itself all the courses of time and all the happenings of the spirit in nature.”  347, 348

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

“Sanskrit authors were fond of making big words by running smaller words together.  These compounds are called Dvandvas.  Sanskrit scriptures are full of Dvandvas of opposites which are used to describe life on the physical plane: Sukhadukha, pleasure and pain, is a good example.  Duality is the very nature of the world of change, and if we are to live in freedom, we need to learn to dispel the fog of Dvandvamoha, the delusion of separateness, which keeps us from seeing life as one.”

[re:  "...Dvandvas of opposites are used to describe life on the physical plane..."

One night in martial arts class the teacher was talking about how confidence and humility and courage and fear go together.  I asked him if confidence is Yang and humility is Yin.  "Yes." 

"Is courage Yang and fear Yin?" 

"Yes." 

"Is honor Yang and dishonor Yin?" 

"Yes." 

"But Yang is not better than Yin." 

"That's right."

The one who is swayed neither by honor nor dishonor, pleasure nor pain, etc. rests in the universal.]