Purushottama in the Bhagavad Gita
Purushottama means the Supreme Person; in 15.18 Krishna takes the name as one beyond the perishable and above the imperishable.
Verses across the Gita that speak to purushottama, drawn from all chapters and ordered by where they appear.
- 10.15Ch. 10
The supreme one is known fully only by the supreme one.
Some things you cannot fully explain; you can only bow to them.
- 10.42Ch. 10
The whole universe rests in a single fragment of the divine.
The mind can relax. Reality is already held together by something far larger than your grasp.
- 14.20Ch. 14
Freedom begins when the three qualities no longer define you.
Go beyond the three qualities and you go beyond birth, ageing, death and sorrow.
- 15.1Ch. 15
Understanding the world-tree is the beginning of true understanding.
You stop seeing life as random and start seeing its hidden pattern.
- 15.4Ch. 15
The final refuge is a state where return itself stops.
Seek the place of no return, and take refuge in the original Person.
- 15.5Ch. 15
Freedom begins when pride, craving, and inner division fall away.
Freedom feels less like gaining something and more like losing what kept you divided.
- 15.6Ch. 15
The highest home is beyond every ordinary light and beyond return.
Krishna's own abode needs no sun or moon, and no one falls back from it.
- 15.7Ch. 15
What is eternal gets pulled around by what changes.
You are larger than the impulses that tug at you.
- 15.10Ch. 15
What changes is seen by the wise; the true self is not what moves.
It brings relief from identifying with every passing role, state, or sensation.
- 15.11Ch. 15
Seeing the supreme reality depends on inner purification, not effort alone.
Real progress feels less like forcing and more like becoming fit to see.
- 15.17Ch. 15
Even the imperishable witness is not the final reality.
What seems highest is still not the highest. There is a greater presence holding everything together.
- 15.18Ch. 15
The highest reality lies beyond both change and permanence.
Reality is larger than both what fades and what seems permanent.
- 15.19Ch. 15
Clear seeing of the Supreme Self becomes total devotion.
Seeing Krishna clearly leads straight into worshipping him with everything you have.
- 15.20Ch. 15
Secret knowledge makes a person complete.
Understand this teaching, and the work a life is meant to do is done.