10.21 Vishnu, the sun, the moon Krishna speaks
आदित्यानामहं विष्णुर्ज्योतिषां रविरंशुमान्
मरीचिर्मरुतामस्मि नक्षत्राणामहं शशी
ādityānām ahaṁ viṣhṇur jyotiṣhāṁ ravir anśhumān
marīchir marutām asmi nakṣhatrāṇām ahaṁ śhaśhī
Among the sons of Aditi I am Vishnu; among lights, the radiant sun; among the winds, Marichi; among the stars I am the moon.
Explanation
Twenty verses of among X, I am the best of X.
Vishnu among Aditi's sons, the sun among lights, Marichi among winds, the moon among stars.
Modern readers skim this, and something is lost. The list is not saying the sun is holier than a lamp — it is saying that wherever something is most fully what it is, that is where he shows.
Going further
Word by word
- ādityānām
- amongst the twelve sons of Aditi
- aham
- I
- viṣhṇuḥ
- Lord Vishnu
- jyotiṣhām
- amongst luminous objects
- raviḥ
- the sun
- anśhu-mān
- radiant
- marīchiḥ
- Marichi
- marutām
- of the Maruts
- asmi
- (I) am
- nakṣhatrāṇām
- amongst the stars
- aham
- I
- śhaśhī
- the moon
Long-press or right-click the image to copy it. Nothing is uploaded — it is drawn here, on your device.
Twenty verses of among X, I am the best of X. Modern readers tend to skim it, and something is lost in the skimming.
The list is not a hierarchy of things worth worshipping. It is a method: pick any category you know, find its highest instance, and look there. The point is the exercise, repeated until the habit of looking transfers to categories the list never mentions.