Gita 10.15 – Vedic theology is not polytheism, but multi-level monotheism

Bhagavad Gita 10.15 Arjuna is speaking to Krishna here and he says by yourself in yourself you alone know yourself you are the supreme person oh lord and you alone know yourself you are so great this is a continuation from the previous verse the previous text stated that no one knows Krishna that that neither the dhanavas nor the devatas know Krishna and who knows him here it is said you alone know yourself oh lord you are the supreme person purushottama this word purushottama will be especially stressed in the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita wherein Krishna will speak about about the two purushas of course he will introduce in the 13th chapter itself 15th chapter is called as purushottam yoga so purushottama best person the supreme person so you are supreme person you alone know yourself and he further describes that supreme person so totally there are five describers here to refer to refer to Krishna first is purushottama then is bhutabhavana you are the source of all of existence of all living entities and indeed all of existence bhutabhavana bhutesha oh lord you are the controller of the universe for all living beings again bhut can mean all living beings bhut can mean existence also so bhutabhavana bhutesha now somebody may ask that oh but there are devatas who are supposed to be the controllers so what about that yes devatas are controllers but you are the controller of the devatas you are supreme you are the god of the gods jagatpate you are the master the lord of the universe so with these five describers Arjuna reiterates and restresses the supremacy of Krishna the paramount position of Krishna which he has stated in 10.13 in 10.12 and 13 where he has stated so we see some of the similar describers here it is so there the superiority of Krishna as compared to the devatas is stressed in terms of chronology and origination you are the oldest god the primeval god here it is talked about in terms of the position not in terms of chronology but in terms of ontology in terms of existence you are greater than them because you are their lord so what devatas are for you, you are for them sorry what devatas are for us Krishna is for the devatas that devatas are worshipable for us but Krishna is worshipable even for the devatas of course Krishna is worshipable for us also but this is clearly the Bhagavad Gita is not teaching polytheism polytheism is the idea that there are many gods Bhagavad Gita does talk about a world view where there are many gods but the many gods are not each god being independent controller of its own independent or her own independent turf yes they have all their territories but all those territories are under under the jurisdiction of the supreme lord he is devadeva so polytheism is the idea we could say roughly speaking if we consider a continent it has different countries within it and it has different heads of state for the continent, for each country in the continent and in that sense each head of state is having their own territory marked out and often they may fight among each other to try to extend their turf but the Bhagavad Gita's understanding of the role of the various gods is something like the chief ministers of various states within a country that means they have their own turf, they have their own jurisdiction but they are all under the prime minister or the king or whatever it is who is the head of state if you consider the Indian polity then we will see that the devatas are under Krishna he is devadeva so universal administration is more like that of a country than of a continent in a continent the different kings, different heads of state are more or less independent having control jurisdictions sovereignty over their own turf whereas in the case of a country the heads of the states, sorry the heads of the provinces or the chiefs of the states they have their control but they are all under the prime minister of course if we have a federal head structure or we have a federal state structure then the prime minister may not have too much control over the heads of state or the chiefs of various states but it is not like that in the cosmic administration so that's why another example that could be given to illustrate this is that a prime minister with a set of cabinet ministers so the cabinet ministers have their portfolios and along with their portfolios the supreme lord has his own they have their portfolios and they have control over their portfolios but they are all under the prime minister and they are accountable to the prime minister, they are subordinate to the prime minister and their authority does not challenge and certainly does not usurp the authority of the prime minister and of course this particular example either of the heads of state under the heads of chiefs of specific states under the head of the whole country or the cabinet ministers under the prime minister both of these don't convey one point that they basically talk in terms of the governmental managerial structure of the universal government but they don't talk so much about the point that devatas themselves are also not just managerially under the supreme lord but actually they are also meant to be devoted to the supreme lord because all living beings are ultimately parts of Krishna and all living beings are meant to be devoted to Krishna so to the extent that souls in this world can be devoted to Krishna to that extent they are progressing on the path to the supreme perfection so here Arjuna very unambiguously declares Krishna's overlordship of all of existence and all of all of those are considered overlords in this world he points by using universalist describers bhuta bhavana bhutesha jagat pate so these are universalist because bhuta refers to all of existence so he is the source of all of existence he is the lord of all of existence he is the controller of all of existence and he is the lord of the universe and in that way he leaves no ambiguity about Krishna's supremacy so the bhagavad gita is essentially we could say a quest for understanding two things which is what everyone needs to understand ultimately when they are trying to move forward trying to progress towards certain goal in their lives one is they need to understand what is the sadhan and what is the sadhya what is it that needs to be achieved and what is the means by which it is to be achieved so what is to be achieved the sadhya is Krishna that understanding Arjuna is stating very emphatically over several verses and that Krishna has stated right in the beginning of Jatur Shloki 10.8 when he says aham sarvasya prabho and now from this point onwards the sadhya will begin and when Arjuna speaks about the sadhya he will actually not just say that bhakti is supreme which Krishna has talked about in 10.8, 9, 10 and 11 all three actually Krishna doesn't focus only on the sadhya in Jatur Shloki as on the sadhana and Arjuna will ask how this sadhana can be implemented in terms of how one can remember Krishna in this world that will be what he asks in the next verse thank you.