📿 Shloka Collection

Ity Aham Vasudevasya

Gita 18.74 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18 — Moksha Sannyasa Yoga
इत्यहं वासुदेवस्य पार्थस्य च महात्मनः ।
संवादमिममश्रौषमद्भुतं रोमहर्षणम् ॥
Ity aham vasudevasya parthasya cha mahatmanah
Samvadam imam ashrausham adbhutam romaharshanam
इति अहम्
thus I (Sanjaya)
वासुदेवस्य
of Vasudeva (Krishna)
पार्थस्य च महात्मनः
and of the great-souled Partha (Arjuna)
संवादम् इमम्
this dialogue
अश्रौषम्
I heard
अद्भुतम्
wondrous
रोमहर्षणम्
causing the hair to stand on end

The voice changes. It is no longer Krishna. It is no longer Arjuna. Sanjaya — the narrator, the witness — steps forward. Speaking to the blind king Dhritarashtra, he says: I heard this dialogue between Vasudeva and the great-souled Partha. It was wondrous. It made the hair on my body stand on end.

Sanjaya is the Gita's third presence — the one who watched and listened from afar, gifted with divine sight by the sage Vyasa. His testimony adds a layer of witness to the text. This is not just a teaching between teacher and student. It is a teaching that was overhead, treasured, and passed on.

The word 'romaharshanam' — causing the hair to stand on end — is Sanjaya's honest physical response. The Gita moved him. Not just intellectually. In his body. That is the mark of something that goes beyond philosophy into lived experience.

Sanjaya's narration (18.74-78) forms the outer frame of the Gita. Within the Mahabharata's narrative structure, the entire Gita is a conversation reported by Sanjaya to the blind king Dhritarashtra.

Sanjaya was able to hear this battlefield dialogue through divya-drishti (divine sight) granted to him by the sage Vyasa, specifically so he could relay the events of the war to Dhritarashtra.

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