Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Bg 10.22

vedānāṁ sāma-vedo ’smi
devānām asmi vāsavaḥ
indriyāṇāṁ manaś cāsmi
bhūtānām asmi cetanā

Word for word: 

vedānām — of all the Vedas; sāma–vedaḥ — the Sāma Veda; asmi — I am; devānām — of all the demigods; asmi— I am; vāsavaḥ — the heavenly king; indriyāṇām — of all the senses; manaḥ — the mind; ca — also; asmi — I am; bhūtānām — of all living entities; asmi — I am; cetanā — the living force.

Translation: 

Of the Vedas I am the Sāma Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness].

 

vedānāṁ, among the vedas 

sāma-vedo ’smi, I am sama veda, there are different vedas to serve specific purposes, of course there is overlapping also, broad classification given by Srila Viswanath Chakravarti Thakur is Rig Veda -> to invoke Devatas, Yajur means to worship, so Yajur Veda -> gives direction of worship, what all the mantas to chant in yajna, Sama Veda -> of glorification of higher beings, there are beautiful section in it, 

devānām asmi vāsavaḥ -> among gods I am Indra, most powerful or king of god.

indriyāṇāṁ manaś cāsmi, often mind is grouped with the senses sometimes it is considered different being a subtle body, 15.7 Krishna says senses including mind…five senses are around the mind and the mind is formidable, in SB Avantika Brahman said god like power of mind is very difficult to subdue, so this power of mind is manifestation of Krishna. Which doesn’t mean that we have to put mind on the alter and do puja of the mind, none of these are referring in that way these are not meant to be surrogate object of worship these are not alternative gods whom we can worship in replacement to Krishna, no, it is clearly told before that these are Vibhutis of Krishna, and these Vibhuti help us in rising from the materialworld to the transcendental world. And that is the objective of this Vibhuti Yoga chapter, Thomes Bleker said mind can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven. Mind can completely change our perception it is scary, so that kind of power when we see we understand this is how the God is powerful, this gives small glimpse of power of God.

nām asmi cetanā, among living entities I am consciousness what makes living entity living is consciousness.

So again this doesn’t mean that atma and parmatama are same, so we know that consciousness come from atma so it is not that Krishna is saying I am that atma and I am the consciousness of atma, Krishna is saying that consciousness is what attracts e.g. when is person is poker faced means no reaction at all, when a person is in coma or sleep a fast, the person is not very attractive what makes a person attractive is consciousness, so the more alive, more reciprocal more vibrant, the more active the person is the more the person is having capacity to attractive so consciousness is the foundation which makes a person attractive.

End of transcription.