Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 10.23

rudrāṇāṁ śaṅkaraś cāsmi
vitteśo yakṣa-rakṣasām
vasūnāṁ pāvakaś cāsmi
meruḥ śikhariṇām aham

Word for word: 

rudrāṇām — of all the Rudras; śaṅkaraḥ — Lord Śiva; ca — also; asmi — I am; vitta–īśaḥ — the lord of the treasury of the demigods; yakṣa–rakṣasām — of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas; vasūnām — of the Vasus; pāvakaḥ — fire; ca — also; asmi — I am; meruḥ — Meru; śikhariṇām — of all mountains; aham — I am.

Translation: 

Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva, of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], of the Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of mountains I am Meru.

rudrāṇāṁ śaṅkaraś cāsmi, among the Rudras I am Shankara, there are 11 Rudras, so among them one is Shankara who is considered to be most powerful, sometimes these names are used interchangeable .

In the beginning of creation Brahma Ji created Kumaras and told them to create progeny and Kumaras denied so because of his anger Rudra came out of his forehead between eyebrows and then Rudra expanded to 11 expansions so most prominent among them is Shankara, so Krishna is telling I am that Shankara again this doesn’t mean that Krishna and Shiva are the same there are some commentator there is famous Kashmiri scholar Abhinav Gupa, he tried to interpret whole BG and to prove that Shiva is the supreme personality of Godhead, now whatever one does there is no reference to Shiva in whole BG apart from this and in 11 chapter Shiva is also one of the devata who is seen in the universal form, so it is completely futile attempt to prove like this. Person who is saying Aham Servasys Prabhavo is Krishna. So here meaning is Shankar’s power come from Me so become attracted to Me. 

vitteśo yakṣa-rakṣasām, Yaksa and Raksha are also part of the universal existence, they are considered little bit Rajasik and Tamasik, Yakshas are considered little bit negative but they are precided by Kubera, so Kubera is good one among the bad one’s in one sense, that makes him attractive and he is treasurer of devatas, so I am that Kuvera, 

vasūnāṁ pāvakaś cāsmi, there are different kinds of fire there are different vasus which are part of universal family and one of them is Aagni, so I am that aagni, 

meruḥ śikhariṇām aham, so there are many mountains among them I am Meru. 

So again the point is there are various manifestation and they are reflecting Lord’s glory.

End of transcription.