Salutations to You in front, salutations to You behind, salutations to You on all sides! O All, infinite in power and immeasurable in valour, You pervade all; therefore You are all. (Bhagavad Gita Chapter XI – Verse 40)
Everything contains You, everything is pervaded by You, nothing exists without You. What more shall I say? Oh, how ignorant I have been:
Not knowing this, Your glory, and regarding You merely as a friend, whatever I may have said presumptuously, out of either carelessness or fondness, addressing You as ‘O Krishna, O Yadava, O Friend.’ (Bhagavad Gita Chapter XI – Verse 41)
O Changeless One, in whatever manner I may have been disrespectful to You, in jest, in walking, in repose, in sitting, or at meals, alone or in the presence of others; O unfathomable One, I implore You to forgive all that. (Bhagavad Gita Chapter XI – Verse 42)
Forgive my presumption. I did not know any better. I meant no offence. Through our close friendship and association I had lost sight of Your godly nature. I began to look upon You as my friend, be loved and respected, but Your divinity I had forgotten. Now I know better. You have in Your kindness opened my eyes. Indeed
You are the Father of the moving and unmoving world, and its object of worship, greater than the great; O incomparable Power, no one in the three worlds exists equal to You. How then can anyone excel You? (Bhagavad Gita Chapter XI – Verse 43)
You are the Ishvara, the Bhagavan, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the universe. Certainly none can be like You. There cannot possibly be two Ishvarans or two Bhagavans. If there were more than one Ishvara, the world could not get on as it does. When one Ishvara desires to create, another may wish to destroy. There is no guarantee that all the Ishvaras would be of one mind. And as they would all be independent of each other, the effort of one Ishvara in one direction would be neutralized by that of another in the opposite direction. There would be great confusion in the universe. ‘Where there are two, there is fear’, says the Upanishad. And so, when even Your equal does not exist, how can there exist a being superior to You? Therefore,
O adorable Bhagavan! Prostrating my body in adoration, I beg Your forgiveness. O God, as a father forgives his son, a friend his dear friend, a beloved one his love, even so do You forgive me! (Bhagavad Gita Chapter XI – Verse 44)
Forgive me my offences.