Verse 4

In plain words

So that no one should be left thinking the Lord had contradicted himself — to clear that away, framing it almost as an objection, Arjuna said:

Your birth is the later one, the recent one — in Vasudeva's house. His is the earlier one: Vivasvān, the sun, born at the very beginning of creation. So how am I to take this without contradiction — that you yourself, who taught this yoga back then, are the same you who has just taught it to me?

Close to the Sanskrit

So that the idea 'something contradictory has been said by the Blessed Lord' may not arise in anyone — for the sake of removing that, raising as it were an objection, Arjuna said —

Later, recent, is your birth in Vasudeva's house. Earlier, former, at the beginning of creation, was the birth — the origination — of Vivasvān, the sun. So how am I to understand this as having a non-contradictory sense: that you yourself, who declared this yoga at the beginning, are the very same one who has now declared it to me?

In plain words

Kṛṣṇa was born only the other day, at the end of the Dvāpara Yuga. The Sun and Manu belong to ancient times. There is no way at all to fit them together with Kṛṣṇa, born at the end of the yuga! What relation can there be between these two? Shall we suppose a relation of the body? They lived many generations ago; Kṛṣṇa is of today. That does not hold at all. How, then, did Kṛṣṇa teach this yoga to the Sun? “To hear words one cannot understand or believe and keep quiet is the mark of one without Viveka, is it not!” Such was Arjuna's distress. Minute by minute he was slipping into a critical state. The all-pervading Supreme Lord noticed it, and stroking his back, smiling, He scolded him: “Brother-in-law! What is it? Some distress seems to have come over you! Tell Me.”

In plain words

Gopāla was glad, and told him to state his doubt. Then Arjuna said: “Kṛṣṇa! You told me that long ago you imparted this yoga to the Sun, and that afterwards the Sun taught it to Manu. The Sun and Manu, of what time are they! And you, of what time are you? Well, let the time be whatever it may! Did you impart it with this very body? Or with some other body? Will you say, ‘I imparted it with this very body’? That cannot be believed either. As for this body, you are older than I am by three or four years or so, and no earlier than that! When did you impart it without my knowing? Look at the Sun: he is many thousands of times older than you! He belongs to the beginning of time! It cannot even be imagined. Brother-in-law! It is not only I: however clever a man may be, he will not believe this. Well then: not this body! Not this age! Will you say it was another age and another body? That is even less fitting. How could karmas done in some birth or other be remembered in this birth? And even if you hold that they would be, then I too, like you, ought to remember the karmas of my past births, surely! The śāstras have said that only certain divine beings keep the memory of other births. But that cannot be so for all ordinary people, can it? Well then, even if I believe that you are a divine being, the Sun himself is a divine being too! Are the two of you equal? Even granting that too, equals you may be, but equals do not impart teaching to one another! If you imparted it, you must be the guru and the Sun the disciple, surely? Then you must be greater than the Sun, surely! So be it! But if I believe that you are indeed great, indeed God, there is room for still more doubt, is there not? If you are indeed God, why do you, like ordinary men, become dependent on karma and bound to the afflictions of birth, death and the rest? When you move about in human form, in a body five feet tall, is that not a breach of your ‘formless all-pervasiveness’?”