Devanagari
यथा ह्यवहितो वह्निर्दारुष्वेक: स्वयोनिषु ।
नानेव भाति विश्वात्मा भूतेषु च तथा पुमान् ॥ ३२ ॥
Verse text
yathā hy avahito vahnir
dāruṣv ekaḥ sva-yoniṣu
nāneva bhāti viśvātmā
bhūteṣu ca tathā pumān
Synonyms
yathā
—
as much as
;
hi
—
exactly like
;
avahitaḥ
—
surcharged with
;
vahniḥ
—
fire
;
dāruṣu
—
in wood
;
ekaḥ
—
one
;
sva
—
yoniṣu — the source of manifestation
;
nānā iva
—
like different entities
;
bhāti
—
illuminates
;
viśva
—
ātmā — the Lord as Paramātmā
;
bhūteṣu
—
in the living entities
;
ca
—
and
;
tathā
—
in the same way
;
pumān
—
the Absolute Person .
Translation
The Lord, as Supersoul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just as one fire, situated in pieces of wood as its natural place of manifestation, blazes forth as many fires, the one Supreme Lord, the soul of the universe, Paramātmā, situated in all living beings, manifests as many.
Purport
Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by one of His plenary parts expands Himself all over the material world, and His existence can be perceived even within the atomic energy. Matter, antimatter, proton, neutron, etc., are all different effects of the Paramātmā feature of the Lord. As from wood, fire can be manifested, or as butter can be churned out of milk, so also the presence of the Lord as Paramātmā can be felt by the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the transcendental subjects which are especially treated in the Vedic literatures like the
Upaniṣads
and
Vedānta.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
is the bona fide explanation of these Vedic literatures. The Lord can be realized through the aural reception of the transcendental message, and that is the only way to experience the transcendental subject. As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the woodlike living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear. Therefore one is required to approach the proper spiritual master with receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually realized. The difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human being can hear properly, whereas an animal cannot.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just as fire is always situated (avahitaḥ) in pieces of wood, so the soul of the universe, antaryāmī Viṣṇu, is situated in all living entities (bhūteṣu). If fire is made to appear in pieces of wood by friction, it burns up those pieces of wood. Similarly by practices of hearing and chanting Paramātmā is made to appear and removes the covering of māyā on the jīva. This is indicated by the example.