Devanagari
तमिममहमजं शरीरभाजां
हृदि हृदि धिष्ठितमात्मकल्पितानाम् ।
प्रतिदृशमिव नैकधार्कमेकं
समधिगतोऽस्मि विधूतभेदमोह: ॥ ४२ ॥
Verse text
tam imam aham ajaṁ śarīra-bhājāṁ
hṛdi hṛdi dhiṣṭhitam ātma-kalpitānām
pratidṛśam iva naikadhārkam ekaṁ
samadhi-gato ’smi vidhūta-bheda-mohaḥ
Synonyms
tam
—
that Personality of Godhead
;
imam
—
now present before me
;
aham
—
I
;
ajam
—
the unborn
;
śarīra
—
bhājām — of the conditioned soul
;
hṛdi
—
in the heart
;
hṛdi
—
in the heart
;
dhiṣṭhitam
—
situated
;
ātma
—
the Supersoul
;
kalpitānām
—
of the speculators
;
pratidṛśam
—
in every direction
;
iva
—
like
;
na ekadhā
—
not one
;
arkam
—
the sun
;
ekam
—
one only
;
samadhigataḥ asmi
—
I have undergone trance in meditation
;
vidhūta
—
being freed from
;
bheda
—
mohaḥ — misconception of duality .
Translation
Now I can meditate with full concentration upon that one Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, now present before me because now I have transcended the misconceptions of duality in regard to His presence in everyone’s heart, even in the hearts of the mental speculators. He is in everyone’s heart. The sun may be perceived differently, but the sun is one.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Freed of the illusion of difference in the Lord’s various forms, I have attained the Lord who is one though appearing to be many like the sun seen by many people, who is the charioteer, but who is also in my heart, the unborn and is situated in the hearts of all the jīvas, who create their own bodies.
Purport
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the one Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He has expanded Himself into His multiplenary portions by His inconceivable energy. The conception of duality is due to ignorance of His inconceivable energy. In the
Bhagavad-gītā
(9.11)
the Lord says that only the foolish take Him to be a mere human being. Such foolish men are not aware of His inconceivable energies. By His inconceivable energy He is present in everyone’s heart, as the sun is present before everyone all over the world. The Paramātmā feature of the Lord is an expansion of His plenary portions. He expands Himself as Paramātmā in everyone’s heart by His inconceivable energy, and He also expands Himself as the glowing effulgence of
brahmajyoti
by expansion of His personal glow. It is stated in the
Brahma-saṁhitā
that the
brahmajyoti
is His personal glow. Therefore, there is no difference between Him and His personal glow,
brahmajyoti,
or His plenary portions as Paramātmā. Less intelligent persons who are not aware of this fact consider
brahmajyoti
and Paramātmā to be different from Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This misconception of duality is completely removed from the mind of Bhīṣmadeva, and he is now satisfied that it is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa only who is all in all in everything. This enlightenment is attained by the great
mahātmās
or devotees, as it is stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.19)
that Vāsudeva is all in all in everything and that there is no existence of anything without Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva, or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the original Supreme Person, as now confirmed by a
mahājana,
and therefore both the neophytes and the pure devotees must try to follow in his footsteps. That is the way of the devotional line.
The worshipable object of Bhīṣmadeva is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as Pārtha-sārathi, and that of the
gopīs
is the same Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana as the most attractive Śyāmasundara. Sometimes less intelligent scholars make a mistake and think that the Kṛṣṇa of Vṛndāvana and that of the Battle of Kurukṣetra are different personalities. But for Bhīṣmadeva this misconception is completely removed. Even the impersonalist’s object of destination is Kṛṣṇa as the impersonal
jyoti,
and the
yogī’s
destination of Paramātmā is also Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is both
brahmajyoti
and localized Paramātmā, but in
brahmajyoti
or Paramātmā there is no Kṛṣṇa or sweet relations with Kṛṣṇa. In His personal feature Kṛṣṇa is both Pārtha-sārathi and Śyāmasundara of Vṛndāvana, but in His impersonal feature He is neither in the
brahmajyoti
nor in the Paramātmā. Great
mahātmās
like Bhīṣmadeva realize all these different features of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and therefore they worship Lord Kṛṣṇa, knowing Him as the origin of all features.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Why do you not address the Lord directly but instead address him indirectly with word like vijaya-sakhe vijaya-ratha-kuṭumba me ratir astu and caraṇa-ratiḥ paramasya tasya me ’stu and sa bhavatu me bhagavān gatir.” This verse answers, indicating that Bhīiṣma desires the Lord as a charioteer.
I have attained that Lord (tam) who is the charioteer of Arjuna, holding the whip and bridle in his hands, who is now appearing in my heart (imam). But the charioteer is not the Lord in the heart. Because Kṛṣṇa the charioteer has already entered and pervaded my heart completely by practice, it is not possible for the paramātmā to enter. He does not make his appearance just at this time (ajam). Though he appeared to my eyes in this form at the time of battle, even before the battle he was already in my heart because of my spontaneous desire. He is unborn because he has always been visible to me. There is no fault on my part in this, but the Supreme Lord alone situated in the heart ordains good fortunate or misfortune of the jīvas. He is situated (dhiṣṭhitam) in the hearts of all jīvas (śarīra-bhājām), who create their own bodies. The missing “a” in (dhiṣṭhitam) is for meter. The śruti says yathāgneḥ kṣudrā visphuliṅga vyuccaranti; the souls wander around like small sparks. (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.1.20)
I know that the charioteer indicated by the word tam and the four-handed form in Dvārakā indicated by the word imam are not different. The one sun in the sky appears to individual seers to be not one but many, above each person’s head. By such distinctive seeing the sun appears to be many. Bhīṣma is free of such illusionary seeing (vidhūta-bheda-moha). Though Kṛṣṇa appears in my heart, and in the hearts of Yudhiṣṭhira, Vasudeva, Uddhava, Nanda and the gopīs with various degrees of prema and type of love, with different pastimes for each, I know that this is one Kṛṣṇa only. I know the various degrees of excellence of their prema and love. But I can never give up my natural attachment to the form of Kṛṣṇa as the charioteer. Even thinking of the four-handed form of Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā is not interesting to me.