SB 10.14.28 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

अन्तर्भवेऽनन्त भवन्तमेव ह्यतत्त्यजन्तो मृगयन्ति सन्त: । असन्तमप्यन्त्यहिमन्तरेण सन्तं गुणं तं किमु यन्ति सन्त: ॥ २८ ॥

Verse text

antar-bhave ’nanta bhavantam eva hy atat tyajanto mṛgayanti santaḥ asantam apy anty ahim antareṇa santaṁ guṇaṁ taṁ kim u yanti santaḥ

Synonyms

antaḥ — bhave — within the body ; ananta — O unlimited Lord ; bhavantam — Yourself ; eva — indeed ; hi — certainly ; atat — everything separate from You ; tyajantaḥ — rejecting ; mṛgayanti — search out ; santaḥ — the saintly devotees ; asantam — unreal ; api — even ; anti — present nearby ; ahim — (the illusion of) a snake ; antareṇa — without (negating) ; santam — real ; guṇam — the rope ; tam — that ; kim u — whether ; yanti — appreciate ; santaḥ — persons who are spiritually situated .

Translation

O unlimited Lord, the saintly devotees seek You out within their own bodies by rejecting everything separate from You. Indeed, how can discriminating persons appreciate the real nature of a rope lying before them until they refute the illusion that it is a snake?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O unlimited Lord, the saintly devotees seek You out within their own bodies by rejecting everything separate from You. Indeed, how can discriminating persons appreciate the real nature of a rope lying before them until they refute the illusion that it is a snake? KB 10.14.28 “One who is transcendental to such a position understands that You are unlimited; You are both within and without. Therefore Your presence is everywhere. Instead of searching for the Supersoul anywhere else, a devotee simply concentrates his mind on You within. Actually, one who is liberated from the material concept of life can search for You; others cannot. The example of thinking the rope to be a snake is applicable only to those who are still in ignorance of You. Actually, when one mistakes a rope for a snake, the existence of the snake is only within the mind. The existence of māyā, similarly, is only within the mind. Māyā is nothing but ignorance of Your personality. When one forgets Your personality, that is the conditioned state of māyā. Therefore one who is fixed upon You both internally and externally is not illusioned.

Purport

One may argue that a person should cultivate self-realization and at the same time pursue sense gratification for the material body. This proposition is herein refuted by the example of misidentifying a rope as a snake. One who mistakes a rope for a snake becomes fearful and thinks of the so-called snake. But upon discovering that the so-called snake is actually a rope, he experiences a different emotion — relief — and can then ignore the rope. Similarly, because we misunderstand the material body to be the self, we are experiencing many emotions in relation to the body. Upon discovering, however, that the body is simply a bag of material chemicals, we carefully note how this illusion was created and then lose interest in the body. Discovering that we are actually an eternal soul within the body, we naturally focus our attention on that real self. Those who are saintly and wise always cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, spiritual knowledge, having transcended the foolish misidentification of the body as the self. Such Kṛṣṇa conscious persons go on to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who dwells within the material body as the Supersoul — the witness and guide of every living entity. Realization of the Supersoul and the individual soul is so pleasing and satisfying that a self-realized person automatically gives up everything irrelevant to his spiritual advancement.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The jnanis think that your form is an upadhi of maya. They seek out the pure form of the jiva without contamination of maya. They seek out the jiva which takes birth Among countless species (ananta bhavam) in various bodies (antarbhave). How? By rejEcting that which is material, not spiritual (atat). What is necessary to understand this spiritual jiva? In order to reject everything material, one must first reject the false conception that one is a body. Next, the procedure is mentioned. As long as one does not reject the false idea that there is a snake present, how can a person understand that it is only a rope? Asango ‘yam purusah taking this stuti statement, the jiva thus has no connection with the gross and subtle bodies. Thus the jiva has no bodily suffering. Only by ignorance does the jiva believe he is a body. Can one know the pure jiva without rejecting everything related to the body, through knowledge that one is soul, not body? No, he cannot know the soul without rejecting.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

The cause of ignorance is explained in this verse. O all-pervading Lord (ananta)! Because (hi) you are all pervading, those with discrimination (santaḥ) seek you (bhavantam) within the universe. They desire to attain you who have no faults and have all good qualities as Svayam Bhagavān. What do they do? They give up things other than you, since they are not satisfied. “The universe is a covering over me? How can they attain me there?” This is talk of the unintelligent. They know you as the effect which reflects a position of the qualities of you, the Lord, the ultimate cause. Not searching for spiritual or material forms, they search out the shelter of everything. An example is given of such people of ordinary discrimination. In giving up all the expansion forms, there is a method of concentrating on the individual. First, they reject the contamination of the bodies and attain the pure ātmā, the giver of consciousness to the body. This is the nirviśeṣa-brahman. But this is rejected by Dhruva: yā nirvṛtis tanu-bhṛtāṁ tava pāda-padma- dhyānād bhavaj-jana-kathā-śravaṇena vā syāt sā brahmaṇi sva-mahimany api nātha mā bhūt kiṁ tv antakāsi-lulitāt patatāṁ vimānāt The bliss for your servant available from meditating on your lotus feet or from hearing about your pastimes from the devotees is not available in your form of greatness known as Brahman, what to speak of the happiness for those who fall from the pleasures of Svarga.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

The devotees seek you who exist, spreading inside and out. O unlimited lord (ananta)! You spread inside and outside everything. Do the devotees seek you only in their own bodies? No, not at all, but they also seek you outside. Why? They reject that which is false--ātma-tattva, known by non-devotees as asat. If they do not reject it, pure knowledge will not arise. That is expressed in the second half of the verse. Without rejecting that atat object (antareṇa), how can one accept the real object? The devotees first reject the false knowledge of the Lord, and think, “I am not the Lord. I am his servant.” Then they attain the Lord. Or atat can mean nirvāṇa. Without rejecting nirvāṇa which is atat one cannot attain the real object. Without rejecting the false snake, how can one realize the real snake? Or how do those in knowledge search for the Lord? They search in the lotus of their hearts (antar-bhave). They reject everything unless it is related to you. “By remembering the Lord, that happens automatically. Why should one attempt rejection?” Without rejecting the poison of the snake, without rejecting karma and jñāna, how can one perfect remembering the Lord?