Devanagari
स्वच्छन्दोपात्तदेहाय विशुद्धज्ञानमूर्तये
सर्वस्मै सर्वबीजाय सर्वभूतात्मने नम: ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
svacchandopātta-dehāya
viśuddha-jṣāna-mūrtaye
sarvasmai sarva-bījāya
sarva-bhūtātmane namaḥ
Synonyms
sva
—
of His own (devotees)
;
chanda
—
according to the desire
;
upātta
—
who assumes
;
dehāya
—
His transcendental bodies
;
viśuddha
—
perfectly pure
;
jṣāna
—
knowledge
;
mūrtaye
—
whose form
;
sarvasmai
—
to Him who is everything
;
sarva
—
bījāya — who is the seed of all
;
sarva
—
bhūta — of all created beings
;
ātmane
—
who is the indwelling Soul
;
namaḥ
—
obeisances .
Translation
Unto Him who assumes transcendental bodies according to the desires of His devotees, unto Him whose form is itself pure consciousness, unto Him who is everything, who is the seed of everything and who is the Soul of all creatures, I offer my obeisances.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Unto Him who assumes transcendental bodies according to the desires of His devotees, unto Him whose form is itself pure consciousness, unto Him who is everything, who is the seed of everything and who is the Soul of all creatures, I offer my obeisances.
KB 10.27.11
“You can appear anywhere, according to Your desire, in any one of Your eternal forms. You are the root of all creation and the Supreme Soul of all living entities.
Purport
We could hardly construe from the first line of this verse that God is somehow impersonal but assumes a personal material body. It is clearly said here that the Lord assumes different forms according to
svacchanda
— according to His own desire or according to the desires of His devotees. An impersonal God could hardly reciprocate with the personal desires of Its devotees, nor could an impersonal God Itself have desires, since desire is characteristic of personality. Therefore, the Lord’s manifesting different forms in a personal way, responding to personal desires, indicates that He is eternally a person and manifests His different transcendental bodies as an expression of His own eternal nature.
The word
viśuddha-jṣāna-mūrtaye
is most significant.
Mūrti
means the form of the Deity, and it is specifically stated here that the Lord’s form is itself completely pure consciousness. Consciousness is the primary spiritual element, distinct from any of the material elements, and even distinct from the subtle or psychological material elements — mundane mind, intelligence and false ego — which are simply a psychic covering over pure consciousness. Since the Lord’s form is made of pure consciousness, it can hardly be understood as a material body like the mortal bags of flesh and bones we carry around in this world.
In the last two lines of this verse, there is poetic emphasis on the word
sarva,
“everything.” The Lord is everything: He is the seed of everything and He is the Soul of every creature. Therefore, let us join with Indra in offering our obeisances to the Lord.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I pay respects to you who accept bodies for giving happiness to your devotees with emotions of dasya, sakhya vatsalya and srngara, since you are the object of various types of prema. Being non-material, that body is pure, a form of knowledge beyond maya. As you are the possessor of all energies such as maya, you are everything (sarva). Therefore you are the cause of all (sarvabija). And therefore you are the soul of all entities. I pay respects to you."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Therefore you are everything. I offer respects to you who have accepted many bodies like Matsya and Kūrma by your free will, because of the devotees. You reveal those avatāras to give knowledge of the nature of your form: you have forms which are knowledge itself, beyond māyā (viśuddha-jñāna-mūrtaye), since they are self-revealing. You are the form of the universe (sarvasmai), the mahā-puruṣa, who is the cause of all things (sarva-bījāya) and the antaryāmī of all beings (sarva-bhūtātmane).
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
I offer respects to you who are hardness (mūrtaye) for persons absorbed in understanding ātmā, whose jñāna is devoid of bhakti (viśuddha). Though the Lord is both cause and effect (sarvasmai), he is an object hard to approach for those dedicated to pure ātma alone. I offer respect to him since he has an astonishing nature and is full of extraordinary greatness.
Or I offer obeisances to he who reveals a form (mūrtaye) to those having knowledge of the Lord (viśuddha-jñāna), who is the source of all sādhanas and sādhyas—bhakti and prema, who is complete (sarvasmai), who is dear to all beings or spreads bhakti to all beings (sarva-bhūtātmane).
Therefore you are everything. I offer respects to you who have accepted many bodies like Matsya and Kūrma by your free will, because of the devotees. You reveal those avatāras to give knowledge of the nature of your form: you have forms which are knowledge itself, beyond māyā (viśuddha-jñāna-mūrtaye), since they are self-revealing. You are the form of the universe (sarvasmai), the mahā-puruṣa, who is the cause of all things (sarva-bījāya) and the antaryāmī of all beings (sarva-bhūtātmane).