Devanagari
एकमेकतराभावे यदा नोपलभामहे ।
त्रितयं तत्र यो वेद स आत्मा स्वाश्रयाश्रय: ॥ ९ ॥
Verse text
ekam ekatarābhāve
yadā nopalabhāmahe
tritayaṁ tatra yo veda
sa ātmā svāśrayāśrayaḥ
Synonyms
ekam
—
one
;
ekatara
—
another
;
abhāve
—
in the absence of
;
yadā
—
because
;
na
—
does not
;
upalabhāmahe
—
perceptible
;
tritayam
—
in three stages
;
tatra
—
there
;
yaḥ
—
the one
;
veda
—
who knows
;
saḥ
—
he
;
ātmā
—
the Supersoul
;
sva
—
own
;
āśraya
—
shelter
;
āśrayaḥ
—
of the shelter .
Translation
All three of the above-mentioned stages of different living entities are interdependent. In the absence of one, another is not understood. But the Supreme Being who sees every one of them as the shelter of the shelter is independent of all, and therefore He is the supreme shelter.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Since we cannot perceive one item in absence of one of the other items (subtle sense, sense deity and gross form), he who is independent of these three, is the ātmā. But the shelter of the ātmā is the Paramātmā.
Purport
There are innumerable living entities, one dependent on the other in the relationship of the controlled and the controller. But without the medium of perception, no one can know or understand who is the controlled and who is the controller. For example, the sun controls the power of our vision, we can see the sun because the sun has its body, and the sunlight is useful only because we have eyes. Without our having eyes, the sunlight is useless, and without sunlight the eyes are useless. Thus they are interdependent, and none of them is independent. Therefore the natural question arises concerning who made them interdependent. The one who has made such a relationship of interdependence must be ultimately completely independent. As stated in the beginning of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
the ultimate source of all interdependent objectives is the complete independent subject. This ultimate source of all interdependence is the Supreme Truth or Paramātmā, the Supersoul, who is not dependent on anything else. He is
svāśrayāśrayaḥ.
He is only dependent on His self, and thus He is the supreme shelter of everything. Although Paramātmā and Brahman are subordinate to Bhagavān, because Bhagavān is Puruṣottama or the Superperson, He is the source of the Supersoul also. In the
Bhagavad-gītā
(15.18)
Lord Kṛṣṇa says that He is the Puruṣottama and the source of everything, and thus it is concluded that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate source and shelter of all entities, including the Supersoul and Supreme Brahman. Even accepting that there is no difference between the Supersoul and the individual soul, the individual soul is dependent on the Supersoul for being liberated from the illusion of material energy. The individual is under the clutches of illusory energy, and therefore although qualitatively one with the Supersoul, he is under the illusion of identifying himself with matter. And to get out of this illusory conception of factual life, the individual soul has to depend on the Supersoul to be recognized as one with Him. In that sense also the Supersoul is the supreme shelter. And there is no doubt about it.
The individual living entity, the
jīva,
is always dependent on the Supersoul, Paramātmā, because the individual soul forgets his spiritual identity whereas the Supersoul, Paramātmā, does not forget His transcendental position. In the
Bhagavad-gītā
these separate positions of the
jīva-ātmā
and the Paramātmā are specifically mentioned. In the Fourth Chapter, Arjuna, the
jīva
soul, is represented as forgetful of his many, many previous births, but the Lord, the Supersoul, is not forgetful. The Lord even remembers when He taught the
Bhagavad-gītā
to the sun-god some billions of years before. The Lord can remember such millions and billions of years, as stated in the
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.26)
as follows:
vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana
The Lord in His eternal blissful body of knowledge is fully aware of all that happened in the past, that which is going on at the present and also what will happen in the future. But in spite of His being the shelter of both the Paramātmā and Brahman, persons with a poor fund of knowledge are unable to understand Him as He is.
The propaganda of the identity of cosmic consciousness with the consciousness of the individual living entities is completely misleading because even such a person or individual soul as Arjuna could not remember his past deeds, although he is always with the Lord. And what can the tiny ordinary man, falsely claiming to be one with the cosmic consciousness, know about his past, present and future?
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Because of the interdependence of the three items in order for them to function, they are shown to be different from the ātmā. Without the gross organ on the body, the subtle sense which is known to function by performing perception cannot function. Without the subtle sense organ, the presiding deity of the sense, whose presence is inferred from action of that sense, cannot function. Without the presiding deity of the sense, the subtle sense organ cannot operate, and without the subtle sense organ, the gross organ cannot operate. Since, in the absence of one of the three, the others cannot be ascertained, he who knows these three, who is not dependent on them, is the jīva. It is said:
deho ’savo ’kṣā manavo bhūta-mātrām
ātmānam anyaṁ ca viduḥ paraṁ yat |
sarvaṁ pumān veda guṇāṁś ca taj-jṣo
na veda sarva-jṣam anantam īḍe ||
The body, life airs, senses, internal senses, gross elements and sense objects do not know themselves or other things or the jīva. The jīva knows all of these items and the guṇas which cause them. He also knows Paramātmā, but does not know the omniscient, unlimited Lord. I worship that Lord with infinite qualities. SB 6.4.25
Sarva refers to these three coverings on the jīva. The jīva (pumān) knows these three. It is also said:
jāgrat-svapna-suṣuptaṁ ca guṇato buddhi-vṛttayaḥ |
tāsāṁ vilakṣaṇo jīvaḥ sākṣitvena vivakṣitaḥ ||
Waking, sleeping and deep sleep, the three functions of the intelligence, are caused by the three guṇas. The jīva is ascertained to be different from these three states since it is the witness of them. SB 11.13.27
What is the nature of the jīva? The jīva takes shelter of Paramātmā (svāśraya), whose shelter is himself. The meaning is this. The jīva is the shelter of the three items -- the subtle sense, the sense deity and the gross sense in the body which are mutually dependent. The shelter of the jīva is the Paramātmā. Paramātmā is the shelter of Paramātmā. Thus Paramātmā is the ultimate shelter. Since Kṛṣṇa says that by his aṁśa he pervades the worlds, it should be understood that Kṛṣṇa is the shelter of Paramātmā. Thus Kṛṣṇa is the chief shelter. Paramātmā as his aṁśa is also called the shelter, and brahman being his impersonal form is also called a shelter. Thus the one shelter is seen in three different forms according to the type of worshipper.