Devanagari
तदा पुरुष आत्मानं केवलं प्रकृते: परम् ।
निरन्तरं स्वयंज्योतिरणिमानमखण्डितम् ॥ १७ ॥
Verse text
tadā puruṣa ātmānaṁ
kevalaṁ prakṛteḥ param
nirantaraṁ svayaṁ-jyotir
aṇimānam akhaṇḍitam
Synonyms
tadā
—
then
;
puruṣaḥ
—
the individual soul
;
ātmānam
—
himself
;
kevalam
—
pure
;
prakṛteḥ param
—
transcendental to material existence
;
nirantaram
—
nondifferent
;
svayam
—
jyotiḥ — self-effulgent
;
aṇimānam
—
infinitesimal
;
akhaṇḍitam
—
not fragmented .
Translation
At that time the soul can see himself to be transcendental to material existence and always self-effulgent, never fragmented, although very minute in size.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
When the mind is free of the contamination of lust and greed arising from the false identity of I and mine, and becomes pure, without grief, without joy and peaceful, the jīva sees himself different from ignorance, full of knowledge, devoid of coverings, subtle, undivided, and unattached, as well as sees ignorance devoid of power to affect him, by a mind endowed with jṣana and vairāgya, and principally with bhakti.
Jṣāna and yoga only assist bhakti in giving liberation. This is expressed in three verses. The mind becomes free (vītam) of the contaminations by śama and dama (process of jṣana) and by yama and niyama (process of yoga). These are the aṅgas of jṣāna and yoga. The effects of purification are described: being without sorrow, without happiness, peaceful. At that time the jīva (puruṣaḥ) sees himself separate from ignorance (prakṛteḥ param). He is devoid of the obstacles of gross and subtle bodies (nirantaram). He has uncovered knowledge (svayaṁjyotiḥ). He is subtle (aṇimānam). The Lord himself says sūkṣāṇām apy ahaṁ jīvaḥ: of subtle objects I am the jīva. (SB 11.16.11) This means by nature the jīva is a very small particle. He is undivided by material desires (akhaṇḍitam).
By the mind endowed with jṣana and vairāgya, and by bhakti to which jṣāna and vairāgya are mere assistants (indicated by the word ca), and with out which they can bear no results, the jīva sees himself unattached. He sees his own ignorance (prakṛtim) which is unable to do anything to him (hataujasam).
Purport
In the state of pure consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one can see himself as a minute particle nondifferent from the Supreme Lord. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā,
the
jīva,
or the individual soul, is eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Just as the sun’s rays are minute particles of the brilliant constitution of the sun, so a living entity is a minute particle of the Supreme Spirit. The individual soul and the Supreme Lord are not separated as in material differentiation. The individual soul is a particle from the very beginning. One should not think that because the individual soul is a particle, it is fragmented from the whole spirit. Māyāvāda philosophy enunciates that the whole spirit exists, but a part of it, which is called the
jīva,
is entrapped by illusion. This philosophy, however, is unacceptable because spirit cannot be divided like a fragment of matter. That part, the
jīva,
is eternally a part. As long as the Supreme Spirit exists, His part and parcel also exists. As long as the sun exists, the molecules of the sun’s rays also exist.
The
jīva
particle is estimated in the Vedic literature to be one ten-thousandth the size of the upper portion of a hair. It is therefore infinitesimal. The Supreme Spirit is infinite, but the living entity, or the individual soul, is infinitesimal, although it is not different in quality from the Supreme Spirit. Two words in this verse are to be particularly noted. One is
nirantaram,
which means “nondifferent,” or “of the same quality.” The individual soul is also expressed here as
aṇimānam.
Aṇimānam
means “infinitesimal.” The Supreme Spirit is all-pervading, but the very small spirit is the individual soul.
Akhaṇḍitam
means not exactly “fragmented” but “constitutionally always infinitesimal.” No one can separate the molecular parts of the sunshine from the sun, but at the same time the molecular part of the sunshine is not as expansive as the sun itself. Similarly, the living entity, by his constitutional position, is qualitatively the same as the Supreme Spirit, but he is infinitesimal.