Devanagari
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि ।
ईक्षेतानन्यभावेन भूतेष्विव तदात्मताम् ॥ ४२ ॥
Verse text
sarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁ
sarva-bhūtāni cātmani
īkṣetānanya-bhāvena
bhūteṣv iva tad-ātmatām
Synonyms
sarva
—
bhūteṣu — in all manifestations
;
ca
—
and
;
ātmānam
—
the soul
;
sarva
—
bhūtāni — all manifestations
;
ca
—
also
;
ātmani
—
in the Supreme Spirit
;
īkṣeta
—
he should see
;
ananya
—
bhāvena — with equal vision
;
bhūteṣu
—
in all manifestations
;
iva
—
as
;
tat
—
ātmatām — the nature of itself .
Translation
A yogi should see the same soul in all manifestations, for all that exists is a manifestation of different energies of the Supreme. In this way the devotee should see all living entities without distinction. That is realization of the Supreme Soul.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This yogī should see Paramātmā in all beings, and all beings in Paramātmā, just as one sees the material elements in all beings.
Contemplating that Paramātmā is different from all else, one should see him as the cause and ultimate resting place of all things. One sees Paramātmā in all beings because the cause is present in the effect. One sees all beings in Paramātmā because all of the effects merge into him at final destruction of the universe. Tad-ātmatām means “made of the five great elements.”
Purport
As stated in the
Brahma-saṁhitā,
not only does the Supreme Soul enter each and every universe, but He enters even the atoms. The Supreme Soul is present everywhere in the dormant stage, and when one can see the presence of the Supreme Soul everywhere, one is liberated from material designations.
The word
sarva-bhūteṣu
is to be understood as follows. There are four different divisions of species: living entities which sprout from the earth, living entities born of fermentation or germination, living entities which come from eggs and living entities which come from the embryo. These four divisions of living entities are expanded in 8,400,000 species of life. A person who is freed from material designations can see the same quality of spirit present everywhere or in every manifested living entity. Less intelligent men think that plants and grass grow out of the earth automatically, but one who is actually intelligent and has realized the self can see that this growth is not automatic; the cause is the soul, and the forms come out in material bodies under different conditions. By fermentation in the laboratory many germs are born, but this is due to the presence of the soul. The material scientist thinks that eggs are lifeless, but that is not a fact. From Vedic scripture we can understand that living entities in different forms are generated under different conditions. Birds evolve from eggs, and beasts and human beings are born from the embryo. The perfect vision of the
yogī
or devotee is that he sees the presence of the living entity everywhere.