Devanagari
यस्त्वत्र बद्ध इव कर्मभिरावृतात्मा
भूतेन्द्रियाशयमयीमवलम्ब्य मायाम् ।
आस्ते विशुद्धमविकारमखण्डबोधम्
आतप्यमानहृदयेऽवसितं नमामि ॥ १३ ॥
Verse text
yas tv atra baddha iva karmabhir āvṛtātmā
bhūtendriyāśayamayīm avalambya māyām
āste viśuddham avikāram akhaṇḍa-bodham
ātapyamāna-hṛdaye ’vasitaṁ namāmi
Synonyms
yaḥ
—
who
;
tu
—
also
;
atra
—
here
;
baddhaḥ
—
bound
;
iva
—
as if
;
karmabhiḥ
—
by activities
;
āvṛta
—
covered
;
ātmā
—
the pure soul
;
bhūta
—
the gross elements
;
indriya
—
the senses
;
āśaya
—
the mind
;
mayīm
—
consisting of
;
avalambya
—
having fallen
;
māyām
—
into māyā
;
āste
—
remains
;
viśuddham
—
completely pure
;
avikāram
—
without change
;
akhaṇḍa
—
bodham — possessed of unlimited knowledge
;
ātapyamāna
—
repentant
;
hṛdaye
—
in the heart
;
avasitam
—
residing
;
namāmi
—
I offer my respectful obeisances .
Translation
I, the pure soul, appearing now bound by my activities, am lying in the womb of my mother by the arrangement of māyā. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him who is also here with me but who is unaffected and changeless. He is unlimited, but He is perceived in the repentant heart. To Him I offer my respectful obeisances.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I offer respects to he who appears to be a soul covered by a material body, bound by karmas, taking support of his material energy consisting of material elements, senses and mind, but who remains pure and unchanging, with indestructible knowledge, and who is perceived by me in my distressed heart.
The living entity remembers with astonishment the merciful, amazing pastimes of his Lord. He exists within every suffering body of us sinful jīvas. Why? We do not know if he does this to protect us, or to perform his own pastimes. I offer respects to him. It is fitting that I am here in the womb, bound by karma, experiencing the results of my sinful acts. But why does he stay as the antaryāmī in this stinking hell? He exists there as if bound by karma, though he is not. Because he wanders around Vṛndāvana with his lotus feet, it appears that he has an ātmā covered by a material body like me. But he is not covered. How does he do this? He utilized his own śakti of māyā composed of material elements, senses and mind. “If that is so, then because of using material energy, he would then be contaminated and be subject to change.” No, he is pure and without change, because he has knowledge which cannot be destroyed by māyā like my knowledge (akhaṇḍa-bodham). “How can this be understood by you?” It is perceived in my completely distressed heart. He is distressed thinking, “How can knowledge give by him, situated in my heart, even to a person like me, be destroyed?”
Purport
As stated in the previous verse, the
jīva
soul says, “I take shelter of the Supreme Lord.” Therefore, constitutionally, the
jīva
soul is the subordinate servitor of the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead. Both the Supreme Soul and the
jīva
soul are sitting in the same body, as confirmed in the
Upaniṣads.
They are sitting as friends, but one is suffering, and the other is aloof from suffering.
In this verse it is said,
viśuddham avikāram akhaṇḍa-bodham:
the Supersoul is always sitting apart from all contamination. The living entity is contaminated and suffering because he has a material body, but that does not mean that because the Lord is also with him, He also has a material body. He is
avikāram,
changeless. He is always the same Supreme, but unfortunately the Māyāvādī philosophers, because of their impure hearts, cannot understand that the Supreme Soul, the Supersoul, is different from the individual soul. It is said here,
ātapyamāna-hṛdaye ’vasitam:
He is in the heart of every living entity, but He can be realized only by a soul who is repentant. The individual soul becomes repentant that he forgot his constitutional position, wanted to become one with the Supreme Soul and tried his best to lord it over material nature. He has been baffled, and therefore he is repentant. At that time, Supersoul, or the relationship between the Supersoul and the individual soul, is realized. As it is confirmed in
Bhagavad-gītā,
after many, many births the knowledge comes to the conditioned soul that Vāsudeva is great,
He
is master, and
He
is Lord. The individual soul is the servant, and therefore he surrenders unto Him. At that time he becomes a
mahātmā,
a great soul. Therefore, a fortunate living being who comes to this understanding, even within the womb of his mother, has his liberation assured.