SB 4.28.40

SB 4.28.40

Devanagari

स व्यापकतयात्मानं व्यतिरिक्ततयात्मनि । विद्वान् स्वप्न इवामर्शसाक्षिणं विरराम ह ॥ ४० ॥

Verse text

sa vyāpakatayātmānaṁ vyatiriktatayātmani vidvān svapna ivāmarśa- sākṣiṇaṁ virarāma ha

Synonyms

saḥ King Malayadhvaja ; vyāpakatayā by all-pervasiveness ; ātmānam the Supersoul ; vyatiriktatayā by differentiation ; ātmani in his own self ; vidvān perfectly educated ; svapne in a dream ; iva like ; amarśa of deliberation ; sākṣiṇam the witness ; virarāma became indifferent ; ha certainly .

Translation

King Malayadhvaja attained perfect knowledge by being able to distinguish the Supersoul from the individual soul. The individual soul is localized, whereas the Supersoul is all-pervasive. He became perfect in knowledge that the material body is not the soul but that the soul is the witness of the material body.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Momentarily realizing the Lord externally in all things and internally as well, he then fainted. It was like seeing a dream, whose witness is internal reflection. By that rati, the Lord appeared everywhere. He realized (vidvān) the Lord as a form suddenly appearing in all directions (vyāpakatayā) because of the appearance of rati, and he realized the Lord within himself separately (vyatiriktatayā). By the fire of eagerness for prema he fainted (virarāma). The separation was not fully relieved by this sudden appearance of the Lord arising from intense separation. An example is given. It was just like knowing something in a dream. The hunger of a person is not relieved by eating food in a dream. What is the proof for such appearances of the Lord? The function of the antaḥkaraṇa called reflection is the witness, not a person with an eye. Because the pain of separation does not disappear by the functioning of the antaḥkaraṇa with his internal vision, he also realized the Lord who had appeared in his vision directly with his eyes. .

Purport

The conditioned soul is often frustrated in trying to understand the distinctions between the material body, the Supersoul and the individual soul. There are two types of Māyāvādī philosophers: the followers of the Buddhist philosophy and the followers of the Śaṅkara philosophy. The followers of Buddha do not recognize that there is anything beyond the body. The followers of Śaṅkara conclude that there is no separate existence of the Paramātmā, the Supersoul; they believe that the individual soul is identical with the Paramātmā in the ultimate analysis. But the Vaiṣṇava philosopher, who is perfect in knowledge, knows that the body is made of the external energy and that the Supersoul, the Paramātmā, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is sitting with the individual soul and is distinct from him. As Lord Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā (13.3) : kṣetrajṣaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata kṣetra-kṣetrajṣayor jṣānaṁ yat taj jṣānaṁ mataṁ mama “O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion.” The body is taken to be the field, and the individual soul is taken to be the worker in that field. Yet there is another, who is known as the Supersoul, who, along with the individual soul, simply witnesses. The individual soul works and enjoys the fruits of the body, whereas the Supersoul simply witnesses the activities of the individual soul but does not enjoy the fruits of those activities. The Supersoul is present in every field of activity, whereas the individual soul is present in his one localized body. King Malayadhvaja attained this perfection of knowledge and was able to distinguish between the soul and the Supersoul and the soul and the material body.