Devanagari
यम उवाच
परो मदन्यो जगतस्तस्थुषश्च
ओतं प्रोतं पटवद्यत्र विश्वम् ।
यदंशतोऽस्य स्थितिजन्मनाशा
नस्योतवद्यस्य वशे च लोक: ॥ १२ ॥
Verse text
yama uvāca
paro mad-anyo jagatas tasthuṣaś ca
otaṁ protaṁ paṭavad yatra viśvam
yad-aṁśato ’sya sthiti-janma-nāśā
nasy otavad yasya vaśe ca lokaḥ
Synonyms
yamaḥ uvāca
—
Yamarāja replied
;
paraḥ
—
superior
;
mat
—
than me
;
anyaḥ
—
another
;
jagataḥ
—
of all moving things
;
tasthuṣaḥ
—
of nonmoving things
;
ca
—
and
;
otam
—
crosswise
;
protam
—
lengthwise
;
paṭavat
—
like a woven cloth
;
yatra
—
in whom
;
viśvam
—
the cosmic manifestation
;
yat
—
of whom
;
aṁśataḥ
—
from the partial expansions
;
asya
—
of this universe
;
sthiti
—
the maintenance
;
janma
—
the creation
;
nāśāḥ
—
the annihilation
;
nasi
—
in the nose
;
ota
—
vat — like the rope
;
yasya
—
of whom
;
vaśe
—
under the control
;
ca
—
and
;
lokaḥ
—
the whole creation .
Translation
Yamarāja said: My dear servants, you have accepted me as the Supreme, but factually I am not. Above me, and above all the other demigods, including Indra and Candra, is the one supreme master and controller. The partial manifestations of His personality are Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, who are in charge of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this universe. He is like the two threads that form the length and breadth of a woven cloth. The entire world is controlled by Him just as a bull is controlled by a rope in its nose.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Yamarāja said: There is a Lord of all moving and non-moving beings superior to me, whose portions create, maintain and destroy this universe, in whom this universe exists like cloth with interwoven threads, and by whom all people are controlled like oxen tied by the nose.
You are great offenders! What nonsense you are speaking! Hear the truth. There is a controller superior to me, though you think I am the controller. He is superior to all the devatās as well. I am the lord only of those who moving beings who commit sin. But I am his servant. He is the Lord of all of us. Who is he? Within him exists the universe, like a cloth with threads woven lengthwise and crosswise. From his expansions, Viṣṇu, Śiva and Brahmā, arise creation, maintenance and destruction. All exist under his control like a bull with a rope in his nose.
Purport
The order carriers of Yamarāja suspected that there was a ruler even above Yamarāja. To eradicate their doubts, Yamarāja immediately replied, “Yes, there is one supreme controller above everything.” Yamarāja is in charge of some of the moving living entities, namely the human beings, but the animals, who also move, are not under his control. Only human beings have consciousness of right and wrong, and among them only those who perform sinful activities come under the control of Yamarāja. Therefore although Yamarāja is a controller, he is only a departmental controller of a few living entities. There are other demigods who control many other departments, but above them all is one supreme controller, Kṛṣṇa.
Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ:
the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa. Others, who control their own departments in the affairs of the universe, are insignificant in comparison to Kṛṣṇa, the supreme controller. Kṛṣṇa says in
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.7)
,
mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiṣcid asti dhanaṣjaya:
“My dear Dhanaṣjaya [Arjuna], no one is superior to Me.” Therefore Yamarāja immediately cleared away the doubts of his assistants, the Yamadūtas, by confirming that there is a supreme controller above all others.
Śrīla Madhvācārya explains that the words
otaṁ protam
refer to the cause of all causes. The Supreme Lord is both vertical and horizontal to the cosmic manifestation. This is confirmed by the following verse from the
Skanda Purāṇa:
yathā kanthā-paṭāḥ sūtra
otāḥ protāś ca sa sthitāḥ
evaṁ viṣṇāv idaṁ viśvam
otaṁ protaṁ ca saṁsthitam
Like the two threads, horizontal and vertical, of which a quilt is manufactured, Lord Viṣṇu is situated as the vertical and horizontal cause of the cosmic manifestation.