SB 7.15.57 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

आदावन्ते जनानां सद् बहिरन्त: परावरम् । ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं वचो वाच्यं तमो ज्योतिस्त्वयं स्वयम् ॥ ५७ ॥

Verse text

ādāv ante janānāṁ sad bahir antaḥ parāvaram jṣānaṁ jṣeyaṁ vaco vācyaṁ tamo jyotis tv ayaṁ svayam

Synonyms

ādau — in the beginning ; ante — at the end ; janānām — of all living entities ; sat — always existing ; bahiḥ — externally ; antaḥ — internally ; para — transcendental ; avaram — material ; jṣānam — knowledge ; jṣeyam — the objective ; vacaḥ — expression ; vācyam — the ultimate object ; tamaḥ — darkness ; jyotiḥ — light ; tu — indeed ; ayam — this one (the Supreme Lord) ; svayam — Himself .

Translation

He who exists internally and externally, at the beginning and end of everything and of all living beings, as that which is enjoyable and as the enjoyer of everything, superior and inferior, is the Supreme Truth. He always exists as knowledge and the object of knowledge, as expression and the object of understanding, as darkness and as light. Thus He, the Supreme Lord, is everything.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Brahman is what exists in the beginning and in the end. It is external objects and the jīva. It is superior and inferior objects. It is the senses, the sense objects and objects expressed by words. Brahman is the jīva in ignorance and in knowledge. Everything is Brahman in that state. By thinking in this way, one avoids illusion. That which exists in the beginning as the cause and at the end as the destroyer is Brahman (svayam). Brahman is the external objects of enjoyment made of māyā and the internal enjoyer, the jīvas. Brahman is superior and inferior things. It is the senses (jṣānam), and the sense objects (jṣeyam), and objects expressed by words. Brahman is the ignorance of jīvas in tamas and knowledge (jyotiḥ). Thus nothing exists besides Brahman. Thus there is nothing that can cause bewilderment.

Purport

Here the Vedic aphorism sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma is explained. It is also explained in the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam. Aham evāsam evāgre. The Supreme Lord existed in the beginning, He exists after the creation and maintains everything, and after destruction everything merges in Him, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā ( prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām ). Thus the Supreme Lord is actually everything. In the conditioned state, we are bewildered in our understanding, but in the perfect stage of liberation we can understand that Kṛṣṇa is the cause of everything. īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam “Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.” ( Brahma-saṁhitā 5.1 ) This is the perfection of knowledge.