Devanagari
त्वमेव कालोऽनिमिषो जनाना-
मायुर्लवाद्यवयवै: क्षिणोषि ।
कूटस्थ आत्मा परमेष्ठ्यजो महां-
स्त्वं जीवलोकस्य च जीव आत्मा ॥ ३१ ॥
Verse text
tvam eva kālo ’nimiṣo janānām
āyur lavādy-avayavaiḥ kṣiṇoṣi
kūṭa-stha ātmā parameṣṭhy ajo mahāṁs
tvaṁ jīva-lokasya ca jīva ātmā
Synonyms
tvam
—
you
;
eva
—
indeed
;
kālaḥ
—
unlimited time
;
animiṣaḥ
—
unblinking
;
janānām
—
of all living entities
;
āyuḥ
—
the duration of life
;
lava
—
ādi — consisting of seconds, moments, minutes and hours
;
avayavaiḥ
—
by different parts
;
kṣiṇoṣi
—
reduce
;
kūṭa
—
sthaḥ — without being affected by anything
;
ātmā
—
the Supersoul
;
parameṣṭhī
—
the Supreme Lord
;
ajaḥ
—
the unborn
;
mahān
—
the great
;
tvam
—
you
;
jīva
—
lokasya — of this material world
;
ca
—
also
;
jīvaḥ
—
the cause of life
;
ātmā
—
the Supersoul .
Translation
O my lord, Your Lordship is eternally awake, seeing everything that happens. As eternal time, you reduce the duration of life for all living entities through your different parts, such as moments, seconds, minutes and hours. Nonetheless, you are unchanged, resting in one place as the Supersoul, witness and Supreme Lord, the birthless, all-pervading controller who is the cause of life for all living entities.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
You are unblinking time and you reduce the life span of all beings by divisions of time. You are the unchanging antaryāmī. You are unborn, great. You are the jīva of all jīvas.
You are unchanging (kūṭa-sthaḥ), since you do not undergo transformations. You are the antaryāmī (ātmā). You are the ātmā of all the bodies of the jīvas. The previous verse mentioned ātmātmavatām, which has the same meaning. However in the previous verse, it specifically refers to the Lord of the performers of sacrifice, as the instigator of actions of sacrifice and performer of the actions. This verse refers to the Lord in all other persons.
Purport
In this verse the word
kūṭa-stha
is very important. Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead is situated everywhere, He is the central unchanging point.
Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati:
the Lord is situated in full in the core of everyone’s heart. As indicated in the
Upaniṣads
by the word
ekatvam,
although there are millions and millions of living entities, the Lord is situated as the Supersoul in every one of them. Nonetheless, He is one in many. As stated in the
Brahma-saṁhitā, advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam:
He has many forms, yet they are
advaita
— one and unchanging. Since the Lord is all-pervading, He is also situated in eternal time. The living entities are described as parts and parcels of the Lord because He is the life and soul of all living entities, being situated within their hearts as the
antaryāmī,
as enunciated by the philosophy of inconceivable oneness and difference (
acintya-bhedābheda
). Since the living entities are part of God, they are one in quality with the Lord, yet they are different from Him. The Supersoul, who inspires all living entities to act, is one and changeless. There are varieties of subjects, objects and activities, yet the Lord is one.