Devanagari
आत्मानं सर्वभूतेषु भगवन्तमवस्थितम् ।
अपश्यत्सर्वभूतानि भगवत्यपि चात्मनि ॥ ४६ ॥
Verse text
ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
bhagavantam avasthitam
apaśyat sarva-bhūtāni
bhagavaty api cātmani
Synonyms
ātmānam
—
the Supersoul
;
sarva
—
bhūteṣu — in all living beings
;
bhagavantam
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
avasthitam
—
situated
;
apaśyat
—
he saw
;
sarva
—
bhūtāni — all living beings
;
bhagavati
—
in the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
api
—
moreover
;
ca
—
and
;
ātmani
—
on the Supersoul .
Translation
He began to see that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is seated in everyone’s heart, and that everyone is existing on Him, because He is the Supersoul of everyone.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Kardama saw the antaryāmī situated within all living beings, and saw all living beings situated within Mahāviṣṇu.
He saw the Lord directly. This state is described. He saw the antaryāmī of all, Kṣīrodakaśāyī, the third puruṣāvatāra (ātmānam) situated in all beings. This was Bhagavān, the four armed lord, Śukla, the deity of his worship. He saw all beings, situated in universes emerging from Mahāviṣṇu’s hair pores, within the antaryāmī of prakṛti, Kāraṇodakaśāyī, the first puruṣa, by eyes produced through yoga. Kardama is described to be more advanced than the yogīs who get gradual liberation described in the Second Canto. The yogī, giving up his gross body, desiring to see everything within the universe, goes and sees everything within the universe. Kardama, however, without desire to see anything, while situated in this world, saw all beings in the hair holes of the Lord outside of the universe, in the Kāraṇa Ocean. The form he saw was the four armed Viṣṇu, Śukla, the object of his worship. Yaśodā saw all beings within Kṛṣṇa. It should be understood however that seeing the powerful form of Viṣṇu was suitable to Kardama who worshipped that powerful form.
Purport
That everyone is existing on the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not mean that everyone is also Godhead. This is also explained in
Bhagavad-gītā:
everything is resting on Him, the Supreme Lord, but that does not mean that the Supreme Lord is also everywhere. This mysterious position has to be understood by highly advanced devotees. There are three kinds of devotees — the neophyte devotee, the intermediate devotee and the advanced devotee. The neophyte devotee does not understand the techniques of devotional science, but simply offers devotional service to the Deity in the temple. The intermediate devotee understands who God is, who is a devotee, who is a nondevotee and who is innocent, and he deals with such persons differently. But a person who sees that the Lord is sitting as Paramātmā in everyone’s heart and that everything is depending or existing on the transcendental energy of the Supreme Lord is in the highest devotional position.