Devanagari
अहमात्मात्मनां धात: प्रेष्ठ: सन् प्रेयसामपि ।
अतो मयि रतिं कुर्याद्देहादिर्यत्कृते प्रिय: ॥ ४२ ॥
Verse text
aham ātmātmanāṁ dhātaḥ
preṣṭhaḥ san preyasām api
ato mayi ratiṁ kuryād
dehādir yat-kṛte priyaḥ
Synonyms
aham
—
I am
;
ātmā
—
the Supersoul
;
ātmanām
—
of all other souls
;
dhātaḥ
—
director
;
preṣṭhaḥ
—
the dearest
;
san
—
being
;
preyasām
—
of all dear things
;
api
—
certainly
;
ataḥ
—
therefore
;
mayi
—
unto Me
;
ratim
—
attachment
;
kuryāt
—
one should do
;
deha
—
ādiḥ — the body and mind
;
yat
—
kṛte — on whose account
;
priyaḥ
—
very dear .
Translation
I am the Supersoul of every individual. I am the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Brahmā! I am the soul in all the living beings. Among all dear things I am the dearest object to the living beings. For this reason the body and family are dear to a person. Therefore one should have love for me.
That Lord has indicated that he is very dear to those who have pure bhakti without material guṇas. But I alone should also be dearest to all jīvas. They should hold me dear. This is an injunction. I am the soul (ātmā), the Paramātmā, of all the jīvas (ātmanām). For this reason (yat-kṛte) body and family become dear to a person. Affection for wife and sons is based on one’s body. Affection for one’s own body is based on the jīva within the body. Affection for the jīva is based on the Paramātmā. Affection for Paramātmā is natural. The affection for the jīva and the preceding items is figurative only, and the affection for each item is successively less.
But how can you make a command and say “The jīva should act with rati for me.” Rati is something which is to be attained. The command is uttered to act when rati does not exist. The answer is as follows. The jīva is fit for māyā, but not the Paramātmā. Humans who have fallen into māyā’s bondage experience objects of māyā. But even for the jīva, māyā is only superimposed. Though natural affection for Paramātmā exists, because of lack of experience of Paramātmā, the jīva does not have affection for Paramātmā. He is like a wealthy merchant who does not know that he possesses wealth and thus acts like a poor man. Thus it is enjoined that the jīva should have affection. It is an injunction.
However, though Paramātmā is dearest, it is seen that even though the jṣānīs may realize him directly, there is no rati for Paramātmā and prema does not develop. For the devotees alone, Paramātmā, existing in all time and space, is the dearest. This is not so for the jṣānīs. Though the sun dispels the pain of cold and gives happiness to the eye with light, and though this is experienced by all, some people do not appreciate this. This is because they have no attachment for the sun. And though the sun gives happiness to them, it is also indifferent to them. The jṣānīs do not rejoice in the Brahman though it gives happiness of realizing the self and destroys ignorance, because they do not have great attachment to it. Brahman also, giving them realization of the impersonal aspect, is indifferent to them. When devotee of the sun god, whether having vision or blind, sees the sun who is satisfied by his devotion, as having hands and feet, along with chariot and horses, he brings the sun under his control by his devotion. Similarly, the jīva, whether liberated or in bondage, delights in the Paramātmā with realization of his qualities, and brings Paramātmā under his control by his devotion. Thus Paramātmā is most dear to the devotees whether they have pure bhakti or mixed bhakti. However Paramātmā is not most dear to the jṣānīs with a small amount of bhakti. Thus when the Paramātmā himself says “One should show affection for me” it should be considered in relation to the devotee only. Or, the sentence can mean “For this reason (ataḥ) one should show affection for me, the result of which (yad-kṛte) is that the intelligent man will have affection for the body (dehādiḥ priyaḥ), using the body and senses to perfect bhakti.” Such persons do not hanker for liberation.
Purport
The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, is the dearest in both the conditioned and liberated states. When a person does not know that the Lord is the only dearmost object, then he is in the conditioned state of life, and when one knows perfectly well that the Lord is the only dearmost object, he is considered to be liberated. There are degrees of knowing one’s relationship with the Lord, depending on the degree of realization as to why the Supreme Lord is the dearmost object of every living being. The real reason is clearly stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(15.7)
.
Mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ:
the living entities are eternally parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The living entity is called the
ātmā,
and the Lord is called the Paramātmā. The living entity is called Brahman, and the Lord is called the Parabrahman, or the Parameśvara.
Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ.
The conditioned souls, who do not have self-realization, accept the material body as the dearmost. The idea of the dearmost is then spread all over the body, both concentrated and extended. The attachment for one’s own body and its extensions like children and relatives is actually developed on the basis of the real living entity. As soon as the real living entity is out of the body, even the body of the most dear son is no longer attractive. Therefore the living spark, or eternal part of the Supreme, is the real basis of affection, and not the body. Because the living entities are also parts of the whole living entity, that supreme living entity is the factual basis of affection for all. One who has forgotten the basic principle of his love for everything has only flickering love because he is in
māyā.
The more one is affected by the principle of
māyā,
the more he is detached from the basic principle of love. One cannot factually love anything unless he is fully developed in the loving service of the Lord.
In the present verse, stress is given to focusing love upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word
kuryāt
is significant here. This means “one must have it.” It is just to stress that we must have more and more attachment to the principle of love. The influence of
māyā
is experienced by the part and parcel spiritual entity, but it cannot influence the Supersoul, the Paramātmā. The Māyāvādī philosophers, accepting the influence of
māyā
on the living entity, want to become one with the Paramātmā. But because they have no actual love for Paramātmā, they remain ever entrapped by the influence of
māyā
and are unable to approach the vicinity of Paramātmā. This inability is due to their lack of affection for the Paramātmā. A rich miser does not know how to utilize his wealth, and therefore, in spite of his being very rich, his miserly behavior keeps him everlastingly a poor man. On the other hand, a person who knows how to utilize wealth can quickly become a rich man, even with a small credit balance.
The eyes and the sun are very intimately related because without sunlight the eyes are unable to see. But the other parts of the body, being attached to the sun as a source of warmth, take more advantage of the sun than do the eyes. Without possessing affection for the sun, the eyes cannot bear the rays of the sun; or, in other words, such eyes have no capacity to understand the utility of the sun’s rays. Similarly, the empiric philosophers, despite their theoretical knowledge of Brahman, cannot utilize the mercy of the Supreme Brahman because they lack affection. So many impersonal philosophers remain everlastingly under the influence of
māyā
because, although they indulge in theoretical knowledge of Brahman, they do not develop affection for Brahman nor do they have any scope for development of affection because of their defective method. A devotee of the sun-god, even though devoid of eyesight, can see the sun-god as he is even from this planet, whereas one who is not a devotee of the sun cannot even bear the glaring sunlight. Similarly, by devotional service, even though one is not on the level of a
jṣānī,
one can see the Personality of Godhead within himself due to his development of pure love. In all circumstances one should try to develop love of Godhead, and that will solve all contending problems.