Devanagari
प्रधानकालाशयधर्मसङ्ग्रहे
शरीर एष प्रतिपद्य चेतनाम् ।
क्रियाफलत्वेन विभुर्विभाव्यते
यथानलो दारुषु तद्गुणात्मक: ॥ ३५ ॥
Verse text
pradhāna-kālāśaya-dharma-saṅgrahe
śarīra eṣa pratipadya cetanām
kriyā-phalatvena vibhur vibhāvyate
yathānalo dāruṣu tad-guṇātmakaḥ
Synonyms
pradhāna
—
material nature
;
kāla
—
time
;
āśaya
—
desire
;
dharma
—
occupational duties
;
saṅgrahe
—
aggregate
;
śarīre
—
body
;
eṣaḥ
—
this
;
pratipadya
—
accepting
;
cetanām
—
consciousness
;
kriyā
—
activities
;
phalatvena
—
by the result of
;
vibhuḥ
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
vibhāvyate
—
manifested
;
yathā
—
as much as
;
analaḥ
—
fire
;
dāruṣu
—
in the wood
;
tat
—
guṇa — ātmakaḥ — according to shape and quality .
Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-pervading, but He is also manifested in different types of bodies which arise from a combination of material nature, time, desires and occupational duties. Thus different types of consciousness develop, just as fire, which is always basically the same, blazes in different ways according to the shape and dimension of firewood.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Supplying the intelligence in the body made of prakṛti, time, impressions, and fate so that the person offers karmas to the Lord, the Lord himself appears as the various results of those actions, just as fire appears in various types of woods with the qualities of those woods.
The result of karmas offered to the Lord, along with some bhakti, is attainment of the Lord. The body is composed of avyakta (pradhāna), time, which is the agitator of avyakta, impressions (āśaya), and fate or karma (dharma). The Lord himself, producing (pratipadya-having a causative senses) the intelligence (cetanām), situated in the body, so that one offers karmas to the Lord, appears (vibhāvyate) as the results of action. The verb is reflexive, being the performer of action and the object of action.
yad atra kriyate karma bhagavat-paritoṣaṇam |
jṣānaṁ yat tad adhīnaṁ hi bhakti-yoga-samanvitam ||
That jṣāna which arises from karma, pleasing to the Lord because of being offered to him, is endowed with bhakti. SB 1.5.35
According to this verse, karma offered to the Lord, by becoming jṣāna mixed with bhakti, gives one attainment of the Lord. However, according to the amount of bhakti and faith in offering the karmas, there will be corresponding appearance of jṣāna, and corresponding attainment of the Lord. Just as the fire situated in sandalwood, aguru, dhava or khadira wood takes on the qualities of those woods respectively, so the Lord gives results to action according to the type of worship done by the worshipper. For the person doing niṣkāma-karma with some bhakti, there is liberation. For the person doing karma-miśra-bhakti, there is śānta-rati. According to the amount of bhakti, the Lord gives sālokya and other benedictions. Thus the importance of the quality present in a person has been shown.
Purport
The Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly lives with the individual soul as Paramātmā. The individual soul has awareness in accord with his material body, which he attains by virtue of
prakṛti,
or material nature. The material ingredients are activated by the force of time, and thus the three material modes of nature are manifested. According to his association with the three modes of nature, the living entity develops a particular type of body. In animal life, the material mode of ignorance is so prominent that there is very little chance of realizing the Paramātmā, who is also present within the heart of the animal; but in the human form of life, because of developed consciousness (
cetanām
), one can be transferred from ignorance and passion to goodness by the results of his activities (
kriyā-phalatvena
). A human being is therefore advised to associate with spiritually advanced personalities. The
Vedas
(
Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad
1.2.12) give the direction
tad-vijṣānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet:
in order to reach the perfection of life or to understand the real constitutional position of the living entity, one must approach the spiritual master.
Gurum evābhigacchet
— one
must;
it is not optional. It is imperative that one approach the spiritual master, for by such association one proportionately develops his consciousness toward the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The highest perfection of such consciousness is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. According to the body given by
prakṛti,
or nature, one’s consciousness is present; according to the development of consciousness, one’s activities are performed; and according to the purity of such activities, one realizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone’s heart. The example given herein is very appropriate: fire is always the same, but according to the size of the fuel or burning wood, the fire appears to be straight, curved, small, big, etc.
According to the development of consciousness, God realization is present. In the human form of life it is recommended, therefore, that one undergo the different types of penances and austerities described in
Bhagavad-gītā
(
karma-yoga, jṣāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga
and
bhakti-yoga
). Like a staircase,
yoga
has different steps for reaching the topmost floor, and according to one’s position upon the staircase, he is understood to be situated in
karma-yoga, jṣāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga
or
bhakti-yoga.
Of course,
bhakti-yoga
is the topmost step on the staircase of realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, according to one’s development in consciousness, one realizes his spiritual identity, and thus when one’s existential position is purified fully, he becomes situated in
brahmānanda,
which is ultimately unlimited. Therefore the
saṅkīrtana
movement contributed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Lord Caitanya is the direct and easiest process for coming to the purest form of consciousness — Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the platform on which the Supreme Personality is fully realized. Directions for performing different types of
yajṣas
are specifically arranged for the highest realization of the Supreme Lord, as confirmed in
Bhagavad-gītā
by the Lord Himself. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is realized according to the proportion of one’s surrender:
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
(
Bg. 4.11
). Full surrender, however, occurs when a man is perfectly in knowledge:
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jṣānavān māṁ prapadyate
(
Bg. 7.19
).