SB 5.25.1 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीशुक उवाच तस्य मूलदेशे त्रिंशद्योजनसहस्रान्तर आस्ते या वै कला भगवतस्तामसी समाख्यातानन्त इति सात्वतीया द्रष्टृद‍ृश्ययो: सङ्कर्षणमहमित्यभिमानलक्षणं यं सङ्कर्षणमित्याचक्षते ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

śrī-śuka uvāca tasya mūla-deśe triṁśad-yojana-sahasrāntara āste yā vai kalā bhagavatas tāmasī samākhyātānanta iti sātvatīyā draṣṭṛ-dṛśyayoḥ saṅkarṣaṇam aham ity abhimāna-lakṣaṇaṁ yaṁ saṅkarṣaṇam ity ācakṣate.

Synonyms

śrī — śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said ; tasya — of the planet Pātāla ; mūla — deśe — in the region beneath the base ; triṁśat — thirty ; yojana — eight-mile units of measurement ; sahasra — antare — at an interval of one thousand ; āste — remains ; yā — which ; vai — indeed ; kalā — an expansion of an expansion ; bhagavataḥ — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead ; tāmasī — related to darkness ; samākhyātā — called ; anantaḥ — Ananta ; iti — thus ; sātvatīyāḥ — the devotees ; draṣṭṛ — dṛśyayoḥ — of matter and spirit ; saṅkarṣaṇam — the drawing together ; aham — I ; iti — thus ; abhimāna — by self-conception ; lakṣaṇam — symptomized ; yam — whom ; saṅkarṣaṇam — Saṅkarṣaṇa ; iti — thus ; ācakṣate — learned scholars describe .

Translation

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: My dear King, approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Pātāla lives another incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of Lord Viṣṇu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa. He is always in the transcendental position, but because He is worshiped by Lord Śiva, the deity of tamo-guṇa or darkness, He is sometimes called tāmasī. Lord Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material mode of ignorance as well as the false ego of all conditioned souls. When a conditioned living being thinks, “I am the enjoyer, and this world is meant to be enjoyed by me,” this conception of life is dictated to him by Saṅkarṣaṇa. Thus the mundane conditioned soul thinks himself the Supreme Lord.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: 30,000 yojanas the planet Pātāla lives Ananta, an expansion of the Supreme Lord, [Note: The form of Ananta which holds up the universe is a śaktyāveśa form according to Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta.] called tamasī. The devotees call him Saṅkarṣaṇa because he draws together (saṅkaṛṣaṇa) the enjoyer and the object to be enjoyed, characterized by the conception of “I.” The Twenty-fifth Chapter describes the qualities of Anantadeva, holder of the earth, the source of Rudra who destroys the universe, situated below Pātālaloka. Ananta is called tamasī because he is the supervisor of destruction, an activity of tamas, but he is not a form composed of tamas. This would be a contradiction to a later statement in this chapter mūrtiṁ na purukṛpayā vabhāra sattvaṁ saṁśuddham: out of causeless mercy toward his devotees, he exhibits various forms, which are all transcendental. (SB 5.25.10) Sātvatīyāḥ refers to those persons who have faith in the Sātvata-tantra. The Lord is called Saṅkarṣaṇa because he draws the enjoyer and the object of enjoyment (draṣṭṛ-dṛśayoḥ) completely together. This attraction is characterized by the false identity of “I am the enjoyer and this is my object of enjoyment.” The devotees meditate upon Saṅkarṣaṇa, as the presiding deity of ahaṅkāra in order to become purified of the false conception of I and mine.

Purport

There is a class of men akin to Māyāvādī philosophers who misinterpret the ahaṁ brahmāsmi and so ’ham Vedic mantras to mean, “I am the Supreme Brahman” and “I am identical with the Lord.” This kind of false conception, in which one thinks himself the supreme enjoyer, is a kind of illusion. It is described elsewhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.8) : janasya moho ’yam ahaṁ mameti. As explained in the above verse, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa is the predominating Deity of this false conception. Kṛṣṇa confirms this in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) : sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jṣānam apohanaṁ ca “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.” The Lord is situated in everyone’s heart as Saṅkarṣaṇa, and when a demon thinks himself one with the Supreme Lord, the Lord keeps him in that darkness. Although such a demoniac living entity is only an insignificant part of the Supreme Lord, he forgets his true position and thinks he is the Supreme Lord. Because this forgetfulness is created by Saṅkarṣaṇa, He is sometimes called tāmasī. The name tāmasī does not indicate that He has a material body. He is always transcendental, but because He is the Supersoul of Lord Śiva, who must perform tamasic activities, Saṅkarṣaṇa is sometimes called tāmasī.