Devanagari
यथा सुषुप्त: पुरुषो विश्वं पश्यति चात्मनि ।
आत्मानमेकदेशस्थं मन्यते स्वप्न उत्थित: ॥ ५३ ॥
एवं जागरणादीनि जीवस्थानानि चात्मन: ।
मायामात्राणि विज्ञाय तद् द्रष्टारं परं स्मरेत् ॥ ५४ ॥
Verse text
yathā suṣuptaḥ puruṣo
viśvaṁ paśyati cātmani
ātmānam eka-deśa-sthaṁ
manyate svapna utthitaḥ
evaṁ jāgaraṇādīni
jīva-sthānāni cātmanaḥ
māyā-mātrāṇi vijṣāya
tad-draṣṭāraṁ paraṁ smaret
Synonyms
yathā
—
just as
;
suṣuptaḥ
—
sleeping
;
puruṣaḥ
—
a person
;
viśvam
—
the whole universe
;
paśyati
—
perceives
;
ca
—
also
;
ātmani
—
in himself
;
ātmānam
—
himself
;
eka
—
deśa — stham — lying down in one place
;
manyate
—
he considers
;
svapne
—
in the dreaming condition
;
utthitaḥ
—
waking up
;
evam
—
in this way
;
jāgaraṇa
—
ādīni — the states of wakefulness and so on
;
jīva
—
sthānāni — the living entity’s different conditions of existence
;
ca
—
also
;
ātmanaḥ
—
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
māyā
—
mātrāṇi — the exhibitions of the illusory potency
;
vijṣāya
—
knowing
;
tat
—
of them
;
draṣṭāram
—
the creator or seer of all such conditions
;
param
—
the Supreme
;
smaret
—
one should always remember .
Translation
When a person is in deep sleep, he dreams and sees in himself many other objects, such as great mountains and rivers or perhaps even the entire universe, although they are far away. Sometimes when one awakens from a dream he sees that he is in a human form, lying in his bed in one place. Then he sees himself, in terms of various conditions, as belonging to a particular nationality, family and so on. All the conditions of deep sleep, dreaming and wakefulness are but energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should always remember the original creator of these conditions, the Supreme Lord, who is unaffected by them.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
A sleeping person in a dream sees many objects of a dream world within himself, but on waking up realizes his body is in one particular place, and the dream experience was unreal. Similarly, the states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, conditions of the jīva, are caused by a covering of material intelligence and should be realized to be only māyā. One should therefore meditate only on the supreme seer of all these states, the Paramātmā.
Rejecting impermanent objects and unreal objects one should worship my form as antaryāmī. This is explained in two verses. Within a dream, a person comfortably sleeping sees a dream. By illusion he sees mountains or forests of the universe within himself. Awaking from the dream, he considers that he is in one place, on his bed. In the waking state, he considers the dream mountain and forest different from himself. Just as the dream objects are considered unreal on waking, so the real objects of this world in waking state should be considered unreal since they are temporary. Having understood that these conditions of the jīva, the conditions of the intelligence covering the jīva, are only māyā of the Lord (ātmanaḥ), since they are the products of his māyā-śakti, one should meditate on the superior seer of these conditions, the antaryāmī. The jīva is not indicated here.
The states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep in a dreaming person are all ignorance, since they are created by the jīva in ignorance. Thus they are actually unreal. Similarly the states of waking and sleeping and dreaming, created by the Lord’s māyā-śakti, are simply māyā and therefore “unreal.” However, mountains, forests, snakes, tigers, elephants and horses in a dream are created by the jīva through ignorance, and are therefore factually unreal objects.
Purport
None of these conditions of the living entities — namely, deep sleep, dreaming and wakefulness — is substantial. They are simply displays of various phases of conditional life. There may be many mountains, rivers, trees, bees, tigers and snakes that are situated far away, but in a dream one may imagine them to be nearby. Similarly, as one has subtle dreams at night, when the living entity is awake he lives in gross dreams of nation, community, society, possessions, skyscrapers, bank balance, position and honor. Under the circumstances, one should know that his position is due to his contact with the material world. One is situated in different positions in various forms of life that are all but creations of the illusory energy, which works under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the Supreme Lord is the ultimate actor, and the conditioned living entity should simply remember this original actor, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. As living entities, we are being carried away by the waves of
prakṛti,
or nature, which works under the Lord’s direction (
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram
). Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura sings,
(miche) māyāra vaśe, yāccha bhese’, khāccha hābuḍubu, bhāi:
“Why are you being carried away by the waves of the illusory energy in various phases of dreaming and wakefulness? These are all creations of
māyā.
” Our only duty is to remember the supreme director of this illusory energy — Kṛṣṇa. For us to do this, the
śāstra
advises us,
harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam:
one should constantly chant the holy name of the Lord — Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. The Supreme Lord is realized in three different phases, as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, but Bhagavān is the ultimate realization. One who realizes Bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa — is the most perfect
mahātmā
(
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
). In the human form of life, one should understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for then one will understand everything else.
Yasmin vijṣāte sarvam evaṁ vijṣātaṁ bhavati
(
Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad
1.3). According to this Vedic injunction, simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa one understands Brahman, Paramātmā,
prakṛti,
the illusory energy, the spiritual energy and everything else. Everything will be revealed.
Prakṛti,
the material nature, is working under the direction of the Supreme Lord, and we living entities are being carried away by various phases of
prakṛti.
For self-realization, one should always remember Kṛṣṇa. As stated in
Padma Purāṇa, smartavyaḥ satataṁ viṣṇuḥ:
we should always remember Lord Viṣṇu.
Vismartavyo na jātucit:
we should never forget the Lord. This is the perfection of life.