Devanagari
यदेतद्विस्मृतं पुंसो मद्भावं भिन्नमात्मन: ।
तत: संसार एतस्य देहाद्देहो मृतेर्मृति: ॥ ५७ ॥
Verse text
yad etad vismṛtaṁ puṁso
mad-bhāvaṁ bhinnam ātmanaḥ
tataḥ saṁsāra etasya
dehād deho mṛter mṛtiḥ
Synonyms
yat
—
which
;
etat
—
this
;
vismṛtam
—
forgotten
;
puṁsaḥ
—
of the living entity
;
mat
—
bhāvam — My spiritual position
;
bhinnam
—
separation
;
ātmanaḥ
—
from the Supreme Soul
;
tataḥ
—
from that
;
saṁsāraḥ
—
material, conditional life
;
etasya
—
of the living entity
;
dehāt
—
from one body
;
dehaḥ
—
another body
;
mṛteḥ
—
from one death
;
mṛtiḥ
—
another death .
Translation
When a living entity, thinking himself different from Me, forgets his spiritual identity of qualitative oneness with Me in eternity, knowledge and bliss, his material, conditional life begins. In other words, instead of identifying his interest with Mine, he becomes interested in his bodily expansions like his wife, children and material possessions. In this way, by the influence of his actions, one body comes from another, and after one death, another death takes place.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
A person who forgets that my svarūpa is different from the jīva continues in saṁsāra, taking body after body, death after death.
To think that the Brahman and jīva are one is an offense and the cause of obstacles. That is expressed in this verse. My svarūpa (mad-bhāvam) is different from the jīva (ātmanaḥ). Neutral gender is poetic license. If the jīva forgets this, and thinks he is identical with me, then because of this, such a person will end up in saṁsāra. Saṁsāra is described: it is getting one body after another, one death after another. Thus, one can think of oneness of the jīva and Brahman like the oneness of the sun and its rays, since jīva is the same by being the Lord’s taṭastha-śakti. That is the meaning of tat tvam asi: you are the Brahman. As well, temporary objects of the universe are also one with the Brahman since they are products of the Lord’s material śakti. Though the material world is one with the Lord, it is different because it does not arise from the svarūpa of the Lord. This causes it to be destructible. Since the pure jīva is included among the permanent real objects because that jīva is not destructible, it is also one with the Lord since it the Lord’s taṭaṣṭha-śakti, but it does not arise from the Lord’s svarūpa. The permanent objects Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān however are one because they are one svarūpa. Because the forms of the associates of Bhagavān arise from the actions of the cit-śakti (the Lord’s svarūpa), those associates who are nitya-siddha are also permanent objects which are the Lord’s svarūpa. And some jīvas with desires for dāsya and other relationships, who have perfected themselves by pure bhakti or by mercy of nitya-mukta bhaktas, are included among the eternal associates as dāsas. They are also considered to be non-different from the svarūpa of the Lord, since they are empowered by the svarūpa-śakti. Those jīvas who have perfected themselves by mixed bhakti become śānta-bhaktas and are not empowered by the Lord’s svarūpa-śakti since they not included among the dāsas or other associates. They are also eternal objects, but not part of the Lord’s svarūpa. Thus there is non-difference from the Lord because of the many śaktis of the Lord. Incidentally, the Vaiṣṇava conclusions have been stated.
Purport
Generally the Māyāvādī philosophers or persons influenced by Māyāvādī philosophers think themselves as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the cause of their conditional life. As stated by the Vaiṣṇava poet Jagadānanda Paṇḍita in his
Prema-vivarta:
kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha haṣā bhoga vāṣchā kare
nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
As soon as a living entity forgets his constitutional position and endeavors to become one with the Supreme, his conditional life begins. The conception that the Supreme Brahman and the living entity are equal not only in quality but also in quantity is the cause of conditional life. If one forgets the difference between the Supreme Lord and the living entity, his conditional life begins. Conditional life means giving up one body to accept another and undergoing death to accept death again. The Māyāvādī philosopher teaches the philosophy of
tat tvam asi,
saying, “You are the same as God.” He forgets that
tat tvam asi
applies in terms of the marginal position of the living entity, who is like sunshine. There is heat and light in the sun, and there is heat and light in the sunshine, and thus they are qualitatively one. But one should not forget that the sunshine rests on the sun. As the Lord says in
Bhagavad-gītā,
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham:
“I am the original source of Brahman.” The sunshine is important because of the presence of the sun globe. It is not that the sun globe is important because of the all-pervasiveness of the sunshine. Forgetfulness and misunderstanding of this fact is called
māyā.
Because of forgetfulness of one’s constitutional position and that of the Supreme Lord, one comes into
māyā,
or
saṁsāra
— conditional life. In this regard, Madhvācārya says:
sarva-bhinnaṁ parātmānaṁ
vismaran saṁsared iha
abhinnaṁ saṁsmaran yāti
tamo nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ
When one thinks that the living entity is nondifferent in all respects from the Supreme Lord, there is no doubt that he is in ignorance (
tamaḥ
).