Devanagari
न यस्य सख्यं पुरुषोऽवैति सख्यु:
सखा वसन् संवसत: पुरेऽस्मिन् ।
गुणो यथा गुणिनो व्यक्तदृष्टे-
स्तस्मै महेशाय नमस्करोमि ॥ २४ ॥
Verse text
na yasya sakhyaṁ puruṣo ’vaiti sakhyuḥ
sakhā vasan saṁvasataḥ pure ’smin
guṇo yathā guṇino vyakta-dṛṣṭes
tasmai maheśāya namaskaromi
Synonyms
na
—
not
;
yasya
—
whose
;
sakhyam
—
fraternity
;
puruṣaḥ
—
the living entity
;
avaiti
—
knows
;
sakhyuḥ
—
of the supreme friend
;
sakhā
—
the friend
;
vasan
—
living
;
saṁvasataḥ
—
of the one living with
;
pure
—
in the body
;
asmin
—
this
;
guṇaḥ
—
the object of sense perception
;
yathā
—
just like
;
guṇinaḥ
—
of its respective sense organ
;
vyakta
—
dṛṣṭeḥ — who oversees the material manifestation
;
tasmai
—
unto Him
;
mahā
—
īśāya — unto the supreme controller
;
namaskaromi
—
I offer my obeisances .
Translation
As the sense objects [form, taste, touch, smell and sound] cannot understand how the senses perceive them, so the conditioned soul, although residing in his body along with the Supersoul, cannot understand how the supreme spiritual person, the master of the material creation, directs his senses. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that Supreme Person, who is the supreme controller.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I offer respects to the great Lord, the friend residing within the body, who allows the jīva to manifest knowledge, and whom the jīva, though living with him, does not recognize as a friend, just as the sense objects do not know the revealing power of the senses.
This verse elaborates on the unseen form of the Lord. The jīva (puruṣaḥ) does not know that the Lord is his friend, the person who allows his senses to operate. The Lord lives in the body as a friend. Though he is ātmārāma, he allows the jīva to enjoy sense objects out of his friendship. And the jīva, though his friend, living in the body and experiencing the Lord’s friendship, does not know him. The Lord reveals knowledge of sense objects to the jīva through manifesting his intelligence and senses (vyakta-dṛṣteḥ). Another version is vyakta-dṛṣṭiḥ. Then it refers to the jīva by whom knowledge is revealed. It is like the sense objects which do not know the senses’ ability to reveal sweetness and other qualities of the sense objects.
Purport
The individual soul and the Supreme Soul live together within the body. This is confirmed in the
Upaniṣads
by the analogy that two friendly birds live in one tree — one bird eating the fruit of the tree and the other simply witnessing and directing. Although the individual living being, who is compared to the bird that is eating, is sitting with his friend the Supreme Soul, the individual living being cannot see Him. Actually the Supersoul is directing the workings of his senses in the enjoyment of sense objects, but as these sense objects cannot see the senses, the conditioned soul cannot see the directing soul. The conditioned soul has desires, and the Supreme Soul fulfills them, but the conditioned soul is unable to see the Supreme Soul. Thus Prajāpati Dakṣa offers his obeisances to the Supreme Soul, the Supersoul, even though unable to see Him. Another example given is that although ordinary citizens work under the direction of the government, they cannot understand how they are being governed or what the government is. In this regard, Madhvācārya quotes the following verse from the
Skanda Purāṇa:
yathā rājṣaḥ priyatvaṁ tu
bhṛtyā vedena cātmanaḥ
tathā jīvo na yat-sakhyaṁ
vetti tasmai namo ’stu te
“As the various servants in the different departments of big establishments cannot see the supreme managing director under whom they are working, the conditioned souls cannot see the supreme friend sitting within their bodies. Let us therefore offer our respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, who is invisible to our material eyes.”