Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11 Chapter 12 Verse 17

SYNONYMS

sri-bhagavan uvaca -- the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; sah eshah -- He Himself; jivah -- the Supreme Lord, who gives life to all; vivara -- within the heart; prasutih -- manifest; pranena -- along with the life air; ghoshena -- with the subtle manifestation of sound; guham -- the heart; pravishtah -- who has entered; manah-mayam -- perceived by the mind, or controlling the mind even of great demigods like Lord Siva; sukshmam -- subtle; upetya -- being situated in; rupam -- the form; matra -- the different vocalic lengths; svarah -- the different intonations; varnah -- the different sounds of the alphabet; iti -- thus; sthavishthah -- the gross form.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava, the Supreme Lord gives life to every living being and is situated within the heart along with the life air and primal sound vibration. The Lord can be perceived in His subtle form within the heart by one's mind, since the Lord controls the minds of everyone, even great demigods like Lord Siva. The Supreme Lord also assumes a gross form as the various sounds of the Vedas, composed of short and long vowels and consonants of different intonations.

PURPORT

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura comments as follows on the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Uddhava. Uddhava was bewildered and doubtful because Lord Krishna explained many different processes such as devotional service, speculative knowledge, renunciation, mystic yoga, austerities, pious duties, and so on. However, all of these processes are meant to help the living entities obtain the shelter of Lord Krishna, and ultimately no Vedic process should be understood in any other way. Thus Lord Krishna explained the entire Vedic system, placing everything in proper order. In fact, Lord Krishna was surprised that Uddhava foolishly thought that he was meant to practice every process, as if each method were meant simply for him. Lord Krishna therefore wants to inform His devotee, "My dear Uddhava, when I told you that analytic knowledge is to be practiced, pious duties are to be performed, devotional service is obligatory, yoga procedures must be observed, austerities are to be executed, etc., I was instructing all living entities, using you as My immediate audience. That which I have spoken, am speaking now and will speak in the future should be understood as guidance for all living entities in different situations. How could you possibly think that you were meant to practice all of the different Vedic processes? I accept you as you are now, My pure devotee. You are not supposed to execute all of these processes." Thus according to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, the Lord, with lighthearted and encouraging words, reveals to Uddhava the deep purpose behind the variety of Vedic procedures.

Lord Krishna became manifest from the mouth of Lord Brahma in the form of the Vedas. The word vivara-prasuti in this verse also indicates that the Lord is manifest within the adharadi-cakras situated within the body of Lord Brahma. The word ghoshena means "subtle sound," and guham pravishtah also indicates that Lord Krishna enters within the adhara-cakra. The Lord can further be perceived within other cakras such as the manipuraka-cakra, located around the navel, and the visuddhi-cakra. The Sanskrit alphabet is composed of short and long vowels, and consonants pronounced with high and low tones, and utilizing these vibrations the different branches of Vedic literatures are manifested as a gross form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. According to Bhagavad-gita, such literatures deal mostly with the three modes of material nature: traigunya-vishaya veda nistrai-gunyo bhavarjuna. Srila Sridhara Svami explains that due to the control of the illusory energy, maya, the Personality of Godhead appears to the conditioned souls as part of the material universe. The imagined imposition of gross and subtle material qualities on the Personality of Godhead is called avidya, or ignorance, and through such ignorance the living entity considers himself to be the doer of his own activities and becomes bound up in the network of karma. The Vedas therefore order an entangled soul to observe positive and negative injunctions to purify his existence. These procedures are called pravritti-marga, or the path of regulated fruitive activities. When one has purified one's existence, one gives up this gross stage of fruitive activities because it is detrimental to the practice of pure devotional service. By firm faith one may then worship the Personality of Godhead. One who has developed perfect Krishna consciousness no longer has to perform ritualistic duties. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, tasya karyam na vidyate.

According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, this verse may be understood in another way. The word jiva indicates Lord Krishna, who gives life to the residents of Vrindavana, and vivara-prasuti indicates that although Lord Krishna eternally performs His pastimes in the spiritual world, beyond the vision of the conditioned souls, He also enters within the material universe to display these same pastimes. The words guham pravishtah indicates that after displaying such pastimes, the Lord withdraws them and enters into His unmanifest pastimes, or those pastimes not manifest to the conditioned souls. In this case, matra indicates the transcendental senses of the Lord, svara indicates the Lord's transcendental sound vibration and singing, and the word varna indicates the transcendental form of the Lord. The word sthavishtha, or "gross manifestation," means that the Lord becomes manifest in the material world even to those devotees who are not completely advanced in Krishna consciousness and whose vision is not completely purified. Mano-maya indicates that somehow or other Lord Krishna is to be kept within one's mind; and for the nondevotees Lord Krishna is sukshma, or most subtle, because He cannot be known. Thus different acaryas have glorified Lord Krishna in different ways through the transcendental sound vibration of this verse.

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