Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.9

tasmad yuktendriya-gramo

yukta-citta idam jagat

atmanikshasva vitatam

atmanam mayy adhisvare

SYNONYMS

tasmat -- therefore; yukta -- having brought under control; indriya-gramah -- all the senses; yukta -- also subduing; cittah -- your mind; idam -- this; jagat -- world; atmani -- within the individual soul; ikshasva -- you should see; vitatam -- spread out (as the substance of his material enjoyment); atmanam -- and that individual soul; mayi -- in Me; adhisvare -- the supreme controller.

TRANSLATION

Therefore, bringing all your senses under control and thus subduing the mind, you should see the entire world as situated within the self, who is expanded everywhere, and you should also see this individual self within Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT

The word vitatam, or "widely expanded," implies that the individual jiva soul is present throughout the material universe. Similarly, in Bhagavad-gita (2.24) Lord Krishna states, nityah sarva-gatah: the individual soul is eternal and is expanded everywhere throughout the material and spiritual worlds. This does not mean, however, that each individual soul is all-pervading, but that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. has expanded His marginal potency everywhere. Thus, one should not blindly conclude that a minute living entity is all-pervading; rather, one should understand that God is great and expands His personal energy everywhere. In this verse, atmanikshasva vitatam means that this material world is created to facilitate the sense gratification of the conditioned souls, who are trying to enjoy without Krishna, their actual master. The living entities are busily trying to exploit the external energy of the Lord, but their jurisdiction over the material world is illusory. Both the material nature and the conditioned living being are energies of the Lord and thus exist within the Personality of Godhead and are under His supreme control.

The individual living entity exists for the pleasure of the Personality of Godhead and is the Lord's eternal servant. As soon as the senses become absorbed in material gratification they lose their power to experience the Absolute Truth. The actual goal of sense activity is satisfaction of Vishnu, the Lord, and all of the senses can experience infinite spiritual pleasure by perceiving and serving the Lord in His personal feature. Those who adopt the impersonal conception of God, however, try to stop all sense activity. But because the senses cannot remain permanently inactive they naturally return to activities in the realm of material illusion. If one engages the senses in the service of the Personality of Godhead, then one enjoys unlimited pleasure upon seeing the transcendental beauty of the Lord's form. But unless one qualifies himself by pure loving devotion to Krishna, the Lord does not award him this exalted experience. Therefore, every conditioned soul should end his unnecessary separation from the Personality of Godhead by rejoining the Lord's blissful company. Lord Krishna personally comes down to reopen the blind eyes of the conditioned souls, and thus the Lord is personally teaching Uddhava so that sincere souls in the future might take advantage of His instructions. Indeed, hundreds and millions of people even now derive spiritual enlightenment from Lord Krishna's instructions to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari