Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.11.13-14

kshetrajña ātmā purushah purānah

sākshāt svayam jyotir ajah pareśah

nārāyano bhagavān vāsudevah

sva-māyayātmany avadhīyamānah

yathānilah sthāvara-jańgamānām

ātma-svarūpena nivishta īśet

evam paro bhagavān vāsudevah

kshetrajña ātmedam anupravishtah

SYNONYMS

kshetra-jñah — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ātmā — all-pervading, present everywhere; purushah — the unrestricted controller, who has unlimited power; purānah — the original; sākshāt — perceivable by hearing from the authorities and by direct perception; svayam — personal; jyotih — manifesting His bodily rays (the Brahman effulgence); ajah — never born; pareśah — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; nārāyanah — the resting place of all living entities; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead with six full opulences; vāsudevah — the shelter of everything, manifested and nonmanifest; sva-māyayā — by His own potency; ātmani — in His own self, or in the ordinary living entities; avadhīyamānah — existing as the controller; yathā — as much as; anilah — the air; sthāvara — of nonmoving living entities; jańgamānām — and of the moving living entities; ātma-svarūpena — by His expansion as the Supersoul; nivishtah — entered; īśet — controls; evam — thus; parah — transcendental; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; vāsudevah — the shelter of everything; kshetra-jñah — known as kshetrajña; ātmā — the vital force; idam — this material world; anupravishtah — entered within.

TRANSLATION

There are two kinds of kshetrajña — the living entity, as explained above, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is explained as follows. He is the all-pervading cause of creation. He is full in Himself and is not dependent on others. He is perceived by hearing and direct perception. He is self-effulgent and does not experience birth, death, old age or disease. He is the controller of all the demigods, beginning with Lord Brahmā. He is called Nārāyana, and He is the shelter of living entities after the annihilation of this material world. He is full of all opulences, and He is the resting place of everything material. He is therefore known as Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By His own potency, He is present within the hearts of all living entities, just as the air or vital force is within the bodies of all beings, moving and nonmoving. In this way He controls the body. In His partial feature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead enters all bodies and controls them.

PURPORT

This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15). Sarvasya cāham hridi sannivishto mattah smritir jñānam apohanam ca. Every living being is controlled by the supreme living being, Paramātmā, who resides within everyone's heart. He is the purusha, the purusha-avatāra, who creates this material world. The first purusha-avatāra is Mahā-Vishnu, and that Mahā-Vishnu is the plenary portion of the plenary portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Krishna's first expansion is Baladeva, and His next expansions are Vāsudeva, Sańkarshana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna. Vāsudeva is the original cause of the brahmajyoti, and the brahmajyoti is the expansion of the rays of the body of Vāsudeva.

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-

kotishv aśesha-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam

tad brahma nishkalam anantam aśesha-bhūtam

govindam ādi-purusham tam aham bhajāmi

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes." (Brahma-samhitā 5.40) The Supreme Personality of Godhead is thus described in Bhagavad-gītā:

mayā tatam idam sarvam

jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni

na cāham teshv avasthitah

"By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them." (Bg. 9.4)

This is the position of the plenary expansions of Krishna as the all-pervading Vāsudeva, Sańkarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness