Canto 4: Creation of the Fourth OrderChapter 20: Lord Viṣṇu's Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena of Mahārāja Pṛthu

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.20.2

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

eṣa te 'kārṣīd bhańgaḿ

haya-medha-śatasya ha

kṣamāpayata ātmānam

amuṣya kṣantum arhasi

SYNONYMS

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, spoke; eṣaḥ — this Lord Indra; te — your; akārṣīt — performed; bhańgam — disturbance; haya — horse; medha — sacrifice; śatasya — of the one-hundredth; ha — indeed; kṣamāpayataḥ — who is asking pardon; ātmānam — unto yourself; amuṣya — him; kṣantumto forgive; arhasi — you ought.

TRANSLATION

Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, said: My dear King Pṛthu, Indra, the King of heaven, has disturbed your execution of one hundred sacrifices. Now he has come with Me to be forgiven by you. Therefore excuse him.

PURPORT

In this verse the word ātmānam is very significant. It is a custom among yogīs and jñānīs to address one another (or even an ordinary man) as one's self, for a transcendentalist never accepts a living being to be the body. Since the individual self is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the self and the Superself are qualitatively nondifferent. As the next verse will explain, the body is only a superficial covering, and consequently an advanced transcendentalist will not make a distinction between one self and another.

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