Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.8.82

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

mā bhaiṣṭa bālaḿ tapaso duratyayān

nivartayiṣye pratiyāta sva-dhāma

yato hi vaḥ prāṇa-nirodha āsīd

auttānapādir mayi sańgatātmā

SYNONYMS

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead replied; mā bhaiṣṭa — do not be afraid; bālam — the boy Dhruva; tapasaḥ — by his severe austerity; duratyayāt — strongly determined; nivartayiṣye — I shall ask him to stop this; pratiyāta — you can return; sva-dhāma — your own respective homes; yataḥ — from whom; hi — certainly; vaḥ — your; prāṇa-nirodhaḥ — choking the life air; āsīt — happened; auttānapādiḥ — on account of the son of King Uttānapāda; mayi — unto Me; sańgata-ātmā — fully absorbed in thought of Me.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead replied: My dear demigods, do not be perturbed by this. It is due to the severe austerity and full determination of the son of King Uttānapāda, who is now fully absorbed in thought of Me. He has obstructed the universal breathing process. You can safely return to your respective homes. I shall stop this boy in his severe acts of austerities, and you will be saved from this situation.

PURPORT

Here one word, sańgatātmā, is misinterpreted by the Māyāvādī philosophers, who say that the self of Dhruva Mahārāja became one with the Supreme Self, the Personality of Godhead. The Māyāvādī philosophers want to prove by this word that the Supersoul and the individual soul become united in this way and that after such unification the individual soul has no separate existence. But here it is clearly said by the Supreme Lord that Dhruva Mahārāja was so absorbed in meditation on the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that He Himself, the universal consciousness, was attracted to Dhruva. In order to please the demigods, He wanted to go Himself to Dhruva Mahārāja to stop him from this severe austerity. The Māyāvādī philosophers' conclusion that the Supersoul and the individual soul become united is not supported by this statement. Rather, the Supersoul, the Personality of Godhead, wanted to stop Dhruva Mahārāja from this severe austerity.

By pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one pleases everyone, just as by watering the root of a tree one satisfies every branch, twig and leaf of the tree. lf one can attract the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one naturally attracts the whole universe because Kṛṣṇa is the supreme cause of the universe. All the demigods were afraid of being totally vanquished by suffocation, but the Personality of Godhead assured them that Dhruva Mahārāja was a great devotee of the Lord and was not about to annihilate everyone in the universe. A devotee is never envious of other living entities.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fourth Canto, Eighth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Dhruva Mahārāja Leaves Home for the Forest."

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