TEXT 11
sri-badarayanir uvaca
evam krta-vyavasito
dadhyann atharvanas tanum
pare bhagavati brahmany
atmanam sannayan jahau
SYNONYMS
sri-badarayanih uvacaSri Sukadeva Gosvami said; evamthus; krta-vyavasitahmaking certain of what to do (in giving his body to the demigods); dadhyanDadhici Muni; atharvanahthe son of Atharva; tanumhis body; pareto the Supreme; bhagavatiPersonality of Godhead; brahmanithe Supreme Brahman; atmanamhimself. the spirit soul; sannayanoffering; jahaugave up.
TRANSLATION
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said: Dadhici Muni, the son of Atharva, thus resolved to give his body to the service of the demigods. He placed himself, the spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and in this way gave up his gross material body made of five elements.
PURPORT
As indicated by the words pare bhagavati brahmany atmanam sannayan, Dadhici placed himself, as spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this regard, one may refer to the incident of Dhrtarastras leaving his body, as described in the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.13.55). Dhrtarastra analytically divided his gross material body into the five different elements of which it was madeearth, water, fire, air and etherand distributed them to the different reservoirs of these elements; in other words, he merged these five elements into the original mahat-tattva. By identifying his material conception of life, he gradually separated his spirit soul from material connections and placed himself at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The example given in this connection is that when an earthen pot is broken, the small portion of the sky within the pot is united with the large sky outside the pot. Mayavadi philosophers misunderstand this description of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Therefore Sri Ramanuja Svami, in his book Vedanta-tattva-sara, has described that this merging of the soul means that after separating himself from the material body made of eight elementsearth, water, fire, air, ether, false ego, mind and intelligencethe individual soul engages himself in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal form (isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah/ anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam [Bs. 5.1]). The material cause of the material elements absorbs the material body, and the spiritual soul assumes its original position. As described by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, jivera svarupa hayakrsnera nitya-dasa: [Cc. Madhya 20.108] the constitutional position of the living entity is that he is the eternal servant of Krsna. When one overcomes the material body through cultivation of spiritual knowledge and devotional service, one can revive his own position and thus engage in the service of the Lord.

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