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TEXT 17
tada purusa atmanam
kevalam prakrteh param
nirantaram svayam-jyotir
animanam akhanditam
SYNONYMS
tadathen; purusahthe individual soul; atmanamhimself; kevalampure; prakrteh paramtranscendental to material existence; nirantaramnondifferent; svayam-jyotihself-effulgent; animanaminfinitesimal; akhanditamnot fragmented.
TRANSLATION
At that time the soul can see himself to be transcendental to material existence and always self-effulgent, never fragmented, although very minute in size.
PURPORT
In the state of pure consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, one can see himself as a minute particle nondifferent from the Supreme Lord. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, the jiva, or the individual soul, is eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Just as the suns rays are minute particles of the brilliant constitution of the sun, so a living entity is a minute particle of the Supreme Spirit. The individual soul and the Supreme Lord are not separated as in material differentiation. The individual soul is a particle from the very beginning. One should not think that because the individual soul is a particle, it is fragmented from the whole spirit. Mayavada philosophy enunciates that the whole spirit exists, but a part of it, which is called the jiva, is entrapped by illusion. This philosophy, however, is unacceptable because spirit cannot be divided like a fragment of matter. That part, the jiva, is eternally a part. As long as the Supreme Spirit exists, His part and parcel also exists. As long as the sun exists, the molecules of the suns rays also exist.
The jiva particle is estimated in the Vedic literature to be one ten-thousandth the size of the upper portion of a hair. It is therefore infinitesimal. The Supreme Spirit is infinite, but the living entity, or the individual soul, is infinitesimal, although it is not different in quality from the Supreme Spirit. Two words in this verse are to be particularly noted. One is nirantaram, which means nondifferent, or of the same quality. The individual soul is also expressed here as animanam. Animanam means infinitesimal. The Supreme Spirit is all-pervading, but the very small spirit is the individual soul. Akhanditam means not exactly fragmented but constitutionally always infinitesimal. No one can separate the molecular parts of the sunshine from the sun, but at the same time the molecular part of the sunshine is not as expansive as the sun itself. Similarly, the living entity, by his constitutional position, is qualitatively the same as the Supreme Spirit, but he is infinitesimal.
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