TEXT 26
yada ratir brahmani naisthiki puman
acaryavan jnana-viraga-ramhasa
dahaty aviryam hrdayam jiva-kosam
pancatmakam yonim ivotthito gnih
SYNONYMS
yadawhen; ratihattachment; brahmaniin the Supreme Personality of Godhead; naisthikifixed; pumanthe person; acaryavancompletely surrendered to the spiritual master; jnanaknowledge; viragadetachment; ramhasaby the force of; dahatiburns; aviryamimpotent; hrdayamwithin the heart; jiva-kosamthe covering of the spirit soul; panca-atmakamfive elements; yonimsource of birth; ivalike; utthitahemanating; agnihfire.
TRANSLATION
Upon becoming fixed in his attachment to the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the grace of the spiritual master and by awakening knowledge and detachment, the living entity, situated within the heart of the body and covered by the five elements, burns up his material surroundings exactly as fire, arising from wood, burns the wood itself.
PURPORT
It is said that both the jivatma, the individual soul, and the Paramatma live together within the heart. In the Vedic version it is stated, hrdi hy ayam atma: the soul and Supersoul both live within the heart. The individual soul is liberated when it comes out of the material heart or cleanses the heart to make it spiritualized. The example given here is very appropriate: yonim ivotthitognih. Agni, or fire, comes out of wood, and by it the wood is completely destroyed. Similarly, when a living entity increases his attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is to be considered like fire. A blazing fire is visible by its exhibition of heat and light; similarly, when the living entity within the heart becomes enlightened with full spiritual knowledge and detached from the material world, he burns up his material covering of the five elementsearth, water, fire, air and skyand becomes free from the five kinds of material attachments, namely ignorance, false egoism, attachment to the material world, envy and absorption in material consciousness. Therefore pancatmakam, as mentioned in this verse, refers to either the five elements or the five coverings of material contamination. When these are all burned into ashes by the blazing fire of knowledge and detachment, one is fixed firmly in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless one takes shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and advances ones attraction for Krsna by the spiritual masters instructions, the five coverings of the living entity cannot be uncovered from the material heart. The living entity is centered within the heart, and to take him away from the heart is to liberate him. This is the process. One must take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and by his instruction increase ones knowledge in devotional service, become detached from the material world and thus become liberated. An advanced devotee, therefore, does not live within the material body but within his spiritual body, just as a dry coconut lives detached from the coconut husk, even though within the husk. The pure devotees body is therefore called cin-maya-sarira (spiritualized body). In other words, a devotees body is not connected with material activities, and as such, a devotee is always liberated (brahma-bhuyaya kalpate), as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (14.26). Srila Rupa Gosvami also confirms this:
Whatever his condition may be, one who is engaged fully with his body, mind and speech in the service of the Lord is liberated, even within this body.

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