BHAGAVAD-GITA 15:7

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 15:7

 

mamaivamso jiva-loke

jiva-bhutah sanatanah

manah-sasthanindriyani

prakrti sthani karsati

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

mama--My; eva--certainly; amsah--fragmental particle; jiva-loke--in

the world of conditional life; jiva-bhutah--the conditioned living

entity; sanatanah--eternal; manah--with the mind; sasthani--the six;

indriyani--senses; prakrti--in material nature; sthani--situated;

karsati--is struggling hard.

 

TRANSLATION

 

The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal

fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very

hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

 

PURPORT

 

In this verse the identity of the living being is clearly given. The

living entity is the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme

Lord--eternally. It is not that he assumes individuality in his

conditional life and in his liberated state becomes one with the

Supreme Lord. He is eternally fragmented. It is clearly said,

sanatanah. According to the Vedic version, the Supreme Lord manifests

and expands Himself in innumerable expansions, of which the primary

expansions are called visnu-tattva and the secondary expansions are

called the living entities. In other words, the visnu-tattva is the

personal expansion, and the living entities are the separated

expansions. By His personal expansion, He is manifested in various

forms like Lord Rama, Nrsimhadeva, Visnumurti and all the

predominating Deities in the Vaikuntha planets. The separated

expansions, the living entities, are eternally servitors. The personal

expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the individual

identities of the Godhead, are always present. Similarly, the

separated expansions of living entities have their identities. As

fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, the living entities

also have fragmental portions of His qualities, of which independence

is one. Every living entity, as an individual soul, has his personal

individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that

independence one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of

independence he is always liberated. In either case, he is

qualitatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his liberated state

he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the

engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditioned

life he is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets

the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to

struggle very hard to maintain his existence in the material world.

 

The living entities, not only human beings and the cats and dogs, but

even the greater controllers of the material world--Brahma, Lord Siva

and even Visnu--are all parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. They

are all eternal, not temporary manifestations. The word karsati

("struggling" or "grappling hard") is very significant. The

conditioned soul is bound up, as though shackled by iron chains. He is

bound up by the false ego, and the mind is the chief agent which is

driving him in this material existence. When the mind is in the mode

of goodness, his activities are good; when the mind is in the mode of

passion, his activities are troublesome; and when the mind is in the

mode of ignorance, he travels in the lower species of life. It is

clear, however, in this verse, that the conditioned soul is covered by

the material body, with the mind and the senses, and when he is

liberated this material covering perishes, but his spiritual body

manifests itself in its individual capacity. The following information

is there in the Madhyandinayana-sruti: sa va esa brahma-nistha idam

sariram martyam atisrjya brahmabhisampadya brahmana pasyati brahmana

srnoti brahmanaivedam sarvam anubhavati. It is stated here that when a

living entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the

spiritual world, he revives his spiritual body, and in his spiritual

body he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He

can hear and speak to Him face to face, and he can understand the

Supreme Personality as He is. From smrti also it is understood,

vasanti yatra purusah sarve vaikuntha-murtayah: in the spiritual

planets everyone lives in bodies featured like the Supreme Personality

of Godhead's. As far as bodily construction is concerned, there is no

difference between the part-and-parcel living entities and the

expansions of visnu-murti. In other words, at liberation the living

entity gets a spiritual body by the grace of the Supreme Personality

of Godhead.

 

The words mamaivamsah ("fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme

Lord") are also very significant. The fragmental portion of the

Supreme Lord is not like some material broken part. We have already

understood in the Second Chapter that the spirit cannot be cut into

pieces. This fragment is not materially conceived. It is not like

matter, which can be cut into pieces and joined together again. That

conception is not applicable here, because the Sanskrit word sanatana

("eternal") is used. The fragmental portion is eternal. It is also

stated in the beginning of the Second Chapter that in each and every

individual body the fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is present

(dehino 'min yatha dehe). That fragmental portion, when liberated from

the bodily entanglement, revives its original spiritual body in the

spiritual sky in a spiritual planet and enjoys association with the

Supreme Lord. It is, however, understood here that the living entity,

being the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is

qualitatively one with the Lord, just as the parts and parcels of gold

are also gold.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.