BHAGAVAD-GITA 13:23

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 13:23

 

upadrastanumanta ca

bharta bhokta mahesvarah

paramatmeti capy ukto

dehe 'smin purusah parah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

upadrasta--overseer; anumanta--permitter; ca--also; bharta--master;

bhokta--supreme enjoyer; maha-isvarah--the Supreme Lord;

parama-atma--the Supersoul; iti--also; ca--and; api--indeed; uktah--is

said; dehe--in the body; asmin--this; purusah--enjoyer;

parah--transcendental.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is

the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and

permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.

 

PURPORT

 

It is stated here that the Supersoul, who is always with the

individual soul, is the representation of the Supreme Lord. He is not

an ordinary living entity. Because the monist philosophers take the

knower of the body to be one, they think that there is no difference

between the Supersoul and the individual soul. To clarify this, the

Lord says that He is represented as the Paramatma in every body. He is

different from the individual soul; He ispara, transcendental. The

individual soul enjoys the activities of a particular field, but the

Supersoul is present not as finite enjoyer nor as one taking part in

bodily activities, but as the witness, overseer, permitter and supreme

enjoyer. His name is Paramatma, not atma, and He is transcendental. It

is distinctly clear that the atma and Paramatma are different. The

Supersoul, the Paramatma, has legs and hands everywhere, but the

individual soul does not. And because the Paramatma is the Supreme

Lord, He is present within to sanction the individual soul's desiring

material enjoyment. Without the sanction of the Supreme Soul, the

individual soul cannot do anything. The individual is bhukta, or the

sustained, and the Lord is bhokta, or the maintainer. There are

innumerable living entities, and He is staying in them as a friend.

 

The fact is that every individual living entity is eternally part and

parcel of the Supreme Lord, and both of them are very intimately

related as friends. But the living entity has the tendency to reject

the sanction of the Supreme Lord and act independently in an attempt

to dominate nature, and because he has this tendency he is called the

marginal energy of the Supreme Lord. The living entity can be situated

either in the material energy or in the spiritual energy. As long as

he is conditioned by the material energy, the Supreme Lord, as his

friend, the Supersoul, stays with him just to get him to return to the

spiritual energy. The Lord is always eager to take him back to the

spiritual energy, but due to his minute independence the individual

entity is continually rejecting the association of spiritual light.

This misuse of independence is the cause of his material strife in the

conditioned nature. The Lord, therefore, is always giving instruction

from within and from without. From without He gives instructions as

stated in Bhagavad-gita, and from within He tries to convince the

living entity that his activities in the material field are not

conducive to real happiness. "Just give it up and turn your faith

toward Me. Then you will be happy," He says. Thus the intelligent

person who places his faith in the Paramatma or the Supreme

Personality of Godhead begins to advance toward a blissful eternal

life of knowledge.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.