TEXT 32

यथा ह्यवहितो वह्निर्दारुष्वेकः स्वयोनिषु।

नानेव भाति विश्वात्मा भूतेषु च तथा पुमान् ॥३२॥

yathā hy avahito vahnir dāruṣv ekaḥ sva-yoniṣu

nāneva bhāti viśvātmā bhūteṣu ca tathā pumān

SYNONYMS

yathā—as much as; hi—exactly like; avahitaḥ—surcharged with; vahniḥ—fire; dāruṣu—in wood; ekaḥ—one; sva-yoniṣu—the source of manifestation; nānā iva—like different entities; bhāti—illuminates; viśva-ātmā—the Lord as Paramātmā; bhūteṣu—in the living entities; ca—and; tathā—in the same way; pumān—the Absolute Person.

TRANSLATION

The Lord, as Supersoul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second.

PURPORT

Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by one of His plenary parts expands Himself all over the material world, and His existence can be perceived even within the atomic energy. Matter, antimatter, proton, neutron, etc., are all different effects of the Paramātmā feature of the Lord. As from wood, fire can be manifested, or as butter can be churned out of milk, so also the presence of the Lord as Paramātmā can be felt by the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the transcendental subjects which are especially treated in the Vedic literatures like the Upaniṣads and Vedānta. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the bona fide explanation of these Vedic literatures. The Lord can be realized through the aural reception of the transcendental message, and that is the only way to experience the transcendental subject. As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the woodlike living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear. Therefore one is required to approach the proper spiritual master with receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually realized. The difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human being can hear properly, whereas an animal cannot.

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