aham ÄtmoddhavÄmÄ«á¹£Äá¹
bhÅ«tÄnÄá¹ suhá¹›d Ä«Å›varaḥ
ahaá¹ sarvÄṇi bhÅ«tÄni
teá¹£Äá¹ sthity-udbhavÄpyayaḥ
aham - I am; ÄtmÄ - the Supersoul; uddhava - O Uddhava; amÄ«á¹£Äm - of these; bhÅ«tÄnÄm - living entities; su-há¹›t - the well-wisher; Ä«Å›varaḥ - the supreme controller; aham - I am; sarvÄṇi bhÅ«tÄni - all entities; teá¹£Äm - of them; sthiti - the maintenance; udbhava - creation; apyayaḥ - and annihilation.
My dear Uddhava, I am the Supersoul of all living entities, and therefore I am naturally their well-wisher and supreme controller. Being the creator, maintainer and annihilator of all entities, I am not different from them.
ÅšrÄ«la ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ« points out that the Personality of Godhead maintains an ablative and genitive relationship with His opulences. In other words, the Lord is not different from all living entities, because they are coming from Him and they belong to Him. The Lord gave a similar explanation to Arjuna in the Tenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (10.20), beginning with the same words, aham ÄtmÄ. Although the Lord describes His external, or material, opulences, the Lord’s position is always transcendental and nonmaterial. Just as the living soul within the body gives life to the body, similarly, the Lord, by His supreme potency, gives life to all universal opulences.
