namo 'stu te 'dhyātma-vidāḿ parātmane
anātmane svātma-vibhakta-mṛtyave
sa-kāraṇākāraṇa-lińgam īyuṣe
sva-māyayāsaḿvṛta-ruddha-dṛṣṭaye
namah -- obeisances; astu -- may there be; te -- unto You; adhyatma -- the Absolute Truth; vidam -- for those who know; para-atmane -- the Supreme Soul; anatmane -- to the conditioned jiva soul; sva-atma -- from Yourself (in the form of time); vibhakta -- who gives; mrityave -- death; sa-karana -- having a cause; akarana -- having no cause; lingam -- the forms (respectively, the material form of the universe and also Your original spiritual form); iyushe -- who assume; sva-mayaya -- by Your own mystic potency; asamvrita -- uncovered; ruddha -- and blocked; drishtaye -- vision.
Let me offer my obeisances unto You. You are realized as the Supreme Soul by those who know the Absolute Truth, whereas in Your form of time You impose death upon the forgetful souls. You appear both in Your causeless spiritual form and in the created form of this universe, thus simultaneously uncovering the eyes of Your devotees and obstructing the vision of the nondevotees.
When the Lord appears before His devotees in His eternal, spiritual form, their eyes become "uncovered" in the sense that all vestiges of illusion are dispelled and they drink in the beautiful vision of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. For the nondevotees, on the other hand, the Lord "appears" as material nature, His universal form, and in this way He covers their vision so that His spiritual, personal form remains invisible to them.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti gives another interpretation of this verse, based on an alternative understanding of anatmane, a form of the word anatma: Various classes of men know the Absolute Truth in different ways. The devotees of the Lord who are in the reciprocal mood of neutral admiration (santa-rasa) meditate on the Supreme as possessing a divine, personal form (atma or sri-vigraha) transcending all aspects of material illusion. The impersonal philosophers (jnanis) conceive of Him as formless (anatma). And the envious demons see Him in the form of death.
