sva-kṛta-pureṣv amīṣv abahir-antara-saḿvaraṇaḿ
tava puruṣaḿ vadanty akhila-śakti-dhṛto 'ḿśa-kṛtam
iti nṛ-gatiḿ vivicya kavayo nigamāvapanaḿ
bhavata upāsate 'ńghrim abhavam bhuvi viśvasitāḥ
sva -- by himself; krita -- created; pureshu -- in the bodies; amishu -- these; abahih -- not externally; antara -- or internally; samvaranam -- whose factual envelopment; tava -- Your; purusham -- living entity; vadanti -- (the Vedas) say; akhila -- of all; sakti -- energies; dhritah -- of the possessor; amsa -- as the expansion; kritam -- manifested; iti -- in this manner; nri -- of the living entity; gatim -- the status; vivicya -- ascertaining; kavayah -- learned sages; nigama -- of the Vedas; avapanam -- the field in which all offerings are sown; bhavatah -- Your; upasate -- they worship; anghrim -- the feet; abhavam -- which cause the cessation of material existence; bhuvi -- on the earth; visvasitah -- having developed faith.
The individual living entity, while inhabiting the material bodies he has created for himself by his karma, actually remains uncovered by either gross or subtle matter. This is so because, as the Vedas describe, he is part and parcel of You, the possessor of all potencies. Having determined this to be the status of the living entity, learned sages become imbued with faith and worship Your lotus feet, to which all Vedic sacrifices in this world are offered, and which are the source of liberation.
Not only does the Supreme Lord remain totally uncontaminated when He resides within the material bodies of the conditioned souls, but even the infinitesimal jiva souls are never directly touched by the coverings of ignorance and lust they acquire while passing through repeated cycles of birth and death. Thus the Taittiriya Upanishad (3.10.5) proclaims, sa yas cayam purushe yas casav aditye sa ekah: "The soul of the embodied living being is one with Him who stands within the sun. " Similarly, the Chandogya Upanishad (6.8.7) teaches, tat tvam asi: "You are nondifferent from that Supreme Truth."
In this prayer, the personified Vedas refer to the finite enjoyer of material bodies (the jiva soul) as an expansion of the transcendental reservoir of all potencies, the Supreme Lord. The term amsa-kritam, "made as His portion," must be properly understood, however, in this context. The jiva is not created at any time, nor is he the same kind of expansion of the Lord as the omnipotent vishnu-tattva expansions. The Supreme Soul is the proper object of all worship, and the subordinate jiva soul is meant to be His worshiper. The Supreme Lord enacts His pastimes by showing Himself in innumerable aspects of His personality, whereas the jiva is forced to change bodies whenever his accumulated karmic reactions so dictate. According to Sri Narada Pancaratra,
yat tata-stham tu cid-rupam
sva-samvedyad vinirgatam
ranjitam guna-ragena
sa jiva iti kathyate
"The marginal potency, who is spiritual by nature, who emanates from the self-cognizant samvit energy, and who becomes tainted by his attachment to the modes of material nature, is called the jiva.''
Although the jiva soul is also an expansion of Lord Krishna, he is distinguished from Krishna's independent Vishnu expansions by his constitutional position on the margin between spirit and matter. As the Mahavaraha Purana explains,
svamsas catha vibhinnamsa
iti dvidha sa ishyate
amsino yat tu samarthyam
yat-svarupam yatha sthitih
tad eva nanu-matro 'pi
bhedam svamsamsinoh kvacit
vibhinnamso 'lpa-saktih syat
kincit samarthya-matra-yuk
"The Supreme Lord is known in two ways: in terms of His plenary expansions and His separated expansions. Between the plenary expansions and Their source of expansion there is never any essential difference in terms of either Their capabilities, forms or situations. The separated expansions, on the other hand, possess only minute potency, being endowed only to a small extent with the Lord's powers."
The conditioned soul in this world appears as if covered by matter, internally as well as externally. Externally, gross matter surrounds him in the forms of his body and environment, while internally desire and aversion impinge upon his consciousness. But from the transcendental perspective of realized sages, both kinds of material covering are insubstantial. By logically eliminating all material identities, which are misconceptions based on the soul's gross and subtle coverings, a thoughtful person can determine that the soul is nothing material. Rather, he is a pure spark of divine spirit, a servant of the Supreme Godhead. Understanding this, one should worship the Supreme Lord's lotus feet; such worship is the fully bloomed flower of the tree of Vedic rituals. One's realization of the splendor of the Lord's lotus feet, gradually nourished by the offering of Vedic sacrifices, automatically bears the fruits of liberation from material existence and irrevocable faith in the Lord's mercy. One can accomplish all this while still living in the material world. As Lord Krishna states in the Gopala-tapani Upanishad (Uttara 47),
mathura-mandale yas tu
jambudvipe sthito 'tha va
yo 'rcayet pratimam prati
sa me priyataro bhuvi
"One who worships Me in My Deity form while living in the district of Mathura or, indeed, anywhere in Jambudvipa, becomes most dear to Me in this world."
Srila Sridhara Svami prays,
tvad-amsasya mamesana
tvan-maya-krita-bandhanam
tvad-anghri-sevam adisya
parananda nivartaya
"My Lord, please free me, Your partial expansion, from the bondage created by Your Maya. Please do this, O abode of supreme bliss, by directing me to the service of Your feet."
