Text 26]
The First Step in God Realization
43
महातत्तं विश्वसृजोऽथ गुल्फां तलातलं वै पुरुषस्य जङ्गे ॥२६॥
pātālam etasya hi pāda-mūlam paṭhanti pārṣṇi-prapade rasātalam mahātalam viśva-srjo 'tha gulphau talātalam vai puruṣasya janghe
pātālam —the planet in the bottom of the universe;  etasya —of his;  hi —exactly;  pāda-mūlam —soles of the feet;  paṭhanti —they study it;  pārṣṇi —of the ankles;  prapade —under the foot;  rasātalam —the planets named Rasātala;  mahātalam —the planet named Mahātala;  viśva-srjaḥ —of the creator of the universe;  atha —thus;  gulphau —the calves;  tala —the planet named Tala;  atala —the planet named Atala;  vai —as they are;  puruṣasya —of the gigantic person;  janghe —on the knees.
TRANSLATION
Persons who have realized it have studied that the planets known as Pātāla constitute the bottom of the feet of the Universal Lord, and the ankles and the soles are the Rasātala planets. The calves are Mahātala planets, and His knees constitute the Tala and Atala planets.
PURPORT
Outside the bodily existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the manifested cosmic existence has no reality. Everything and anything of the manifested world rests on Him, as confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 9.4), but that does not imply that everything and anything in the vision of a materialist is the Supreme Personality. The conception of the universal form of the Lord gives a chance to the materialist to think of the Supreme Lord, but the materialist must know for certain that his visualization of the world in a spirit of lording over it is not God realization. The materialistic view of exploitation of the material resources is occasioned by the illusion of the external energy of the Lord, and as such, if anyone wants to realize the Supreme Truth by conceiving of the universal form of the Lord, one must cultivate the service attitude. Unless the service attitude is revived, the conception of  virāṭa  realization will have very little effect on