Text 42]
Brahmā's Prayers for Creative Energy
381
aham ātmā''tmanāṁ dhātaḥ preṣṭhaḥ san preyasām api ato mayi ratiṁ kuryād dehādir yat-kṛte priyaḥ
aham—I am; ātmā—Supersoul; ātmanām—of all other souls; dhātaḥ—director; preṣṭhaḥ—the dearest; san—being; preyasām—of all dear things; api—certainly; ataḥ—therefore; mayi—unto Me; ratiṁ—attachment; kuryāt—one should do; deha-ādiḥ—the body and mind; yat-kṛte—on whose account; priyaḥ—very dear.
TRANSLATION
I am the Supersoul of every individual, the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.
PURPORT
The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, is the dearest both in the conditioned and liberated states. When a person does not know that the Lord only is the dearmost object, then he is in the conditioned state of life, and when one knows perfectly well that the Lord only is the dearmost object, he is considered to be liberated. There are degrees of knowing one's relationship with the Lord, depending on the degree of realization as to why the Supreme Lord is the dearmost object of every living being. The real reason is clearly stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 15.7).  Mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ : the living entities are eternally parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The living entity is called the  ātmā , and the Lord is called the  Paramātmā . The living entity is called  Brahman , and the Lord is called the  Parabrahman  or the  Parameśvara .  Iśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ . The conditioned souls who do not have self-realization accept the material body as the dearmost. The idea of the dearmost is then spread all over the body, both concentrated and extended. The attachment for one's own body and its extensions like children and relatives is actually developed on the basis of the real living entity. As soon as the real living entity is out of the body, even the body of the most dear son is no longer attractive. Therefore the living spark or eternal part of the Supreme is the real basis of affection, and not the body. Because the living entities are also parts of the whole living entity, therefore that supreme living entity is the factual basis of affection for all. One who has forgotten the basic principle of his love for everything has only flickering love because he is in  māyā . The more one is