Text 11] Battle Between the Demigods and Vṛtrāsura
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tanum —his body;  pare —to the Supreme;  bhagavati —Personality of Godhead;  brahmaṇi —the Supreme Brahman;  ātmānam —himself, the spirit soul;  sannayan —offering;  jahau —gave up.
TRANSLATION
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī  said:  Dadhīci Muni , the son of  Atharvā , thus resolved to give his body to the service of the demigods. He placed himself, the spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and in this way gave up his gross material body made of five elements.
PURPORT
As indicated by the words  pare bhagavati brahmaṇy ātmānam sannayan , Dadhīci placed himself, as spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this regard, one may refer to the incident of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's leaving his body, as described in the First Canto of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (1.13.55). Dhṛtarāṣṭra analytically divided his gross material body into the five different elements of which it was made—earth, water, fire, air and ether—and distributed them to the different reservoirs of these elements; in other words, he merged these five elements into the original  mahat-tattva . By identifying his material conception of life, he gradually separated his spirit soul from material connections and placed himself at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The example given in this connection is that when an earthen pot is broken, the small portion of the sky within the pot is united with the large sky outside the pot.  Māyāvādī  philosophers misunderstand this description of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . Therefore  Śrī Rāmānuja Svāmī , in his book  Vedānta-tattva-sāra , has described that this merging of the soul means that after separating himself from the material body made of eight elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether, false ego, mind and intelligence—the individual soul engages himself in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal form ( īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ/ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam ). The material cause of the material elements absorbs the material body, and the spiritual soul assumes its original position. As described by  Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu ,  jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ : the constitutional position of