Text 9]
King Citraketu Meets the Lord
89
eṣa nityo 'vyayaḥ sūkṣma eṣa sarvāśrayaḥ svadṛk ātmamāyā-guṇair viśvam ātmānaṁ srjate prabhuḥ
eṣaḥ—this living entity; nityaḥ—eternal; avyayaḥ—imperishable; sūkṣmaḥ—very, very fine (not seen by the material eyes); eṣaḥ—this living entity; sarva-āśrayaḥ—the cause of different types of bodies; svadṛk—self-effulgent; ātma-māyā-guṇaiḥ—by the Supreme Personality of Godhead's modes of material nature; viśvam—this material world; ātmānaṁ—himself; srjate—appears; prabhuḥ—the master.
TRANSLATION
The living entity is eternal and imperishable because he actually has no beginning and no end. He never takes birth or dies. He is the basic principle of all types of bodies, yet he does not belong to the bodily category. The living being is so sublime that he is equal in quality to the Supreme Lord. Nonetheless, because he is extremely small, he is prone to be illusioned by the external energy, and thus he creates various bodies for himself according to his different desires.
PURPORT
In this verse the philosophy of  acintya-bhedābheda —simultaneous oneness and difference—is described. The living entity is eternal ( nitya ) like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the difference is that the Supreme Lord is the greatest, no one being equal to or greater than Him, whereas the living entity is  sūkṣma , or extremely small. The  śāstra  describes that the magnitude of the living entity is one ten-thousandth the size of the tip of a hair. The Supreme Lord is all-pervading ( aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham ). Relatively, if the living entity is accepted as the smallest, there should naturally be inquiry about the greatest. The greatest is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the smallest is the living entity.
Another peculiar characteristic of the  jīva  is that he becomes covered by  māyā .  Ātmamāyā-guṇaiḥ : he is prone to being covered by the Supreme Lord's illusory energy. The living entity is responsible for his