Text 5] Appearance of Sri Narada 195

this alertness is very lucidly explained. The liberated soul and the condi-
tioned soul have different engagements. The liberated soul is always
engaged in the progressive path of spiritual attainment, which is something
like a dream for the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul cannot
imagine the actual engagements of the liberated soul. While the conditioned
soul thus dreams about spiritual engagements, the liberated soul is awake.
Similarly, the engagement of a conditioned soul appears to be a dream for
the liberated soul. Apparently a conditioned soul and a liberated soul may
seem to be on the same platform, but factually they are differently
engaged, and their attention is always alert, either in sense enjoyment or
in self-realization. The conditioned soul is absorbed in matter, whereas the
liberated soul is completely indifferent to matter. This indifference is
explained as follows.

TEXT 5
SeIqITA AAA
aot fen after are fray |

Taher Tats Eat saTgRAThA
ayaa agare fatness 4

drstvanuyantam rsim atmajam apy anagnarn
devyo hriya paridadhur na sutasya citram

tad viksya prechati munau jagadus tavasti
stri-pum-bhida na tu sutasya vivikta-drsteh

drstva—by seeing; anuyéntam—following; rsim—the sage; @tmajam—his
son; api—in spite of; anagnam—not naked; devyah—beautiful damsels;
hriya—out of shyness; paridadhuh—covered the body; na—not; sutasya—of
the son; citram—astonishing; tat viksya—by seeing that; prechati—asking;
munau—unto the muni (Vyasa); jagaduh—replied; tava—your; asti—there
are; stripum—male and female; bhid@—differences; na—not; tu—but;
sutasya—of the son; vivikta—purified; drsteh—of one who looks.

TRANSLATION

While Sri Vyasadeva was following his son, beautiful young damsels,
who were bathing naked, covered their bodies with cloth, although Sri
Vyasadeva himself was not naked. But they did not do so when his son
passed. The sage inquired about this, and the young ladies replied that his
