Text 42] Brahma’s Prayers for Creative Energy 381
aham atma”’tmanam dhatah
presthah san preyasam api
ato mayi ratim kuryad
dehadir yat-krte priyah

aham—I am; atma—Supersoul; atmanam—of all other souls; dhatah—
director; presthah—the dearest; san—being; preyasam—of all dear things;
api—certainly ;atah—therefore;mayi—unto Me;ratim—attachment;kuryat—
one should do; deha-adih—the body and mind; yat-krte—on whose account;
priyah—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-gita (Bg. 15.7). Mamaivamso jiva-
loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah: the living entities are eternally parts and par-
cels of the Supreme Lord. The living entity is called the atma, and the Lord
is called the Paramatma. The living entity is called Brahman, and the Lord
is called the Parabrahman or the Paramesvara. [gvarah paramah krsnah.
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 maya. The more one is
