Text 18] Fundamental Principles of Material Nature 1083

TEXT 18

Ha FRET ReSIT Tt Tes |
THAT TAM ATTA AAT 112

antah purusa-riipena
kala-riipena yo bahih

samanvety esa sattvdnam
bhagavan atma-ma yaya

antah—within; purusa-ripena—in the form of Supersoul; kala-riipena—in
the form of time; yah—He who; bahih—without; samanveti—exists; esah—
He; sattvanam— of all living entities; bhagavan—the Supreme Personality of
Godhead; @tma-mayaya—by His potencies.

TRANSLATION

By exhibiting His potencies, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
adjusts all these different elements, keeping Himself within as the
Supersoul and without as time.

PURPORT

Here it is stated that within the heart the Supreme Personality of
Godhead resides as the Supersoul. This situation is also explained in
Bhagavad-gita: the Supersoul rests beside the individual soul and acts as a
witness. This is also confirmed elsewhere in the Vedic literature: two
birds are sitting on the same tree of the body; one is witnessing, and the
other is eating the fruits of the tree. This purusa or Paramatma
who resides within the body of the individual soul is described in
Bhagavad-gita (13.23) as the upadrasta, witness, and the anumanta,
sanctioning authority. The conditioned soul engages in the happiness and
distress of the particular body given him by the arrangement of the
external energy of the Supreme Lord. But the supreme living being, or
the Paramatma, is different from the conditioned soul. He is described in
Bhagavad-gita as mahesvara, or the Supreme Lord. He is Paramatma, not
jivatma. Paramatma means the Supersoul who is sitting by the side of the
conditioned soul just to sanction his activities. The conditioned soul comes
to this material world in order to lord it over material nature. Since one
cannot do anything without the sanction of the Supreme Lord, He lives
with the jiva soul as witness and sanction-giver. He is also bhokta; He
