Text 26] Prthu Maharaja's Meeting with the Four Kumaras 92)
within the heart; jtva-kosam—the covering of the spirit soul; pafica-
atmakam—five elements; yonim—source of birth; iva—like; utthitah—
emanating; agnih—fire.
TRANSLATION

Upon becoming fixed in his attachment to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead by the grace of the spiritual master and by awakening knowledge
and detachment, the living entity, situated within the heart of the body
and covered by the five elements, burns up his material surroundings
exactly as fire, arising from wood, burns the wood itself.

PURPORT

It is said that both the jivatma, the individual soul, and the Paramatma
live together within the heart. In the Vedic version it is stated, hrdi hy
ayam atma: the soul and Supersoul both live within the heart. The
individual soul is liberated when it comes out of the material heart or
cleanses the heart to make it spiritualized. The example given here is very
appropriate: yonim ivotthito ‘gnih. Agni, or fire, comes out of the wood,
and by it the wood is completely destroyed. Similarly, when a living
entity increases his attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
he is to be considered like fire. A blazing fire is visible by its exhibition of
heat and light; similarly, when the living entity within the heart becomes
enlightened with full spiritual knowledge, and detached from the material
world, he burns up his material covering of the five elements—earth,
water, fire, air and sky—and becomes free from the five kinds of material
attachments, namely, ignorance, false egoism, attachment to the material
world, envy and absorption in material consciousness. Therefore
pancatmakam, as mentioned in this verse, refers to either the five elements
or the five coverings of material contamination. When these are all burned
into ashes by the blazing fire of knowledge and detachment, one is fixed
firmly in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Unless one takes shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and advances his
attraction for Krsna by his instructions, the five coverings of the living
entity cannot be uncovered from the material heart. The living entity is
centered within the heart, and to take him away from the heart is to
liberate him. This is the process. One must take shelter of a bona fide
spiritual master and by his instruction increase one’s knowledge in
devotional service, become detached from the material world and thus
become liberated. An advanced devotee therefore does not live within the
material body but within his spiritual body, just as a dry coconut lives
