Text 42] The Appearance of the Demon Vrtrasura 141

upddana—of the material causes; upalambhakataya —by being the ex-
hibitor; anubhavatah—witnessing; sarva-pratyaya-saksinah—the wit-
ness of all different activities; akaSa-Sarirasya—the Supersoul of the
whole universe; sdksdt—directly; para-brahmanah—the Supreme Ab-
solute Truth; paramaétmanah—the Supersoul; kiyan—of what extent;
iha—herein; vd—or; artha-visesah—special necessity;  vijniapa-
niyah—to be informed; syat—may be; visphulinga-ddibhih—by the
sparks of the fire; iva—like; hiranya-retasah—to the original fire.

TRANSLATION

O Lord, as the small sparks of a fire cannot possibly perform the
actions of the whole fire, we sparks of Your Lordship cannot in-
form You of the necessities of our lives. You are the complete
whole. Therefore, of what do we need to inform You? You know
everything because You are the original cause of the cosmic
manifestation, the maintainer and the annihilator of the entire
universal creation. You always engage in Your pastimes with Your
spiritual and material energies, for You are the controller of all
these varied energies. You exist within all living entities, within
the cosmic manifestation, and also beyond them. You exist inter-
nally as Parabrahman and externally as the ingredients of the ma-
terial creation. Therefore, although manifested in various stages,
at different times and places, and in various bodies, You, the Per-
sonality of Godhead, are the original cause of all causes. Indeed,
You are the original element. You are the witness of all activities,
but because You are as great as the sky, You are never touched by
any of them. You are the witness of everything as Parabrahman
and Paramatma. O Supreme Personality of Godhead, nothing is
unknown to You.

PURPORT

The Absolute Truth exists in three phases of spiritual understand-
ing—Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan (brahmeti paramétmeti
bhagavan iti Sabdyate). Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
is the cause of Brahman and Paramatma. Brahman, the impersonal Ab-
solute Truth, is all-pervading, and Paramatma is locally situated in
everyone’s heart, but Bhagavan, who is worshipable by the devotees. is
