Text 11] Battle Between the Demigods and Vrtrasura 171

tanum—his body: pare—to the Supreme: bhagavati—Personality of
Godhead: brahmani—the Supreme Brahman; atménam—himself. the
spirit soul; sannayan—offering: jahau—gave up.

TRANSLATION

Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said: Dadhici Muni, the son of Atharva,
thus resolved to give his body to the service of the demigods. He
placed himself, the spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and in this way gave up his gross material
body made of five elements.

PURPORT

As indicated by the words pare bhagavati brahmany dtmanam san-
nayan, Dadhici placed himself, as spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this regard, one may refer to the in-
cident of Dhrtarastra’s naak his body, as described in the First Canto
of Srimad- Bhagavatam ( 1.13.55). Dhrtarastra analytically divided his
gross material body into the five different elements of which it was
made—earth. water. fire, air and ether—and distributed them to the dif-
ferent reservoirs of these elements: in other words, he merged these five
elements into the original mahat-tattva. By identifying his material con-
ception of life, he gradually separated his spirit soul from material con-
nections and placed himself at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. The example given in this connection is that when an
earthen pot is broken, the small portion of the sky within the pot is
united with the large sky outside the pot. Mayavadi philosophers mis-
understand this description of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Therefore Sri
Ramanuja Svami, in his book Veddnta-tattva-sdra, has described that
this merging of the soul means that after separating himself from the
material body made of eight elements—earth, water, fire. air. ether.
false ego, mind and intelligence—the individual soul engages himself in
devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal
form (i&varah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah/ andadir ddir
govindah sarva-karana-kdranam). The material cause of the material
elements absorbs the material body, and the spiritual soul assumes its
original position. As described by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, jivera
‘svaripa’ haya—krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’: the constitutional position of
