154 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 6, Ch. 16

dtmanam—himself; eka-desa-stham—lying down in one place; man-
yate—he considers; svapne—in the dreaming condition; utthitah—wak-
ing up; evam—in this way; ja@garana-ddini—the states of wakefulness
and so on; jiva-sthandni—the living entity’s different conditions of exis-
tence; ca—also; adtmanah—of the Supreme Personality of Godhead;
maya-matrani—the exhibitions of the illusory potency; vijidya—know-
ing; tat—of them; drastaram—the creator or seer of all such conditions;
param—the Supreme; smaret—one should always remember.

TRANSLATION

When a person is in deep sleep, he dreams and sees in himself
many other objects, such as great mountains and rivers or perhaps
even the entire universe, although they are far away. Sometimes
when one awakens from a dream he sees that he is in a human
form, lying in his bed in one place. Then he sees himself, in terms
of various conditions, as belonging to a particular nationality,
family and so on. All the conditions of deep sleep, dreaming and
wakefulness are but energies of the Supreme Personality of God-
head. One should always remember the original creator of these
conditions, the Supreme Lord, who is unaffected by them.

PURPORT

None of these conditions of the living entities—namely, deep sleep,
dreaming and wakefulness—is substantial. They are simply displays of
various phases of conditional life. There may be many mountains, rivers,
trees, bees, tigers and snakes that are situated far away, but in a dream
one may imagine them to be nearby. Similarly, as one has subtle dreams
at night, when the living entity is awake he lives in gross dreams of
nation, community, society, possessions, skyscrapers, bank balance,
position and honor. Under the circumstances, one should know that his
position is due to his contact with the material world. One is situated in
different positions in various forms of life that are all but creations of the
illusory energy, which works under the direction of the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead. Therefore the Supreme Lord is the ultimate actor,
and the conditioned living entity should simply remember this original
actor, Sri Krsna. As living entities, we are being carried away by the
waves of prakrti, or nature, which works under the Lord’s direction
