62 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 7, Ch. 7

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gita (15.7) Lord Krsna clearly says, mamaivariso jiva-
loke jiva-bhitah: “All the living entities are part of Me.” Therefore the
living entities are qualitatively the same as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, who is the leader, the Supreme among all the living entities. In
the Vedas it is said, nityo nityandm cetanas cetananam: the Lord is the
chief individual living entity, the leader of the subordinate living en-
tities. Because the living entities are parts or samples of God, their
qualities are not different from those of the Supreme Lord. The living
entities have the same qualities as the Lord, just as a drop of sea water is
composed of the same chemicals as the great sea itself. Thus there is one-
ness in quality but a difference in quantity. One can understand the
Supreme Personality of Godhead by understanding the sample, the living
entity, because all the qualities of God exist in a minute quantity in the
living entities. There is oneness, but God is great whereas the living en-
tities are extremely small. Anor aniyan mahato mahiyan (Katha
Upanisad 1.2.20). The living entities are smaller than the atom, but God
is greater than the greatest. Our conception of greatness may be repre-
sented by the sky because we think of the sky as being unlimitedly big,
but God is bigger than the sky. Similarly, we have knowledge that the
living entities are smaller than atoms, being one ten-thousandth the size
of the tip of a hair, yet the quality of being the supreme cause of all
causes exists in the living entity as well as in the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Indeed, it is due to the presence of the living entity that the
body exists and bodily changes take place. Similarly, it is because the
Supreme Lord is within this universe that the changes dictated by the
material laws occur.

The word ekah, meaning “individual,” is significant. As explained in
Bhagavad-gita (9.4), mat-sthani sarva-bhiitani na caham tesv
avasthitah. Everything, material and spiritual, including earth, water,
air, fire, sky and the living entities, exists on the platform of spirit soul.
Although everything is an emanation from the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, one should not think that the Supreme Lord is dependent upon
anything else.

Both God and the living entity are fully conscious. As living entities,
we are conscious of our bodily existence. Similarly, the Lord is conscious
