yad arthena vināmuṣya

yad arthena vināmuṣya

puṁsa ātma-viparyayaḥ

pratīyata upadraṣṭuḥ

sva-śiraś chedanādikaḥ

Because of māyā, the jīva’s loss of knowledge and bliss makes its appearance without cause or purpose. The loss is illusory, just the seer of a dream experiencing his head being cut off is illusory.

 

The jīva situated behind the Lord with beginningless aversion loses knowledge by beginningless ignorance which is also situated behind the Lord. There is no cause and no purpose for the jīva doing this. This is the nature of tamas that it eclipses the power of the jīva, who has only small power.

 

Because of māyā, the loss of knowledge and bliss (ātma-viparyayaḥ) of the jīva (puṁsaḥ) appears to be without cause or goal (arthena). Medinī says that artha means object of the senses, wealth, cause, thing, meaning of a word, prevention and goal. An example is given. The seer of a dream (draṣṭuḥ), near himself (upa), sees his head is cut off. Though his head is intact, in the dream state he experiences that his head is gone. Though the jīva does not actually have a destruction of knowledge and bliss, in a state of ignorance he perceives this destruction. The brilliant luster of gold and silver is not lost by darkness, but is only covered. Just as a very brilliant ruby destroys even darkness, the life of the devotee destroys even ignorance.

 

From the second explanation of the previous verse, it is incorrect to think that there is bondage of ignorance for the Supreme Lord, Paramātmā, full of eternity, knowledge and bliss, who is omniscient and all-pervading. The idea that Paramātmā by ignorance becomes jīvātmā and by the disappearance of ignorance becomes Paramātmā is false. But even the bondage by ignorance of the jīva, who is the taṭastha-śakti of the Lord, a particle of consciousness, having consciousness like the Lord but being different since he is a particle with incomplete knowledge, is unreal. This verse then describes the nature of the bondage, the same as explained above. Puṁsaḥ refers to the jīva, not to the Paramātmā who is the witness of all jīvas.

|| 3.7.11 ||