tataḥ sa-cittāḥ pravarās

jīvāḥ śreṣṭhā hy ajīvānāṁ

tataḥ prāṇa-bhṛtaḥ śubhe

tataḥ sa-cittāḥ pravarās

tataś cendriya-vṛttayaḥ

 

Living immovable entities are superior to withered ones. Superior to them are entities with greater life symptoms. Superior to them are the entities with higher consciousness and movement. Superiro than them are entities with senses, such as trees.

 

Unlike the jñānī, my devotee does not have to see everything completely with equal vision, but with graduations. Six and half verses show the graduations of living beings. Superior to non-living things like withered grass are living things like fresh grass. Superior to them are beings with active prāṇa, situated on earth, forms with intake and expelling of water, such as living stones. Superior to them are conscious mountains with ears and teeth, which in the beginningt had movement such as flying but were stunned by Indra’s thunderbolt. Superior to them are entities with senses. This indicates trees which have awareness of sprouting and seeing. In Mokṣa-dharma it is said tasmāt paśyanti pādapās tasmāj jighranti pādapā: higher than these are the trees which see; higher than these are the trees which smell.

 

 

|| 3.29.29 ||

tatrāpi sparśa-vedibhyaḥ

pravarā rasa-vedinaḥ

tebhyo gandha-vidaḥ śreṣṭhās

tataḥ śabda-vido varāḥ

 

Superior to the trees with touch sensation are beings with taste sensation. Superior to them are living entities with a sense of smell, and superior to them are living entities that can hear.

 

Those with taste sensation, conscious of what is suitable or unsuitable as food, such as worms, are superior to the trees with touch sensation. Entities with a sense of smell, such as small insects in flowers, are superior. Superior to them are entities who protect themselves by hearing, such as some water insects.

|| 3.29.30 ||