Shloka 53
आत्यन्तिक-लयहेतुः: तापत्रय-विवेचनम् तथा ‘भगवान्/वासुदेव’ शब्दार्थः
Threefold Suffering and the Path to Final Liberation; Meaning of Bhagavān and Vāsudeva
यावज् जीवति तावच् च दुःखैर् नानाविधैः प्लुतः तन्तुकारणपक्ष्मौघैर् आस्ते कार्पासबीजवत्
yāvaj jīvati tāvac ca duḥkhair nānāvidhaiḥ plutaḥ tantukāraṇapakṣmaughair āste kārpāsabījavat
So long as a being lives, so long is he flooded by sufferings of many kinds; entangled in dense masses of the subtle causes that spin the threads of bondage, he remains—like a cotton-seed, wrapped in its own fibres.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Mechanism of bondage: pervasive duḥkha and subtle causal entanglements (kāraṇa—vāsanā/karma) that spin the ‘threads’ of saṃsāra.
Teaching: Philosophical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Life is saturated with duḥkha because the jīva is enmeshed in subtle causal forces that continuously ‘spin’ bondage, like a cotton-seed trapped in its own fibres.
Vedantic Theme: Maya
Application: Identify recurring vāsanās (habit-impulses) and counter them with disciplined remembrance of Vishnu, ethical restraint, and satsanga to weaken the ‘threads’ of karma.
Vishishtadvaita: Bondage is real and caused by karma/vāsanā; release comes not by denying the world’s reality but by reorienting the self’s dependence toward the Lord through knowledge and devotion.
Vishnu Form: Para-Brahman
Bhakti Type: Shanta
FAQs
It illustrates how the embodied soul is trapped in self-generated causal fibres—karmic tendencies and subtle causes—that both arise from and further bind worldly existence.
He frames embodied life as being continually ‘flooded’ by diverse sufferings because the subtle causes (kāraṇas) keep producing the threads of experience and bondage.
By highlighting the inescapability of suffering under karmic causality, the verse implicitly points to Vishnu as the Supreme refuge whose grace and realization enable release from these binding causes.