Shloka 20
Daśa-lakṣaṇam: The Ten Topics, Virāṭ-Puruṣa Sense-Manifestation, and the Supreme Shelter (Āśraya)
नासिके निरभिद्येतां दोधूयति नभस्वति । तत्र वायुर्गन्धवहो घ्राणो नसि जिघृक्षत: ॥ २० ॥
nāsike nirabhidyetāṁ dodhūyati nabhasvati tatra vāyur gandha-vaho ghrāṇo nasi jighṛkṣataḥ
ထို့နောက် အမြင့်မြတ်ဆုံး ပုရုရှသည် အနံ့ကို ရှူလိုသည့်အခါ နှာခေါင်းပေါက်များနှင့် အသက်ရှူသွင်းထုတ် ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည်။ အနံ့ခံ အင်ဒြိယနှင့် အနံ့များ ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာပြီး အနံ့ကို သယ်ဆောင်သော ဝါယုဒေဝတားလည်း ထင်ရှားလာသည်။
The nasal instrument, odor, and the controlling deity of air, smelling, etc., all became manifested simultaneously when the Lord desired to smell. The Vedic mantras confirm this statement in the Upaniṣads’ statement that everything is first desired by the Supreme before the subordinate living entity can act upon it. The living entity can see only when the Lord sees, the living entity can smell when the Lord smells, and so on. The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, and therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.
FAQs
This verse explains that when the nostrils manifest and air begins to move, vāyu (wind), which carries fragrance, enters the nose and the olfactory sense (ghrāṇa) awakens with the desire to smell.
Because fragrance is perceived through contact mediated by air; the Bhāgavatam links each sense to its object and the element that enables that perception—here, smell and fragrance are connected through vāyu.
It reminds us that even basic sensory powers are gifts arising from the Lord’s cosmic arrangement; a devotee practices gratitude and uses the senses (like smell in worship—flowers, incense) in service rather than mere enjoyment.