Shloka 6
Bondage and Liberation Under Māyā; Two Birds Analogy; Marks of the Saintly Devotee
सुपर्णावेतौ सदृशौ सखायौ यदृच्छयैतौ कृतनीडौ च वृक्षे । एकस्तयो: खादति पिप्पलान्न- मन्यो निरन्नोऽपि बलेन भूयान् ॥ ६ ॥
suparṇāv etau sadṛśau sakhāyau yadṛcchayaitau kṛta-nīḍau ca vṛkṣe ekas tayoḥ khādati pippalānnam anyo niranno ’pi balena bhūyān
ကံအားလျော်စွာ သဘောသဘာဝတူညီသော မိတ်ဆွေငှက်နှစ်ကောင်သည် တစ်ပင်တည်းသော သစ်ပင်ပေါ်တွင် အတူတကွ အုံတည်ကြသည်။ တစ်ကောင်က သစ်ပင်၏ အသီးကို စားသော်လည်း အခြားတစ်ကောင်က မစားဘဲပင် မိမိ၏ အာနုဘော်ကြောင့် ပိုမိုမြင့်မြတ်သော အနေအထားတွင် ရှိသည်။
The example of two birds in the same tree is given to illustrate the presence within the heart of the material body of both the individual soul and the Supersoul, the Personality of Godhead. Just as a bird makes a nest in a tree, the living entity sits within the heart. The example is appropriate because the bird is always distinct from the tree. Similarly, both the individual soul and the Supersoul are distinct entities, separate from the temporary material body. The word balena indicates that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is satisfied by His own internal potency, which consists of eternality, omniscience and bliss. As indicated by the word bhūyān, or “having superior existence,” the Supreme Lord is always in a superior position, whereas the living entity is sometimes in illusion and sometimes enlightened. The word balena indicates that the Lord is never in darkness or ignorance, but is always full in His perfect, blissful consciousness.
FAQs
This verse uses the two-birds metaphor to describe the jīva who tastes the fruits of action (karma) and the Paramātmā who remains the witnessing, ever-powerful companion.
Kṛṣṇa teaches Uddhava that within the same body (the ‘tree’), the individual soul experiences enjoyment and suffering, while the Supersoul remains unattached yet sustaining—guiding the seeker toward liberation.
Remembering oneself as the experiencing soul and the Lord as the inner witness helps reduce anxiety and attachment to results, encouraging steady devotion, ethical action, and inner detachment.