Shloka 16
Nārada Instructs the Pracetās: Bhakti as the Goal of All Paths
एतत्पदं तज्जगदात्मन: परं सकृद्विभातं सवितुर्यथा प्रभा । यथासवो जाग्रति सुप्तशक्तयो द्रव्यक्रियाज्ञानभिदाभ्रमात्यय: ॥ १६ ॥
etat padaṁ taj jagad-ātmanaḥ paraṁ sakṛd vibhātaṁ savitur yathā prabhā yathāsavo jāgrati supta-śaktayo dravya-kriyā-jñāna-bhidā-bhramātyayaḥ
جیسے سورج کی روشنی سورج سے جدا نہیں، ویسے ہی جگت کی آتما، پرم بھگوان، سے یہ کائنات بھی جدا نہیں؛ اس لیے وہ اس مادی سೃشتि میں ہر جگہ موجود ہیں۔ جیسے بیداری میں حواس کی قوتیں ظاہر ہوتی ہیں اور نیند میں غیر ظاہر، اسی طرح یہ کائنات پرم پرش سے کبھی بھِنّ اور کبھی اَبھِنّ دکھائی دیتی ہے۔
This confirms the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, “simultaneously one and different,” propounded by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is simultaneously different and nondifferent from this cosmic manifestation. In a previous verse it has been explained that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, like the root of a tree, is the original cause of everything. It was also explained how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-pervasive. He is present within everything in this material manifestation. Since the energy of the Supreme Lord is nondifferent from Him, this material cosmic manifestation is also nondifferent from Him, although it appears different. The sunshine is not different from the sun itself, but it is simultaneously also different. One may be in the sunshine, but he is not on the sun itself. Those who live in this material world are living on the bodily rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they cannot see Him personally in the material condition.
FAQs
This verse says that when the Supreme Lord (the Soul of the universe) is realized even once, His truth shines like sunlight and the delusion created by separating reality into matter, action, and knowledge is destroyed.
In their prayers to Lord Viṣṇu, the Pracetās glorify the transformative power of direct realization—showing that true vision of the Lord ends भ्रम (bhrama), the mistaken, fragmented perception of reality.
Center daily practice on remembering and serving the Lord (bhakti) so spiritual insight becomes steady; as clarity grows, anxiety and confusion driven by over-identifying with actions, possessions, or intellectual labels naturally lessen.