SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
aham ātmā guḍākeśa
sarva-bhūtāśaya-sthitaḥ
aham ādiś ca madhyaṁ ca
bhūtānām anta eva ca
‘I am the Soul, Gudākeśa![1. Lit: the Conqueror of Sleep (gudāka=sleep)] enthroned in the hearts of all beings. I am the Beginning, the Middle as well as the End of all creatures.’
In the hearts of all beings, who constitute My body, I am seated as their Ātma (Soul) —To be the Ātma is indeed to be in every manner the Support, the Ruler and the Master. As so it is further declared:
‘In the heart of all am I firmly seated; from Me is memory, reason and conjecture etc’ (Gītā: xv-16).
‘Īśvara, Arjuna! resides in the hearts of all beings, causing them, by maya, to whirl on the (Karma-) machine.’ (Gītā: xviii-61)
Chant the Śrutis also thus:—
‘He, Who is seated in all beings, —Who is Innermost than all beings, —Whom all the beings ken not, —of Whom all beings form the body, —Who rules in the interior of all beings, —is thy Ātma, Antaryāmī, (Inner Ruler), Immortal’[2. Bri: Up°: v-7-15. ‘Yas sarveshu bhūteshu tishṭhan sarvebhyo bhutebhyo`ntaro etc.,’]
‘He, Who seated in Ātma -Who is in the interior of ātma, —Whom atma doth not know —of Whom ātma is body —Who rules the interior of ātma— is thy ātma, Inner Ruler, Immortal.’[3. Bri: Up°: v-7-22. ‘Ya ātmani tishṭhan ātmano`ntaro etc.,’]
So seated then, —as Ātma— among all creatures, I am their Beginning, their Middle and their End, i.e., the Cause of their evolution, persistence and dissolution.
Thus having shown how the Lord abides in all His manifested beings as their Soul, and how all terms in their ultimate reference (sāmānādhi-kāranya)[4. Means, that two or more terms signifying different ideas, referring to but one object, such as the terms yellow and round etc., in the expression, yellow round orange referring to the object orange. ‘The relation of co-ordinates.’] connote the Lord Himself, this community of reference[5. Means, that two or more terms signifying different ideas, referring to but one object, such as the terms yellow and round etc., in the expression, yellow round orange referring to the object orange. ‘The relation of co-ordinates.’] as subsisting between the Lord and His manifested Kosmos is now illustrated (by many noted instances): Verily only then, can all terms have such ultimate connotation, as referring to the Lord, when He is in them as their Soul; as for example, the terms such as Deva, man, bird, tree etc., though denotative of the corporeal exterior, is connotative of the souls which indwell those exterior forms. The same rule holds good in regard to terms ultimately connotatively referring to the Lord Himself in His aspect as the Soul (of things denoted by such terms), —as will be shown in verse:—
‘Movable or immovable, nothing exists without Me, but within Me etc’ (Gītā: x-39); a passage postulating the existence of nothing save as dependent on the Lord. That dependent existence means that which depends as ‘the ruled by the Lord’ was declared in the beginning:—
‘From Me moves all etc’ (Gītā x-2).
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