Mamaivansho jeevaloke jeevabhootah sanatanah
manah shashthani-indriyani prakritisthaani karshati.
Translation : -
The supreme Lord says that the soul which is in the from of living entity in this world is my eternal fragment but due to being situated in material nature he accepts the six senses, including mind as his own.
Purport:-This verse is very important as it satisfies some curiosity of all seekers- who am I? What is mine? whence have I come? and What is the hindrance between me and my real identity?
Here the supreme Lord says that the living entity is eternal fragmental part of Him(
Ishwar ansh jeev avinashi). This world being the work of material nature, the living entity can never be one with it. But as soon as the living entity is ‘born’ in this world he is bound in various bonds of parental identity, heraldry, caste, gotra, nationality relations etc. All these labels are clung onto him and all this is done so spontaneously that the living entity becomes confused and due to his own ignorance he begins to recognize this body and all the aforesaid bonds as his identity. He considers himself one with body, mind, and senses and thus the soul become conditioned and becomes a Jeeva.
Here the good news for all is that the Supreme Lord himself is saying that all living entities are His fragmental part. How much God loves us! How much affection he has for us! but look at our own callousness! We leave God and are attracted towards this world and become the servants of mind and senses. Mind and senses can never be truly our own. No matter how much we try to satisfy them they are never contented. They suck away all our time, money and energy though the real claimant of all these is the Lord, by whose grace we get all these things. But due to being forgetful of our real identity we all are illusioned in this world.
The truth is that world is not true as the Truth is always Eternal. Where as nothing is permanent in this world, everything is transient and temporary. We are falsely proud of our anthority, honour, property, beauty, power, hevaldry etc. but these can never be our true identity- these are not compatible with our real self. we are the fragmental parts of God and possess His attributes.
So we are ever-existent, never growing old, and imperishable, non-performing, non-consuming. while all the aforesaid things behave against these divine attributes.
Our real identity is beyond the identity given to us by this world. Our true identity is our soul-Pure, consciousness-the true eternal blissful self.
What is the hindrance between me and my true identity? to answer this curiosity the supreme Lord asks us to know that we are souls. The only thing is that we are forgetful of this fact. Arjuna says-"Smritirlabdha Nashtomohah" ie now I have gained the remembrance of my real self and my ignorance is destroyed. As the remembrance comes forgetfulness is dispelled of its own. The only hindrance is our own ignorance- our affection. What is this ignorance- Living entity is attracted towards the world (the world is not its cause). He turns away from God (but God is not the cause of it). In both the cases the jeeva (conditioned soul) himself is the cause.
Being the fragmental part of the supreme Lord, freedom is the attribute of conditional soul. He has the rights to accept or not to accept. He misused this freedom not to accept his true identity and now he has to utilize this very freedom for his welfare.
For this the supreme Lord has told three ways:- first- Whatever he has got from this world, he should engage in serving the world. egolessy and selflessly. This path is called Karma yoga. Second is to detach oneself completely from one’s body and the world. This is the path of Gyan yoga. And the third path is to surrender oneself completely to God. This path is called Bhakti yoga. No matter which path one chooses the result is the same- Salvation (Mukti)
