Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Bg 18.61

Now Krishna explains if everyone has nature and we act according to our nature, is nature supreme? No Krishna mentions that above nature is Ishvara. He is the Supreme Lord.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

Synonyms: 

īśvaraḥ — the Supreme Lord; sarva–bhūtānām — of all living entities; hṛt–deśe — in the location of the heart; arjuna — O Arjuna; tiṣṭhati — resides; bhrāmayan — causing to travel; sarva–bhūtāni — all living entities; yantra— on a machine; ārūḍhani — being placed; māyayā — under the spell of material energy.

Translation: 

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, īśvaraḥ is Supreme Lord, the controller of all controllers. 

sarva-bhūtānāṁ, He is situated in all living beings 

Where He is situated?

hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati, in the region of the heart. So Lord is situated not in the heart but in the region of the heart. A soul is situated not only in the heart but in the region of the heart, we talk about heart in two senses one is biological heart and other is metaphorical heart, in love when it is shown that an arrow is passing through the heart is also not physical heart but it represents a metaphorical heart. And the metaphorical heart represents the seat of emotions. And Krishna is saying hṛd-deśe, in the region of the heart. So a soul and Supersoul is seated in the region of the heart next to each-other. 

bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni, bhrāmayan is wandering, so all the living entities are wandering in the existence, travel is purposeful but wandering is aimless. 

So how are they wandering? yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, he is situated on yantra made up of matter. Yantra refers to our body. So Krishna is indicating that this body is like a machine, so a yantra in itself is not conscious, it is mechanistic it is made up of certain components which are brought together, they serve some function and work according to some laws. Body is not alone it has soul which effects the functioning of the body.

This body is yantra and soul is using the yantra. Soul is conscious and soul as a conscious being effects the functioning of the body.  And the soul effects the functioning of the body through its desires. E.g. a virtual reality of video game, there is a person who has invented the video game is synonyms like God, a person who plays the video game, like soul and he identifies through a mechanism some character in video game as himself, that character can be car or police etc. the mechanism is also provided by inventor or God in our case. Depending on our nature and modes we have been given some position in the game, suddenly a thief cannot become police and vice versa. So according to our Varan we act. And if we act properly as per our varan we become purified. So this whole system is supervised by the Supreme Lord, He has done the whole setup and He is directing the wandering. Bhrāmayan indicates that the Lord is the supervisor, we discussed earlier this the soul is the desirer, the Lord is the sanctioner and the material nature is the executer. 

For example a neuro scientist has done this experiment that he activated one part of the brain and the hand moves up and by deactivating the hand fell down, he asked the person on which the experiment is done have you raised hand the person said no, then he removed artificial activation and tall the person to raise hand this time the person admits that he has raised the hand. Then neuro scientist has activated different parts of the brain and ask the person are you the activator of the action the person said no. So then the scientists has concluded that although brain is like a computer but the activator is different he is somewhere outside.

So Science tells, motor nervous system raises the hand but that is just the execution part only, but before the execution part there is desiring part and the sanctioning part, Lord sanctions the desires and provide facilities to soul as per his desires which he can afford. So Krishna is providing the overall framework and within that living entity is working. So different living entities works in different ways. 

So we work as per our nature that is mentioned in verse 59 and 60. It is mentioned that material nature will engage you, you cannot give up your nature. And in this verse Krishna is telling you and the nature is controlled by the Supreme Lord. And in next verse Krishna will tell therefore surrender to the Supreme Lord then you will be able to attain the auspiciousness.

End of transcription.