Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Now Sri Krishna will describe how one can attain that abode:

Bg 8.22

puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha
bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā
yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam

Word for word: 

puruṣaḥ — the Supreme Personality; saḥ — He; paraḥ — the Supreme, than whom no one is greater; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; bhaktyā — by devotional service; labhyaḥ — can be achieved; tu — but; ananyayā — unalloyed, undeviating; yasya — whom; antaḥ–sthāni — within; bhūtāni — all of this material manifestation; yena — by whom; sarvam — all; idam — whatever we can see; tatam — is pervaded.

Translation: 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him.

 

So here He makes it clear puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha, the Purusah is Parah is Supreme no one is greater than Him and how that Purusah is attained? bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā, He is attained by ananyayā Bhakti, and what is the characteristic of that Purusah? yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni, yasyāntaḥ, all of material existence is situated within Him and yena sarvam idaṁ tatam, and He is inside everything this is very beautiful statement that everything is inside Him and He is inside everything, so how is that possible? He is inside everything and everything is inside Him, that is possible when we understand His inconceivable nature, He can manifest Himself in multiple forms one simple way to understand is that By Maha Vishnu everything is inside Him and As Kshirodakshayi Vishnu as a Parmatama He is inside everything. That is of course one way of looking at it. But there are also other ways of looking at Him, yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni, that His Brahman effulgence is all pervading so everything is situated in Brahman, and actually Lord exists everywhere so this was not referring to Brahman but it was referring to puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha, it is referring to the Supreme Person, puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha, this is Lord is inside everything and everything is inside Him, but when we have devotion for Him within then we attain His eternal destination, attain His supreme abode, we attain that Supreme Person so attaining Krishna attaining His abode are the same thing, when we love Krishna naturally we return back to Him His abode, so how we can attain Krishna, Krishna tells very clearly bhaktyā, bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā, it is by Bhakti alone we can attain Him, not by any other process, 

So Srila Prabhupada quotes here from the Vedas (Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad 1.21) also describe the supreme abode and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Eko vaśī sarva-gaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. 

Eko vaśī, that actually Lord stays at one place but sarva-gaḥ, He is all pervading Krishna, He goes everywhere means He goes to different places to perform pastimes but He also pervades influence everywhere through His energy and through His all-pervading manifestations, so the point is actually this is wonderful abode of Supreme Lord and this is wonderful Supreme Lord who resides in that abode.

So in this section from verse 8.15 to 8.22, what has happened? There is emphasis on fixing mind on Krishna that has happened in 8.14, and how does one gets impetus to fix mind on Krishna? By contemplating how everything else is temporary and fixing mind on anything else will ultimately end in misery therefore let us fix the mind on Krishna, also the temporary nature of even Brahma’s abode is described, temporary nature of all the material world is described then the eternal spiritual abode of Krishna which is Supreme Destination, Pramam Gatah and Paramam Dham that is described.

End of transcription.