3.6: Pramitādhikaraṇam - The Person the Size of a Thumb is the Lord
The person the size of a thumb is Viṣnu. This is indicated by the words of the passage. He appears in a form the size of a thumb because that is the size of the heart of humans
« Vedānta-sūtra: The Govinda-bhāṣya of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa
Topic 6: Pramitādhikaraṇam - The Person the Size of a Thumb is the Lord
How can the Lord, who is so big, appear in a small form inside the heart?
śabdād eva pramiteḥ, hṛdy apekṣayā tu manuṣyādhikāratvāt
“The person the size of a thumb is Viṣnu. This is indicated by the words of the passage. He appears in a form the size of a thumb because that is the size of the heart of humans, who are qualified for meditation on the Lord.”
Sūtra 1.3.24 - Passages describing the Lord and the jīva within the heart
śabdād eva pramiteḥ
śabdāt: on account of the words in the passage; eva: indeed; pramitaḥ: measured.
The person the size of a thumb is Viṣnu. This is indicated by the words of the passage.
Commentary: In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.1.12), it is mentioned:
anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo, madhya ātmani tiṣṭhati
īśāno bhūta-bhavyaysya, tato na vijugupsate“A person the size of a thumb dwells in the heart. He is the Lord of the past and future. Knowing Him, one becomes free from all fear.”
Who is this mysterious person? One could argue that he is the jīva because the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.7-8) mentions:
prāṇādhipaḥ sañcarati sva-karmabhir
anguṣṭa-mātroravi-tulya-rūpaḥ“The ruler of the vital airs moves about, impelled by the results of his activities. He is the size of a thumb and splendid as the sun.”
However, this sūtra contradicts this thesis by the words śabdād eva (on account of the text itself).
The person described in the first verse is described as “the master of the past and future”. In this way, the text itself makes clear that it is not the jīva. If we check the next verse (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.13), we see that it continues the description, adding:
anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo jyotir ivādhūmakaḥ
īśāno bhūta-bhavyasya sa evādya sa u śvaḥ
etad vai tat“That person the size of a thumb is like a light without smoke, the Lord of what has been and what will be. He alone is the master of all things, and His position never changes. This Self is indeed no other than the Supreme Brahman.”
The construction of the verse, combined with the Upaniṣadic maxim “etad vai tat“ (this is indeed the Supreme), leaves no doubt that both verses, 2.1.12 and 2.1.13, speak of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the controller of everything that exists. This is the passage indicated by Vyāsadeva in the sūtra. Inconceivably as it may appear, this Supreme Self dwells in the heart of all living entities in a form the size of a thumb.
The translation for the fragment of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.7-8 offered by our opponent is correct, but the passage is quoted out of context. The full passage speaks about the jīva, who wanders in the material world assisted by the vital airs, enjoying and suffering the results of his activities.
The complete passage is:
guṇānvayo yaḥ phala-karma-kartā kṛtasya tasyaiva sa copabhoktā
sa viśva-rūpas triguṇas trivartmā prāṇādhipaḥ sañcarati sva-karmabhiḥ
anguṣṭha-mātro ravi-tulya-rūpaḥ sankalpāhankāra-samanvito yaḥ
buddher guṇenātma-guṇena caiva ārāgra-mātro’py aparo’pi dṛṣṭaḥ“The conditioned soul, associating with the three modes of nature, performs fruitive actions in this world. Assuming various material bodies, impelled by lust, he runs on three courses (the waking state, dream, and deep sleep). He thus wanders about, assisted by the vital airs, enjoying or suffering the results of his own activities.
This jīva is the size of a thumb and splendid as the sun. He is endowed with intention and ego, which propel him in pursuing different results. His consciousness is affected by the three modes, and thus he perceives the same material objects in varied ways. When perceived by the intellect, this jīva is exceedingly minute, smaller than the tip of a needle.” (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.7-8)
Different from the passage from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, this passage doesn’t describe the Lord, but the conditioned soul, who performs material actions and enjoys the fruits. The words “anguṣṭha-mātro ravi-tulya-rūpaḥ“ (he is the size of a thumb and splendid as the sun) may appear to indicate the Supreme Lord, but when taken in context, it becomes clear that they describe the jīva, emphasizing his spiritual nature, similar to the Lord. In this line of the verse, the jīva is also described as the size of a thumb, just like the Lord (not literally, but in the sense that the jīva also resides in the heart), but at the same time, the verse alerts that the jīva is inconceivable, and can’t be understood by material intellect.
The description of the jīva being smaller than the tip of a needle is confirmed by another passage of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.9), “bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca“, which describes the jīva as being 1/10000 the size of the tip of a hair. All these different descriptions of the jīva, as being the size of a thumb, 1/10000 of the tip of the hair, the tip of a needle, etc., should thus be just taken in the sense that the soul is inconceivable, and not as contradictory measurements of the physical size of the soul. The soul has no material form that can be detected or measured.
Apart from that, the jīva can’t be the master of the past and future, because he is controlled by his karma. We can practically see that our lives do not always go on as we planned. We don’t control our past, we don’t really control our present, and we can’t control our future. Because the passage describes characteristics that can be attributed only to the Lord, it’s clear that the person the size of a thumb described in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad is the Lord.
This leads to the next question: How can the Lord, who is so powerful and contains the entire creation, become the size of a thumb?
Sūtra 1.3.25 - He becomes small to facilitate one’s meditation on Him
hṛdy apekṣayā tu manuṣyādhikāratvāt
hṛdi: in the heart; upekṣayā: with reference to; tu: indeed; manuṣya: of human beings; adhikāratvāt: because of the qualification.
He appears in a form the size of a thumb because that is the size of the heart of humans, who are qualified for meditation on the Lord.”
Commentary: The fact that the Lord appears inside the heart in a form the size of a thumb is emphasized in the sūtra by the word “tu” (indeed). This can be understood in two ways: one is that He becomes the size of a thumb because this is the size of the internal part of the heart in human beings, and in this way, that’s the size appropriate for facilitating meditation on His form. Of all the different species of life on our planet, only human beings are capable of meditating on the Lord; therefore, it is not surprising that He may desire to facilitate that.
Another possible interpretation is that because He appears by his inconceivable potency inside the heart, the size of a thumb, He is meditated upon in that way. Both interpretations can be considered correct since the Lord is inconceivable and He simultaneously fulfills many purposes by His actions.
If one says that the Lord is infinitely big and, therefore, He can’t become so small, he is artificially trying to limit the potency of the Lord. “All-powerful” means that He can do anything He desires, without limitation. Even an ordinary yogi who can attain the kāmāvasāyitā-siddhi can do impossible things that contradict the ordinary physical laws. All yogic-siddhis are nothing more than a faint reflection of powers originally exhibited by the Lord. Therefore, there is no reason to believe the Lord can’t become small if He so desires. He can become larger than a universe and simultaneously smaller than an atom.
In his purport to SB 1.12.9, Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions that: “The Lord can become bigger than thousands of universes and can become smaller than an atom at the same time. Merciful as He is, He becomes just suitable to the vision of the limited living being. He is unlimited. He is not limited by any measurement of our calculation. He can become bigger than what we can think of, and He can become smaller than what we can conceive. But in all circumstances, He is the same all-powerful Lord. There is no difference between the thumblike Viṣṇu in the womb of Uttarā and the full-fledged Nārāyaṇa in the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma, the kingdom of Godhead.”
What about other species? Does the Lord appear the size of a human thumb everywhere? What about large animals like whales or very small animals like mosquitoes?
This question is answered in the sūtra by the word manuṣyādhikāratvāt: He appears this size in the hearts of human beings. Because human beings have the capacity to meditate, and therefore the measurement is given according to the size of the human body. In the case of other animals, the Lord appears inside their hearts in a form the size of a thumb according to the measurement of a thumb in these different bodies.
The fact that the verse doesn’t mention animals is just because animals don’t have the capacity for worship, and are thus considered less important. The scriptures mention the size of Paramātmā only in the body of human beings because they are the only ones capable of meditating. There is no contradiction.
Exercise
Now it’s your turn. Can you answer the following arguments using the ideas from this section?
Opponent: “The Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.1.12) describes a thumb-sized person who dwells in the heart. The verse describes that knowing him, one becomes free from all fear. This indicates the stage of self-realization, where one understands one’s transcendental nature and becomes free from material duality. In other words, the thumb-sized person inside the heart is the jīva itself and not Viṣnu. This is corroborated in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.7-8), which mentions: “prāṇādhipaḥ sañcarati sva-karmabhir, anguṣṭa-mātroravi-tulya-rūpaḥ” (The ruler of the vital airs moves about, impelled by the results of his activities. He is the size of a thumb and splendid as the sun). It is clear, thus, that both passages describe the conditioned jīva, the controller of the vital airs, moving from one body to the other according to karma.
The description of being thumb-sized and located inside the heart fits the atomic self known in astanga-yoga and described in numerous passages of the Vedas, but does not suit the all-pervading Viṣnu.
One could object based on the Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.13, which describes this thumb-sized person as the controller of all that is, and what is to be (īśāno bhūta-bhavyasya), but this can be taken in a limited sense: the jīva lords over his own past and future experiences and his body. It’s not necessary to take it in the absolute sense. Many passages of the scriptures are poetic or figurative.
The minuteness of the jīva is confirmed in other passages of the Upaniṣads, which describe the soul as being 1/10000 times the size of the tip of a hair. This minute soul is thus figuratively described as being thumb-sized. However, trying to apply the same description to an unlimited Supreme Person is contradictory. One could argue that Viṣnu assumes a tiny form inside the heart for the purpose of meditation, but the text does not say so. Such a hypothesis is thus unnecessary. In this way, the thumb-sized person should be understood as the jīva.”
Description: This purvāpakṣa identifies the thumb-sized person inside the heart (anguṣṭhamātra-puruṣa) with the jīva, interpreting the passages in a way that allows him to avoid the conclusion that a Supreme Lord (Paramātmā/Viṣṇu) dwells inside the heart and accompanies every living being. Sometimes he argues that the words should be interpreted literally, and sometimes that they are figurative, according to what suits him.
What is your answer to this challenge?
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