Text 24
na yasya sakhyaṁ puruṣo ’vaiti sakhyuḥ
sakhā vasan saṁvasataḥ pure ’smin
guṇo yathā guṇino vyakta-dṛṣṭes
tasmai maheśāya namaskaromi
na — not; yasya — whose; sakhyam — fraternity; puruṣaḥ — the living entity; avaiti — knows; sakhyuḥ — of the supreme friend; sakhā — the friend; vasan — living; saṁvasataḥ — of the one living with; pure — in the body; asmin — this; guṇaḥ — the object of sense perception; yathā — just like; guṇinaḥ — of its respective sense organ; vyakta-dṛṣṭeḥ — who oversees the material manifestation; tasmai — unto Him; mahā-īśāya — unto the supreme controller; namaskaromi — I offer my obeisances.
As the sense objects [form, taste, touch, smell and sound] cannot understand how the senses perceive them, so the conditioned soul, although residing in his body along with the Supersoul, cannot understand how the supreme spiritual person, the master of the material creation, directs his senses. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that Supreme Person, who is the supreme controller.
The individual soul and the Supreme Soul live together within the body. This is confirmed in the Upaniṣads by the analogy that two friendly birds live in one tree — one bird eating the fruit of the tree and the other simply witnessing and directing. Although the individual living being, who is compared to the bird that is eating, is sitting with his friend the Supreme Soul, the individual living being cannot see Him. Actually the Supersoul is directing the workings of his senses in the enjoyment of sense objects, but as these sense objects cannot see the senses, the conditioned soul cannot see the directing soul. The conditioned soul has desires, and the Supreme Soul fulfills them, but the conditioned soul is unable to see the Supreme Soul. Thus Prajāpati Dakṣa offers his obeisances to the Supreme Soul, the Supersoul, even though unable to see Him. Another example given is that although ordinary citizens work under the direction of the government, they cannot understand how they are being governed or what the government is. In this regard, Madhvācārya quotes the following verse from the Skanda Purāṇa:
yathā rājñaḥ priyatvaṁ tu
bhṛtyā vedena cātmanaḥ
tathā jīvo na yat-sakhyaṁ
vetti tasmai namo ’stu te
“As the various servants in the different departments of big establishments cannot see the supreme managing director under whom they are working, the conditioned souls cannot see the supreme friend sitting within their bodies. Let us therefore offer our respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, who is invisible to our material eyes.”