Antaryāmī
Antaryāmī · antar-yāmī, “the inner controller”
Grammar: masculine noun (stem antaryāmin); antar (within) with yāmin (one who controls, from the root yam, to restrain, to guide): “the one who rules from within”.
Meaning: the inner controller, the indweller: Paramātmā dwelling in the heart of every being, the witness who governs the mind, buddhi and senses from within. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa it is above all a name of Śrī Hari and of Śrī Kṛshṇa.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls Śrī Hari the antaryāmī again and again, and joins the word to his care for beings.
In all hearts. Sanatkumāra tells Pṛthu Mahārāja that all beings take the body, senses, prāṇas, buddhi and ahaṅkāra as the Self, and their true nature is covered; in the heart of all of them Bhagavān Vishṇu shines as the witness of the kshetra, as the antaryāmī who governs all and as the pratyagātmā, the innermost Self. “Know that Paramātmā as ‘I am He'” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22). Jaḍabharata tells Rahūgaṇa that Nārāyaṇa, lord of all, manifests in the body as the ātmā, and that he, by his māyā-śakti the antaryāmī in the buddhi of all beings, self-luminous, has no birth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 11). Prahlāda tells the daitya boys that the fitting work of a human birth is to take refuge at the feet of Vishṇu, because Śrī Hari dwells in all beings as the antaryāmī and, as the beloved ātmā, does them good; the one truth is to offer one’s all to Purushottama, who dwells within as antaryāmī and is one’s well-wisher (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 6).
Śrī Kṛshṇa as antaryāmī. Uddhava tells Nanda in Gokula that Śrī Kṛshṇa, the Pūrṇa Brahma, is the efficient cause of the world and Balarāma, the māyā-śakti, its material cause; beyond time, the two enter beings and as antaryāmī govern their many inner faculties (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 46). Akrūra tells Dhṛtarāshṭra that Īśvara creates this world by his māyā-śakti, enters it as the antaryāmī, and by mixing sattva, rajas and tamas brings about its variety (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 49). When Jarāsandha besieged Mathurā and two chariots with eternal, shining weapons came down from the sky, Śrī Kṛshṇa, the antaryāmī of the senses, spoke to Balarāma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 50). Śuka tells Parīkshit that Śrī Hari, the antaryāmī of the world, which is the product of the guṇas, is himself nirguṇa, and becomes manifest in a special form so that human beings may reach moksha; even Śiśupāla, who hated the antaryāmī of the senses, attained siddhi (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 29). At Kurukshetra Śrī Kṛshṇa told the gopīs: “As all things are born from the five elements and dissolve into them, so all beings are born from me and dissolve into me. Inside beings, as the antaryāmī, and outside them, as Time, it is I” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 82).
Śrī Kṛshṇa to Uddhava. Śrī Kṛshṇa is the cause of every siddhi, of yoga, jñāna and dharma; he is the ātmā and the antaryāmī in all beings, and outside them too, unlimited, he alone pervades everything, as the five elements are both inside and outside the bodies of beings (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 15). “O Uddhava, I am the antaryāmī in these beings and I bring about their good. I am the ātmā of all beings; all are born from me, live in me and merge into me” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 16). In the view that counts six tattvas, they are the five elements and the Paramātmā, who with them creates this world and enters it as the antaryāmī (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 22). Uddhava praised him: “You alone are the ātmā of the whole world, the beloved, the antaryāmī; to those who take refuge in you, you give all the purushārthas. For embodied beings you stand outside as the guru and inside as the antaryāmī, driving away what is inauspicious and revealing your own svarūpa. Even the all-knowing cannot repay you, even with a life as long as Brahmā‘s” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 29).
Hiraṇyakaśipu‘s stuti. Hiraṇyakaśipu, praising Brahmā before asking his varas, called him the great śakti that pervades the world (the mukhya-prāṇa or sūtrātmā), the antaryāmī of all moving and unmoving beings, and the lord of their memory, buddhi, mind and senses; the all-knowing antaryāmī, the one non-dual ātmā of all beings (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 3).
Related terms: Antar · Paramātmā · Pratyagātmā · Ātmā · Sākshī · Īśvara
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22; Skandha 5, Chapter 11; Skandha 7, Chapters 3, 6; Skandha 10, Chapters 29, 46, 49–50, 82; Skandha 11, Chapters 15–16, 22, 29