अनाद्यविद्यायुक्तस्य पुरुषस्यात्मवेदनम् ।
स्वतो न सम्भवादन्यस्तत्त्वज्ञो ज्ञानदो भवेत् ॥
anādy-avidyā-yuktasya puruṣasyātma-vedanam |
svato na sambhavād anyas tattvajño jñānado bhavet ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.22.10)
“Knowledge of self shall not come about on its own for a living being beset with beginningless ignorance. [Therefore,] Another, a Knower of the reality and Bestower of [that] knowledge, shall be [i.e., must exist and also bestow that knowledge upon the jīva].”
Commentary
svato na sambhavati, anyatas tu sambhavāt | svataḥ sarvajñaḥ parameśvaro’nyo bhaved … |
(Excerpt from the Bhāvārtha-dīpikā; cited in Krama-sandarbha-ṭīkā and Paramātma Sandarbha: 44)
“[Knowledge of the self] Does not come about on its own, but can come about on account of another [i.e., it can be received from another]. [Therefore,] The all-knowing Supreme Īśvara shall be [understood to be] different from oneself.”
anādy-avidyayā ayuktasya yuktasya vā puruṣasya jīvasya ātma-vedanam iti ṣaṣṭhy-arthe prathamā | ātma-vedanasya svataḥ svena na sambhavād dhetoḥ, svataḥ sarva-tattva-jñaḥ parameśvaro’nyo bhaved eva ity etad vaiṣṇavānāṁ matam |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā)
“Because of the non-possibility [of coming about] on its own (svataḥ) of knowledge of self, since ‘knowledge of self’ (ātma-vedanam) is in the first case with the sense of the sixth, for a living being, that is, a jīva, [be it] beset or not beset with beginningless ignorance, another, the Supreme Īśvara who is of his own accord the knower of all existences (tattva), much certainly exist. This is the view of the Vaiṣṇavas.”