आत्मनश्च परस्यापि य: करोत्यन्तरोदरम् ।
तस्य भिन्नदृशो मृत्युर्विदधे भयमुल्बणम् ॥
ātmanaś ca parasyāpi yaḥ karoty antarodaram |
tasya bhinna-dṛśo mṛtyur vidadhe bhayam ulbaṇam ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 3.29.26; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha 106)
[Kapiladeva:] “I, Death, cause tremendous fear for [i.e., subject to saṁsāra] one of disunited vision who differentiates between one’s own belly and another’s.”
Commentary
antarodaram udara-bhedena bhedaṁ karoti, na tu mad-adhiṣṭhānatvenātma-samaṁ paśyati | tataś ca kṣudhitādikam api dṛṣṭvā svodarādikam eva kevalaṁ sambibhartīty arthaḥ |
(Excerpt from the Krama-sandarbha-ṭīkā and Bhakti Sandarbha: 106)
“‘One who differentiates between one’s own belly and another’s’ means one who differentiates based on a difference in belly [i.e., one who acts with the mentality of their being a difference between oneself and others in having separate bellies], and does not, rather, see [another] as being equal to oneself based on [another] being my adhiṣṭhāna (dwelling place). Thus also, even after seeing another who is hungry or otherwise [i.e., somehow in need], one fully nourishes only one’s own belly and so forth [i.e., one sees only to one’s own needs and neglects those of the other].”
udaraṁ khalu jāṭharānala-jvālā-yuktaṁ yathā ātmanas tathā parasyāpīti jñātvā kṣudhārtaṁ jīvam ātmānam iva bhojayed evānyathā mṛtyu-bhayaṁ na tarati … |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭikā)
“Understanding that just as one’s own belly is certainly filled with the flames of the digestive fire, so too is another’s, one should feed a jīva afflicted by hunger just like oneself. Otherwise [i.e., if one neglects to do this], one cannot cross beyond the fear of death [i.e., transcend saṁsāra].”