For Eternal Beginners
तम् एव चाद्यम् पुरुषम् प्रपद्येत्
यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी ॥ ४ ॥
tam eva cAdyam puruSam prapadyet
yataH pravRttiH prasRtA purANI || 4 ||
प्रपद्येत् [prapadyet] You must
surrender तम् एव [tam eva] to that very पुरुषम् [puruSam] Person यतः [yataH] from whom प्रवृत्तिः [pravRttiH] all existence प्रसृता [prasRtA] came forth पुराणी [purANI] long ago.
The extent of your entanglement doesn’t matter. Surrender to the source and get free.
To get rid of ignorance, we must surrender to that very Person who is the origin of everything - ‘that very Person’ is the Lord - He described Himself in 9-10: ‘The material environment guides this world according to My will, I being the supreme controller’, in 10-8: ‘I am the origin of everything; Each and every entity gets stimulated with the initiative given by Me’ and in 7-7: ‘There is absolutely nothing else that is superior to Me’.
In the entire created universe, ‘binding activities’ spring forth from the Lord. These binding activities are full of the three qualities and attachment to experiences.
The fact that the Lord is the origin and that we must surrender to Him was described by the Lord Himself previously, in 7-14: ‘’These divine creations of Mine are pervaded by the three qualities . They are indeed impossible to cross over. The people who surrender to Me alone - they will cross over this material world’.
There is an alternate way to read this Shloka - the syllables in [prapadyEt yata: pravr’tti:] can also be read as [prapadya iyata: pravr’tti:], which means ‘By surrender , the full extent of achievements are possible’. With this reading, the meaning of the Shloka is:
By surrendering to that very Person who is the origin of everything, all achievements - including the freedom from ignorance - come forth in their full extent. This way of surrender is ancient and has been practiced by people who desire moksha . It is in practice since beginning-less time . The Lord says here - ‘Since ancient times, those who desire moksha have surrendered to Me and are free from all bonds’.