यस्येप्सितं नेप्सितमीक्षितुर्गुणै: ।
माया यथायो भ्रमते तदाश्रयं
ग्राव्णो नमस्ते गुणकर्मसाक्षिणे ॥ ३८ ॥
yasyepsitaṁ nepsitam īkṣitur guṇaiḥ
māyā yathāyo bhramate tad-āśrayaṁ
grāvṇo namas te guṇa-karma-sākṣiṇe
jaḍa ha-ite kabhu nahe jagat-sṛjana
īśvarera śaktye tabe haye ta' nirmāṇe
śakti sañcāriyā tāre kṛṣṇa kare kṛpā
agni-śaktye lauha yaiche karaye jāraṇa
prakṛti--kāraṇa yaiche ajā-gala-stana
SYNONYMS
karoti—performing; viśva—of the universe; sthiti—the maintenance; saṁyama—winding up; udayam—creation; yasya—of whom; īpsitam—desired; na—not; īpsitam—desired; īkṣituḥ—of the one glancing over; guṇaiḥ—with the modes of material nature; māyā—the material energy; yathā—as much as; ayaḥ—iron; bhramate—moves; tat-āśrayam—placed near that; grāvṇaḥ—a magnetic stone; namaḥ—my respectful obeisances; te—unto You; guṇa-karma-sākṣiṇe—the witness of the actions and reactions of material nature.
TRANSLATION
O Lord, You do not desire the creation, maintenance or annihilation of this material world, but You perform these activities for the conditioned souls by Your creative energy. Exactly as a piece of iron moves under the influence of a lodestone, inert matter moves when You glance over the total material energy.
PURPORT
Sometimes the question arises why the Supreme Lord has created this material world, which is so full of suffering for the living entities entrapped in it. The answer given herein is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not wish to create this material world just to inflict suffering on the living entities. The Supreme Lord creates this world only because the conditioned souls want to enjoy it.
The workings of nature are not going on automatically. It is only because the Lord glances over the material energy that it acts in wonderful ways, just as a lodestone causes a piece of iron to move here and there. Because materialistic scientists and so-called Sāṅkhya philosophers do not believe in God, they think that material nature is working without supervision. But that is not the fact. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 6.18–19) the creation of the material world is explained as follows:
jaḍa ha-ite kabhu nahe jagat-sṛjana
īśvarera śaktye tabe haye ta' nirmāṇe
śakti sañcāriyā tāre kṛṣṇa kare kṛpā
agni-śaktye lauha yaiche karaye jāraṇa
prakṛti——kāraṇa yaiche ajā-gala-stana