माया यदात्मपरबुद्धिरियं ह्यपार्था ।
यद्यस्य जन्म निधनं स्थितिरीक्षणं च
तद्वैतदेव वसुकालवदष्टितर्वो: ॥ ३१ ॥
māyā yad ātma-para-buddhir iyaṁ hy apārthā
yad yasya janma nidhanaṁ sthitir īkṣaṇaṁ ca
tad vaitad eva vasukālavad aṣṭi-tarvoḥ
viddhi pārtha sanātanam
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
SYNONYMS
tvam—You; vā—either; idam—the whole universe; sat-asat—consisting of cause and effect (You are the cause, and Your energy is the effect); īśa—O my Lord, the supreme controller; bhavān—Yourself; tataḥ—from the universe; anyaḥ—separately situated (the creation is made by the Lord, yet He remains separate from the creation); māyā—the energy that appears as a separate creation; yat—of which; ātma-para-buddhiḥ—the conception of one's own and another's; iyam—this; hi—indeed; apārthā—has no meaning (everything is Your Lordship, and therefore there is no hope for understanding "my " and "your "); yat—the substance from which; yasya—of which; janma—creation; nidhanam—annihilation; sthitiḥ—maintenance; īkṣaṇam—manifestation; ca—and; tat—that; vā—or; etat—this; eva—certainly; vasukāla-vat—like the quality of being the earth and, beyond that, the subtle element of the earth (smell); aṣṭi-tarvoḥ—the seed (the cause) and the tree (the effect of the cause).
TRANSLATION
My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, the entire cosmic creation is caused by You, and the cosmic manifestation is an effect of Your energy. Although the entire cosmos is but You alone, You keep Yourself aloof from it. The conception of "mine and yours," is certainly a type of illusion [māyā] because everything is an emanation from You and is therefore not different from You. Indeed, the cosmic manifestation is nondifferent from You, and the annihilation is also caused by You. This relationship between Your Lordship and the cosmos is illustrated by the example of the seed and the tree, or the subtle cause and the gross manifestation.
PURPORT
In Bhagavad-gītā (7.10) the Lord says:
viddhi pārtha sanātanam
The example given in this regard— vasukālavad asti-tarvoḥ —is very easy to understand. Everything exists in time, yet there are different phases of the time factor—present, past and future. Present, past and future are one. Every day we can experience the time factor as morning, noon and evening, and although morning is different from noon, which is different from evening, all of them taken together are one. The time factor is the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the Lord is separate from the time factor. Everything is created, maintained and annihilated by time, but the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, has no beginning and no end. He is nityaḥ śāśvataḥ —eternal, permanent. Everything passes through time's phases of present, past and future, yet the Lord is always the same. Thus there is undoubtedly a difference between the Lord and the cosmic manifestation, but actually they are not different. Accepting them to be different is called avidyā, ignorance.
True oneness, however, is not equivalent to the conception of the Māyāvādīs. The true understanding is that the differences are manifested by the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The seed is manifested as a tree, which displays varieties in its trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has therefore sung, keśava tuyā jagata vicitra:"My dear Lord, Your creation is full of varieties." The varieties are one and at the same time different. This is the philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. The conclusion given in Brahma-saṁhitā [Bs. 5.1] is this:
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
We may conclude, therefore, that there is no difference between one thing and another, yet in varieties there are differences. In this regard, Madhvācārya gives an example concerning a tree and a tree in fire. Both trees are the same, but they look different because of the time factor. The time factor is under the control of the Supreme Lord, and therefore the Supreme Lord is different from time. An advanced devotee consequently does not distinguish between happiness and distress. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.8):
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam