SB 3.5.28

Srimad-Bhagavatam - Third Canto - Chapter 5: Vidura's Talks with Maitreya

SB 3.5.27 - SB 3.5.29

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

TEXT 28

so 'py aṁśa-guṇa-kālātmā

bhagavad-dṛṣṭi-gocaraḥ

ātmānaṁ vyakarod ātmā

viśvasyāsya sisṛkṣayā

SYNONYMS

saḥ — mahat-tattva; api — also; aṁśa — puruṣa plenary expansion; guṇa — chiefly the quality of ignorance; kāla — the duration of time; ātmā — full consciousness; bhagavat — the Personality of Godhead; dṛṣṭi-gocaraḥ — range of sight; ātmānam — many different forms; vyakarot — differentiated; ātmā — reservoir; viśvasya — the would-be entities; asya — of this; sisṛkṣayā — generates the false ego.

TRANSLATION

Thereafter the mahat-tattva differentiated itself into many different forms as the reservoir of the would-be entities. The mahat-tattva is chiefly in the mode of ignorance, and it generates the false ego. It is a plenary expansion of the Personality of Godhead, with full consciousness of creative principles and time for fructification.

PURPORT

The mahat-tattva is the via medium between pure spirit and material existence. It is the junction of matter and spirit wherefrom the false ego of the living entity is generated. All living entities are differentiated parts and parcels of the Personality of Godhead. Under the pressure of false ego, the conditioned souls, although parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, claim to be the enjoyers of material nature. This false ego is the binding force of material existence. The Lord again and again gives a chance to the bewildered conditioned souls to get free from this false ego, and that is why the material creation takes place at intervals. He gives the conditioned souls all facilities for rectifying the activities of the false ego, but He does not interfere with their small independence as parts and parcels of the Lord.

SB 3.5.27 - SB 3.5.29