तस्य मूलदेशे त्रिंशद्योजनसहस्रान्तर आस्ते या वै कला
भगवतस्तामसी समाख्यातानन्त इति सात्वतीया द्रष्टृदृश्ययोः
सङ्कर्षणमहमित्यभिमानलक्षणं यं सङ्कर्षणमित्याचक्षते ॥१॥
Å›rÄ«-Å›uka uvÄca
tasya mÅ«la-deÅ›e trimÅ›ad-yojana-sahasrÄntara Äste yÄ vai kalÄ bhagavatas tÄmasÄ« samÄkhyÄtÄnanta iti sÄtvatÄ«yÄ draá¹£á¹á¹›-dṛśyayoḥ saá¹…kará¹£aṇam aham ity abhimÄna-laká¹£aṇaá¹ yaá¹ saá¹…kará¹£aṇam ity Äcaká¹£ate
Å›rÄ«-Å›ukaḥ uvÄca - ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« said; tasya - of the planet PÄtÄla; mÅ«la-deÅ›e - in the region beneath the base; trimÅ›at - thirty; yojana - eight-mile units of measurement; sahasra-antare - at an interval of one thousand; Äste - remains; yÄ - which; vai - indeed; kalÄ - an expansion of an expansion; bhagavataḥ - of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; tÄmasÄ« - related to darkness; samÄkhyÄtÄ - called; anantaḥ - Ananta; iti - thus; sÄtvatÄ«yÄḥ - the devotees; draá¹£á¹á¹›-dṛśyayoḥ - of matter and spirit; saá¹…kará¹£aṇam - the drawing together; aham - I; iti - thus; abhimÄna - by self-conception; laká¹£aṇam - symptomized; yam - whom; saá¹…kará¹£aṇam - Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa; iti - thus; Äcaká¹£ate - learned scholars describe.
ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« said to MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it: My dear King, approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet PÄtÄla lives another incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of Lord Viṣṇu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa. He is always in the transcendental position, but because He is worshiped by Lord Åšiva, the deity of tamo-guṇa or darkness, He is sometimes called tÄmasÄ«. Lord Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material mode of ignorance as well as the false ego of all conditioned souls. When a conditioned living being thinks, “I am the enjoyer, and this world is meant to be enjoyed by me,†this conception of life is dictated to him by Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa. Thus the mundane conditioned soul thinks himself the Supreme Lord.
There is a class of men akin to MÄyÄvÄdÄ« philosophers who misinterpret the ahaá¹ brahmÄsmi and so ’ham Vedic mantras to mean, “I am the Supreme Brahman†and “I am identical with the Lord.†This kind of false conception, in which one thinks himself the supreme enjoyer, is a kind of illusion. It is described elsewhere in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (5.5.8): janasya moho ’yam ahaá¹ mameti. As explained in the above verse, Lord Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa is the predominating Deity of this false conception. Kṛṣṇa confirms this in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (15.15):
sarvasya cÄhaá¹ há¹›di sanniviá¹£á¹o
mattaḥ smá¹›tir jñÄnam apohanaá¹ ca
“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.†The Lord is situated in everyone’s heart as Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa, and when a demon thinks himself one with the Supreme Lord, the Lord keeps him in that darkness. Although such a demoniac living entity is only an insignificant part of the Supreme Lord, he forgets his true position and thinks he is the Supreme Lord. Because this forgetfulness is created by Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa, He is sometimes called tÄmasÄ«. The name tÄmasÄ« does not indicate that He has a material body. He is always transcendental, but because He is the Supersoul of Lord Åšiva, who must perform tamasic activities, Saá¹…kará¹£aṇa is sometimes called tÄmasÄ«.
