माया यदात्मपरबुद्धिरियं ह्यपार्था ।
यद् यस्य जन्म निधनं स्थितिरीक्षणं च
तद् वैतदेव वसुकालवदष्टितर्वोः ॥३१॥
tvaá¹ vÄ idaá¹ sadasad Ä«Å›a bhavÄá¹s tato 'nyo
mÄyÄ yad Ätma-para-buddhir iyaá¹ hy apÄrthÄ
yad yasya janma nidhanaṠsthitir īkṣaṇaṠca
tad vaitad eva vasukÄlavad aá¹£á¹i-tarvoḥ
1 times this text was mentioned in purports to other texts: LSB(1)
tvam - You; vÄ - either; idam - the whole universe; sat-asat - consisting of cause and effect (You are the cause, and Your energy is the effect); Ä«Å›a - O my Lord, the supreme controller; bhavÄn - Yourself; tataḥ - from the universe; anyaḥ - separately situated (the creation is made by the Lord, yet He remains separate from the creation); mÄyÄ - the energy that appears as a separate creation; yat - of which; Ätma-para-buddhiḥ - the conception of one's own and another's; iyam - this; hi - indeed; apÄrthÄ - 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; Ä«ká¹£aṇam - manifestation; ca - and; tat - that; vÄ - or; etat - this; eva - certainly; vasukÄla-vat - like the quality of being the earth and, beyond that, the subtle element of the earth (smell); aá¹£á¹i-tarvoḥ - the seed (the cause) and the tree (the effect of the cause).
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 [mÄyÄ] 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.
In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (7.10) the Lord says:
bÄ«jaá¹ mÄá¹ sarva-bhÅ«tÄnÄá¹
viddhi pÄrtha sanÄtanam
“O son of Pá¹›thÄ, know that I am the original seed of all existences.†In the Vedic literature it is said, Ä«Å›ÄvÄsyam idaá¹ sarvam, yato vÄ imÄni bhÅ«tÄni jÄyante and sarvaá¹ khalv idaá¹ brahma. All this Vedic information indicates that there is only one God and that there is nothing else but Him. The MÄyÄvÄdÄ« philosophers explain this in their own way, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead asserts the truth that He is everything and yet is separate from everything. This is the philosophy of ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu, which is called acintya-bhedÄbheda-tattva. Everything is one, the Supreme Lord, yet everything is separate from the Lord. This is the understanding of oneness and difference.
The example given in this regard — vasukÄlavad aá¹£á¹i-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 Å›ÄÅ›vataḥ — 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 avidyÄ, ignorance.
True oneness, however, is not equivalent to the conception of the MÄyÄvÄdÄ«s. 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. ÅšrÄ«la Bhaktivinoda ṬhÄkura has therefore sung, keÅ›ava tuyÄ 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-bhedÄbheda-tattva. The conclusion given in Brahma-saá¹hitÄ is this:
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-Änanda-vigrahaḥ
anÄdir Ädir govindaḥ
sarva-kÄraṇa-kÄraṇam
“Kṛṣṇa, known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.†Because the Lord is the supreme cause, everything is one with Him, but when we consider varieties, we find that one thing is different from another.
We may conclude, therefore, that there is no difference between one thing and another, yet in varieties there are differences. In this regard, MadhvÄcÄrya 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 ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (10.14.8):
tat te ’nukampÄá¹ susamÄ«ká¹£amÄṇo
bhuñjÄna evÄtma-ká¹›taá¹ vipÄkam
When a devotee is in a condition of so-called distress, he considers it a gift or blessing from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When a devotee is always thus situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in any condition of life, he is described as mukti-pade sa dÄya-bhÄk, a perfect candidate for returning home, back to Godhead. The word dÄya-bhÄk means “inheritance.†A son inherits the property of his father. Similarly, when the devotee is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, undisturbed by dualities, he is sure that he will return home, back to Godhead, just as one inherits his father’s property.
