1076
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[ Canto 3, Ch. 26 ]
TEXT 10
श्रीभगवानुवाच
यत्तत्रिगुणमव्यक्तं नित्यं सदसदात्मकम् । प्रधानं प्रकृतिं प्राहुरविशेषं विशेषवत् ॥१०॥
śrī bhāgavān uvāca yat tat tri-guṇam avyaktam nityam sad-asad-ātmakam pradhānam prakṛtim prāhur aviśeṣam viśeṣavat
śrī bhāgavān uvāca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; yat—now further; tat—that; tri-guṇam—combination of the three modes; avyaktam—unmanifested; nityam—eternal; sat-asat-ātmakam—consisting of cause and effect; pradhānam—the pradhāna; prakṛtim—prakṛti; prāhuḥ—they call; aviśeṣam—undifferentiated; viśeṣa-vat—possessing differentiation.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The unmanifested eternal combination of the three modes is the cause of the manifest state and is called pradhāna. It is called prakṛti when in the manifested stage of existence.
PURPORT
The Lord points out material nature in its subtle stage, which is called pradhāna, and He analyzes this pradhāna. The explanation of pradhāna and prakṛti is that pradhāna is the subtle, undifferentiated sum total of all material elements. Although they are undifferentiated, one can understand that the total material elements are contained therein. When the total material elements are manifested by the interaction of the three modes of material nature, the manifestation is called prakṛti. Impersonalists say that Brahman is without variegatedness and without differentiation. One may say that pradhāna is the Brahman stage, but actually the Brahman stage is not pradhāna. Pradhāna is distinct from Brahman because in Brahman there is no existence of the material modes of nature. One may argue that the mahat-tattva is also different from pradhāna because in the mahat-tattva there are manifestations. The actual explanation of pradhāna, however, is given here: when the cause and effect are not clearly manifested (avyaktam), the reaction of the total elements does not take place, and