Text 37]
King Citraketu Meets the Lord
123
of Godhead is the cause of all causes, He can produce immense quantities of chemicals to create a situation for chemical evolution. We actually see that chemicals are produced from living entities. For example, a lemon tree produces many tons of citric acid. The citric acid is not the cause of the tree; rather, the tree is the cause of the acid. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of everything. He is the cause of the tree that produces the citric acid ( bijam mām sarva-bhūtānām ). Devotees can see that the original potencies causing the cosmic manifestation are not in chemicals but in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for He is the cause of the chemicals.
Everything is caused or manifested by the energy of the Supreme Lord, and when everything is annihilated or dissolved, the original potency enters the body of the Supreme Lord. Therefore this verse says,  ādāv ante 'pi ca sattvānām yad dhruvam tad evāntarāle 'pi . The word  dhruvam  means “permanent.” The permanent reality is Kṛṣṇa, not this cosmic manifestation. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā ,  aham ādir hi devānām  and  mattaḥ sarvam pravartate : Kṛṣṇa is the original cause of everything. Arjuna recognized Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the original person ( puruṣam śāśvatam divyam ādi-devam ajam vibhum ), and the  Brahma-samhitā  describes Him as the original person ( govindam ādi-puruṣam ). He is the cause of all causes, whether at the beginning, at the end or in the middle.
TEXT 37
श्वित्यादिभिरेष किलाघृतः 
  सप्तभिर्दशगुणोत्तरैरण्डकोशः । 
  यत्र पतत्यणुकल्पः 
  सद्वाण्डकोटिकोटिमिस्तदनन्तः ॥३७॥
kṣity-ādibhir eṣa kilāvṛtaḥ 
  saptabhir daśa-guṇottarair aṇḍa-kośaḥ 
  yatra pataty aṇu-kalpaḥ 
  sahāṇḍa-koṭi-koṭibhis tad anantaḥ
kṣiti-ādibhiḥ —by the ingredients of the material world, headed by earth;  eṣaḥ —this;  kila —indeed;  āvṛtaḥ —covered;  saptabhiḥ —seven;