Text 23] The Process of Creation 215
bhitair mahadbhir ya imah puro vibhur
nirmaya sete yadamiisu piirusah
bhunkte gunan sodasa sodasatmakah
so lankrsista bhagavan vacarsi me
bhiitaih—by the elements; mahadbhih—of material creation; yah—He
who; imah—all these; purah—bodies; vibhuh—of the Lord; nirma@ya—for
being set up; sete—lie down; yadamiisu—one who incarnated; piirusah—
Lord Visnu; bhuikte—causes to be subjected; gundn—the three modes of
nature; sodasa—in sixteen divisions; sodasatmakah—heing the generator of
these sixteen; sah—He; alanikrsista—may decorate; bhagavan—the Person-
ality of Godhead; vacarisi—statements; me—mine.
TRANSLATION
May the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who enlivens the materially
created bodies of the elements by lying down within the universe, and who
in His purusa incarnation causes the living being to be subjected to the
sixteen divisions of material modes which are his generator, be pleased to
decorate my statements.
PURPORT
Sukadeva Gosvami (unlike a mundane man who is proud of his own
capability) as a fully dependent devotee invokes the pleasure of the
Personality of Godhead so that his statements might be successful and so
that they might be appreciated by the hearers. The devotee always thinks
of himself as instrumental for anything successfully carried out, and he
declines to take credit for anything done by himself. The godless atheist
wants to take all credit for activities, without knowing that even a blade
of grass cannot move without the sanction of the Supreme Spirit, the
Personality of Godhead. Sukadeva Gosvami therefore wants to move by
the direction of the Supreme Lord, who inspired Brahma to speak the
Vedic wisdom. The truths described. in the Vedic literatures are neither
theories of mundane imagination nor are they ficticious, as the less intelli-
gent class of men sometimes think. The Vedic truths are all perfect
descriptions of the factual truth without any mistake or illusion, and
Sukadeva Gosvami wants to present the truths of creation not as a meta-
physical theory of philosophical speculation, but as the actual facts and
figures of the subject, since he would be dictated to by the Lord exactly in
