Text 33] Bhagavatam is the Answer 587

TEXT 33
CARTAN SF Fs I Med AT |
PAC Cun circ. EET

etad bhagavato ripam
sthitlam te vyahrtam maya

mahy-adibhis cavaranair
astabhir bahir adurtam

etat—all these; bhagavatah—of the Personality of Godhead; ripam—form;
sthiilam—gross; te—unto you; vyahrtam—explained; maya—by me; mahi—
the planets; ddibhih—et cetera; ca—unlimitedly; avaranaih—by coverings:
astabhih—by eight; bahih—external; avrtam—covered.

TRANSLATION

Thus by all this, the external feature of the Personality of Godhead is
covered by gross forms of planets, et cetera, which were explained to you

by me.
PURPORT

As explained in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 7.4) the separated material
energy of the Personality of Godhead is covered by eight kinds of mate-
rial coverings: namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and
false ego. All these are emanations from the Personality of Godhead as
His external energy. These coverings are just like the covering of clouds
for the sun. The cloud is a creation of the sun, yet it actually covers the
eyes so that one cannot see the sun. The sun cannot be covered by the
clouds. The cloud can at utmost extend a few hundreds of miles in the
sky, but the sun is far greater than millions of miles. So a hundred-mile
covering is not competent to cover millions of miles. Therefore, one of
the various energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot, of
course, cover the Lord. But these coverings are created by Him to cover
the eyes of the conditioned souls who want to lord it over the material
nature. Actually the conditioned souls are covered by the illusory creative
cloud of matter, and the Lord reserves the right of not being exposed to
