Text 11] Divisions of the Creation 393
maitreya uvaca
guna-vyatikarakaro
nirviseso ‘pratisthitah
purusas tad-upadanam
atmanam lilayasrjat

maitreyah uvaca—Maitreya said; guna-vyatikara—of the interactions of
the modes of material nature; a@k@rah—source; nirvisesah—without diversity ;
apratisthitah—unlimited; purusah—of the Supreme Person; tat—that;
upadanam—instrument; atmanam—the material creation; lilaya—by_pas-
times; asrjat—created.

TRANSLATION

Maitreya said: Eternal time is the primeval source of the interactions of
the three modes of material nature. It is unchangeable and limitless, and it
works as the instrument of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for His
pastimes in the material creation.

PURPORT

The impersonal time factor is the background of the material manifes-
tation as the instrument of the Supreme Lord. It is the ingredient of
assistance offered to material nature. No one knows where time began
and where it ends, and it is time only which can keep a record of the
creation, maintenance and destruction of the material manifestation. This
time factor is the material cause of creation and is therefore a Self-
expansion of the Personality of Godhead. Time is considered the
impersonal feature of the Lord.

The time factor is also explained by modern men in various ways. Some
accept it almost as it is explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. F or example,
in Hebrew literature time is accepted, in the same spiril, as a representation
of God. It is stated therein: “God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. . .”
Metaphysically, time is distinguished as absolute and real. Absolute time is
continuous and is unaffected by the speed or slowness of material things.
Time is astronomically and mathematically calculated in relation to the
speed, change and life of a particular object. Factually, however, time has
nothing to do with the relativities of things, but rather every thing is shaped
and calculated in terms of the facility offered by time. Time is the basic
measurement of the activity of our senses, by which we calculate past,
present and future; but in factual calculation, time has no beginning and
no end. Pandit Canakya says that even a slight fraction of time cannot be
