1076 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 3, Ch. 26
TEXT 10
AT ATATT
qafermerh fad acaarcnny |
5 e AN
mad vate aterfrart fraeaq oll
Sri bhagavan uvaca
yat tat tr-gunam avyaktamn
nityam sad-asad-atmakam
pradhanam prakrtim prahur
avisesam visesavat
$rt bhagavan uvaca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; yat— now
further; tat—that; trigunam—combination of the three modes; avyaktam—
unmanifested; nityam—eternal; sat-asat-atmakam—consisting of cause and
effect; pradhanam—the pradhana; prakrtim—prakrti; prahuh—they call;
avisesam—undifferentiated; visesa-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 pradhana. It is called prakrti when in the manifested stage of
existence.
PURPORT
The Lord points out material nature in its subtle stage, which is called
pradhana, and He analyzes this pradhana. The explanation of pradhana
and prakrti is that pradhana 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 prakrti. Impersonalists say that
Brahman is without variegatedness and without differentiation. One may
say that pradhana is the Brahman stage, but actually the Brahman stage is
not pradhana. Pradhana 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 pradhana because in the mahat-
tattva there are manifestations. The actual explanation of pradhana, how-
ever, is given here: when the cause and effect are not clearly manifested
(avyaktam), the reaction of the total elements does not take place, and
