Text 11) Fundamental Principles of Material Nature 1077

that is called pradhana. Pradhana is not the time element because in the
time element there are actions and reactions, creation and annihilation.
Nor is it the jiva or marginal potency of living entities, or designated,
conditioned living entities, because the designations of the living entities
are not eternal. One adjective used in this connection is nitya, which
indicates eternality. Therefore the condition of material nature immedi-
ately previous to its manifestation is called pradhana.

TEXT 11

qaf: qafiaa aaficafiern |
caaatratas: aot anarfre fag: eeu

pancabhih pancabhir brahma
caturbhir dasabhis tatha

etac catur-vimsatikam
ganam pradhanikam viduh

paficabhih—with the five (gross elements); paficabhih—the five (subtle
elements); brahma—Brahman; caturbhih—the four (internal senses);
dasgabhith—the ten (five senses for gathering knowledge and five organs of
action); tathé—in that way; etat—this; catuh-virmsatikam—consisting of
twenty-four elements; ganam—aggregate; pradhanikam—comprising the
pradhana; viduh—they know.

TRANSLATION

The aggregate elements, namely the five gross elements, the five subtle
elements, the four internal senses, the five senses for gathering knowledge
and the five outward organs of action, are known as the pradhana.

PURPORT

According to Bhagavad-gita, the sum total of the twenty-four elements
described herein is called the yonir mahad-brahma. The sum total
of the living entities is impregnated in this yonir mahad-brahma, and they
are born in different forms, beginning from Brahma down to the
insignificant ant. In the Srimad-Bhdgavatam and other Vedic literatures,
the sum total of the twenty-four elements, pradhana, is also described as
yonir mahad-brahma; it is the source of the birth and subsistence of all
living entities.
