Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 21 Verse 32

Canto 3: The Status Quo | Chapter 21: Conversation Between Manu and Kardama

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.21.32

sahāhaḿ svāḿśa-kalayā

tvad-vīryeṇa mahā-mune

tava kṣetre devahūtyāḿ

praṇeṣye tattva-saḿhitām

SYNONYMS

saha — with; aham — I; sva-aḿśa-kalayā — My own plenary portion; tvat-vīryeṇa — by your semen; mahā-mune — O great sage; tava kṣetre — in your wife; devahūtyām — in Devahūti; praṇeṣye — I shall instruct; tattva — of the ultimate principles; saḿhitām — the doctrine.

TRANSLATION

O great sage, I shall manifest My own plenary portion through your wife, Devahūti, along with your nine daughters, and I shall instruct her in the system of philosophy that deals with the ultimate principles or categories.

PURPORT

Herein the word svāḿśa-kalayā indicates that the Lord would appear as the son of Devahūti and Kardama Muni as Kapiladeva, the first propounder of the Sāńkhya philosophy, which is mentioned here as tattva-saḿhitā. The Lord foretold to Kardama Muni that He would appear in His incarnation Kapiladeva and would propagate the philosophy of Sāńkhya. Sāńkhya philosophy is very well known in the world as propagated by another Kapiladeva, but that Sāńkhya philosophy is different from the Sāńkhya which was propounded by the Lord Himself. There are two kinds of Sāńkhya philosophy: one is godless Sāńkhya philosophy, and the other is godly Sāńkhya philosophy. The Sāńkhya propagated by Kapiladeva, son of Devahūti, is godly philosophy.

There are different manifestations of the Lord. He is one, but He has become many. He divides Himself into two different expansions, one called kalā and the other vibhinnāḿśa. Ordinary living entities are called vibhinnāḿśa expansions, and the unlimited expansions of viṣṇu-tattva, such as Vāmana, Govinda, Nārāyaṇa, Pradyumna, Vāsudeva and Ananta, are called svāḿśa-kalā. Svāḿśa refers to a direct expansion, and kalā denotes an expansion from the expansion of the original Lord. Baladeva is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa, and from Baladeva the next expansion is Sańkarṣaṇa; thus Sańkarṣaṇa is kalā, but Baladeva is svāḿśa. There is no difference, however, among Them. This is very nicely explained in the Brahma-saḿhitā (5.46): dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya. With one candle one may light a second candle, with the second a third and then a fourth, and in this way one can light up thousands of candles, and no candle is inferior to another in distributing light. Every candle has the full potential candlepower, but there is still the distinction that one candle is the first, another the second, another the third and another the fourth. Similarly, there is no difference between the immediate expansion of the Lord and His secondary expansion. The Lord's names are considered in exactly the same way; since the Lord is absolute, His name, His form, His pastimes, His paraphernalia and His quality all have the same potency. In the absolute world, the name Kṛṣṇa is the transcendental sound representation of the Lord. There is no potential difference between His quality, name, form, etc. If we chant the name of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, that has as much potency as the Lord Himself. There is no potential difference between the form of the Lord whom we worship and the form of the Lord in the temple. One should not think that one is worshiping a doll or statue of the Lord, even if others consider it to be a statue. Because there is not potential difference, one gets the same result by worshiping the statue of the Lord or the Lord Himself. This is the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness