Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.11.40

vikāraiḥ sahito yuktair

viśeṣādibhir āvṛtaḥ

āṇḍakośo bahir ayaḿ

pañcāśat-koṭi-vistṛtaḥ

SYNONYMS

vikāraiḥ — by the transformation of the elements; sahitaḥ — along with; yuktaiḥ — being so amalgamated; viśeṣa — manifestations; ādibhiḥ — by them; āvṛtaḥ — covered; āṇḍa-kośaḥ — the universe; bahiḥ — outside; ayam — this; pañcāśat — fifty; koṭi — ten million; vistṛtaḥ — widespread.

TRANSLATION

This phenomenal material world is expanded to a diameter of four billion miles, as a combination of eight material elements transformed into sixteen further categories, within and without, as follows.

PURPORT

As explained before, the entire material world is a display of sixteen diversities and eight material elements. The analytical studies of the material world are the subject matter of Sāńkhya philosophy. The first sixteen diversities are the eleven senses and five sense objects, and the eight elements are the gross and subtle matter, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego. All these combined together are distributed throughout the entire universe, which extends diametrically to four billion miles. Besides this universe of our experience, there are innumerable other universes. Some of them are bigger than the present one, and all of them are clustered together under similar material elements as described below.

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness