Display
Devanagari is shown only when this page stored it. Harvard-Kyoto and ASCII are generated from the IAST verse.
Vanisource / Original texts
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.26
Save this passage to keep a private note on this device. Notes are not sent to Vedawiki.
Cite
Source navigation
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 26
- pātālam etasya hi pāda-mūlaṁ
- paṭhanti pārṣṇi-prapade rasātalam
- mahātalaṁ viśva-sṛjo 'tha gulphau
- talātalaṁ vai puruṣasya jaṅghe
pātālamthe planets at the bottom of the universe — the planets at the bottom of the universe; etasyaof His — of His; hiexactly — exactly; pādasoles of the feet-mūlamsoles of the feet — soles of the feet; paṭhantithey study it — they study it; pārṣṇithe heels — the heels; prapadethe toes — the toes; rasātalamthe planets named Rasātala — the planets named Rasātala; mahātalamthe planets named Mahātala — the planets named Mahātala; viśvaof the creator of the universe-sṛjaḥof the creator of the universe — of the creator of the universe; athathus — thus; gulphauthe ankles — the ankles; talātalamthe planets named Talātala — the planets named Talātala; vaias they are — as they are; puruṣasyaof the gigantic person — of the gigantic person; jaṅghethe shanks — the shanks.
Persons who have realized it have studied that the planets known as Pātāla constitute the bottoms of the feet of the universal Lord, and the heels and the toes are the Rasātala planets. The ankles are the Mahātala planets, and His shanks constitute the Talātala planets.
Outside the bodily existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the manifested cosmic existence has no reality. Everything and anything of the manifested world rests on Him, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (BG 9.4, Not yet available in the library. Try the live source.), but that does not imply that everything and anything in the vision of a materialist is the Supreme Personality. The conception of the universal form of the Lord gives a chance to the materialist to think of the Supreme Lord, but the materialist must know for certain that his visualization of the world in a spirit of lording over it is not God realization. The materialistic view of exploitation of the material resources is occasioned by the illusion of the external energy of the Lord, and as such, if anyone wants to realize the Supreme Truth by conceiving of the universal form of the Lord, he must cultivate the service attitude. Unless the service attitude is revived, the conception of virāṭ realization will have very little effect on the seer. The transcendental Lord, in any conception of His form, is never a part of the material creation. He keeps His identity as Supreme Spirit in all circumstances and is never affected by the three material qualities, for everything material is contaminated. The Lord always exists by His internal energy.
The universe is divided into fourteen planetary systems. Seven planetary systems, called Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janas, Tapas and Satya, are upward planetary systems, one above the other. There are also seven planetary systems downward, known as Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Pātāla, gradually, one below the other. In this verse, the description begins from the bottom because it is in the line of devotion that the Lord's bodily description should begin from His feet. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is a recognized devotee of the Lord, and he is exactly correct in the description.