Bg. 16.8 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

असत्यमप्रतिष्ठं ते जगदाहुरनीश्वरम् । अपरस्परसम्भूतं किमन्यत्कामहैतुकम् ॥ ८ ॥

Verse text

asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśvaram aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ kim anyat kāma-haitukam

Synonyms

asatyam — unreal ; apratiṣṭham — without foundation ; te — they ; jagat — the cosmic manifestation ; āhuḥ — say ; anīśvaram — with no controller ; aparaspara — without cause ; sambhūtam — arisen ; kim anyat — there is no other cause ; kāma-haitukam — it is due to lust only.

Translation

They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

8. They say the world is false, without a foundation, without a creator, having arisen without cause. What else can be said? Its cause is just some speculation according to ones desire.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

8. They say the world is false, without a foundation, without a creator. It arises by innate properties of matter. It arises by lust alone.

Purport

The demonic conclude that the world is phantasmagoria. There is no cause and effect, no controller, no purpose: everything is unreal. They say that this cosmic manifestation arises due to chance material actions and reactions. They do not think that the world was created by God for a certain purpose. They have their own theory: that the world has come about in its own way and that there is no reason to believe that there is a God behind it. For them there is no difference between spirit and matter, and they do not accept the Supreme Spirit. Everything is matter only, and the whole cosmos is supposed to be a mass of ignorance. According to them, everything is void, and whatever manifestation exists is due to our ignorance in perception. They take it for granted that all manifestation of diversity is a display of ignorance, just as in a dream we may create so many things which actually have no existence. Then when we are awake we shall see that everything is simply a dream. But factually, although the demons say that life is a dream, they are very expert in enjoying this dream. And so, instead of acquiring knowledge, they become more and more implicated in their dreamland. They conclude that as a child is simply the result of sexual intercourse between man and woman, this world is born without any soul. For them it is only a combination of matter that has produced the living entities, and there is no question of the existence of the soul. As many living creatures come out from perspiration and from a dead body without any cause, the whole living world has come out of the material combinations of the cosmic manifestation. Therefore material nature is the cause of this manifestation, and there is no other cause. They do not believe in the words of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: “Under My direction the whole material world is moving.” In other words, among the demons there is no perfect knowledge of the creation of the world; every one of them has some particular theory of his own. According to them, one interpretation of the scriptures is as good as another, for they do not believe in a standard understanding of the scriptural injunctions.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

This verse describes the thinking process of the asuras. They say that the world is an illusory conception, based on falsity (asatyam); that it is without shelter (apratiṣṭha), not having even the basis of a flower in the sky; that it is without creatorship of a controller since it is false (anīśvaram). Because it has arisen from nowhere like entities from perspiration, it has not arisen from a cause (aparaspara-saṁbhūtam). What else can be said (kim anyat)? Its cause is just according to the desire of those who propound theories about it (kāma haitukam). If they can imagine that the world arises only by illusion, then that becomes the cause. Others explain the verse thus: It has no proof, no confirmation from the Vedas, Purāṇas or other sources of knowledge (asatyam). It is said: trayo vedasya kartāro bhaṇḍa-dhūrta-niśācarā The makers of the three Vedas are jackals imitating wise men. [Note: This is the philosophy of Cārvāka and others of the Lokāyata school. This is quoted by Śrīdhara Svāmī as well, but the source is not given.] It has no state of dharma or adharma (apratiṣṭham). The ideas of dharma and adharma are both mistaken conceptions. The Lord also is conceived on the basis of mistake or bhrama (anīśvaram). “It is observed that the world arises only from the mutual interactions of men and women.” This is not a fact. The world does not arise from their interaction (aparaspara-saṁbhūtam). Though it is said that the child arises from the mother and father, it is a mistaken idea, like false knowledge that the pot has arisen from the potter. What should be said? The cause of the world is simply a speculation of one’s whim (kāma-haitukam). By logic, whatever different persons speak about atoms, māyā or God, they talk of that as the cause.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

The Lord shows the conclusions of the demons. He speaks first of one soul (impersonal) philosophy. This world is false (asatyam), filled with error, like thinking shell is silver. The world has no basis (apratiṣṭham), like a flower in the sky. It has no God as a cause for its creation, maintenance and destruction (anīśvaraḥ). Being of this nature, it is just composed of an illusion. If there were a Supreme Lord within the world, the world He created would not be so ephemeral. Therefore they consider that the world must be false. This one soul without qualities, known by all sources of knowledge, because of error in knowledge, reflects itself through ignorance as another entity—in the form of the material world, the individual jīvas and the Lord. From the time of realizing ones real nature as the one soul, there is no contradiction, there is only oneness. Until that time of awakening, everything is like elephants, horses and chariots in a dream. In realizing ones true nature, what was imagined out of ignorance should disappear along with the notion of being a separate jīva, just as the chariots and horses disappear during deep sleep. The Lord then describes the theory of svabhāva or nature, advocated by the Buddhists. The world does not arise from the intercourse between men and women (aparaspara sambhūtam) or like a potter produces a pot (with intention), since the parents produce a child with lack of knowledge. Even after men and women enjoy one time only, children appear, and scorpions appear from sweat spontaneously. Thus creation takes place by its own nature, spontaneously, by natures inherent properties. The Lord describes the theory of the Lokāyatas (Carvaka). What more can be said? There is no purpose of the world except to fulfill lust. The lust between men and women alone is the cause of the world, being the motive for all action. Haitukam from hetu indicates some motive. Or the Jains say that is the cause is ones own will—whatever one can imagine according to his reasoning power, he will say that is the cause of the world.