Devanagari
गुणप्रवाह एतस्मिन्नबुधास्त्वखिलात्मन: ।
गतिं सूक्ष्मामबोधेन संसरन्तीह कर्मभि: ॥ १५ ॥
Verse text
guṇa-pravāha etasminn
abudhās tv akhilātmanaḥ
gatiṁ sūkṣmām abodhena
saṁsarantīha karmabhiḥ
Synonyms
guṇa
—
of the material modes
;
pravāhe
—
in the flow
;
etasmin
—
this
;
abudhāḥ
—
those who are ignorant
;
tu
—
but
;
akhila
—
of everything
;
ātmanaḥ
—
of the Soul
;
gatim
—
the destination
;
sūkṣmām
—
sublime
;
abodhena
—
because of their lack of understanding
;
saṁsaranti
—
they move through the cycle of birth and death
;
iha
—
in this world
;
karmabhiḥ
—
forced by their material activities .
Translation
They are truly ignorant who, while imprisoned within the ceaseless flow of this world’s material qualities, fail to know You, the Supreme Soul of all that be, as their ultimate, sublime destination. Because of their ignorance, the entanglement of material work forces such souls to wander in the cycle of birth and death.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
They are truly ignorant who, while imprisoned within the ceaseless flow of this world's material qualities, fail to know You, the Supreme Soul of all that be, as their ultimate, sublime destination. Because of their ignorance, the entanglement of material work forces such souls to wander in the cycle of birth and death.
KB 10.85.15
Vasudeva said, “This material world is like a great flowing river, and its waves are the three material modes of nature—goodness, passion and ignorance. This material body, as well as the senses, the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing and the stages of distress, happiness, attachment and lust—all are different products of these three qualities of nature. The foolish person who cannot realize Your transcendental identity above all these material reactions continues in the entanglement of fruitive activity and is subjected to the continuous process of birth and death, without a chance of being freed.”
This is confirmed in a different way by the Lord in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. There it is said that anyone who knows the appearance and activities of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is freed from the clutches of material nature and goes back home, back to Godhead. Therefore Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental name, form, activities and qualities are not products of this material nature.
Purport
A soul who forgets his true identity as a servant of God is sent to this world to be imprisoned in a succession of material bodies. Wrongly identifying himself with these bodies, such a conditioned soul suffers the consequent distress of karmic action and reaction. Vasudeva, as a compassionate Vaiṣṇava, laments for the suffering conditioned souls, whose unhappiness, the result of ignorance, can be remedied by knowledge of the principles of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Therefore by ignorance of the subtle movements described above of you, the soul of all, in this flow of repeated births (guna pravahe), they take birth repeatedly in this world by their actions.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Those who do not know your position in relation to matter are bound in saṁsāra. Vasudeva laments their position.
bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād
īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ
tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ
bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devate ātmā
For the jīva averse to the Lord, there will be saṁsāra consisting of identity with body and lack of identity with the soul, because of his absorption in the material coverings on the soul, arising from the Lord’s māyā. Therefore, the intelligent person, taking guru as his Lord and very self, should fully worship the Lord with pure bhakti. SB 11.2.37
Apart from the normal interpretation there is another meaning of the verse. In spite of the fact that rivers of your qualities (guṇa-pravāhe) like mercy exist which can be realized by all beings, just by surrendering, those who are ignorant of attaining you, who are the object of surrender (gatim) for all jīvas, but are hard to comprehend by one’s own efforts (sūkṣmam), undergo saṁsāra by karma.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
“Since the causes of saṁsāra are actually false, and saṁsāra itself is false, why does one experience various sufferings in saṁsāra?” It is because of ignorance of ātmā. In this world (guṇa-pravāhe) the unintelligent undergo saṁsāra in this world (iha), because of ignorance of your shelter. Why? The influence of the world is continuous. The word tu indicates that intelligent persons do not undergo saṁsāra. O perfect Lord (akhila)! Your devotees, even if unintelligent, do not undergo saṁsāra
Or the verse explains how the jīva is ignorant of the Lord. Though there is abundance of your qualities like mercy, experienced by all directly just by a little surrender, not knowing you, the shelter of all the jīvas, who are hard to understand by one’s own endeavor (sūkṣmām), the ignorant undergo saṁsāra. Or not knowing the truth difficult to understand by logic (sūkṣmām), about you, the antaryāmī, the soul of all beings (akhilātmanaḥ), the ignorant undergo saṁsāra.