SB 11.19.14 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

नवैकादश पञ्च त्रीन् भावान् भूतेषु येन वै । ईक्षेताथैकमप्येषु तज्ज्ञानं मम निश्चितम् ॥ १४ ॥

Verse text

navaikādaśa paṣca trīn bhāvān bhūteṣu yena vai īkṣetāthaikam apy eṣu taj jṣānaṁ mama niścitam

Synonyms

nava — nine ; ekādaśa — eleven ; paṣca — five ; trīn — and three ; bhāvān — elements ; bhūteṣu — in all living beings (from Lord Brahmā down to the immovable living entities) ; yena — by which knowledge ; vai — certainly ; īkṣeta — one may see ; atha — thus ; ekam — one element ; api — indeed ; eṣu — within these twenty-eight elements ; tat — that ; jṣānam — knowledge ; mama — by Me ; niścitam — is authorized .

Translation

I personally approve of that knowledge by which one sees the combination of nine, eleven, five and three elements in all living entities, and ultimately one element within those twenty-eight.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

I personally approve of that knowledge by which one sees the combination of nine, eleven, five and three elements in all living entities, and ultimately one element within those twenty-eight. The nine are prakṛti, jīva, mahat-tattva, ahaṅkāra, and the five tan-mātras. The eleven are the eleven senses. The five are the five gross elements. The three are the three guṇas. I approve that knowledge by which one sees these twenty-eight elements in all beings from Brahmā to the plants, which are their products, and by which one sees Paramātmā in all the twenty-eight elements. That is knowledge by which, after seeing the world made of cause and effect, one sees the world as non-different from the supreme cause.

Purport

The nine elements are material nature, the living entity, the mahat-tattva, false ego, and the five objects of sense perception, namely sound, touch, form, taste and aroma. The eleven elements are the five working senses (the voice, hands, legs, anus and genitals) plus the five knowledge-acquiring senses (the ears, touch, eyes, tongue and nostrils), along with the coordinative sense, the mind. The five elements are the five physical elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and sky, and the three elements are the three modes of material nature — goodness, passion and ignorance. All living entities, from mighty Lord Brahmā down to an insignificant weed, manifest material bodies composed of these twenty-eight elements. The one element within all twenty-eight is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul, who is all-pervading within the material and spiritual worlds. One can easily understand that the material universe is composed of innumerable causes and effects. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes, all secondary causes and their effects are ultimately nondifferent from the Personality of Godhead. This understanding constitutes real knowledge, or jṣāna, which is essential for perfecting one’s life.