Devanagari
मैत्रेय उवाच
गुणव्यतिकराकारो निर्विशेषोऽप्रतिष्ठित: ।
पुरुषस्तदुपादानमात्मानं लीलयासृजत् ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
maitreya uvāca
guṇa-vyatikarākāro
nirviśeṣo ’pratiṣṭhitaḥ
puruṣas tad-upādānam
ātmānaṁ līlayāsṛjat
Synonyms
maitreyaḥ uvāca
—
Maitreya said
;
guṇa
—
vyatikara — of the interactions of the modes of material nature
;
ākāraḥ
—
source
;
nirviśeṣaḥ
—
without diversity
;
apratiṣṭhitaḥ
—
unlimited
;
puruṣaḥ
—
of the Supreme Person
;
tat
—
that
;
upādānam
—
instrument
;
ātmānam
—
the material creation
;
līlayā
—
by pastimes
;
asṛjat
—
created .
Translation
Maitreya said: Eternal time is the primeval source of the interactions of the three modes of material nature. It is unchangeable and limitless, and it works as the instrument of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for His pastimes in the material creation.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Maitreya said: Time, whose true nature is known through the interactions of the guṇas, is without particulars attributes and has no beginning or end. The Supreme Lord created the universe, which has time as its efficient cause, as a pastime.
Time, knowledge of whose nature (ākāraḥ) arises from transformation of the guṇas into mahat-tattva and other elements, is without specific qualities and is without beginning and end. By its cause, creation and destruction take place. Upādānam means “what is accepted as a cause” from the verb upādā (to receive). The Lord created the universe which is called himself (ātmānam) since it is a result of his śakti, in which time acts as the efficient cause (tad-upādānam).
Purport
The impersonal time factor is the background of the material manifestation as the instrument of the Supreme Lord. It is the ingredient of assistance offered to material nature. No one knows where time began and where it ends, and it is time only which can keep a record of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material manifestation. This time factor is the material cause of creation and is therefore a self-expansion of the Personality of Godhead. Time is considered the impersonal feature of the Lord.
The time factor is also explained by modern men in various ways. Some accept it almost as it is explained in the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
For example, in Hebrew literature time is accepted, in the same spirit, as a representation of God. It is stated therein: “God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. . . .” Metaphysically, time is distinguished as absolute and real. Absolute time is continuous and is unaffected by the speed or slowness of material things. Time is astronomically and mathematically calculated in relation to the speed, change and life of a particular object. Factually, however, time has nothing to do with the relativities of things; rather, everything is shaped and calculated in terms of the facility offered by time. Time is the basic measurement of the activity of our senses, by which we calculate past, present and future, but in factual calculation, time has no beginning and no end. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that even a slight fraction of time cannot be purchased with millions of dollars, and therefore even a moment of time lost without profit must be calculated as the greatest loss in life. Time is not subject to any form of psychology, nor are the moments objective realities in themselves, but they are dependent on particular experiences.
Therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī concludes that the time factor is intermixed with the activities — actions and reactions — of the external energy of the Lord. The external energy, or material nature, works under the superintendence of the time factor as the Lord Himself, and that is why material nature appears to have produced so many wonderful things in the cosmic manifestation.
Bhagavad-gītā
(9.10)
confirms this conclusion as follows:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
sūyate sa-carācaram
hetunānena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate