Devanagari
विकारै: सहितो युक्तैर्विशेषादिभिरावृत: ।
आण्डकोशो बहिरयं पञ्चाशत्कोटिविस्तृत: ॥ ४० ॥
Verse text
vikāraiḥ sahito yuktair
viśeṣādibhir āvṛtaḥ
āṇḍakośo bahir ayaṁ
paṣcāśat-koṭi-vistṛtaḥ
Synonyms
vikāraiḥ
—
by the transformation of the elements
;
sahitaḥ
—
along with
;
yuktaiḥ
—
being so amalgamated
;
viśeṣa
—
manifestations
;
ādibhiḥ
—
by them
;
āvṛtaḥ
—
covered
;
āṇḍa
—
kośaḥ — the universe
;
bahiḥ
—
outside
;
ayam
—
this
;
paṣcāśat
—
fifty
;
koṭi
—
ten million
;
vistṛtaḥ
—
widespread .
Translation
This phenomenal material world is expanded to a diameter of four billion miles, as a combination of eight material elements transformed into sixteen further categories, within and without, as follows.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Within the pore hole of Mahāviṣṇu, the universe composed of sixteen transformations and eight elements, measuring 500,000,000 yojanas, covered by seven layers of elements which are ten times thicker than the previous layer, appears like a paramāṇu. Millions of other universes also, within the Lord’s pores, appear small as well.
The Lord was described as the soul of the universe. Now he is described as covering the whole universe. Beginning with eight elements (five gross elements, mahat-tattva, ahaṅkāra and prakṛti) and sixteen transformations (ten senses, mind, five sense objects), the universe, covered by seven layers such as earth (bahiḥ viśeṣādibhiḥ), each ten times thicker than the previous layer appears very small. This is the case not only with one universe, but others as well.
Purport
As explained before, the entire material world is a display of sixteen diversities and eight material elements. The analytical studies of the material world are the subject matter of Sāṅkhya philosophy. The first sixteen diversities are the eleven senses and five sense objects, and the eight elements are the gross and subtle matter, namely earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego. All these combined together are distributed throughout the entire universe, which extends diametrically to four billion miles. Besides this universe of our experience, there are innumerable other universes. Some of them are bigger than the present one, and all of them are clustered together under similar material elements as described below.