Devanagari
मैत्रेय उवाच
इत्युपस्थीयमानोऽसौ मुनिभिर्ब्रह्मवादिभि: ।
सलिले स्वखुराक्रान्त उपाधत्तावितावनिम् ॥ ४६ ॥
Verse text
maitreya uvāca
ity upasthīyamāno ’sau
munibhir brahma-vādibhiḥ
salile sva-khurākrānta
upādhattāvitāvanim
Synonyms
maitreyaḥ uvāca
—
the sage Maitreya said
;
iti
—
thus
;
upasthīyamānaḥ
—
being praised by
;
asau
—
Lord Boar
;
munibhiḥ
—
by the great sages
;
brahma
—
vādibhiḥ — by the transcendentalists
;
salile
—
on the water
;
sva
—
khura — ākrānte — touched by His own hooves
;
upādhatta
—
placed
;
avitā
—
the maintainer
;
avanim
—
the earth .
Translation
The sage Maitreya said: The Lord, being thus worshiped by all the great sages and transcendentalists, touched the earth with His hooves and placed it on the water.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Maitreya said: After being thus praised by the sages with Vedic words, the boar, the protector, placed the earth on the water which had been attacked by his hooves.
Being praised and served by the sages (upasthīyamānaḥ) the boar placed the earth on top of the water, which had been attacked by his hooves. This shows the bestowal of the supporting śakti to the earth. Avitā means protector.
Purport
The earth was placed on the water by His inconceivable potency. The Lord is all-powerful, and therefore He can sustain the huge planets either on the water or in the air, as He likes. The tiny human brain cannot conceive how these potencies of the Lord can act. Man can give some vague explanation of the laws by which such phenomena are made possible, but actually the tiny human brain is unable to conceive of the activities of the Lord, which are therefore called inconceivable. Yet the frog-philosophers still try to give some imaginary explanation.