Devanagari
यमाहुरस्य स्थितिजन्मसंयमंत्रिभिर्विहीनं यमनन्तमृषय:
न वेद सिद्धार्थमिव क्वचित्स्थितंभूमण्डलं मूर्धसहस्रधामसु॒ ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
yam āhur asya sthiti-janma-saṁyamaṁ
tribhir vihīnaṁ yam anantam ṛṣayaḥ
na veda siddhārtham iva kvacit sthitaṁ
bhū-maṇḍalaṁ mūrdha-sahasra-dhāmasu
Synonyms
yam
—
whom
;
āhuḥ
—
they said
;
asya
—
of the material world
;
sthiti
—
the maintenance
;
janma
—
creation
;
saṁyamam
—
annihilation
;
tribhiḥ
—
these three
;
vihīnam
—
without
;
yam
—
which
;
anantam
—
unlimited
;
ṛṣayaḥ
—
all the great sages
;
na
—
not
;
veda
—
feels
;
siddha
—
artham — a mustard seed
;
iva
—
like
;
kvacit
—
where
;
sthitam
—
situated
;
bhū
—
maṇḍalam — the universe
;
mūrdha
—
sahasra — dhāmasu — on the hundreds and thousands of hoods of the Lord .
Translation
Lord Śiva continued: All the great sages accept the Lord as the source of creation, maintenance and destruction, although He actually has nothing to do with these activities. Therefore the Lord is called unlimited. Although the Lord in His incarnation as Śeṣa holds all the universes on His hoods, each universe feels no heavier than a mustard seed to Him. Therefore, what person desiring perfection will not worship the Lord?
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The sages say that he is the cause of maintenance, creation and destruction of the universe, that he is without material guṇas, and that he is unlimited. He does not even feel the universe situated on his thousands of hoods, since it is like a mustard seed.
This verse describes the Lord as the cause of the universe. He is the cause of maintenance, creation and destruction and is devoid of the three guṇas. He is called unlimited because of his knowledge of the tattvas. He (subject yaḥ should be supplied) does not know the universe is situated on his hoods. Ṛ means the mother of the devatās. Ṝṣayaḥ thus means “the sages and the mothers of the devatās.” He does not know the universe which is situated somewhere on one of his hoods. Because he is situated below bhū-manḍala measuring 493,400,000 yojanas, his hoods are not wide enough to hold it. However persons situated there can see that by his inconceivable energy, his hoods become unlimited in dimension, and thus Bhū-maṇḍala appears like a mustard seed. That is actual, not an illusion. This is an example of his astonishing unlimited nature just mentioned.
Purport
The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead known as Śeṣa or Ananta has unlimited strength, fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation. As described in this verse, Ananta’s strength is so great that the innumerable universes rest on His hoods. He has the bodily features of a snake with thousands of hoods, and since His strength is unlimited, all the universes resting on His hoods feel no heavier than mustard seeds. We can just imagine how insignificant a mustard seed is on the hood of a serpent. In this connection, the reader is referred to
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā,
Chapter Five, verses 117-125. There it is stated that Lord Viṣṇu’s incarnation as the serpentine Ananta Śeṣa Nāga supports all the universes on His hoods. By our calculation, a universe may be very, very heavy, but because the Lord is
ananta
(unlimited), He feels the weight to be no heavier than a mustard seed.