SB 5.18.33 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

यस्मिन्नसङ्ख्येयविशेषनाम- रूपाकृतौ कविभि: कल्पितेयम् । सङ्ख्या यया तत्त्वद‍ृशापनीयते तस्मै नम: साङ्ख्यनिदर्शनाय ते इति ॥ ३३ ॥

Verse text

yasminn asaṅkhyeya-viśeṣa-nāma- rūpākṛtau kavibhiḥ kalpiteyam saṅkhyā yayā tattva-dṛśāpanīyate tasmai namaḥ sāṅkhya-nidarśanāya te iti

Synonyms

yasmin — in You (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) ; asaṅkhyeya — innumerable ; viśeṣa — particular ; nāma — names ; rūpa — forms ; ākṛtau — possessing bodily features ; kavibhiḥ — by great learned persons ; kalpitā — imagined ; iyam — this ; saṅkhyā — number ; yayā — by whom ; tattva — of the truth ; dṛśā — by knowledge ; apanīyate — is extracted ; tasmai — unto Him ; namaḥ — respectful obeisances ; sāṅkhya — nidarśanāya — who is the revealer of this numerical knowledge ; te — unto You ; iti — thus .

Translation

O my Lord, Your name, form and bodily features are expanded in countless forms. No one can determine exactly how many forms exist, yet You Yourself, in Your incarnation as the learned scholar Kapiladeva, have analyzed the cosmic manifestation as containing twenty-four elements. Therefore if one is interested in Sāṅkhya philosophy, by which one can enumerate the different truths, he must hear it from You. Unfortunately, nondevotees simply count the different elements and remain ignorant of Your actual form. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

I offer respects to the form of knowledge by which the countless forms imagined by the sages to be residing in you with your unlimited names, forms and species are removed. Since this universe is temporary, it is not considered valuable by the jṣānīs. The sages have counted many forms in you, having unlimited types of names, forms and kinds. I offer respects of the form of knowledge (saṅkhya-nidarśanāya), by which knowledge of tattva, the numerous manufactured forms are removed.

Purport

Philosophers and scientists have been trying to study the entire cosmic situation and have been theorizing and calculating in different ways for millions and millions of years. However, the speculative research work of a so-called scientist or philosopher is always interrupted when he dies, and the laws of nature go on without regard for his work. For billions of years changes take place in the material creation, until at last the whole universe is dissolved and remains in an unmanifested state. Constant change and destruction ( bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate ) is perpetually going on in nature, yet the material scientists want to study natural laws without knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the background of nature. As Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) : mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate “This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” Now the material creation is manifest, eventually it will be annihilated and remain for many millions of years in a dormant state, and finally it will again be created. This is the law of nature.