SB 8.16.30 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

नमोऽव्यक्ताय सूक्ष्माय प्रधानपुरुषाय च । चतुर्विंशद्गुणज्ञाय गुणसङ्ख्यानहेतवे ॥ ३० ॥

Verse text

namo ’vyaktāya sūkṣmāya pradhāna-puruṣāya ca catur-viṁśad-guṇa-jṣāya guṇa-saṅkhyāna-hetave

Synonyms

namaḥ — I offer my respectful obeisances unto You ; avyaktāya — who are never seen by material eyes ; sūkṣmāya — transcendental ; pradhāna — puruṣāya — the Supreme Person ; ca — also ; catuḥ — viṁśat — twenty-four ; guṇa — jṣāya — the knower of the elements ; guṇa — saṅkhyāna — of the sāṅkhya-yoga system ; hetave — the original cause .

Translation

I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, the Supreme Person. Being very subtle, You are never visible to material eyes. You are the knower of the twenty-four elements, and You are the inaugurator of the sāṅkhya-yoga system.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

I offer my respectful obeisances to the Lord who is invisible, fine, the Supreme Person, the knower of twenty-four qualities of the Vaiśeṣikas, the cause of the Sāṅkhya. Twenty-four qualities such as form are propounded by the Vaiśeṣika philosophers, or it can refer to the twenty-four elements of Sāṅkhya philosophy. You are the knower of this philosophy. You are the originator of the Sāṅkhya scriptures (guṇa-saṅkhāna-hetave).

Purport

Catur-viṁśad-guṇa, the twenty-four elements, are the five gross elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether), the three subtle elements (mind, intelligence and false ego), the ten senses (five for working and five for acquiring knowledge), the five sense objects, and contaminated consciousness. These are the subject matter of sāṅkhya-yoga, which was inaugurated by Lord Kapiladeva. This sāṅkhya-yoga was again propounded by another Kapila, but he was an atheist, and his system is not accepted as bona fide.