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TEXT 20 prakrtim purusam caiva
SYNONYMS  prakrtim--material
nature; purusam--living entities; ca--also; eva--certainly;
viddhi--must know; anadi--without beginning; ubhau--both;
api--also; vikaran--transformations; ca--also; gunan--three
modes of nature; ca--also; eva--certainly; viddhi--know;
prakrti--material nature; sambhavan--produced of.
TRANSLATION Material
nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless.
Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material
nature.
PURPORT By this knowledge,
the body, the field of activities and the knowers of the body (both the
individual soul and the Supersoul) can be known. The body is the field
of activity and is composed of material nature. It is the individual soul
which is embodied. Enjoying the activities of the body is the purusa,
or the living entity. He is one knower, and the other is the Supersoul.
Of course, it is to be understood that both the Supersoul and the individual
entity are different manifestations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The living entity is in the category of His energy, and the Supersoul is
in the category of His personal expansion.
Both material
nature and the living entity are eternal. That is to say that they existed
before the creation. The material manifestation is from the energy of the
Supreme Lord and so also are the living entities, but they are of the superior
energy. Both of them existed before this cosmos was manifested. Material
nature was absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Maha-Visnu,
and when it was required, it was manifested by the agency of mahat-tattva.
Similarly, the living entities are also in Him, and because they are conditioned,
they are averse to serving the Supreme Lord. Thus they are not allowed
to enter into the spiritual sky. After the winding up of material nature,
these living entities are again given a chance to act in the material world
and prepare themselves to enter into the spiritual world. That is the mystery
of this material creation. Actually the living entity is originally the
spiritual part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, but due to his rebellious
nature, he is conditioned within material nature. It really does not matter
how these living entities or superior entities of the Supreme Lord have
come in contact with material nature. The Supreme Personality of Godhead
knows, however, how and why this actually took place. In the scriptures
the Lord says that those attracted by this material nature are undergoing
a hard struggle for existence. But we should know it with certainty from
the descriptions of these few verses that all the transformations and influences
of material nature by the three modes are also productions of material
nature. All transformations and variety in respect to living entities are
due to the body. As far as spirit is concerned, living entities are all
the same.
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