TEXT 33
yasminn asankhyeya-visesa-nama-
rupakrtau kavibhih kalpiteyam
sankhya yaya tattva-drsapaniyate
tasmai namah sankhya-nidarsanaya te iti
SYNONYMS
yasminin You (the Supreme Personality of Godhead); asankhyeyainnumerable; visesaparticular; namanames; rupaforms; akrtaupossessing bodily features; kavibhihby great learned persons; kalpitaimagined; iyamthis; sankhyanumber; yayaby whom; tattvaof the truth; drsaby knowledge; apaniyateis extracted; tasmaiunto Him; namahrespectful obeisances; sankhya-nidarsanayawho is the revealer of this numerical knowledge; teunto You; itithus.
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 Sankhya 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.
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 (bhutva bhutva praliyate) 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 Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita (9.10):
mayadhyaksena prakrtih
suyate sa-caracaram
hetunanena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate
This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, 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.

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