ekas tvam eva jagad etam amuṣya yat tvam

ekas tvam eva jagad etam amuṣya yat tvam

ādy-antayoḥ pṛthag avasyasi madhyataś ca

sṛṣṭvā guṇa-vyatikaraṁ nija-māyayedaṁ

nāneva tair avasitas tad anupraviṣṭaḥ

You alone are the universe. You are perceived to be different from the universe with a beginning, middle and end, having created it by transformations of the guṇas. By your māyā, you are perceived as the creator, maintainer and destroyer, because of the guṇas. 

The protection of the devotees who are beyond the guṇas, by you who are beyond the guṇas, is also beyond the guṇas. The creation, maintenance and destruction of the material universe are accomplished by you, who are unaffected. The universe is you, since you are its cause.  

 

You are seen by the intelligent to be different from the universe with beginning, middle and end. Why do people not see this? Having created this universe made of transformations of the guṇas by your māyā, which is different from your svarūpa-śakti, you enter it. Because of the guṇas, you are perceived as the destroyer, protector or creator (nānā). Actually however tamoguṇa is the destroyer, sattvaguṇa is the maintainer, and rajoguṇa is the creator, since you enter while remaining untouched by the guṇas. You are designated as the destroyer, creator and maintainer, but you are not.

 

|| 7.9.31 ||

tvaṁ vā idaṁ sad-asad īśa bhavāṁs tato 'nyo

māyā yad ātma-para-buddhir iyaṁ hy apārthā

yad yasya janma nidhanaṁ sthitir īkṣaṇaṁ ca

tad vaitad eva vasukālavad aṣṭi-tarvoḥ

O Lord! You are the universe and its effect and the cause, and you are also different, since the conception of self and other, which is illusory, is a product of ignorance. The Lord from whom creation and manifestation arise, which maintenance and destruction take place, and the universe itself, are like the seed and the tree, or fragrance and earth.

“Though the universe is māyā, since māyā is my śakti, if there is irregularity in the world, will that not mean irregularity in me?” It is true that you are the effect (sat) and the cause (asat) of the universe since you are the cause of pradhāna. The universe is not different from you. But you are different (anyaḥ) since you do not have beginning and end. But the conception that “this is my friend and this is my enemy” is ignorance (māyā), made of the jīva’s ignorance. This is false (apārthāḥ). Having shown that the cause is not different from the effect, an example is given to defeat the idea that the Lord has defects if the universe has defects. That from which creation and manifestation take place, that in which destruction and maintenance take place, is like the seed of the tree. The seed is the cause and the tree is the effect. Vasu refers to the sense object and kāla refers to the earth since the normal color of earth is black (kāla). The cause and effect or the seed and the tree are like the smell and the earth. Thus the universe with cause and effect has the Supreme Lord and pradhāna. The meaning is this. From smell comes earth. From the seed comes the tree. From the Lord comes pradhāna. From pradhāna comes mahat-tattva. From this come the devatās, animals and others. Just as the one sense object fragrance contains all cause and effects (products of earth), you alone are the cause and effect of all beings.

 

tad ananyatvam ārambhaṇa-śabdādibhyaḥ

The world is non-different from the Lord (tat). This is stated starting from the word ārambhaṇa in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Vedānta-sūtra 2.1.14

 

vācārambhaṇaṁ vikāro nāmadheyaṁ mṛttikety eva satyam

 

The name comes from the object called “clay” just as objects made of clay come from clay. The clay is real and the objects are real. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.2.1

 

Just as there is no inequality of fragrance, the cause of earth, though there is inequality in the material objects like stone and wood made of earth, there is no inequality in the Lord, though there is inequality in the world produced by him.

|| 7.9.32 ||