SB 8.1.12

SB 8.1.12

Devanagari

न यस्याद्यन्तौ मध्यं च स्व: परो नान्तरं बहि: । विश्वस्यामूनि यद् यस्माद् विश्वं च तद‍ृतं महत् ॥ १२ ॥

Verse text

na yasyādy-antau madhyaṁ ca svaḥ paro nāntaraṁ bahiḥ viśvasyāmūni yad yasmād viśvaṁ ca tad ṛtaṁ mahat

Synonyms

na neither ; yasya of whom (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) ; ādi a beginning ; antau end ; madhyam middle ; ca also ; svaḥ own ; paraḥ others ; na nor ; antaram inside ; bahiḥ outside ; viśvasya of the whole cosmic manifestation ; amūni all such considerations ; yat whose form ; yasmāt from He who is the cause of everything ; viśvam the whole universe ; ca and ; tat all of them ; ṛtam truth ; mahat very, very great .

Translation

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning, no end and no middle. Nor does He belong to a particular person or nation. He has no inside or outside. The dualities found within this material world, such as beginning and end, mine and theirs, are all absent from the personality of the Supreme Lord. The universe, which emanates from Him, is another feature of the Lord. Therefore the Supreme Lord is the ultimate truth, and He is complete in greatness.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

He has no beginning, middle or end. He does not consider that anything belongs to him or to anyone else. He has no inside and no outside. From him arise the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe. He is the form of the universe. He is the permanent truth with eternal form, the perfect Brahman. This verse explains the pervasive feature of the Lord. From the Lord (yasmāt) the creation, maintenance and destruction (amūni) arise. His form is the universe (yat viśvam). Because he is permanent, he is truth (ṛtam) and the perfect Brahman (mahat). This describes the eternal nature of the Lord’s form.

Purport

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.1) : īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam “Kṛṣṇa, known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.” For the Lord’s existence there is no cause, for He is the cause of everything. He is in everything ( mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam ), He is expanded in everything, but He is not everything. He is acintya-bhedābheda, simultaneously one and different. That is explained in this verse. In the material condition we have a conception of beginning, end and middle, but for the Supreme Personality of Godhead there are no such things. The universal cosmic manifestation is also the virāṭ-rūpa that was shown to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore, since the Lord is present everywhere and all the time, He is the Absolute Truth and the greatest. He is complete in greatness. God is great, and how He is great is explained here.