Shloka 33
Daśa-lakṣaṇam: The Ten Topics, Virāṭ-Puruṣa Sense-Manifestation, and the Supreme Shelter (Āśraya)
एतद्भगवतो रूपं स्थूलं ते व्याहृतं मया । मह्यादिभिश्चावरणैरष्टभिर्बहिरावृतम् ॥ ३३ ॥
etad bhagavato rūpaṁ sthūlaṁ te vyāhṛtaṁ mayā mahy-ādibhiś cāvaraṇair aṣṭabhir bahir āvṛtam
ဤသို့ ငါသည် သင်အား ဘဂဝန်၏ ထူထဲသော (စထူလ) ရုပ်သဘောကို ဖော်ပြခဲ့သည်။ ၎င်းသည် မဟီ (မြေ) စသည့် အပြင်ဘက်မှ အဝရဏ ၈ ပါးဖြင့် ဖုံးလွှမ်းထားသည်။
As explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.4) , the separated material energy of the Personality of Godhead is covered by eight kinds of material coverings: earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and false ego. All these are emanations from the Personality of Godhead as His external energy. These coverings are just like the covering of clouds for the sun. The cloud is a creation of the sun, yet it actually covers the eyes so that one cannot see the sun. The sun cannot be covered by the clouds. The cloud can at utmost extend a few hundreds of miles in the sky, but the sun is far greater than millions of miles. So a hundred-mile covering is not competent to cover millions of miles. Therefore, one of the various energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot, of course, cover the Lord. But these coverings are created by Him to cover the eyes of the conditioned souls who want to lord it over the material nature. Actually the conditioned souls are covered by the illusory creative cloud of matter, and the Lord reserves the right of not being exposed to their eyes. Because they have no eyes of transcendental vision and because they cannot see the Personality of Godhead, they therefore deny the existence of the Lord and the transcendental form of the Lord. The covering of the gigantic material feature is accepted by such men with a poor fund of knowledge, and how this is so is explained in the following verse.
FAQs
This verse states that the Lord’s gross universal form is described as being externally covered by eight material layers beginning with earth.
In Canto 2’s cosmological teachings, Śukadeva explains the universal form to help Parīkṣit understand the Lord’s presence in creation and the structure of the cosmos as a step toward deeper realization.
Seeing the world as pervaded by the Lord fosters reverence, humility, and detachment—encouraging responsible living and steady devotion rather than material obsession.