Shloka 2
Sāṅkhya Enumeration of Tattvas, Distinction of Puruṣa–Prakṛti, and the Mechanics of Birth and Death
श्रीउद्धव उवाच कति तत्त्वानि विश्वेश सङ्ख्यातान्यृषिभि: प्रभो । नवैकादश पञ्च त्रीण्यात्थ त्वमिह शुश्रुम ॥ १ ॥ केचित् षड्विंशतिं प्राहुरपरे पञ्चविंशतिम् । सप्तैके नव षट् केचिच्चत्वार्येकादशापरे । केचित् सप्तदश प्राहु: षोडशैके त्रयोदश ॥ २ ॥ एतावत्त्वं हि सङ्ख्यानामृषयो यद्विवक्षया । गायन्ति पृथगायुष्मन्निदं नो वक्तुमर्हसि ॥ ३ ॥
śrī-uddhava uvāca kati tattvāni viśveśa saṅkhyātāny ṛṣibhiḥ prabho navaikādaśa pañca trīṇy āttha tvam iha śuśruma
ဥဒ္ဓဝက မေးလျှောက်သည်— အို ကမ္ဘာလောက၏ အရှင်၊ အရှင်ဘုရား! ရှေးမြတ်သော ရှိများက ဖန်ဆင်းခြင်း၏ တတ္တဝများကို ဘယ်နှစ်ပါးဟု ရေတွက်ထားပါသနည်း။ ကျွန်ုပ်သည် သင့်ထံမှ ကိုယ်တိုင် ၉၊ ၁၁၊ ၅ နှင့် ၃— စုစုပေါင်း ၂၈ တတ္တဝဟု ကြားနာခဲ့ပါသည်။ သို့သော် အချို့က ၂၆၊ အချို့က ၂၅; အချို့က ၇၊ ၉၊ ၆၊ ၄ သို့မဟုတ် ၁၁; ထို့ပြင် အချို့က ၁၇၊ ၁၆ သို့မဟုတ် ၁၃ ဟု ဆိုကြသည်။ ဤသို့ မတူညီစွာ ရေတွက်ရာတွင် ရှိတစ်ဦးချင်းစီ၏ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်က ဘာနည်း? အို အမြဲတမ်း အမြင့်ဆုံးသော အရှင်၊ ကျွန်ုပ်အား မေတ္တာဖြင့် ရှင်းပြပါ။
Lord Kṛṣṇa thoroughly explained in the previous chapter that Vedic knowledge is not meant for sense gratification but for liberation from material bondage. Now Uddhava presents some intermediate questions that must be answered so the path of liberation will be clear. Different philosophers have historically disagreed over the exact number of material elements, about the existence and nonexistence of particular external objects and about the existence of the soul itself. The jñāna-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas aims at liberation through analytic understanding of the material world and of the spirit soul as a transcendental element beyond matter. Ultimately the Supreme Lord Himself stands above all elements and maintains them by His personal potency. Uddhava mentions in numerical terms different methodologies of various sages, citing first the Lord’s own opinion. The word āyuṣman, or “possessing eternal form,” is significant in this regard. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is eternal, He possesses all knowledge of past, present and future and is thus the original and supreme philosopher.
FAQs
In 11.22 Uddhava notes that different sages enumerate different totals—such as 26, 25, 17, 16, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3—depending on the teaching purpose; he asks Kṛṣṇa to clarify the intended, reconciled understanding.
Because Vedic teachers present reality in different frameworks (Sāṅkhya-style enumerations) for different explanatory aims; Uddhava wants Kṛṣṇa to harmonize these listings into a clear, authoritative conclusion.
It teaches discernment: don’t get lost in competing counts or terminology—seek the underlying purpose and ask for the unifying principle, using philosophy as a tool to deepen realization and devotion rather than as mere debate.