Shloka 4
Sāṅkhya Enumeration of Tattvas, Distinction of Puruṣa–Prakṛti, and the Mechanics of Birth and Death
श्रीभगवानुवाच युक्तं च सन्ति सर्वत्र भाषन्ते ब्राह्मणा यथा । मायां मदीयामुद्गृह्य वदतां किं नु दुर्घटम् ॥ ४ ॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca yuktaṁ ca santi sarvatra bhāṣante brāhmaṇā yathā māyāṁ madīyām udgṛhya vadatāṁ kiṁ nu durghaṭam
သခင်ကృష్ణက ဖြေကြားသည်— ရုပ်ဝတ္ထုတတ္တဝများသည် နေရာတိုင်းတွင် ရှိနေသဖြင့် ပညာရှိ ဘြာဟ္မဏများက မတူညီသည့် နည်းလမ်းများဖြင့် ခွဲခြမ်းသုံးသပ်ခြင်းသည် သင့်လျော်သည်။ ထိုဒဿနပညာရှင်တို့သည် ငါ၏ မာယာ-သိဒ္ဓိအာဏာ၏ အရိပ်အောက်တွင် ပြောဆိုခဲ့ကြသဖြင့် အမှန်တရားကို မဆန့်ကျင်ဘဲ မည်သည့်အရာမဆို ပြောနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
The words santi sarvatra in this verse indicate that all material elements are found within each other in gross and subtle forms. In this way there are innumerable ways to categorically describe them. The material world is ultimately illusory, undergoing constant transformation. It may be measured in different ways, just as the mirage of an oasis may be described in different ways, but the Lord’s own analysis of twenty-eight elements is perfect and should be accepted. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī states that the word māyā in this verse does not refer to mahā-māyā, or the potency of ignorance, but to the Lord’s inconceivable mystic power, which shelters the learned followers of Vedic knowledge. Each of the philosophers mentioned here reveals a particular aspect of truth, and their theories are not contradictory, since they are simply describing the same phenomena with different categorical systems. Such philosophical disagreement is endless within the material world; thus everyone should unite on the platform of the Lord’s own opinion, as stated in this verse. Similarly, in Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa requests all conditioned souls to give up their various forms of worship and surrender unto Him in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becoming His devotees. Thus the whole universe can be united in love of Godhead by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. By the Lord’s revealing Himself to a sincere devotee, the controversy of analytic philosophy is ended.
FAQs
In this verse, Krishna implies that by invoking His māyā, people can produce many seemingly logical explanations—showing that māyā can make even contradictory ideas appear reasonable.
Krishna is teaching Uddhava discernment: since arguments and learned speech exist everywhere, one must not be misled by mere logic, because māyā can make anything sound explainable.
Do not accept claims only because they sound intellectual; test them against sādhana, scripture, and saintly guidance, remembering that persuasive reasoning can also be shaped by illusion.