Text 30
ahaṁ payo jyotir athānilo nabho
mātrāṇi devā mana indriyāṇi
kartā mahān ity akhilaṁ carācaraṁ
tvayy advitīye bhagavan ayaṁ bhramaḥ
aham — myself (earth); payaḥ — water; jyotiḥ — fire; atha — and; anilaḥ — air; nabhaḥ — ether; mātrāṇi — the various sense objects (corresponding to each of the five gross elements); devāḥ — the demigods; manaḥ — the mind; indriyāṇi — the senses; kartā — “the doer,” false ego; mahān — the total material energy (mahat-tattva); iti — thus; akhilam — everything; cara — moving; acaram — and nonmoving; tvayi — within You; advitīye — who has no second; bhagavan — O Lord; ayam — this; bhramaḥ — illusion.
This is illusion: that earth, water, fire, air, ether, sense objects, demigods, mind, the senses, false ego and the total material energy exist independent of You. In fact, they are all within You, my Lord, who are one without a second.
The earth-goddess, in her prayers, directly touches upon the subtleties of transcendental philosophy, clarifying that although the Supreme Lord is unique and distinct from His creation, His creation has no independent existence and always rests within Him. Thus the Lord and His creation are simultaneously one and different, as explained by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu five hundred years ago.
To say that everything is God, without any distinction, is meaningless, since nothing can act like God. Dogs, shoes and human beings are hardly omnipotent or omniscient, nor do they create the universe. On the other hand, there is a real sense in which all things are one, for everything is part of the same supreme, absolute reality. Lord Caitanya has given the very useful analogy of the sun and the sun rays. The sun and its sunshine are one reality, for the sun is the celestial body that shines. On the other hand, one can certainly distinguish between the sun globe and the sun rays. Thus God’s simultaneous oneness with and difference from His creation is the final and satisfying explanation of reality. All that exists is the Lord’s potency, and yet He endows the superior potency, the living beings, with free will so that they can become responsible for the moral and spiritual quality of their decisions and activities.
This entire transcendental science is clearly and rationally explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.