Texts 32-33
yasyānubhūtiḥ kālena
layotpatty-ādināsya vai
svato ’nyasmāc ca guṇato
na kutaścana riṣyati
taṁ kleśa-karma-paripāka-guṇa-pravāhair
avyāhatānubhavam īśvaram advitīyam
prāṇādibhiḥ sva-vibhavair upagūḍham anyo
manyeta sūryam iva megha-himoparāgaiḥ
yasya — whose; anubhūtiḥ — awareness; kālena — caused by time; laya — by the destruction; utpatti — creation; ādinā — and so on; asya — of this (universe); vai — indeed; svataḥ — on its own; anyasmāt — due to some other agency; ca — or; guṇataḥ — in terms of its qualities; na — not; kutaścana — for any reason; riṣyati — becomes disrupted; tam — Him; kleśa — by material distresses; karma — material activities; paripāka — their consequences; guṇa — of the modes of nature; pravāhaiḥ — and by the constant flow; avyāhata — unaffected; anubhavam — whose consciousness; īśvaram — the supreme controller; advitīyam — who has no second; prāṇa — by the vital air; ādibhiḥ — and other (elements of the material body); sva — His own; vibhavaiḥ — expansions; upagūḍham — disguised; anyaḥ — someone else; manyeta — considers; sūryam iva — like the sun; megha — by clouds; hima — snow; uparāgaiḥ — and eclipses.
The Supreme Lord’s awareness is never disturbed by time, by the creation and destruction of the universe, by changes in its own qualities, or by anything else, whether self-caused or external. But although the consciousness of the Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme one without a second, is never affected by material distress, by the reactions of material work or by the constant flow of nature’s modes, ordinary persons nonetheless think that the Lord is covered by His own creations of prāṇa and other material elements, just as one may think that the sun is covered by clouds, snow or an eclipse.
Things of this world are inevitably destroyed by one means or another. Time itself causes the eventual decay of every created being — a fruit, for instance, which may grow ripe but then must either rot or be eaten. Some things, like lightning, destroy themselves as soon as they are manifested, while others are destroyed suddenly by external agents, as a clay pot is by a hammer. Even in living bodies and other things whose existence continues for some time, there is a constant flux of various qualities that are destroyed and replaced by others.
In contrast to all of this, the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s awareness is never disrupted by anything. Only out of ignorance could one imagine Him to be an ordinary human being subject to material conditions. Mortal beings are covered by their entanglement in fruitive activities and their consequent happiness and distress, but the Supreme Lord cannot be covered by what are in fact His own expansions. Analogously, the immense sun is the source of the relatively insignificant phenomena of clouds, snow and eclipses, and so it cannot be covered by them, though the ordinary observer may think that it is.