Text 22
avidyamāno ’py avabhāsate yo
vaikāriko rājasa-sarga eṣaḥ
brahma svayaṁ jyotir ato vibhāti
brahmendriyārthātma-vikāra-citram
avidyamānaḥ — actually not existing; api — although; avabhāsate — appears; yaḥ — which; vaikārikaḥ — manifestation of transformations; rājasa — of the mode of passion; sargaḥ — the creation; eṣaḥ — this; brahma — the Absolute Truth (on the other hand); svayam — established in Himself; jyotiḥ — luminous; ataḥ — therefore; vibhāti — becomes manifest; brahma — the Absolute Truth; indriya — of the senses; artha — their objects; ātma — the mind; vikāra — and of the transformations of the five gross elements; citram — as the variety.
Although thus not existing in reality, this manifestation of transformations created from the mode of passion appears real because the self-manifested, self-luminous Absolute Truth exhibits Himself in the form of the material variety of the senses, the sense objects, the mind and the elements of physical nature.
The total material nature, pradhāna, is originally undifferentiated and inert, but later it undergoes transformation when the Supreme Lord, through His time agent, glances upon it and activates the mode of passion. Material transformation thus takes place and is exhibited as the Lord’s inferior energy. In contrast, the Supreme Lord’s personal abode possesses eternal variety, which is the self-luminous, internal opulence of the Absolute Truth and is not subject to material creation, transformation or annihilation. The material world is in this way simultaneously one with and different from the Absolute Truth.