Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.85.15
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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guṇa-pravāhe
—
in the flow of the modes
Compound: guṇa (mode) + pravāha (current, stream). The world is not static — it is a moving current of guṇas. The jīva is being carried; only Bhagavān is the bank.
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akhila-ātmanaḥ
—
of the Soul of all
Compound: akhila (entire) + ātman (Self). Bhagavān is the Self of every self — a strong Paramātmā claim. The abudhā miss this not because it is hidden but because they refuse the relationship it implies.
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gatim sūkṣmām
—
the subtle goal
Gati = destination; sūkṣmā = subtle, fine. Bhagavān is the actual telos of every jīva's journey, but the goal is sūkṣma — invisible to gross perception, requiring devotional vision.
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abudhāḥ
—
the ignorant
From a- + budh (to know). Not lacking information but lacking the bodha that recognizes the Person. Gauḍīyas: real knowledge is bhagavat-tattva-vijñāna, and its absence is the only relevant ignorance.
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saṁsaranti
—
they wander in the cycle of birth and death
From sam + √sṛ. Saṁsāra-cycling is the natural consequence of abodha — not a punishment, but a structural outcome of failing to recognize the destination.
A soul who forgets his true identity as a servant of God is sent to this world to be imprisoned in a succession of material bodies. Wrongly identifying himself with these bodies, such a conditioned soul suffers the consequent distress of karmic action and reaction. Vasudeva, as a compassionate Vaiṣṇava, laments for the suffering conditioned souls, whose unhappiness, the result of ignorance, can be remedied by knowledge of the principles of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Therefore by ignorance of the subtle movements described above of you, the soul of all, in this flow of repeated births (guna pravahe), they take birth repeatedly in this world by their actions.
Those who do not know your position in relation to matter are bound in saṁsāra. Vasudeva laments their position. bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devate ātmā For the jīva averse to the Lord, there will be saṁsāra consisting of identity with body and lack of identity with the soul, because of his absorption in the material coverings on the soul, arising from the Lord’s māyā. Therefore, the intelligent person, taking guru as his Lord and very self, should fully worship the Lord with pure bhakti. SB 11.2.37 Apart from the normal interpretation there is another meaning of the verse. In spite of the fact that rivers of your qualities (guṇa-pravāhe) like mercy exist which can be realized by all beings, just by surrendering, those who are ignorant of attaining you, who are the object of surrender (gatim) for all jīvas, but are hard to comprehend by one’s own efforts (sūkṣmam), undergo saṁsāra by karma.
“Since the causes of saṁsāra are actually false, and saṁsāra itself is false, why does one experience various sufferings in saṁsāra?” It is because of ignorance of ātmā. In this world (guṇa-pravāhe) the unintelligent undergo saṁsāra in this world (iha), because of ignorance of your shelter. Why? The influence of the world is continuous. The word tu indicates that intelligent persons do not undergo saṁsāra. O perfect Lord (akhila)! Your devotees, even if unintelligent, do not undergo saṁsāra Or the verse explains how the jīva is ignorant of the Lord. Though there is abundance of your qualities like mercy, experienced by all directly just by a little surrender, not knowing you, the shelter of all the jīvas, who are hard to understand by one’s own endeavor (sūkṣmām), the ignorant undergo saṁsāra. Or not knowing the truth difficult to understand by logic (sūkṣmām), about you, the antaryāmī, the soul of all beings (akhilātmanaḥ), the ignorant undergo saṁsāra.
- What 'flow' am I currently caught in that distracts me from the source?
- Where could a single moment of recognition replace hours of analysis?
A fish swept along the current of a river that has no banks visible — that is the soul who fails to recognize Bhagavān as the destination. Without the lighthouse of His Person, the guṇa-flow simply pushes the jīva from one birth to the next.
Ajāmila (SB 6.1–3) spent decades absorbed in sense-life, forgetting that Bhagavān is the gati of all gatis. He was about to be dragged off by the Yamadūtas when, calling for his son Nārāyaṇa, the holy name involuntarily turned him toward the true destination.
Vasudeva names exactly the disease Ajāmila almost died of — abodha, ignorance of where the stream is going. Mercy alone interrupts the current.
My note
Source: vedabase.io