Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.21
यथोर्णनाभिर्हृदयादूर्णां सन्तत्य वक्त्रत: ।
तया विहृत्य भूयस्तां ग्रसत्येवं महेश्वर: ॥ २१ ॥
yathorṇanābhir hṛdayād
[yathornanaabhir hridayaad]
ūrṇāṁ santatya vaktrataḥ
[oornaam santatya vaktratah]
tayā vihṛtya bhūyas tāṁ
[tayaa vihritya bhooyas taam]
grasaty evaṁ maheśvaraḥ
[grasaty evam maheshvarah]
Word-for-word
yathā
—
just as
ūrna-nābhiḥ
—
the spider
hṛdayāt
—
from within himself
ūrṇām
—
thread
santatya
—
expanding
vaktrataḥ
—
from his mouth
tayā
—
with that thread
vihṛtya
—
enjoying
bhūyaḥ
—
again
tām
—
that thread
grasati
—
he swallows
evam
—
in the same way
mahā-īśvaraḥ
—
the Supreme Lord.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
yathorṇanābhir hṛdayād
yathā
just as
ūrṇāṁ santatya vaktrataḥ
ūrna-nābhiḥ
the spider
tayā vihṛtya bhūyas tāṁ
hṛdayāt
from within himself
ūrṇām
thread
grasaty evaṁ maheśvaraḥ
santatya
expanding
vaktrataḥ
from his mouth
tayā
with that thread
vihṛtya
enjoying
bhūyaḥ
again
tām
that thread
grasati
he swallows
evam
in the same way
mahā-īśvaraḥ
the Supreme Lord.
Just as from within himself the spider expands thread through his mouth, plays with it for some time and eventually swallows it, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands His personal potency from within Himself. Thus, the Lord displays the network of cosmic manifestation, utilizes it according to His purpose and eventually withdraws it completely within Himself.
Purport
One who is intelligent obtains spiritual knowledge even from an insignificant creature like the spider. Thus, transcendental knowledge is visible everywhere for one whose eyes are opened in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
Just as from within himself the spider expands thread through his mouth, plays with it for some time and eventually swallows it, similarly, the Supreme Lord produces the universe and then withdraws it.
Ūrnanābhiḥ means a spider. The spider produces a thread from its mouth, and after playing (vihṛtya), withdraws it.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Like the spider spinning, playing with, and reabsorbing its thread, Kṛṣṇa expands, sustains, and withdraws this cosmos from His own potency — so see Him behind every appearance.
Practical Applications
- Pause once today before a screen, a meal, or a conversation and consciously trace it back to Kṛṣṇa as the source from whom it has been 'spun out.'
- When something pleasant is taken from you, refuse the story of loss and remember the spider — what came from Him is simply being withdrawn into Him.
- Take one 'insignificant' creature or object you encounter today and let it teach you about Kṛṣṇa, the way Prabhupāda says the spider does.
Reflection Questions
- Which strands of my life do I treat as self-generated and permanently mine, forgetting that the same Lord who expanded them will also withdraw them?
- Where are my eyes still closed to the transcendental knowledge that the purport says is 'visible everywhere' — what ordinary thing have I refused to learn from?
For Each Age Group
youth
- Before posting or scrolling today, pause for one breath and remember that the whole feed — and you watching it — has been expanded from Kṛṣṇa and will be withdrawn into Him.
- When a friendship, a grade, or a relationship suddenly ends, resist the script that 'this was mine and now it's gone' and practice seeing it as a thread Kṛṣṇa has drawn back.
- Pick one small, ordinary thing on campus — an insect, a tree, a stranger — and treat it as a teacher today, as Prabhupāda says the spider was a teacher.
householder
- When you make a family or financial decision today, name out loud (even silently) that the resources, the spouse, and the children are expansions of His potency entrusted to you, not assets you spun yourself.
- When something in the household breaks, is lost, or a child outgrows a stage, practice the spider-vision: this strand is being withdrawn on His schedule, not stolen on yours.
- Use one mundane domestic task — cooking, cleaning, driving — as a meditation on how the Lord expands, sustains, and withdraws, and let that change how carefully you do the work.
senior
- Make a short list of the 'threads' of your life — career, home, roles, relationships — and acknowledge each one as something He spun out and is now, in time, drawing back.
- When the body, memory, or social standing shrinks, refuse to call it your annihilation; recognize the maheśvara quietly reabsorbing what He once expanded.
- Mentor someone younger today by pointing them, even briefly, toward an 'insignificant' creature or event as a source of transcendental knowledge — pass on the eyes, not just the words.
Common Pitfalls
- Reading the spider analogy impersonally, as if the universe is a self-spinning web, rather than the personal līlā of Kṛṣṇa with intent and direction.
- Using 'He will withdraw it all anyway' as a license for fatalism or carelessness instead of a call to engaged, detached service.
- Restricting 'spiritual knowledge' to scripture and gurus while ignoring the purport's point that an awakened devotee learns from even the smallest creature.
Discussion Prompts
- Share one concrete area of your life — work, relationship, possession — where you live as though you spun it, not Kṛṣṇa; do the others in the group see it the same way?
- The verse says He plays with the manifestation before withdrawing it; how does the word 'plays' sit with you when you think of suffering you have witnessed or endured?
- Prabhupāda says transcendental knowledge is visible everywhere to opened eyes — compare what each person in the group has actually learned this week from something 'insignificant.'
Role Play
One student has just lost something they valued — a job, a relationship, a project they built for years — and insists, "I made this, and it has been stolen from me." The other student, drawing only on this verse and its purport, must respond as a fellow practitioner: neither minimizing the pain nor abandoning the spider-image, helping their friend see the expansion-play-withdrawal of Kṛṣṇa in what has happened.
Objections & Responses
- This is just a poetic metaphor — modern cosmology explains the universe's origin and end without any spider or Lord.
The verse is not competing with cosmology about mechanism; it is naming the agent. Physics can describe how the thread is spun and withdrawn, but it cannot say from whom it issues or to whom it returns. The spider image insists that the cosmos is personal potency, not impersonal accident — and that claim is tested in a devotee's life, not in a telescope. - If Kṛṣṇa is going to swallow it all back anyway, why bother working, serving, or improving anything?
The spider does not stop spinning because it will later reabsorb the web; the play itself is meaningful to it. In the same way, our work matters not because its products are permanent but because, offered to Kṛṣṇa, it becomes part of His līlā. Detachment from the fruit is not indifference to the act — it is precisely what frees us to act fully.
My note
Source: vedabase.io