Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.40.11
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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sattvam rajaḥ tamaḥ
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goodness, passion, ignorance
The three guṇas. Gītā 14 treats them in detail; Akrūra collapses the whole prakṛti-doctrine into a single line and credits them to Bhagavān's prakṛti, not to an independent matter.
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prākṛtāḥ
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creatures of nature
From prakṛti. Both ordinary and 'natural' — every being born of prakṛti is prākṛta. Gauḍīyas use the same word in opposition to aprākṛta — the transcendental, never-touched-by-prakṛti realm of Vraja.
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protāḥ
—
woven through
Past participle from pra + √ve (to weave). The guṇas are not external chains but warp and weft of the conditioned being — Gītā 7.7: mayi sarvam idaṁ protam.
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ā-brahma sthāvara-ādayaḥ
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from Brahmā down to the immobile beings
Compound: ā (up to) + brahmā (Brahmā) + sthāvara (immobile) + ādi (etc.). The full range of bound jīvas. The verse universalizes the predicament so the rescue of verse 28 can be universalized too.
If that is so, then why does not everyone worship me.? "The jivas are all bound by the gunas. If even Brahma is bewildered by maya, then what to speak of all the humans? How can they worship you?"
“How can you say that all paths lead to me? Why do they not lead to me from the beginning?” Your śakti called prakṛti is composed of sattva, rajas and tamas. The bodies from Brahmā to trees enter into these guṇas and the guṇas enter prakṛti. Prakṛti enters you. Thus gradually, giving up the devatās, the worshippers attain you since following the path of the Vedas naturally purifies them. Or, since Brahmā and others are bound by the guṇas, they cannot exist without you. In this way you are all the devatās (sarva-deva-māyāḥ). Bewildered by illusion, they do not worship you.
The order of sattva, rajas and tamas follows the order of the worshippers mentioned. Or the order is according to devatās, humans and animals mentioned later. All beings are strung in the guṇas (teṣu) because they are related to prakṛti (prākṛtāḥ). Though the Lord becomes Brahmā for creation, and becomes visible, being an avatāra of the Lord according to Viṣṇu Purāṇa, this statement is for the unrefined. According to Skanda Purāṇa, in some mahākalpas a jīva becomes Brahmā. Or “Why do they not serve me directly?” They are bewildered by your māyā. From highest to lowest they are all bewildered.
Three coloured ropes — white, red, black — bind the entire universe from Brahmā at the top of the wheel to a blade of grass at the rim. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are Kṛṣṇa's prakṛti, and only His mercy (māṁ eva ye prapadyante, Gītā 7.14) loosens the knot.
In SB 10.13 and 10.14, Brahmā confesses he too is a creature of the guṇas — though seated highest, still bound. He bows to baby Kṛṣṇa in Vraja and says even his own creatorship is a borrowed function from the unbound Lord.
Akrūra's verse 11 echoes this: ā-brahma-sthāvara-ādayaḥ — from Brahmā to a clump of grass, the same three ropes; only the lengths differ.
My note
Source: vedabase.io