SB 03.26.42 kasayo madhuras tiktah... cited

Expressions researched:
"bhautikanam vikarena" |"kasayo madhuras tiktah" |"katv amla iti naikadha" |"rasa eko vibhidyate"

SB Canto 3

SB 3.26.42, Translation:

Although originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other substances.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.26.42 -- Bombay, January 17, 1975:

Nitāi: "Although originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other substances."

Prabhupāda:

kaṣāyo madhuras tiktaḥ

kaṭv amla iti naikadhā

bhautikānāṁ vikāreṇa

rasa eko vibhidyate

(SB 3.26.42)

Rasa, taste, is one, but it becomes varieties by different combination of bhautikānām, material elements. This is chemistry. Chemistry means mixing of different chemicals and produce another element. Just like soap. Soap is mixture of fat and soda. So fat, oil, is something else, and soda is another thing, but if you carefully mix them together, it becomes soap. So the whole world is the mixture of these five elements: kṣitir āp... Fire, water... Tejo-vāri-mṛd-vinimayaḥ. The Sanskrit word is tejo-vāri-mṛd-vinimayaḥ. Mṛd means this earth, and tejas means fire, and vāri means water. You take earth mixed with water and put it into the fire; it becomes brick. Then you take another mixture; that becomes cement. And take the help of cement and take the help of brick; then construct a house.

Lecture on SB 3.26.42 -- Bombay, January 17, 1975:

The blunt scientists, they are seeing, simply prakṛti is the cause of these varieties. But that is not the fact. The fact is it is the Kṛṣṇa's manipulation, mixture, mixing of the elements, and different varieties are coming out. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Śrūyate. You cannot see how Kṛṣṇa is handling, but śrūyate, you can understand from the śruti, by the Vedic literature, as it is said here.

kaṣāyo madhuras tiktaḥ

kaṭv amla iti naikadhā

bhautikānāṁ vikāreṇa

raso eko vibhidyate

Bhautikānāṁ vikāreṇa. Just like earth, water, fire, air, they are bhautika. But they are not mixing together. The original, I mean to say, manipulator is Kṛṣṇa. Just like we have got experience, I have given just now experience, that oil is there. Suppose oil is acid, and soda is called alkali. The acid is there, alkali is there, but when a person comes, mix it proportionately, it becomes another product: soap. Similarly, everything is being manufactured like that, but how it is done? That is the expert handling of the Supreme Lord. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). He has got multi-energies, subtle laws, and He is working. But still, He has nothing to do Himself. That is God. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. Although He is handling... He is doing everything. Otherwise how it is possible? We have got experience. There is oil, and there is alkali, or soda, but they are not mixing together. For mixing together, you require another, living energy. Otherwise, automatically, there cannot be soap. The soap factory is there, but the manufacturer is also there.