Bhashya
देवाः प्राक्स्तुतिश्रवणेनात्यन्तहर्षिताः प्रजापतिमब्रुवन्—महाचक्रं नाम एतन्नामधेययुक्तं चक्रम्, यद्वा एतन्नामधेययु-क्तमेव चक्रं वर्तुलमुत्तराधरभावेन स्थितं सच्चतुष्टयाङ्गव्यापक-मन्त्राख्यमङ्गं नः अस्मभ्यं ब्रूहि भगवः भगवन्निति संबोधनम् ।सार्वकामिकं सर्वकामसाधनत्वात् सार्वकामिकम् , अथवा सर्वे-षां देवानां ब्रह्मादीनां व्यूहाः स्वात्मतयैव स्वभावतयैव कामितायस्मिंश्चक्रे नाभि वर्त्याद्यव्यूहेन तत्सार्वकामिकम् ।अत एवभिरूपं द्वादशाक्षरवेष्टनं सबिन्दुकमातृकाषोडशाक्षरस्य ना-भिरूपं सबिन्दुकाद्यमातृकाषोडशाक्षरवेष्टनं द्वात्रिंशदक्षरस्यनाभिः ततो द्वात्रिंशदक्षरवेष्टनम् असंस्पृष्टमनाभिरूपमेव इ-त्येवं सुदर्शननारायणवासुदेवषोडशारद्वात्रिंशदरचक्राणां य-थासंख्यं पञ्च नाभयः नाभीनामेवापेक्षया वेष्टनरूपतेत्याद्यःनाभिः मायाक्षररहितः उपरितनाः नाभयः अन्त्यं चवेष्टनं मायाक्षरेणेति तत्त्वार्थः ।नन्वेवं तर्हि अथशब्दस्यतत्र तत्र प्रयोगात्पूर्वचक्रसंस्पर्शात्पञ्चनाभिकानि पञ्च च-क्राणि पृथक्प्रयोज्यानि कस्मान्न परिगृह्यन्ते ।तथा च एक-चक्रत्वेऽप्यमायिनो भूतनाभिकल्पनायां वेष्टनव्यतिरिक्तप-ञ्चनाभिकल्पना कस्मान्न भवति ? अत्रोच्यते- 'महाचक्रंनाम चक्रं नो ब्रूहि' इत्युपक्रम्य 'तद्वा एतन्महाचक्रम्'इत्युपसंहारात् महाचक्रैकतावगमाच्च चक्रचतुष्टयं तदन्तर्गत-मेवेत्यवगम्यते ।तत्र तत्र अथशब्दप्रयोगस्तु तत्तच्चक्रोद्धारेमाङ्गलिकत्वप्रदर्शनार्थः ।तथा वेष्टनानां नाभिकल्पनायांप्रतिषेधाभावान् योग्यत्वाच्च कल्पनालाघवाच्च न पृथगुभेकल्पने इति ।यत्र कचिद्बहिःशब्दपूर्वको मायाशब्दःपठ्यते कचिद्विपरीतः तत्रायमभिप्रायः- यत्र मायाश-ब्दाद्बहि शब्दः पूर्वः तत्र मायाविशेषणं बहिर्भूतया माययाबहिर्मायया ।यत्र च मायाशब्दात्परः वेष्टनशब्दात्पूर्वः बहिःशब्दः तत्राविशिष्टया मायया तत्र बहिःशब्दो न मायाविशेषणम् , किंतु वेष्टनविशेषणम् ।माया हि द्विविधा नारसिंहमूलमन्त्रगता सबिन्दुकेकाररूपा निरुपदान्मायाशब्दात्प्रतीयते ; अन्या तु रेफहकाराभ्यां मिलितसबिन्दुकेकाररूपा सोपपदान्मायाशब्दात्प्रतीयते ।ततश्च मूलमन्त्राद्बहिर्भूतमायया ह्रींमित्येवंरूपया वेष्टितं भवतीति तत्त्वार्थः ।ततः सुदर्शनचक्रे मूलमन्त्रगतमायया वेष्टनं षोडशचक्रेऽप्येवमेव बहिःशब्दस्य वेष्टनात्पूर्वमुपादानात् वेष्टनविशेषणं बहिःशब्दो मध्यवेष्टनव्यावृत्त्यर्थः ।नारायणवासुदेवनारसिंहचक्रेषु व्याख्यातबहिर्मायया वेष्टनमिति वेष्टनचक्रोद्धारविवेकः ॥
In plain words
The gods, still glowing from the eulogy they had just heard, put the question directly: 'Tell us about this wheel called the Great Wheel.' The commentary pauses first over the name itself -- circular, layered one level above another, a single limb of ritual called 'mantra' that reaches through all four other limbs -- and then over 'universally desired': desired either because it grants any wish, or because every god's own emanation lives inside it, wanted the way you want your own self. Then the geometry gets precise, almost architectural. The twelve-syllable ring becomes the center-point of the next, sixteen-syllable ring; that ring becomes the center of the next, thirty-two-syllable ring -- each wheel nested inside the next like a set of frames, until the outermost ring simply stops: nothing sits at its center the way the others do. Five wheels, five centers, four of them made possible only because a smaller wheel sits inside them as their hub. And there is a rule about the veil of māyā too: the very first hub, the innermost point, has none of it. Every hub after that, and the last outer ring, carries māyā's letter. A student might reasonably ask: doesn't the text's habit of starting each new wheel with the word 'next' mean these are really five separate diagrams stitched together, not one? No, comes the answer -- the passage opens by naming one wheel and closes by naming that same one wheel; the four smaller rings live inside it, they don't stand apart from it. 'Next' is just marking a fresh start with a small blessing, not drawing a boundary. The subtlest turn is almost grammatical: sometimes the text says 'external māyā', sometimes 'māyā, external [to the encirclement]' -- word order that looks like a detail but carries real weight. Māyā itself comes in two forms: a bare seed-sound, the letter ī with its dot, and a fuller one -- ī joined with r and h, spelling out hrīṃ. Get the word order right, the commentary insists, and you can tell which veil is being described, and where exactly it is being wrapped.
Close to the Sanskrit
The gods, made exceedingly delighted by having heard the eulogy previously, said to Prajāpati: 'Tell us the wheel named Mahācakra' -- this wheel endowed with this particular name; or, this same wheel endowed with this name, circular, situated in an upper-lower relation, the real limb called 'mantra' pervading the fourfold set of limbs -- 'tell us'; 'bhagavaḥ' is a vocative address. '[The wheel that is] universally-desired' -- it is so called because it is the means of accomplishing every desire; or, because the emanations of all the gods beginning with Brahmā are desired, by their own nature, as identical with the self, and in the wheel in which they are placed by the group beginning at the hub -- hence it is universally-desired. For this very reason, the twelve-syllabled encirclement forms the hub-shape of the sixteen-syllabled [wheel] made of the alphabet-letters with the bindu; the sixteen-syllabled encirclement of the alphabet-letters beginning with the bindu forms the hub of the thirty-two-syllabled [wheel]; then the thirty-two-syllabled encirclement is untouched -- it alone is not in the form of a hub. Thus, of the Sudarśana, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, sixteen-spoked and thirty-two-spoked wheels, there are, respectively, five hubs; only with reference to the hubs is there this being-in-the-form-of-an-encirclement -- such is the relation; the first hub is devoid of the syllable of māyā; the later hubs, and the final encirclement, involve the syllable of māyā -- this is the true purport. Now, if so, then, because of the use of the word 'atha' here and there, owing to contact with the preceding wheel, why are the five wheels, each with its own hub, not taken as five separate wheels to be treated individually? And likewise, even though it is a single wheel, in conceiving a hub for each element that is not itself made of māyā, why is there no separate conception of five hubs distinct from the encirclements? Here it is replied: because of the opening 'Tell us the wheel named Mahācakra' and the closing 'This indeed is the Mahācakra', and from the understanding of the oneness of the Mahācakra, it is understood that the group of four wheels is included within that itself. The use of the word 'atha' here and there is merely for the purpose of showing auspiciousness at the drawing-out of each respective wheel. Likewise, since there is no prohibition, and because of appropriateness, and because of the economy of the conception, in conceiving hubs for the encirclements, the two conceptions are not made separately. Where, in some instance, the word 'māyā' is read preceded by the word 'bahiḥ', and in some instance the reverse, there this is the intended meaning: where the word 'bahiḥ' precedes the word 'māyā', there 'māyā' is qualified as that which has become external -- 'by the external māyā'. And where the word 'bahiḥ' comes after the word 'māyā' but before the word 'encirclement', there [it means] 'by the unqualified māyā' -- there the word 'bahiḥ' is not a qualifier of 'māyā' but rather a qualifier of 'encirclement'. For māyā is of two kinds: one, belonging to Narasiṃha's root mantra, in the form of the letter 'ī' with the bindu, is understood from the word 'māyā' without any accompanying word; the other, in the form of the letter 'ī' with the bindu joined with 'r' and 'h', is understood from the word 'māyā' with an accompanying word. And so, it is enveloped, external to the root mantra, by the māyā in the form of 'hrīṃ' -- this is the true purport. Therefore, in the Sudarśana wheel, the encirclement is by the māyā belonging to the root mantra; in the sixteen[-spoked] wheel it is just so as well -- since the word 'bahiḥ' is taken before the word 'encirclement', 'bahiḥ' is a qualifier of 'encirclement', serving the purpose of distinguishing it from the middle encirclement. In the Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva and Narasiṃha wheels, the encirclement by the external māyā has already been explained. This is the discernment regarding the drawing-out of the encircling wheels.