On Me all things are strung, as rows of pearls upon a thread
The famous 'pearls on a thread' simile (sutre mani-gana iva) reveals each translator's cosmology. Arnold poeticizes it as 'rows of pearls upon a thread' -- pure Victorian ornament. Wilkins, the first English translator, renders 'precious gems upon a string,' importing the mercantile sensibility of 18th-century British India. Telang stays scholarly with 'numbers of pearls upon a thread,' while Swarupananda gives 'a row of jewels on a thread,' preserving the Advaitic emphasis that the thread (Brahman) is the real substance, not the decorative gems. The deeper doctrinal split lies in para/apara prakriti: Arnold romanticizes it as 'lower nature' versus 'the life of lives,' Swarupananda uses the technical 'Prakriti' untranslated, and Wilkins gives 'inferior/superior nature' -- each framing differently whether matter and spirit are two substances or one.
Entering the Bhakti path, Krishna reveals his higher and lower natures. All of creation — earth, water, fire, air, mind — is his lower nature. But his higher nature is the life-force sustaining everything. He is the thread on which all things are strung, like pearls on a string.
A beloved image of divine immanence — Krishna as the invisible thread connecting all of existence.
