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tasya—His; api—certainly; drastuh—of the seer; isasya—of the controller; kuta-sthasya—of the one who is over everyone’s intelligence; akhila-atmanah—of the Supersoul; srjyam—that which is already created; srjami—do I discover; srstah—created; aham—myself; iksaya—by glance over; eva—exactly; abhicoditah—being inspired by Him.

Inspired by Him only, I discover what is already created by Him [Narayana] under His vision as the all-pervading Supersoul, and I also am created by Him only.

Even Brahma, the creator of the universe, admits that he is not the actual creator but is simply inspired by the Lord Narayana and therefore creates under His superintendence those things already created by Him, the Supersoul of all living entities. Two identities of soul, the Supersoul and the individual soul, are admitted to be in the living entity, even by the greatest authority of the universe. The Supersoul is the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, whereas the individual soul is the eternal servitor of the Lord. The Lord inspires the individual soul to create what is already created by the Lord, and by the good will of the Lord a discoverer of something in the world is accredited as the discoverer. It is said that Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere, but actually the tract of land was not created by Columbus. The vast tract of land was already there by the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord, and Columbus, by dint of his past service unto the Lord, was blessed with the credit of discovering America. Similarly, no one can create anything without the sanction of the Lord, since everyone sees according to his ability. This ability is also awarded by the Lord according to one’s willingness to render service unto the Lord. One must therefore be voluntarily willing to render service unto the Lord, and thus the Lord will empower the doer in proportion to his surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord. Lord Brahma is a great devotee of the Lord; therefore he has been empowered or inspired by the Lord to create such a universe as the one manifested before us. The Lord also inspired Arjuna to fight in the field of Kuruksetra as follows:

tasmat tvam uttistha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunksva rajyam samrddham
mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva
nimitta-matram bhava savyasacin

(Bg. 11.33)

The Battle of Kuruksetra, or any other battle at any place or at any time, is made by the will of the Lord, for no one can arrange such mass annihilation without the sanction of the Lord. The party of Duryodhana insulted Draupadi, a great devotee of Krsna, and she appealed to the Lord as well as to all the silent observers of this unwarranted insult. Arjuna was then advised by the Lord to fight and take credit; otherwise the party of Duryodhana would be killed anyway by the will of the Lord. So Arjuna was advised just to become the agent and take the credit for killing great generals like Bhisma and Karna.

In the Vedic writings such as the Katha Upanisad, the Lord is described as the sarva-bhuta-antaratma, or the Personality of Godhead who resides in everyone’s body and who directs everything for one who is a soul surrendered unto Him. Those who are not surrendered souls are put under the care of the material nature (bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya [Bg. 18.61]); therefore, they are allowed to do things on their own account and suffer the consequences themselves. Devotees like Brahma and Arjuna do not do anything on their own account, but as fully surrendered souls they always await indications from the Lord; therefore they attempt to do something which appears very wonderful to ordinary vision. One of the Lord’s names is Urukrama, or one whose actions are very wonderful and are beyond the imagination of the living being, so the actions of His devotees sometimes appear very wonderful due to the direction of the Lord. Beginning from Brahma, the topmost intelligent living entity within the universe, down to the smallest ant, every living entity’s intelligence is overseen by the Lord in His transcendental position as the witness of all actions. The subtle presence of the Lord is felt by the intelligent man who can study the psychic effects of thinking, feeling and willing.

SB2.5.18

TEXT 18

sattvam rajas tama iti

nirgunasya gunas trayah

sthiti-sarga-nirodhesu

grhita mayaya vibhoh

sattvam—the mode of goodness; rajah—the mode of passion; tamah—the mode of ignorance; iti—all these; nirgunasya—of the Transcendence; gunah trayah—are three qualities; sthiti—maintenance; sarga—creation; nirodhesu—in destruction; grhitah—accepted; mayaya—by the external energy; vibhoh—of the Supreme.

The Supreme Lord is pure spiritual form, transcendental to all material qualities, yet for the sake of the creation of the material world and its maintenance and annihilation, He accepts through His external energy the material modes of nature called goodness, passion and ignorance.

The Supreme Lord is the master of the external energy manifested by the three material modes, namely goodness, passion and ignorance, and as master of this energy He is ever unaffected by the influence of such bewildering energy. The living entities, the jivas, however, are affected by or susceptible to being influenced by such modes of material nature—that is the difference between the Lord and the living entities. The living entities are subjected by those qualities, although originally the living entities are qualitatively one with the Lord. In other words, the material modes of nature, being products of the energy of the Lord, are certainly connected with the Lord, but the connection is just like that between the master and the servants. The Supreme Lord is the controller of the material energy, whereas the living entities, who are entangled in the material world, are neither masters nor controllers. Rather, they become subordinate to or controlled by such energy. Factually the Lord is eternally manifested by His internal potency or spiritual energy just like the sun and its rays in the clear sky, but at times He creates the material energy, as the sun creates a cloud in the clear sky. As the sun is ever increasingly unaffected by a spot of cloud, so also the unlimited Lord is unaffected by the spot of material energy manifested at times in the unlimited span of the Lord’s rays of brahmajyoti.

SB2.5.19

TEXT 19

karya-karana-kartrtve

dravya-jnana-kriyasrayah

badhnanti nityada muktam

mayinam purusam gunah

karya—effect; karana—cause; kartrtve—in activities; dravya—material; jnana—knowledge; kriya-asrayah—manifested by such symptoms; badhnanti—conditions; nityada—eternally; muktam—transcendental; mayinam—affected by material energy; purusam—the living entity; gunah—the material modes.

These three modes of material nature, being further manifested as matter, knowledge and activities, put the eternally transcendental living entity under conditions of cause and effect and make him responsible for such activities.

Because they are between the internal and external potencies, the eternally transcendental living entities are called the marginal potency of the Lord. Factually, the living entities are not meant to be so conditioned by material energy, but due to their being affected by the false sense of lording it over the material energy, they come under the influence of such potency and thus become conditioned by the three modes of material nature. This external energy of the Lord covers up the pure knowledge of the living entity’s eternally existing with Him, but the covering is so constant that it appears that the conditioned soul is eternally ignorant. Such is the wonderful action of maya, or external energy manifested as if materially produced. By the covering power of the material energy, the material scientist cannot look beyond the material causes, but factually, behind the material manifestations, there are adhibhuta, adhyatma and adhidaiva actions, which the conditioned soul in the mode of ignorance cannot see. The adhibhuta manifestation entails repetitions of births and deaths with old age and diseases, the adhyatma manifestation conditions the spirit soul, and the adhidaiva manifestation is the controlling system. These are the material manifestations of cause and effect and the sense of responsibility of the conditioned actors. They are, after all, manifestations of the conditioned state, and the human being’s freedom from such a conditioned state is the highest perfectional attainment.

SB2.5.20

TEXT 20

sa esa bhagaval lingais

tribhir etair adhoksajah

svalaksita-gatir brahman

sarvesam mama cesvarah

sah—He; esah—this; bhagavan—the Personality of Godhead; lingaih—by the symptoms; tribhih—by the three; etaih—by all these; adhoksajah—the Superseer Transcendence; su-alaksita—veritably unseen; gatih—movement; brahman—O Narada; sarvesam—of everyone; mama—mine; ca—as also; isvarah—the controller.

O Brahmana Narada, the Superseer, the transcendent Lord, is beyond the perception of the material senses of the living entities because of the above-mentioned three modes of nature. But He is the controller of everyone, including me.

In the Bhagavad-gita (7.24–25) the Lord has declared very clearly that the impersonalist, who gives more importance to the transcendental rays of the Lord as brahmajyoti and who concludes that the Absolute Truth is ultimately impersonal and only manifests a form at a time of necessity, is less intelligent than the personalist, however much the impersonalist may be engaged in studying the Vedanta. The fact is that such impersonalists are covered by the above-mentioned three modes of material nature; therefore, they are unable to approach the transcendental Personality of the Lord. The Lord is not approachable by everyone because He is curtained by His yogamaya potency. But one should not wrongly conclude that the Lord was formerly unmanifested and has now manifested Himself in the human form. This misconception of the formlessness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is due to the yogamaya curtain of the Lord and can be removed only by the Supreme Will, as soon as the conditioned soul surrenders unto Him. The devotees of the Lord who are transcendental to the above-mentioned three modes of material nature can see the all-blissful transcendental form of the Lord with their vision of love in the attitude of pure devotional service.

SB2.5.21

TEXT 21

kalam karma svabhavam ca

mayeso mayaya svaya

atman yadrcchaya praptam

vibubhusur upadade

kalam—eternal time; karma—the fate of the living entity; svabhavam—nature; ca—also; maya—potency; isah—the controller; mayaya—by the energy; svaya—of His own; atman (atmani)—unto His Self; yadrcchaya—independently; praptam—being merged in; vibubhusuh—appearing differently; upadade—accepted for being created again.

The Lord, who is the controller of all energies, thus creates, by His own potency, eternal time, the fate of all living entities, and their particular nature, for which they were created, and He again merges them independently.

The creation of the material world, wherein the conditioned souls are allowed to act subordinately by the Supreme Lord, takes place again and again after being repeatedly annihilated. The material creation is something like a cloud in the unlimited sky. The real sky is the spiritual sky, eternally filled with the rays of the brahmajyoti, and a portion of this unlimited sky is covered by the mahat-tattva cloud of the material creation, in which the conditioned souls, who want to lord it against the will of the Lord, are put into play as they desire under the control of the Lord by the agency of His external energy. As the rainy season appears and disappears regularly, the creation takes place and is again annihilated under the control of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (8.19). So the creation and annihilation of the material worlds is a regular action of the Lord just to allow the conditioned souls to play as they like and thereby create their own fate of being differently created again in terms of their independent desires at the time of annihilation. The creation, therefore, takes place at a historical date (as we are accustomed to think of everything which has a beginning in our tiny experience). The process of creation and annihilation is called anadi, or without reference to date regarding the time the creation first took place, because the duration of even a partial creation is 8,640,000,000 years. The law of creation is, however, as mentioned in the Vedic literatures, that it is created at certain intervals and is again annihilated by the will of the Lord. The whole material or even the spiritual creation is a manifestation of the energy of the Lord, just as the light and heat of a fire are different manifestations of the fire’s energy. The Lord therefore exists in His impersonal form by such expansion of energy, and the complete creation rests on His impersonal feature. Nonetheless He keeps Himself distinct from such creation as the purnam (or complete), and so no one should wrongly think that His personal feature is not existent due to His impersonal unlimited expansions. The impersonal expansion is a manifestation of His energy, and He is always in His personal feature despite His innumerable unlimited expansions of impersonal energies (Bg. 9.5–7). For human intelligence it is very difficult to conceive how the whole creation rests on His expansion of energy, but the Lord has given a very good example in the Bhagavad-gita. It is said that although the air and the atoms rest within the huge expansion of the sky, which is like the resting reservoir of everything materially created, still the sky remains separate and unaffected. Similarly although the Supreme Lord maintains everything created by His expansion of energy, He always remains separate. This is accepted even by Sankaracarya, the great advocate of the impersonal form of the Absolute. He says narayanah paro ’vyaktat, or Narayana exists separately, apart from the impersonal creative energy. The whole creation thus merges within the body of transcendental Narayana at the time of annihilation, and the creation emanates from His body again with the same unchanging categories of fate and individual nature. The individual living entities, being parts and parcels of the Lord, are sometimes described as atma, qualitatively one in spiritual constitution. But because such living entities are apt to be attracted to the material creation, actively and subjectively, they are therefore different from the Lord.

SB2.5.22

TEXT 22

kalad guna-vyatikarah

parinamah svabhavatah

karmano janma mahatah

purusadhisthitad abhut

kalat—from eternal time; guna-vyatikarah—transformation of the modes by reaction; parinamah—transformation; svabhavatah—from the nature; karmanah—of activities; janma—creation; mahatah—of the mahat-tattva; purusa-adhisthitat—because of the purusa incarnation of the Lord; abhut—it took place.

After the incarnation of the first purusa [Karanarnavasayi Visnu], the mahat-tattva, or the principles of material creation, take place, and then time is manifested, and in course of time the three qualities appear. Nature means the three qualitative appearances. They transform into activities.

By the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord, the whole material creation evolves by the process of transformation and reactions one after another, and by the same omnipotency, they are wound up again one after another and conserved in the body of the Supreme. Kala, or time, is the synonym of nature and is the transformed manifestation of the principles of material creation. As such, kala may be taken as the first cause of all creation, and by transformation of nature different activities of the material world become visible. These activities may be taken up as the natural instinct of each and every living being, or even of the inert objects, and after the manifestation of activities there are varieties of products and by-products of the same nature. Originally these are all due to the Supreme Lord. The Vedanta-sutras and the Bhagavatam thus begin with the Absolute Truth as the beginning of all creations (janmady asya yatah [Bhag. 1.1.1]).

SB2.5.23

TEXT 23

mahatas tu vikurvanad

rajah-sattvopabrmhitat

tamah-pradhanas tv abhavad

dravya-jnana-kriyatmakah

mahatah—of the mahat-tattva; tu—but; vikurvanat—being transformed; rajah—the material mode of passion; sattva—the mode of goodness; upabrmhitat—because of being increased; tamah—the mode of darkness; pradhanah—being prominent; tu—but; abhavat—took place; dravya—matter; jnana—material knowledge; kriya-atmakah—predominantly material activities.

Material activities are caused by the mahat-tattva’s being agitated. At first there is transformation of the modes of goodness and passion, and later—due to the mode of ignorance—matter, its knowledge, and different activities of material knowledge come into play.

Material creations of every description are more or less due to the development of the mode of passion (rajas). The mahat-tattva is the principle of material creation, and when it is agitated by the will of the Supreme at first the modes of passion and goodness are prominent, and afterwards the mode of passion, being generated in due course by material activities of different varieties, becomes prominent, and the living entities are thus involved more and more in ignorance. Brahma is the representation of the mode of passion, and Visnu is the representation of the mode of goodness, while the mode of ignorance is represented by Lord Siva, the father of material activities. Material nature is called the mother, and the initiator for materialistic life is the father, Lord Siva. All material creation by the living entities is therefore initiated by the mode of passion. With the advancement of the duration of life in a particular millennium, the different modes act by gradual development. In the age of Kali (when the mode of passion is most prominent) material activities of different varieties, in the name of advancement of human civilization, take place, and the living entities become more and more involved in forgetting their real identity—the spiritual nature. By a slight cultivation of the mode of goodness, a glimpse of spiritual nature is perceived, but due to the prominence of the mode of passion, the mode of goodness becomes adulterated. Therefore one cannot transcend the limits of the material modes, and therefore realization of the Lord, who is always transcendental to the modes of material nature, becomes very difficult for the living entities, even though prominently situated in the mode of goodness through cultivation of the various methods. In other words, the gross matters are adhibhutam, their maintenance is adhidaivam, and the initiator of material activities is called adhyatmam. In the material world these three principles act as prominent features, namely as raw material, its regular supplies, and its use in different varieties of material creations for sense enjoyment by the bewildered entities.

SB2.5.24

TEXT 24

so ’hankara iti prokto

vikurvan samabhut tridha

vaikarikas taijasas ca

tamasas ceti yad-bhida

dravya-saktih kriya-saktir

jnana-saktir iti prabho

sah—the very same thing; ahankarah—ego; iti—thus; proktah—said; vikurvan—being transformed; samabhut—became manifested; tridha—in three features; vaikarikah—in the mode of goodness; taijasah—in the mode of passion; ca—and; tamasah—in the mode of ignorance; ca—also; iti—thus; yat—what is; bhida—divided; dravya-saktih—powers that evolve matter; kriya-saktih—initiation that creates; jnana-saktih—intelligence that guides; iti—thus; prabho—O master.

The self-centered materialistic ego, thus being transformed into three features, becomes known as the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance in three divisions, namely the powers that evolve matter, knowledge of material creations, and the intelligence that guides such materialistic activities. Narada, you are quite competent to understand this.

Materialistic ego, or the sense of identification with matter, is grossly self-centered, devoid of clear knowledge of the existence of God. And this self-centered egoism of the materialistic living entities is the cause of their being conditioned by the other paraphernalia and continuing their bondage of material existence. In the Bhagavad-gita this self-centered egoism is very nicely explained in the Seventh Chapter (verses 24 through 27). The self-centered impersonalist, without a clear conception of the personality of Godhead, concludes in his own way that the personality of Godhead takes a material shape from His original impersonal spiritual existence for a particular mission. And this misleading conception of the Supreme Lord by the self-centered impersonalist continues, even though he is seen to be very interested in the Vedic literatures such as the Brahma-sutras and other highly intellectual sources of knowledge. This ignorance of the personal feature of the Lord is due simply to ignorance of the mixture of different modes. The impersonalist thus cannot conceive of the Lord’s eternal spiritual form of eternal knowledge, bliss and existence. The reason is that the Lord reserves the right of not exposing Himself to the nondevotee who, even after a thorough study of literature like the Bhagavad-gita, remains an impersonalist simply by obstinacy. This obstinacy is due to the action of yogamaya, a personal energy of the Lord that acts like an aide-de-camp by covering the vision of the obstinate impersonalist. Such a bewildered human being is described as mudha, or grossly ignorant, because he is unable to understand the transcendental form of the Lord as being unborn and unchangeable. If the Lord takes a form or material shape from His original impersonal feature, then it means that He is born and changeable from impersonal to personal. But He is not changeable. Nor does He ever take a new birth like a conditioned soul. The conditioned soul may take a form birth after birth due to his conditional existence in matter, but the self-centered impersonalists, by their gross ignorance, accept the Lord as one of them because of self-centered egoism, even after so-called advancement of knowledge in the Vedanta. The Lord, being situated in the heart of every individual living entity, knows very well the tendency of such conditioned souls in terms of past, present and future, but the bewildered conditioned soul hardly can know Him in His eternal form. By the will of the Lord, therefore, the impersonalist, even after knowing the Brahman and Paramatma features of the Lord, remains ignorant of His eternal personal feature as ever-existent Narayana, transcendental to all material creation.

The cause of such gross ignorance is constant engagement by the materialistic man in the matter of artificially increasing material demands. To realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to purify the materialistic senses by devotional service. The mode of goodness, or the brahminical culture recommended in the Vedic literatures, is helpful to such spiritual realization, and thus the jnana-sakti stage of the conditioned soul is comparatively better than the other two stages, namely dravya-sakti and kriya-sakti. The whole material civilization is manifested by a huge accumulation of materials, or, in other words, raw materials for industrial purposes, and the industrial enterprises (kriya-sakti) are all due to gross ignorance of spiritual life. In order to rectify this great anomaly of materialistic civilization, based on the principles of dravya-sakti and kriya-sakti, one has to adopt the process of devotional service of the Lord by adoption of the principles of karma-yoga, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita (9.27) as follows:

yat karosi yad asnasi
yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam

“O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me.”

SB2.5.25

TEXT 25

tamasad api bhutader

vikurvanad abhun nabhah

tasya matra gunah sabdo

lingam yad drastr-drsyayoh

tamasat—from the darkness of false ego; api—certainly; bhuta-adeh—of the material elements; vikurvanat—because of transformation; abhut—generated; nabhah—the sky; tasya—its; matra—subtle form; gunah—quality; sabdah—sound; lingam—characteristics; yat—as its; drastr—the seer; drsyayoh—of what is seen.

From the darkness of false ego, the first of the five elements, namely the sky, is generated. Its subtle form is the quality of sound, exactly as the seer is in relationship with the seen.

The five elements, namely sky, air, fire, water and earth, are all but different qualities of the darkness of false ego. This means that the false ego in the sum total form of mahat-tattva is generated from the marginal potency of the Lord, and due to this false ego of lording it over the material creation, ingredients are generated for the false enjoyment of the living being. The living being is practically the dominating factor over the material elements as the enjoyer, though the background is the Supreme Lord. Factually, save and except the Lord, no one can be called the enjoyer, but the living entity falsely desires to become the enjoyer. This is the origin of false ego. When the bewildered living being desires this, the shadow elements are generated by the will of the Lord, and the living entities are allowed to run after them as after a phantasmagoria.

It is said that first the tan-matra sound is created and then the sky, and in this verse it is confirmed that actually it is so, but sound is the subtle form of the sky, and the distinction is like that between the seer and the seen. The sound is the representation of the actual object, as the sound produced speaking of the object gives an idea of the description of the object. Therefore sound is the subtle characteristic of the object. Similarly, sound representation of the Lord, in terms of His characteristics, is the complete form of the Lord, as was seen by Vasudeva and Maharaja Dasaratha, the fathers of Lord Krsna and Lord Rama. The sound representation of the Lord is nondifferent from the Lord Himself because the Lord and His representation in sound are absolute knowledge. Lord Caitanya has instructed us that in the holy name of the Lord, as sound representation of the Lord, all the potencies of the Lord are invested. Thus one can immediately enjoy the association of the Lord by the pure vibration of the sound representation of His holy name, and the concept of the Lord is immediately manifested before the pure devotee. A pure devotee, therefore, is not aloof from the Lord even for a moment. The holy name of the Lord, as recommended in the sastras—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—may therefore be constantly chanted by the devotee aspiring to be constantly in touch with the Supreme Lord. One who is thus able to associate with the Lord is sure to be delivered from the darkness of the created world, which is a product of false ego (tamasi ma jyotir gama).

SB2.5.26-29

TEXTS 26–29

nabhaso ’tha vikurvanad

abhut sparsa-guno ’nilah

paranvayac chabdavams ca

prana ojah saho balam

vayor api vikurvanat

kala-karma-svabhavatah

udapadyata tejo vai

rupavat sparsa-sabdavat

tejasas tu vikurvanad

asid ambho rasatmakam

rupavat sparsavac cambho

ghosavac ca paranvayat

visesas tu vikurvanad

ambhaso gandhavan abhut

paranvayad rasa-sparsa-

sabda-rupa-gunanvitah

nabhasah—of the sky; atha—thus; vikurvanat—being transformed; abhut—generated; sparsa—touch; gunah—quality; anilah—air; para—previous; anvayat—by succession; sabdavan—full of sound; ca—also; pranah—life; ojah—sense perception; sahah—fat; balam—strength; vayoh—of the air; api—also; vikurvanat—by transformation; kala—time; karma—reaction of the past; svabhavatah—on the basis of nature; udapadyata—generated; tejah—fire; vai—duly; rupavat—with form; sparsa—touch; sabdavat—with sound also; tejasah—of the fire; tu—but; vikurvanat—on being transformed; asit—it so happened; ambhah—water; rasa-atmakam—composed of juice; rupavat—with form; sparsavat—with touch; ca—and; ambhah—water; ghosavat—with sound; ca—and; para—previous; anvayat—by succession; visesah—variegatedness; tu—but; vikurvanat—by transformation; ambhasah—of water; gandhavan—odorous; abhut—became; para—previous; anvayat—by succession; rasa—juice; sparsa—touch; sabda—sound; rupa-guna-anvitah—qualitative.

Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by previous succession the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of duration of life: sense perception, mental power and bodily strength. When the air is transformed in course of time and nature’s course, fire is generated, taking shape with the sense of touch and sound. Since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. As previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound. And water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorous and, as previously, becomes qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound and form respectively.