CREATIONS BY KRISHNA – 2 : MATERIAL WORLDS – CREATION & ANNIHILATION
READ THE FIRST THREE PARTS OF THIS POST BEFORE READING THIS POST HERE and HERE and HERE.
(A) MATERIAL CREATIONS AND START OF ACTIVITIES
(i) MAYA & PRADHANA
Material nature acts in two capacities as maya and pradhana. Maya is the direct cause, and Pradhana refers to the elements of the material manifestation.
Maya is the CAUSE FOR MATERIAL CREATIONS and “Pradhana” refers to the “THINGS/ ELEMENTS REQUIRED TO CREATE”
Pradhana is the source for Mahat tattva. Ie, The required elements come from Mahat Tatva.
So, this Mahat tatva is the source for all material nature.
So, all these material universes are directly connected with Pradhana & Mahat tatva.
Krishna does not directly take part in all the stages of material creations. His energies involve in these activities. Maya & Pradhana are emanating from Supreme Personality of godhead and creates material nature.
Caitanya Caritamruta. Adi Lila 1.53:
“This is stated in the Vedanta-sutra (janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]). The source of birth of the cosmic manifestation, or mahat-tattva, is the Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed throughout Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita. In the Bhagavad-gita (10.8) the Lord says, aham sarvasya prabhavah: “I am the fountainhead of all emanations.” The material cosmos, being temporary, is sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest, but its energy emanates from the Supreme Absolute Lord. Before the creation there was neither cause nor effect, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead existed with His full opulence and energy. “
SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM (2.5.23):
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.
The, the Supreme Lord, sowed the seeds of universal manifestation out of His own body.
In due course of time, the impregnated material energy was manifested first as the total material ingredients.
(ii) HOW EARTH IS CREATED?
SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM (SB 11.24.18):
Similarly, earth and other elements are created from the mahat-tattva, which exists before and after the existence of the elements, which may be considered real because they possess the essential characteristics of the mahat-tattva. The mahat-tattva is ultimately the creation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, who exists after all is annihilated. The Absolute Truth is the Supreme Lord Himself, who step by step gives meaning and character to all that exists.
(iii) PART OF MAHA VISHNU: CREATION OF MAHAT TATVA
When the first purusa-avatara, Maha-Visnu, glances over the material nature, material nature becomes agitated, and the purusa-avatara thus impregnates matter with living entities. Simply by the glance of the Maha-Visnu, consciousness is created, and this consciousness is known as mahat-tattva.
The predominating Deity of the mahat-tattva is Vasudeva.
This created consciousness is then divided into three departmental activities according to the three gunas, or modes of material nature.
Consciousness in the mode of goodness is described in the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
The predominating Deity of the mode of goodness is called Aniruddha.
Consciousness in the mode of material passion produces intelligence, and the predominating Deity in this case is Pradyumna.
He is the master of the senses.
Consciousness in the mode of ignorance causes the production of ether, the sky and the sense of hearing.
READ THIS POST: THREE GUNAS OR MODES: Why Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 14.19 that Only the gunas act, not the persons?
The cosmic manifestation is a combination of all these modes, and in this way, innumerable universes are created. No one can count the number of universes.
These innumerable universes are produced from the pores of the Maha-Visnu’s body.
When He breathes out, innumerable universes are produced, and as He inhales, they are annihilated.
All of the energies of the Maha-Visnu are spiritual, and they have nothing to do with the material energy.
In Brahma-samhita (5.48) it is stated that the predominating deity of each universe, Brahma, lives only during one breath of the Maha-Visnu.
Thus Maha-Visnu is the original Supersoul of all the universes and the master of all universes as well.
(iv) PART OF GARBODAKASAYI VISHNU – ENTRY INTO MATERIAL NATURE
The second Visnu incarnation, the Garbhodakasayi Visnu, enters each and every universe, spreads water from His body, and lies down on that water.
From His navel, the stem of a lotus flower grows, and on that lotus flower, the first creature, Brahma, is born.
Within the stem of that lotus flower are fourteen divisions of planetary systems, which are created by Brahma. Within each universe, the Lord is present as the Garbhodakasayi Visnu, and He maintains each universe and tends to its needs WITHOUT GETTING TOUCHED OR INFLUENCED BY THE MATERIAL ENERGY
When it is required, this very same Visnu takes the form of Lord Siva and annihilates the cosmic creation.
The three secondary incarnations, Brahma, Visnu and Siva, are the predominating deities of the three modes of material nature.
The master of the universe, however, is the Garbhodakasayi Visnu, who is worshiped as the Hiranyagarbha Supersoul.
The Vedic hymns describe Him as having thousands of heads. Although He is within the material nature, He is not touched by it.
(v) PART OF KSIROSAKASAYI VISHNU – INSIDE EVERY LIVING BEING AS PARAMATHMA
The third incarnation of Visnu, Ksirodakasayi Visnu, is also an incarnation of the mode of goodness. He is also the Supersoul (Paramathma) of all living entities, and He resides on the ocean of milk within the universe.
Srila Prabhupada in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.1):
“After this, such fortunate living entities have no more to come within the occasional material creation. But, those who cannot catch up the constitutional truth are again kept merged into the mahat-tattva at the time of annihilation of the material creation. When the creation is again set up, this mahat-tattva is again let loose and this mahat-tattva contains all the ingredients of material manifestations including the conditioned souls. Primarily this mahat-tattva is divided into sixteen parts namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.1-3, San Francisco, March 28, 1968, Reading from Srila Prabhupada’s First Published Bhagavatam, Brought from India).
(C) ANNIHILATION/ DISSOLUTION OF CREATIONS
TWO TYPES OF ANNIHILATION/ DISSOLUTION
(i) At the end of every 4,320,000,000 solar years, when Brahma, the lord of one particular universe, goes to sleep, there is one annihilation.
(ii) And at the end of Lord Brahma’s life, which takes place at the end of Brahma’s one hundred years of age, ie, at the end of 8,640,000,000 x 30 x 12 x 100 solar years, there is complete annihilation of the entire universe, and in both the periods both the material energy called the mahat-tattva and the marginal energy called jiva-tattva merge in the person of the Supreme Lord.
(iii) SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM 1.10.21:
The living beings remain asleep within the body of the Lord until there is another creation of the material world, and that is the way of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation.
(iv) SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM 10-3-31:
At the time of devastation, the entire cosmos, containing all created moving and nonmoving entities, enters Your transcendental body and is held there without difficulty.
(v) SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM 1.6.29:
At the end of the millennium, when the Personality of Godhead Lord Narayana lay down within the water of devastation, Brahma began to enter into Him along with all creative elements, and I also entered through His breathing.
(vi) SRIMAD BHAGAVATHAM 2.5.34:
After each annihilation of the material creation, all the living entities are merged within the body of the Lord, and after creation they are again impregnated within the material energy. In material existence, therefore, the material energy is seemingly the mother of the living entities, and the Lord is the father.
(vii) Lord as Garbhodakasayi Visnu or Hiranyagarbha Supersoul enters into each and every universe and causes it to be animated by begetting the living entities within the womb of the material nature, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (14.3).
(In the Next part, read the worlds available in material creations.)
(1) HOW KRISHNA CREATED ALL THE CREATIONS AND LIVING BEINGS? READ HERE
(2) How all creations originated from the transcendental body of Lord Krishna? READ HERE!