Srimad Bhagavatam – day 419
Vishṇave namah
Little Prahlāda continued, “O Lord, You are the universe. There is nothing apart from You in this universe. You are the cause for its existence. You are responsible for its sustenance. This universe ultimately merges into You alone! Even then, O Lord, You maintain an existence that is separate from this universe.
This universe, which arises due to transformations within the trigunas, has been created by You alone, through the medium of Your illusionary energy. You have thereafter entered into it and due to the influence of the trigunas appeared as many. You are both the cause and the effect. Nevertheless, the merits and faults (guna-doṣa) of this universe do not touch You.
Feelings of differentiation such as ‘mine and yours’ which have their origin in spiritual ignorance are unreal because, that from which the object originates, sustains and illumines and that into which it merges cannot be different from itself. For example, tree which is a transformation of earth is not different from the earth. Dawn, which is a transformation of time (kāla) is not different from time.
You, who are a personification of bliss and who are devoid of action, absorb this creation back into You at the time of annihilation (praḷaya) and sleep amidst the waters of dissolution. Using Your own energy called Pure Consciousness, You then discard Your sleep and investigate about Your real form. You, who exist as the Self within all living entities, are absolutely unconnected with spiritual ignorance that is experienced during deep sleep, or with the material worldly enjoyments that are experienced during waking and dream states”.
When you sleep it appears as if you too are covered with spiritual ignorance. When You are awake it appears as if You are enjoying the world due to predominance of traits of action/ passion (rajas). The truth however is that You are unconnected to spiritual ignorance of the deep sleep state nor with the awareness that exists within the waking state.
“Although You illumine all these states, in reality You exist in the fourth stage which is beyond these three states. You exist as Pure Consciousness (suddha chaitanya) and as the pure Self.
This world, which is Your body, merges into You during annihilation, when You sleep in the waters of dissolution. Later on, influenced by Your energy called time, a turbulence was caused within the tree attributes of Nature (trigunas). You then discarded Your Yogic sleep and awakened from the snake bed called Ananta (Seṣa). Just as a banyan tree emerges from a seed, in these waters of dissolution, from Your navel this universe emerged like a lotus flower.
From this lotus Lord Brahma, who has transcendental vision, emerged. He could not see anything apart from the lotus in these waters. He then began to search externally seeking to locate You, who are the cause for his existence and who reside within him. For 100 long years he searched for You within the waters of dissolution, yet, You were not to be found. This is quite apt because after sprouting, the plant fails to locate externally the seed from which it emerged. Likewise, he who emerged from You could not locate You externally.
O Iśwara, astonished upon not finding You, Lord Brahma then sought shelter in the lotus and meditated upon You. After undertaking intense austerities for a long period of time his mind became completely pure. Just as the smell inherently exists within earth, You, who are the subtlest of the subtle, pervade everything in the creation. You exist everywhere in this creation. Lord Brahma then realized You as the all-pervading existence within his body which consisted of the five gross elements, 5 sense organs, 5 organs of actions, and four-fold mind.
The Supreme Lord, using His illusionary energies, manifested as the huge Universal form. Lord Brahma who perceived this Universal form through His power of penance enjoyed uninterrupted divine bliss. The Universal form was shining radiantly with infinite heads, feet, hands, noses, faces, thighs, mouths, ears, eyes, ornaments, weapons. The various planetary systems that exist in this Universe, are the various limbs in this Universal form.
In the earlier period, demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha who were filled with traits of passion and ignorance, began to destroy the Vedas. At that point, You manifested as Hayagriva, destroyed those demons and restored the Vedas back to Lord Brahma. Elders state that traits of goodness and purity (sattva) are very dear to You, O Lord.
O Lord You alone incarnate as Srirama, Srikrishna, Paraśurama, Vamana, Varaha (boar), Matsya (fish) etc. and destroy those who harm this universe. In this way, You maintain these worlds”.
Govindāya namah