SB 1.3.1 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 1
Jagrihe pourusham rupam bhagawan mahadadivih Sambhutam sodashakalam adou loka sisrikshaya.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Sutauvacha—suta said, Jagrihe—accepted, pourusham—plenary portion as Purusha incarnation, rupam—form, bhagawan—the personality of Godhead, mahadadivih—along with the ingredients of material world, sambhutam—thus there was the creation of, sodashakalam—sixteen primary principles, adou—in the beginning, loka—the universes, sisrikshaya—on the intention of creating.
TRANSLATION
Suta said, in the beginning of the creation the Lord first of all expanded Himself in the universal form of Purusha incarnation primarily with all the ingredients of material creation. And thus at first there was the creation of the sixteen principles of material action. This was on the intention of creating the material universes.
PURPORT
As it is said in the Bhagwat Geeta that the Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna maintains this material universes by extending His part of plenary expansions, so this Purusha Form is the confirmation of the same principle. The Original Personality of Godhead Vasudeva or Lord Krishna who is famous as the son of king Vasudeva or King Nanda, the very same Personality of Godhead is full with all opulences, all potencies, all fames, all beauties, all knowledge and all renunciations. Part of His opulences is manifested as impersonal Brahman and part of His opulences is manifested as Paramatma. This Purusha feature of the same Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is the Original Parmatma Manifestation of the Lord. There are three Purusha features in the matter of material creation and this Form who is known as the Karanodaka-Shayee Vishnu is the first of the three. The others are known as the Garvodaksayee Vishnu and the Khirodakashayee Vishnu which we shall know one after another. The innumerable universes are generated from skinholes of this Karanodakasayee Vishnu and in each one of the universes the Lord enters as Garvodakasayee Vishnu.
In the Bhagwat Geeta this is also mentioned that the material world is created at certain intervals and then again it is destroyed. This creation and destruction is done by the Supreme will on account of the conditioned souls or the Nityabadhya living beings. The nityabadhya or the eternally conditioned souls have the sense of individuality or Ahamkara which dictates them for sense enjoyment which they are unable to have constitutionally. The Lord is the only enjoyer and all others are enjoyed. The living beings are predominated enjoyer. But the eternally conditioned souls forgetful of this constitutional position have strong aspiration for enjoying. This chance of enjoying the matter is given to the conditioned souls in the material world and side by side they are given the chance of understanding the real constitutional position. Those fortunate living entities who catch up the truth and surrender unto the Lotus feet of Vasudeva after many many births in the material world, become one of the eternally liberated souls and thus are allowed to enter into the kingdom of Godhead. After this such fortunate living entities have no more to come within the occasional material creation. But those who can not catch up the constitutional truth are again kept merged into the Mahat Tatwa at the time of annihilation of the material creation. When the creation is again set up this Mahat Tatwa is again let lose and this Mahat Tatwa contains all the ingredients of material manifestations including the conditioned souls. Primarily this Mahat Tatwa is divided into sixteen parts namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses. It is like the cloud in the clear sky. In the spiritual sky, the effulgence of Brahman is spread all round and the whole system is dazzling in spiritual light. The Mahat Tatwa is assembled in some corner of that vast unlimited spiritual sky and the part which is thus covered by the Mahat Tatwa is called the material sky. This part of the spiritual sky, called the Mahta Tatwa, is only an insignificant portion of the whole spiritual sky, and within this Mahat Tatwa there are innumerable universes. All these universes collectively are produced by the Karanarvashayee Vishnu called also the Mahavisnu who simply throws His glance only to impregnate the material sky to manifest.