Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.9

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

māyā-bhartājāṅḍa-saṅghāśrayāṅgaḥ śete sākṣāt kāraṅāmbhodhi-madhye yasyaikāṁśaḥ śrī-pumān ādi-devas taṁ śrī-nityānanda-rāmaṁ prapadye [Cc Ādi 1.9]

[break] [00:53]

"I offer my full obeisances unto the feet of Śrī Nityānanda Rāma, whose partial representation called Kāraṅodakaśāyī Viṣṅu, lying on the Kāraṅa Ocean, is the original puruṣa, the master of the illusory energy and the shelter of all the universes."

Prabhupāda:

māyā-bhartājāṅḍa-saṅghāśrayāṅgaḥ śete sākṣāt kāraṅāmbhodhi-madhye yasyaikāṁśaḥ śrī-pumān ādi-devas taṁ śrī-nityānanda-rāmaṁ prapadye [Cc Ādi 1.9]

Yesterday we discussed about pūrṅāiśvarya, saṅkarṣaṅākhyam, nityānanda-rāmam, the Deity, the superintending Deity of the spiritual world. Here also, anywhere, the master is Kṛṣṅa in His different form. So just like for management we expand some secretaries, or personal representative, similarly there is good management also in Kṛṣṅa's affairs. The original person is Kṛṣṅa, and His expansions, they are also as good as Kṛṣṅa, but departmental.

So we have discussed yesterday that in the spiritual world, Saṅkarṣaṅa is the supreme manager. And so far the material world is concerned, the same person is the Supreme, but His name is different, Kāraṅābdhiśāyī. In the spiritual world, the name is Saṅkarṣaṅa, and the material world, the supreme superintendent is also the same person, but name is different—Kāraṅābdhiśāyī. This Kāraṅābdhiśāyī is māyā-bhartā. Bhartā means husband. Just like a husband begets children in the womb of the wife, similarly, all these universes are impregnated in the total material energy, māyā, by Kāraṅābdhiśāyī Viṣṅu.

That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā.

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ tāsāṁ mahad-yonir brahma ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg 14.4]

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

The bīja-pradaḥ pitā, the father, is the seed-giving person, and the mother is receiving the seed, and then she is impregnated and they develops the body. As we have got experience, the creation, the creative energy, this is going on, the same process, everywhere. So this Kāraṅābdhiśāyī Viṣṅu—we have already discussed to some extent—is the origin of this material creation. That, the scientists says, that... I do not know exactly what is their theory, but so far I have heard, that... There are so many theories. One of them is, "There was a chunk, and from that, this material world..." They have no idea what is material world or spiritual world. But in that way a creation took place. Can anyone say what is the theory or..., of creation? Can any one of you say? What do they say about the creation?

Trivikrama: Their one theory is that there's a big chunk, and then from that, everything else came.

Jagadīśa: It exploded.

Rūpānuga: An explosion, a big bang.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rūpānuga: A big bang. An explosion.

Haṁsadūta: There were some chemicals.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the chunk came?

Rūpānuga: They don't tell us.

Prabhupāda: Then that is not the... That is their brain fag, that they are simply trying to get everything from matter. That is their material brain. But we see here that the origin is not matter. Origin is Viṣṅu, Mahā-Viṣṅu. So Mahā-Viṣṅu is the supreme soul, mahā, Mahā-Viṣṅu. So we cannot accept such nonsense theory, that chunk exploded. Where is the evidence that a chunk explodes automatically? How nonsense theory it is. We have got experience, there is explosion of big, big mountains when there is dynamite, and the dynamite is given by some person. So how explosion can take place without the hand of somebody else, some living entity? This simple theory they cannot understand, that where is the evidence that matter acts automatically? Where is the evidence? How you can say that there was a chunk? Suppose there was a chunk. First of all, the question will be: "Who made this chunk?" And then again, next question will be: "How explosion took place unless there was some living being to explode, as we have got experience that sometimes we explode, explode the mountain with dynamite, and that is arranged by a living being?" So they have no common sense even, and they are passing as big, big philosopher, scientist. Then where is the evidence? Can anyone say? Is there any evidence that matter explodes without a living being's touch? Is there any? No.

Pañcadraviḍa: The sun. There are so many explosions are going on in the sun every day.

Prabhupāda: That is the same thing that, that vṛścika-taṅḍula-nyāya. Explosion is going on, but behind that all these explosion, all these transformations, is the Supreme Lord. That is here. And it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā:

mayādhyakṣeṅa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10]

[This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.]

They do not see who is behind this explosion. That is their ignorance, or poor fund of knowledge. We have got practical experience that no explosion takes place without the touch of a human being. Similarly, even there was explosion going on, but there is a touch of the Supreme Being. That is the statement in the Bhagavad... Mayādhyakṣeṅa [Bg 9.10]. We are seeing the explosion. Just like child sees the explosion. He does not know that there, behind the explosion, there is a management of a superior being. This is childish observation. Because in śāstra we see that behind everything the hand of the Supreme Being is there, and by our practical experience also, we see that matter does not act automatically without being touched by a living being. So how we can accept this argument that the explosion is going on automatically? What is the evidence? There is no evidence.

So this is not... Besides that, we have to accept the Vedic injunction, śāstric injunction, not nonsensical theories. If we are guided by nonsensical theories, then we'll never be able to understand how things are going on.

panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām so 'py asti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya-tattve govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.34]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṅāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.]

You can go on observing, one after another, by many, many years; many, many years. Just like if you start your jet plane from here to see where is the original cause, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara, and go on for many, many millions of years with the speed of mind, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampra... Koṭi-śata-vatsara. Millions and millions of years. And panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi. These airplane, vāyu-ratha... Vāyu-ratha means airplane. There is airplanes. There are different speeds. What is the speed? The speed is mental speed. Now their speed, say, eighteen thousand miles per hour. But if there is question of mental speed, it is more speedier than the vāyu speed. We have got experience. Many thousand miles, by your mind, you can reach within a second. So with the mental speed airplane, if you start today and go for many millions of years, still it will be not possible to find out wherefrom the explosion is coming. That's it.

So that is not the way. Therefore śruti-pramāṅam. Śruti-pramāṅam means from the Vedic evidence we have to understand. Now, just like in the Vedas it is said, jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi [Padma Purāṅa]. In the Vedas, all knowledge was there, all the living entities described fully and with minute, exact quantity. Now, within the water, we understand from the Vedic literature there are 900,000 forms of aquatics. Now, the modern scientists, how many they have observed or studied? But it is said exactly, 900,000's. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Of course, you cannot enter within the water. But on the land, now different species of plants and trees, and that is two million. How many the botanists have studied? Two million. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Even in your country, in your village, you'll find daily some new vegetable. You see? So these are the Vedic calculation. And not only that, there are different species of life, and how they are working, what senses are predominant in each and every life and everything is described. Everything is very minutely described. Therefore, if we want to have knowledge, you cannot do it by mental speculation. We should know that our mind is very, very limited. Simply by theorizing, it is not possible. Therefore tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet sampit-pāṅiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

So we have to know from the supreme authority or the Vedas. Then the knowledge will be perfect. Otherwise...

So original creative energy is coming from this Kāraṅābdhiśāyī Viṣṅu. This is confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṅḍa-nāthāḥ [Bs 5.48].

[Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṅu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṅu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṅu is the portion of portion.]

The jagad-aṅḍa-nāthāḥ... Here it is also said, ajāṅḍa. Jagad-aṅḍa or ajāṅḍa, the same thing, or brahmāṅḍa, the same meaning. Aja means Brahmā. So the Brahmā is the head of this aṅḍa. It is egglike. This whole universe is like an egg, aṅḍa. So as from the aṅḍa, from the egg, a bird is coming out, similarly, from this egglike substance, Aja has come. Aja means who does not take birth like other, human being or animals, but from this aṅḍa. So the Kāraṅābdhiśāyī Viṣṅu another name is ajāṅḍa aṅghāśrayanda. His whole body is producing universes. Ajāṅḍa-saṅghāśraya. Saṅghāśraya means aggregate, congregation. Just like we have got holes on the body, pores in the body. So we do not know even how many pores are there in my body, but it is a fact. We cannot, even in a localized head, we cannot count how many pores are there from which the hairs are coming. Is it possible to count? And how many pores are there in our body? This is a little body. And just imagine Mahā-Viṣṅu.

Therefore His name is Mahā-Viṣṅu. From His pores of the body, the universes are coming. From His nostril, with the breathing, universes are coming. So just imagine how many universes are there. The whole body is full of potency to produce universes. And it is continually being produced. Brahmā, brahmā bṛhatvād, bṛhannatvāt. This is the creation. And how you can accept this theory that there was a chunk and explosion and the universes became manifested? And these things are being accepted. Mūḍha nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. These rascals, mūḍhas, they do not know, and misleading... Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ [SB 7.5.31].

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṅu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.]

These rascals are blind, and they are leading some other blind men, and they are satisfied that "We have got all scientific knowledge." That's all. That is not the way of scientific knowledge. If you want scientific knowledge, then you should know from Kṛṣṅa. That is scientific knowledge. Jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam. Vijñāna-samanvitam [SB 2.9.31].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Knowledge about Me as described in the scriptures is very confidential, and it has to be realized in conjunction with devotional service. The necessary paraphernalia for that process is being explained by Me. You may take it up carefully.]

So we do not, I mean to say, become proud to have very, very scientific, accurate knowledge by speculation. We are not such people. We are taught by the paramparā system that we are humble servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and what our master says, we accept it. That's all. We do not like to be foolishly proud to have full knowledge of this universe, of this creation. We have full knowledge, but we understand in this way. This is called paramparā system. Just like in the Vedas... Take for example the Brahma-saṁhitā. It is spoken by Lord Brahma. Brahmā has got the full knowledge. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye [SB 1.1.1]. Because the full knowledge was given..., full knowledge of creation was given to Brahmā. We do not accept this nonsense theory that there was no human being, and later on, they became gradually civilized, and for the last two hundred years only they have got the intelligence, scientific knowledge. We do not accept these nonsense theories.

We... Our understanding is: the first creation is the most intelligent human being, Brahmā, not that there was no human being or any living being. No. The first creation is the most perfect or intelligent living being. This is our theory. Not theory; it is the Vedic evidence. And he got full knowledge from the Supreme, tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye, ādi-kavi, the original learned person, and then he compiled Vedas, giving full knowledge what he experienced. And the Brahma-saṁhitā is there—it is written by Brahmā. And in the Brahma-saṁhitā, the Kāraṅābdhiśāyī Viṣṅu is mentioned, yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā [Bs 5.48].

[Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṅu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṅu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṅu is the portion of portion.]

It is not that we are accepting this verse of Caitanya-caritāmṛta author. No. It is confirmed by the Vedic knowledge. This is the origin of creation, not that this chunk, or... No. Matter cannot expand. Matter, when there is reaction... Just like explosion. We have got experience that there is sometimes explosion, like if you mix together two chemicals, acid and alkaline, there is explosion for the time being. But this explosion takes place when a chemist in the laboratory mixes soda, soda bicarb, and citric acid. Otherwise, it is not possible.

So this is wrong theory that matter automatically takes the explosion or something like that. Matter is handled by some superior living being. Then it explodes or whatever you call. It reacts. Otherwise, it is not possible. And because the living being takes the superior position for explosion of matter or reaction of matter, therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is admitted that the matter is handled by the living being; it is inferior energy. Both of them are energies of the Supreme Lord, but one is superior energy, another is inferior energy. That is the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ [Bg 7.4],

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

these material things—earth, water, air, fire—they are inferior energy. And Kṛṣṅa says, apareyam: "They are inferior. There is another, superior energy." Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parā: "There is another, superior energy." And what is that superior energy? Now, jīva-bhūtā, "These living entities." Jīva-bhūtā mahā-bāho. The superior energy is not produced by the inferior energy. That is nonsense. The inferior energy is produced by the superior energy. This is perfect. We have got experience that the superior controls the inferior, not that inferior controls the superior. Where you get all this idea? Therefore it has been described as aparā and parā prakṛti. And what is that parā prakṛti? Jīva-bhutāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat [Bg 7.5].

[Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.]

The whole world is being manipulated by this superior energy. Just like we have got experience that a human being, an engineer, he is creating a skyscraper building, not that a skyscraper building is creating an engineer. Where is this theory?

So these are all nonsense, simply nonsense, mūḍha. Of course, we use this word mūḍha, and people become very angry, but what can I..., can we do? [laughter] The mūḍhas must be explained as mūḍhas. And because the mūḍhas are going as intelligent, therefore there is chaotic condition. [lizard making sound] There it is confirmed. So our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is to become intelligent, not to remain mūḍhas, and to expose these rascal mūḍhas. That's this, our Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. So you must be prepared. While making propaganda, expose these mūḍhas. That is one of the service of Kṛṣṅa. Don't remain foolish. Wherever there is required, fight with these mūḍhas and tell them rightly, straightforward, that "You are mūḍhas."

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]