Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Lord Brahmā, who is celebrated as ātma-yoni, 'born without any mother,' became struck with wonder and could see only the lotus flower on which he was sitting. Thus, undergoing severe austerities for many hundreds of years, he became purified. At that time he could see in his own body the cause of all causes. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is spread all over his body and senses."
Prabhupāda:
- sa tv ātma-yonir ativismita āśrito 'bjaṁ
- kālena tīvra-tapasā pariśuddha-bhāvaḥ
- tvām ātmanīśa bhuvi gandham ivātisūkṣmaṁ
- bhūtendriyāśayamaye vitataṁ dadarśa
- (SB 7.9.35)
So dadarśa means "he saw." This seeing, this is impersonal seeing how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present in everything. Although he is born directly from the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, still, he could not see the Lord. Sa tv ātma-yonir ativismita. Suppose all of a sudden you are sleeping and you are put into a place where nobody else there—you are simply there and everything, it is dark. How much perplexed you would be. So the Brahmā's position was like that. After each millennium, Brahmā's death, and then again birth... Our birth and death is going on, the same process. We are in the womb of the mother, and all of a sudden we come out, we see light, began to cry, and the relatives take care of us and we forget everything, in how much precarious condition I was before my birth.
So those who are ordinarily sinful, they can at least see the light once, but those who are very severely sinful, they're killed within the womb. They cannot see even the light coming out. There are so many cases now, it is very (indistinct) that so many children, before coming out of the womb of the mother and before seeing the light of the sun, they are killed. And after killing, after being killed, the body is finished. Then he has to be put another body. Then enters another mother's body. Again the body is developed, and again he is killed. Just imagine. This... Because if... Tit for tat. If I kill a child in the womb—"Now I am very much proud of my scientific advancement"—then I am have to be killed in my birth. That's all. You cannot avoid this nature's law. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). There is very, very sūkṣma. The word is used sūkṣma, very, very fine laws. Who can see it? Ātma-yoni, so he's also not free. Although he is Lord Brahmā, he's also not free. He's perplexed: "Wherefrom I came? What is the source of my birth in darkness?" He could see only the lotus flower on which he was sitting, nothing else. Exactly our position... Just like so many scientists, they think that this world is everything, and other planets and worlds, there is no life. Only because he is there, there is life. This is the modern presentation.