Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "From that great lotus flower from which Brahmā is generated, certainly Brahmā could not see anything else except the big lotus flower. Therefore Lord Brahmā, diving within the water, executed austerity and penance for one hundred years but still could not get any trace of You. The reason is that when a seed is fructified, the original seed cannot be seen."
Prabhupāda:
- tat-sambhavaḥ kavir ato 'nyad apaśyamānas
- tvāṁ bījam ātmāni tataṁ sa bahir vicintya
- nāvindad abda-śatam apsu nimajjamānaḥ
- jāte 'ṅkure katham uhopalabheta bījam
- (SB 7.9.34)
So from the beginning of the creation the same illusion is continued. Brahma, when he was born, created, he was created not by ordinary father and mother, but he was created on a lotus flower stem which grew from the navel of Maha Viṣṇu, er, yes, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Therefore Brahmā's another name is Aja. He's not born like ordinary human being. Svayambhū. He's also known as Svayambhū. Everyone is born by father and mother, but he was born... Of course, father was there, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, but he did not come through the womb of mother. This is omnipotency. Lord Viṣṇu is lying on the Śeṣa bed, and Lakṣmīji is engaged in the service of massaging the lotus feet of Viṣṇu, but Viṣṇu did not take the help of Lakṣmīji to beget Brahmā. He personally begot from the navel. Therefore we should understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead can perform anything he likes from any part of His body. That we chant always, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. We have got knowledge, experience, that when a child is born it has got a different source of being born, but Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu wanted the child be born from the navel and not from the mother of the navel—there was no mother—but the father Himself. This is called aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Every part of the body, every limb, has got the potency to act like other parts of the body. We can see only with the eyes, but God can see with His finger. That is God. We can eat through mouth, but God can eat from any part of His body. If He simply touches His toe, He can eat. If He simply glances over the foodstuff offered to Him, He has eaten it. That we do not know. Therefore we're sometimes surprised that "How He has eaten?" that "You are offering so many nice things. It is lying down there. How I shall understand that He has eaten?" Yes, He has eaten. Simply by seeing, He has eaten. And because He's nija-lābha-pūrṇa, He's satisfied by His own self, therefore by simply glancing, He has eaten and it has become prasādam. You can take it. This is the meaning of aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti.