- yasyāṁśāṁśāṁśaḥ parātmākhilānāṁ
- poṣṭā viṣṇur bhāti dugdhābdhi-śāyī
- kṣauṇī-bhartā yat-kalā so 'py anantas
- taṁ śrī-nityānanda-rāmaṁ prapadye
- (CC Adi 1.11)
So all these Viṣṇu description beginning from Kāraṇodakaśāyī, Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is producing universes. . . Then next Viṣṇu is Garbhodakaśāyī, means the same Mahā-Viṣṇu entering in each and every universe. Then again, the same Viṣṇu, for maintenance of this material world, is lying on the kṣīrabdhi, ocean of milk. And the same Viṣṇu, Kṣīrabdhiśāyī Viṣṇu, is maintaining not only this universal affair, but also He is entering in each and every living being's heart, even within the atom. This is the expansion of viṣṇu-tattva, viṣṇu-tattva within this material world. So just imagine. For creating and maintaining, sustaining, the whole material world is a network of Viṣṇu's activities, and some rascal says, "There was chunk, and there was creation." This creation is so easy? And maintain them, whole the creation? If you create some center of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, how much strain you have to exert to maintain the standard, status quo. Similarly, there are so many universes created, maintained. And there is another phase, annihilation.
That is the process of material creation. We have got experience. Anything material is created is. . . The beginning, there is a date, and it is maintained for sometimes, then it is annihilated. Anything you take—this body, your body, my body—it is created a certain date, and it is maintained for a certain number of years, and again it is annihilated. This is material world. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19): "It manifests sometimes and again disappears." This is called material world, and because it is never eternally sustained, therefore it is called māyā. It is not false, as the Māyāvādī philosophers says, "It is false." It is not false. Lord Viṣṇu is taking so much care to create this material world. How you can say it is false? It is not false. It is fact, but it is temporary. This is the difference between the material world and the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there is no creation and no destruction. In the material world, there is creation and destruction.
Now we, being part and parcel of Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. . . Kṛṣṇa says personally, mamaivāṁśaḥ. So if Kṛṣṇa is not affected by this creation and annihilation, then we, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, why we should be affected by this creation and annihilation? We are very much afraid of being annihilated, and we are trying to discover many scientific, so-called scientific methods how we may not be destroyed. Why this inclination that we may not be destroyed? Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore eternity of life is our aspiration. That is the proof that we are. . . as Kṛṣṇa is eternal, similarly, we are also eternal, but circumstantially we are now put into this material world. Therefore our main business is how to revive our original position not to be annihilated, never annihilated. It is clearly said in the Bhagavad-gītā. Actually we are not annihilated. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), nityo śāśvato 'yam.
So that is our real business. This requires little intelligence, that "We are eternal. Why we are put into this process of taking birth and death?" Kṛṣṇa also says, "This is the real misery of life," janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). They are trying, the so-called scientists, trying to increase. . . If the scientists sees that a man was to die immediately; now he has lived one hour more—he thinks that his science is successful. That is their foolishness. If you live one or two hour more or one year or two year more. . . In Allahabad we had a friend. He was very rich man. So he was on the dying stage. So many big, big doctors were attending, and he was begging to the doctors, "Doctor, can you not give me at least four years' time? I could finish what I have already attempted." So here we know the death is certain. Still, we make some scheme, big or small, according to idea. But we do not know that at any moment, death will come. "As sure as death." And this death is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś ca aham (BG 10.34). That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Repeatedly we are taking birth and making big, big scheme, and we may be successful, but at any moment Kṛṣṇa says, "Now you get out, and your all business finished. And whatever you have done, that is also finished, or I'll take it away," just to teach us that this place, material world, is not our place. That is our misconception, or māyā, that we want to make a permanent settlement in this material world, which is not possible at all.