Category:Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Chapter 20 Purports - Studying the Structure of the Universe
Pages in category "Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 05 Chapter 20 Purports - Studying the Structure of the Universe"
The following 92 pages are in this category, out of 92 total.
A
- According to Viraraghava Acarya: The original cause of the cosmic manifestation must be the oldest person and must be beyond material transformations. He is the enjoyer of all auspicious activities and is the cause of conditional life and also liberation
- After creating both the material world and spiritual world through yogamaya, the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally maintains them by expanding Himself in different categories as the Visnu murtis and the demigods
- All the demigods must work under the orders of Visnu
- All the demigods, as faithful servants of the Supreme Lord, hand over to the Supreme Lord whatever is offered to them in sacrificial performances. There is no fault in worshiping the demigods with this understanding
- Although Lord Brahma is extremely powerful, he never thinks himself one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead; he always knows that he is an eternal servitor of the Lord
- Although the worship of the sun-god is recommended in this mantra (in SB 5.20.5), He is worshiped not as the Supreme Personality of Godhead but as His powerful representative
- Although they (the inhabitants of the five islands) engage in the worship of these five demigods (the sun-god, the moon-god, the fire-god, the air-god and Lord Brahma), however, they actually worship Lord Visnu, the Supersoul of all living entities
- As a government officer is sometimes accepted as the entire government although he is actually but a departmental manager, so the demigods, having achieved power of attorney from Visnu, act on His behalf, although they are not as powerful as He
- As stated in Bhagavad-gita (BG 7.20), kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah prapadyante 'nya devatah: those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto the demigods
B
- Because the Lord and the servant are identical on the spiritual platform, Brahma is herein addressed as bhagavan
- Because this knowledge (of different planetary systems) is accepted through the disciplic succession, it is perfect
- Bhagavad-gita says that Krsna first instructed Bhagavad-gita to the sun-god (imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam (BG 4.1)). Therefore the sun is not vacant. It is inhabited by living entities, and the predominating deity is Vairaja, or Vivasvan
- Bhagavan is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, but if a devotee serves Him with full faith, the meaning of the Vedic literature is revealed to him
- Brahma is called brahma-linga, which indicates that his entire form consists of Vedic knowledge
- Brahma, Sambhu, Surya and Indra are all merely products of the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is also true of the many other demigods whose names are not mentioned here - in the smrti Vedic literature
H
- Having entered that cavity (the cave of the heart of this body), the living entity, resting on the chief of the life airs, enjoys the results of activities, and the Supersoul, acting as witness enables him to enjoy them
- He (The Supreme Lord) is the Supersoul, the master of all transcendental qualities, and He is the master of this cosmic manifestation in regard to bondage to the conditional state of material existence and liberation from that bondage
- He (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) maintains the material creation from beginning to end, and He personally maintains the spiritual world
- He explained these facts (universal affairs of different planetary systems) five thousand years ago, but the knowledge existed long, long before because Sukadeva Gosvami received it through disciplic succession
I
- If one worships the demigods but does not understand the relationship between the demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his worship is irregular
- If one worships the demigods, the demigods, as servants of the Supreme, carry the sacrificial offerings to the Lord, like tax collectors collecting revenue from the citizens and bringing it to the government's treasury
- In Bhagavad-gita (BG 4.6) Lord Krsna says, sambhavamy atma-mayaya: "I appear by My internal potency. "The word atma-maya refers to the Lord's personal potency, yogamaya
- In this verse (SB 5.20.33), the word karma-mayam ("obtainable by the Vedic ritualistic system") is significant
- It is only due to fear of Him (the Supreme Brahman) that death and Indra, the King of heaven, perform their respective duties
- It is out of fear of the Supreme Brahman that the wind is blowing, out of fear of Him that the sun regularly rises and sets, and out of fear of Him that fire acts
- It may be argued that the demigods are as important as Lord Visnu because the names of the demigods are different names of Visnu. This, however, is not a sound conclusion, for it is contradicted in the Vedic literatures
- It should be concluded that Lord Visnu, not Lord Brahma or Lord Siva, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead
K
- Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (9.24), aham hi sarva-yajnanam bhokta ca prabhur eva ca: I am the only enjoyer of ritualistic ceremonies
- Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (BG 7.4): Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego - all together these eight comprise My separated material energies
L
- Like the sun, the moon must also be full of flames because without flames there cannot be illumination. The flames on the moon, however, unlike those on the sun, must be mild and pleasing
- Lokaloka Mountain has been established as the outer boundary of all the lokas to distribute the rays of the sun and other luminaries equally throughout the universe
- Lord Krsna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (9.23): Devotees who worship the demigods with firm faith worship Me also, but not according to regulative principles
- Lord Visnu expands as the demigods known as Agni, Vayu, Surya and Candra, who are simply parts and parcels of His body
- Lord Visnu is even the Supreme Lord of death, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita - mrtyuh sarva-haras caham - BG 10.34
P
- People who are almost blind because of lusty desires are recommended to worship the demigods to have their material desires fulfilled, but actually those desires are not fulfilled by the material demigods
- People who are too lusty worship various demigods instead of worshiping Lord Visnu, the Supersoul of all living entities, but ultimately it is Lord Visnu they worship because He is the Supersoul of all demigods
- Prajapati, Lord Brahma, came from Narayana, Indra came from Narayana, and the eight Vasus, the eleven expansions of Lord Siva and the twelve Adityas also came from Narayana
- Pranayama is the means to attain samadhi, trance, in order to fully absorb oneself in seeing the Supreme Lord as antaryami, the Supersoul within the core of the heart
S
- Since the guru is a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he carries to the Lord whatever is offered to him
- Since the sun is in the middle of the universe, the distance between the sun and the edge of the universe is calculated to be twenty-five koti yojanas - two billion miles
- Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has given accurate astronomical information about the location of Lokaloka Mountain, the movements of the sun globe and the distance between the sun and the circumference of the universe
- Sukadeva Gosvami described these universal affairs (of different planetary systems) to Maharaja Pariksit as he had heard about them from his predecessor
- Surrounding these planetary systems (the three primary planetary systems - Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah) are the eight directions, namely east, west, north, south, northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest
- Surya is the life and soul of this universe, and there are innumerable universes for which a sun-god is the life and soul, just as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the life and soul of the entire creation
T
- The actual life and soul of all living entities within this universe is the sun. He is therefore upasya, worshipable. We worship the sun-god by chanting the Gayatri mantra
- The auspicious and the inauspicious exist throughout the entire world, and Lord Visnu is the controller of them both
- The demigod of the moon, Candra, came from the mind of Narayana, and the sun-god came from His eyes. The controlling deities of hearing and the life air came from Narayana, and the controlling deity of fire was generated from His mouth
- The demigod Surya, who is categorized as a very powerful jiva, or living entity, is a representation of one of the parts of His (the Supreme Personality of Godhead's) body
- The demigods are servants who assist the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- The demigods cannot accept the sacrificial offerings; they simply carry the offerings to the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- The difference between the sun and earth is that the sun is a fiery planet, but everyone there has a suitable body and can live there without difficulty
- The energy of the Lord acts throughout the creation, just as heat and light, the energies of the sun, act within the universe and make everything work
- The expansions of Lord Visnu as the tiny living entity and the Supersoul are both situated within the cave of the heart of this body
- The history of modern scientific knowledge does not go back more than a few hundred years
- The idea that Lord Visnu is on the same level as the demigods is in contradiction to the sastras. The demigods are not supreme. The supremacy of the demigods is dependent on the mercy of Lord Narayana
- The inhabitants of the five islands beginning with Plaksadvipa worship the sun-god, the moon-god, the fire-god, the air-god and Lord Brahma respectively
- The kusa grass illuminates all directions, but its flames are very mild and pleasing. This gives some idea of the flames existing on the moon
- The modern theory that the moon is full of dust is not accepted in the verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam. In regard to this verse (SB 5.20.13), Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says, susaspani sukomala-sikhas tesam rocisa
- The movement of the sun is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita (BS 5.38): yasyajnaya bhramati sambhrta-kala-cakrah
- The only master is Lord Krsna, or Lord Visnu, and all others are His obedient servants, who act exactly according to His orders
- The post of Lord Brahma is meant for very highly elevated, spiritually advanced living beings. When such living beings are unavailable, Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, expands Himself as Lord Brahma. This takes place very rarely
- The specific rivers mentioned in the sastras are also energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and people who regularly bathe in them are purified
- The sun orbits around Mount Sumeru, for six months on the northern side and for six months on the southern. This adds up to the duration of a day and night of the demigods in the upper planetary systems
- The Supreme Lord, the creator of this cosmic manifestation, knows every nook and corner of His creation. Although He is the cause of creation, there is no cause for His appearance. He is fully aware of everything
- The Supreme Lord, who accepts and enjoys the results of Vedic ritualistic ceremonies (technically called istapurta), who maintains the entire creation, is Lord Visnu
- The Supreme Lord, who supplies the necessities of all living entities (eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman) and who is the central point of all creation, is Lord Visnu
- The technical terms used in the astronomical calculations given by the Jyotir Veda are difficult to translate into English
- The Vedas say, svadharma-nisthah sata janmabhih puman virincatam eti: "One who strictly follows the principles of varnasrama-dharma for at least one hundred births will be rewarded with the post of Lord Brahma
- The word koti means ten million, and a yojana is eight miles. The diameter of the universe is fifty koti yojanas - four billion miles
- There are many lands, fields, mountains and oceans throughout the creation, and everywhere the Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped by His different names
- There are originally three deities - Lord Brahma, Lord Visnu and Lord Siva - and people with a poor fund of knowledge consider Lord Visnu no better than Lord Brahma or Lord Siva. This conclusion, however, is invalid
- There are two kinds of activity - auspicious and inauspicious - and both are controlled by Lord Visnu. Inauspicious activities are said to be behind Lord Visnu, whereas auspicious activities stand before Him
- There are two kinds of Brahmas. Sometimes Brahma is an ordinary living entity, and at other times Brahma is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Brahma spoken of here is an ordinary living being
- There is so much information to gather from Srimad-Bhagavatam. Modern scientists, however, have no information of other planetary systems and, indeed, are hardly conversant with the planet on which we are now living
- Those who are well-versed in knowledge of Brahman and those householders who carefully follow the Vedic regulations say that the difference between the two (the living entity and the Supersoul) is like the difference between a shadow and the sun
- Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, whereas the worshipers of Lord Krsna and Lord Visnu go to the planets in Vaikuntha. These are the statements of the smrti
- Through the mystic yoga practice called pranayama, the yogi controls the airs within the body to maintain the body in a healthy condition. In this way, the yogi comes to the point of trance and tries to see the Supersoul within the core of his heart
- To satisfy the reader, we may include the exact Sanskrit statement given by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, which records exact calculations regarding universal affairs
- To think that the demigods are independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and equal to Him is called hrta-jnana, a loss of intelligence, kamais tais tair hrta jnanah - BG 7.20
V
- Visnu is brahma, amrta, mrtyu - the Supreme Brahman and the origin of everything, auspicious and inauspicious. He is situated in the heart of everyone, including all the demigods
- Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says, apomayah asmayam: with joined palms the inhabitants of the various sections of Krauncadvipa offer the sanctified waters of the rivers to a deity made of stone or iron
- Vivid description of how the rays of the sun are distributed throughout the different planetary systems of the universe is very scientific
W
- We are naturally subordinate to powerful living entities, and therefore we can worship the various demigods as living beings who are powerful representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- We have information that Vairaja, Hiranyagarbha, entered the great, dull, material globe called the sun. This indicates that the theory held by so-called scientists that no one lives there is wrong
- Whatever the demigods do is done with the sanction of Lord Visnu
- When the cosmic manifestation is annihilated, these different expansions of Narayana's potencies (the demigods) will merge into Narayana. In other words, all these demigods will die. Their living force will be withdrawn, and they will merge into Narayana
- When we speak of loka-traya, we refer to the three primary planetary systems - Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah - into which the universe is divided
- Whether Brahma is the Supreme Personality of Godhead or an ordinary living being, he is known as Vairaja Brahma and Hiranyagarbha Brahma. Therefore the sun-god is also accepted as Vairaja Brahma