SB 01.02.30 sa evedam sasarjagre... cited

Expressions researched:
"bhagavan atma-mayaya" |"gunamayaguno vibhuh" |"sa evedam sasarjagre" |"sad-asad-rupaya casau"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.2.30, Translation and Purport:

In the beginning of the material creation, that Absolute Personality of Godhead (Vāsudeva), in His transcendental position, created the energies of cause and effect by His own internal energy.

The position of the Lord is always transcendental because the causal and effectual energies required for the creation of the material world were also created by Him. He is unaffected, therefore, by the qualities of the material modes. His existence, form, activities and paraphernalia all existed before the material creation.* He is all-spiritual and has nothing to do with the qualities of the material world, which are qualitatively distinct from the spiritual qualities of the Lord.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.30 -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre

bhagavān ātma-māyayā

sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau

guṇamayāguṇo vibhuḥ

(SB 1.2.30)

Translation: "In the beginning of the material creation, the Absolute Lord, in His own transcendental position, created the energies of cause and effect by His own internal energy."

Prabhupāda:

sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre

bhagavān ātma-māyayā

sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau

guṇamayāguṇo vibhuḥ

So here is the information of creation. The creation is from a person, not from the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Creation, there must be brain; otherwise how there is question of creation? We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. We are..., we have also creative power. So as soon as there is question of creative power, there must be a brain behind the creation, and brain means a person. Creation cannot be possible from void or impersonal thing. We have several times discussed this point, that the government, this word, appears to be impersonal, but actually, behind the government there is a person—the president or the king, like that. So this creation, cosmic manifestation, is possible through the creative power of the Supreme Person; therefore God cannot be impersonal. Impersonal feature is one of the manifestation of God. God must be a person. This is the conclusion. Sa eva idam: this cosmic manifestation was created. In another place it is stated, aham evāsam agre: before creation, there was God, Kṛṣṇa. And when this material creation will be finished, He will remain.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa, or God, is not one of these created, material created things. That is admitted even by the staunchest impersonalist, Śaṅkarācārya: nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ avyaktāt. Vyakta avyakta, this mahat-tattva, from which this material cosmic manifestation is there, but nārāyaṇa-para, Nārāyaṇa is above. That means above this creation. Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, is not one of the product of this creation. Just like our existence: we are one of the products of this creation. So Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, is not one of the products of this material creation; therefore it is to be understood that Kṛṣṇa's body is not material. But the Māyāvādī philosophers, they think like that, that Kṛṣṇa is God, but He has accepted a material body. This is Māyāvādī philosophy. But how Kṛṣṇa can accept a material body, because He existed before the material creation? Another consideration is that even if He accepts a material body, that is not material for Him. That is also spiritual. It appears to us as material, but that is spiritual. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). He has got multi-energies, and because He is spirit, complete spirit, therefore His energies are also spiritual. Sakti-śaktimator abhedaḥ. There cannot be any distinction between the powerful and the power.

So here it is clearly said that sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre bhagavān ātma-māyayā: "Bhagavān created by His energy." It is not that Bhagavān is finished after this creation. The Māyāvāda philosophy is that everything is God; therefore there is no separate existence of God. That is impersonalism. But here it is said that bhagavān ātma-māyayā: He created this cosmic manifestation by His energy. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). His full energy, even it is taken away from Him, still, He is full, He's complete. He's not exhausted. So sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre bhagavān ātma-māyayā, sad-asad-rūpayā. The māyā is displayed... Māyā means energy. That is displayed in two ways: material and spiritual. Material is asat, and spiritual is sat. Asat means which does not exist permanent, permanently. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is created, again it is annihilated. Therefore it is called sometimes asat. Asat means not false, but not permanent. So this material creation is also manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's energy, and there is another creation, but that is not creation. That is always existing. That is the spiritual world, sanātana. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyaktaḥ avyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). That, that manifestation, that is internal potency. This is external potency. This material world is manifestation of the external potency of Kṛṣṇa, whereas the spiritual world is the manifestation of His internal potency. Unfortunately, the modern advancement of education has no information what is that spiritual world. He has... They have no information. They are concerned with this material world only. That is also not perfectly. But there is spiritual world. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6), Kṛṣṇa says. There is another, another manifestation of His internal potency. That is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. Here, in this material world, material world means it is not eternal, not blissful and not full of knowledge. This is material world. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said: avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate. This manifestation of energy is full of ignorance. The nature of this world is called darkness, tamasi, tama. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. So sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau guṇa, guṇamaya aguṇaḥ. Kṛṣṇa, when He's called aguṇa, or nirguṇa, that means He's not affected by these material modes of nature. Above material nature. We are affected. We living entities, we are affected by the material modes of nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. But Kṛṣṇa is not affected. That is Kṛṣṇa..., difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself.

Lecture on SB 1.2.30 -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

So those who are in the darkness of this material creation, they consider Kṛṣṇa as one of the human beings. As a great scholar says, when Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), the scholar points out that "It is not to Kṛṣṇa. It is the..., it is up to the inner soul which is within Kṛṣṇa." There is no "within" and "without" Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa..., as we have got difference between within and without, Kṛṣṇa has no such difference. And those..., one who does not know, they think, such persons thinks Kṛṣṇa as one of the products of material creation. That is not the fact.

sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre

bhagavān ātma-māyayā

sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau

guṇamayāguṇo vibhuḥ

Vibhu. He's vibhu, we are aṇu. That is the difference. Kṛṣṇa is vibhu, unlimited. We are limited. So we, we cannot be equal to Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvāda philosophy that there is no difference between jīva and Bhagavān... There is sufficient difference. He is vibhu; we are aṇu. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. He's the greatest of the great, and He's the smallest also. So Kṛṣṇa cannot be equal..., or nobody can be equal to Kṛṣṇa, or greater than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is asamordhva. Nobody can be equal or greater than Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is below Kṛṣṇa.

That is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta: ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya (CC Adi 5.142). Only Kṛṣṇa is the supreme master. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya. Now... Śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33). Even great demigods like Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, they also subordinate to Kṛṣṇa. They offer their obeisances to Kṛṣṇa. Śiva-viriñci-nutam. And in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is confirmed by Brahmā: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvara. Everyone can be an īśvara. Īśvara means controller. So we are also controller of something. A business man is controller of his business; I am controller of my disciples. There are so many controllers. So in that sense, everyone is īśvara, in the sense of controller. But Lord Brahmā says, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1): "The supreme controller, the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." What is the difference between supreme controller and ordinary controller? Ordinary controller means that he controls and he is controlled, both. We are controller, but nobody can say that "I am not controlled." We are controlled. But Kṛṣṇa, He's controller, but not controlled. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and ourself. So we cannot be equal with Kṛṣṇa. We are controlled. I think in Glasgow, one boy, he was presenting himself as God. So I asked him, "Whether you are controlled or not controlled?" He admitted, "Yes, I am controlled." "Then how you can be God?" God is never controlled. God is controller, but He's not controlled. So if we take ourself as so many samples of God, that is all right, but we are controlled God, not controller God.

Lecture on SB 1.2.30 -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

There are many versions of the saintly persons. Just like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, rūpa-raghunātha-pade haibe ākuti, kabe hāma bhujabo se jugala-pīriti. A saintly person, ācārya, like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, he says that "When I shall be very much eager to understand the path of the Six Gosvāmīs?" Ei chay gosāi jāṅr mui tāṅr dās. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa unless we have submitted ourself under the lotus feet of the Six Gosvāmīs, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We have to understand Kṛṣṇa in this way. It is very difficult to understand Kṛṣṇa, but by the grace of the Gosvāmīs, by the grace of Lord Caitanya, we can understand Kṛṣṇa.

athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-

prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi

jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno

na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan

(SB 10.14.29)

Panthās tu... There are many shastric evidences. Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām (Bs. 5.34). So by speculation, we cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. By mental speculation, we cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. We have to understand Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa says, or Kṛṣṇa's devotee says, the Gosvāmīs says, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. Then we can understand how this cosmic manifestation is created, who created, how it is created. Everything will be clear. This is the beginning of such understanding.

sa evedaṁ sasarjāgre

bhagavān ātma-māyayā

sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau

guṇamayāguṇo vibhuḥ

So Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, His position is always transcendental. Even though He appears before us, still, He's transcendental. This is the understanding of Kṛṣṇa.