SB 03.26.09 prakrteh purusasyapi... cited

Expressions researched:
"bruhi karanayor asya" |"laksanam purusottama" |"prakrteh purusasyapi" |"sad-asac ca yad-atmakam"

SB Canto 3

SB 3.26.9, Translation and Purport:

Devahūti said: O Supreme Personality of Godhead, kindly explain the characteristics of the Supreme Person and His energies, for both of these are the causes of this manifest and unmanifest creation.

prakṛti, or material nature, is connected with both the Supreme Lord and the living entities, just as a woman is connected with her husband as a wife and with her children as a mother. In Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says that He impregnates mother nature with children, living entities, and thereafter all species of living entities become manifest. The relationship of all living entities with material nature has been explained. Now an understanding of the relationship between material nature and the Supreme Lord is sought by Devahūti. The product of that relationship is stated to be the manifest and unmanifest material world. The unmanifest material world is the subtle mahat-tattva, and from that mahat-tattva the material manifestation has emerged.

In the Vedic literatures it is said that by the glance of the Supreme Lord the total material energy is impregnated, and then everything is born of material nature. It is also confirmed in the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that under His glance, adhyakṣeṇa—under His direction and by His will—nature is working. It is not that nature works blindly. After understanding the position of the conditioned souls in relation to material nature, Devahūti wanted to know how nature works under the direction of the Lord and what the relationship is between the material nature and the Lord. In other words, she wanted to learn the characteristics of the Supreme Lord in relation to the material nature.

The relationship of the living entities with matter and that of the Supreme Lord with matter are certainly not on the same level, although the Māyāvādīs may interpret it in that way. When it is said that the living entities are bewildered, the Māyāvādī philosophers ascribe this bewilderment to the Supreme Lord. But that is not applicable. The Lord is never bewildered. That is the difference between personalists and impersonalists. Devahūti is not unintelligent. She has enough intelligence to understand that the living entities are not on the level of the Supreme Lord. Because the living entities are infinitesimal, they become bewildered or conditioned by material nature, but this does not mean that the Supreme Lord is also conditioned or bewildered. The difference between the conditioned soul and the Lord is that the Lord is the Lord, the master of material nature, and He is therefore not subject to its control. He is controlled neither by spiritual nature nor by material nature. He is the supreme controller Himself, and He cannot be compared to the ordinary living entities, who are controlled by the laws of material nature.

Two words used in this verse are sat and asat. The cosmic manifestation is asat—it does not exist—but the material energy of the Supreme Lord is sat, or ever existing. Material nature is ever existing in its subtle form as the energy of the Lord, but it sometimes manifests this nonexistent or temporarily existent nature, the cosmos. An analogy may be made with the father and mother: the mother and the father exist, but sometimes the mother begets children. Similarly, this cosmic manifestation, which comes from the unmanifest material nature of the Supreme Lord, sometimes appears and again disappears. But the material nature is ever existing, and the Lord is the supreme cause for both the subtle and gross manifestations of this material world.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.26.9 -- Bombay, December 21, 1974:

Nitāi: "Devahūti said: O Supreme Personality of Godhead, kindly explain the characteristics of the Supreme Person and His energies, because both of these are the causes of this manifest and unmanifest creation."

Prabhupāda:

prakṛteḥ puruṣasyāpi

lakṣaṇaṁ puruṣottama

brūhi kāraṇayor asya

sad-asac ca yad-ātmakam

(SB 3.26.9)

So Kapiladeva is addressed here as Puruṣottama. Puruṣottama. The living entities, the Supersoul, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Living entities are sometimes called puruṣa because puruṣa means enjoyer. So the living entities wants to enjoy this material world although he is not enjoyer. We have explained many times. The living entities, that is also prakṛti, but he also wants to enjoy. That is called illusion. So in his enjoying temperament he may be called puruṣa, illusory puruṣa. Real puruṣa is Bhagavān. Puruṣa means bhoktā. The bhoktā, real bhoktā, enjoyer, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).

Lecture on SB 3.26.9 -- Bombay, December 21, 1974:

So puruṣa is accompanied by varieties of energies. In the Upaniṣad it is stated,

na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate

na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate

parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate...

(Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport)

Para, the Supreme Lord, Absolute Truth, has multi-energy. So the multi-energy is divided into three division. That is called antaraṅga-śakti, internal energy, external energy, and the marginal energy. All of them are energies, or prakṛti. So in the Sāṅkhya philosophical discussion, Devahūti—she is also the mother of Kapiladeva—she asked this intelligent question: "What are the characteristic of the prakṛti, and what are the characteristic of the puruṣa?" Prakṛteḥ puruṣasyāpi lakṣaṇaṁ puruṣottama. He (she) is addressing his (her) son, Kapiladeva, God, as Puruṣottama. Uttama puruṣa. Uttam a, madhyama, and adhama. There is a comparative. So uttama puruṣa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, or His incarnation like Kapiladeva, Ṛṣabhadeva. There are many incarnations. So they are all Puruṣottama.

Lecture on SB 3.26.9 -- Bombay, December 21, 1974:

So the Supersoul is also living with the..., along with this ordinary living entities as friends. That is described in the Upaniṣad, that two birds are sitting on one tree. One bird is eating the fruit and the other bird is simply witness. Paramātmā, upadraṣṭā anumantā. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Paramātmā is existing within our heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is simply upadraṣṭā. He is not enjoying. He has no interest to enjoy this material world. But the other bird, the living entity, he is trying to enjoy this material world. And according to his karma, upadraṣṭā... I wanted to do something or I have done something. The resultant action, I will have to enjoy or suffer in the next life. The witness is the Paramātmā, sākṣī, upadraṣṭā anumantā, antaryāmī, sākṣī. We cannot do anything without the knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His Paramātmā feature. He is fulfilling our desires and waiting for the opportunity when the living entity will give up this business of eating the fruit of this body, of the tree, and simply become engaged, again come back to the Supersoul. That opportunity He is looking after. So the Christian philosophers, they do not believe in the Paramātmā feature, and they say that "If I am punished for my past deeds, then who is the witness?" Because in the court, if somebody is charged with criminality, there must be some witnesses. So we heard a Christian professor in our college. They did not believe in this witness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is witness within the heart. Witness must be. This is very intelligent, that without witness, how my charges, charges upon me, can be substantiated? The witness is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Upadraṣṭā anumantā. He is seeing everything. So that is puruṣa also, and we are also puruṣa. And above these two puruṣas, the Supreme Puruṣa is Kṛṣṇa, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, Eighth Chapter, puruṣottama-yogam.

So brūhi kāraṇayor asya sad-asac ca yad-ātmakam. So the uttama-puruṣa, Puruṣottama, just like Kṛṣṇa or Kapiladeva, They come within this material world, but they are not affected. But we are affected. We are, according to our desire, conditioned. We are affected by the different modes of material nature. It is described in the Vedic literature just like the fire and the spark. The fire is always blazing, but the sparks coming out of the fire, they sometime fall down. And this falling down is described that if the spark falls on some dry grass, then immediately the grass is also ignited into fire. That is sattva-guṇa. And rajo-guṇa means on the ground. It gradually, the ignition, the fire of the spark, becomes finished. And if the spark falls down on some water, then immediately it is extinguished. Similarly, when we come down from the spiritual world on account of desire, icchā-dveṣa samutthena sarge yānti parantapa (BG 7.27), by our icchā, Kṛṣṇa gives us to fulfill our desires. So as we contact with the different modes of material nature, we are situated either in sattva-guṇa or rajo-guṇa or tamo-guṇa, and our different characteristics are visible.

But the Puruṣottama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is never become affected by the material nature. This is the general description of the puruṣa and puruṣottama. And further description will be given from the verse number ten.