VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Canto 10
Chapter 87
The Underlying Mystery: Prayers of the Personified Vedas
This chapter presents the prayers by the personified Vedas glorifying the personal and impersonal aspects of Lord Nārāyaṇa.
King Parīkṣit asked Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī how the Vedas can directly refer to the Supreme Absolute Truth, Brahman, since the Vedas deal with the material realm governed by the three modes of nature and Brahman is completely transcendental to these modes. In reply, Śukadeva Gosvāmī described an ancient encounter between Śrī Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi and Nārada Muni at Badarikāśrama. Traveling to that sacred hermitage, Nārada found the Lord surrounded by exalted residents of the nearby village of Kalāpa. After bowing down to Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi and His associates, Nārada submitted this same question to Him. In reply, Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi related an account of how this very question had been discussed long ago among the great sages living on Janaloka. Once these sages, feeling inquisitive about the nature of the Absolute Truth, chose Sanandana Kumāra to speak on the subject. Sanandana told them how the numerous personified Vedas, appearing as the first emanations from the breathing of Lord Nārāyaṇa, recited prayers for His glorification just before the creation. Sanandana then proceeded to recite these elaborate prayers.
The residents of Janaloka were perfectly satisfied upon hearing Sanandana recite the prayers of the personified Vedas, which enlightened them about the true nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth, and they honored Sanandana with their worship. Nārada Muni was equally satisfied to hear this account from Śrī Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi. Thus Nārada offered his obeisances to the Lord and then went to see his disciple Vedavyāsa, to whom he explained everything he had heard.
10.87.1
(1) S'rî Parîkchit said: 'O brahmin, how can the sacred texts [the s'ruti, the Vedas], dealing with the different modes of nature, express themselves about the inexpressible [*] Absolute Truth that is elevated above cause [the subtle] and effect [the gross]?'
Before beginning his commentary on this chapter, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays:
vāg-īśā yasya vadane
"I worship Lord Nṛsiḿha, within whose mouth reside the great masters of eloquence, upon whose chest resides the goddess of fortune, and within whose heart resides the divine potency of consciousness."
sampradāya-viśuddhy-arthaḿ
"Desiring to purify my sampradāya and being bound by duty, I will briefly comment on the prayers of the personified Vedas, to the best of my realization."
śrīmad-bhāgavataḿ pūrvaiḥ
sārataḥ sanniṣevitam
ucchiṣṭam upacīyate
"In as much as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has already been perfectly honored by my predecessors' explanations, I can only gather together the remnants of what they have honored."Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī offers his own invocation:
mama ratna-vaṇig-bhāvaḿ
ratnāny aparicinvataḥ
hasantu santo jihremi
"The saintly devotees may laugh at me for becoming a jewel merchant though I know nothing about precious jewels. But I feel no shame, for at least I may entertain them."na me 'sti vaiduṣy api nāpi bhaktir
stuty-artha-cintāmaṇi-rāśi-gṛdhnuḥ
"Though I have no wisdom, devotion or detachment, I am still greedy to take the philosopher's stone of the Vedas' prayers from the fortress in which it is being kept."māḿ nīcatāyām aviveka-vāyuḥ
pravartate pātayituḿ balāc cet
"If the wind of indiscretion — my failure to acknowledge my lowly position — threatens to knock me down, then while writing this commentary I must hold on to the effulgent pillars of the feet of Śrīdhara Svāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī and Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa."praṇamya śrī-guruḿ bhūyaḥ
śrī-kṛṣṇaḿ karuṇārṇavam
"Repeatedly bowing down to my divine spiritual master and to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ocean of mercy, I take shelter of Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the protector of the world and its universal eye."At the end of the preceding chapter, Śukadeva Gosvāmī told Parīkṣit Mahārāja,
evaḿ sva-bhaktayo rājan
"Thus, O King, the Personality of Godhead, who is the devotee of His own devotees, stayed for some time with His two great devotees, teaching them how perfect saints behave. Then He returned to Dvārakā." In this verse the word san-mārgam can be understood in at least three ways. In the first, sat is taken to mean "devotee of the Supreme Lord," and thus san-mārgam means "the path of bhakti-yoga, devotional service." In the second, with sat meaning "a seeker of transcendental knowledge," san-mārgam means "the philosophical path of knowledge," which has impersonal Brahman as its object. And in the third, with sat referring to the transcendental sound of the Vedas, san-mārgam means "the process of following Vedic injunctions." Both the second and the third of these interpretations of san-mārgam lead to the question of how the Vedas can describe the Absolute Truth.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī elaborately analyzes this problem in terms of the traditional discipline of Sanskrit poetics: We should consider that words have three kinds of expressive capacities, called śabda-vṛttis. These are the different ways a word refers to its meaning, distinguished as mukhya-vṛtti, lakṣaṇā-vṛtti and gauṇa-vṛtti. The śabda-vṛtti termed mukhya is the primary, literal meaning of a word; this is also known as abhidhā, a word's "denotation," or dictionary meaning. Mukhya-vṛtti is further divided into two subcategories, namely rūḍhi and yoga. A primary meaning is called rūḍhi when it is based on conventional usage, and yoga when it is derived from another word's meaning by regular etymological rules.
For example, the word go ("cow") is an example of rūḍhi, since its relation with its literal meaning is purely conventional. The denotation of the word pācaka ("chef"), on the other hand, is a yoga-vṛtti, through the word's derivation from the root pac ("to cook") by addition of the agent suffix -ka.
Beside its mukhya-vṛtti, or primary meaning, a word can also be used in a secondary, metaphorical sense. This usage is called lakṣaṇā. The rule is that a word should not be understood metaphorically if its mukhya-vṛtti makes sense in the given context; only after the mukhya-vṛtti fails to convey a word's meaning may lakṣaṇā-vṛtti be justifiably presumed. The function of lakṣaṇā is technically explained in the kāvya-śāstras as an extended reference, pointing to something in some way related to the object of the literal meaning. Thus, the phrase gańgāyāḿ ghoṣaḥ literally means "the cowherd village in the Ganges." But that idea is absurd, so here gańgāyām should rather be understood by its lakṣaṇā to mean "on the bank of the Ganges," the bank being something related to the river. Gauṇa-vṛtti is a special kind of lakṣaṇā, where the meaning is extended to some idea of similarity. For example, in the statement siḿho devadattaḥ ("Devadatta is a lion"), heroic Devadatta is metaphorically called a lion because of his lionlike qualities. In contrast, the example of the general kind of lakṣaṇā, namely gańgāyāḿ ghoṣaḥ, involves a relationship not of similarity but of location.
In this first verse of the Eighty-seventh Chapter, Parīkṣit Mahārāja expresses doubt as to how the words of the Vedas can refer to the Absolute Truth by any of the valid kinds of śabda-vṛtti. He asks, kathaḿ sākṣāt caranti: How can the Vedas directly describe Brahman by rūḍha-mukhya-vṛtti, literal meaning based on convention? After all, the Absolute is anirdeśya, inaccessible to designation. And how can the Vedas even describe Brahman by gauṇa-vṛtti, metaphor based on similar qualities?
The Vedas are guṇa-vṛttayaḥ, full of qualitative descriptions, but Brahman is nirguṇa, without qualities. Obviously, a metaphor based on similar qualities cannot apply in the case of something that has no qualities. Furthermore, Parīkṣit Mahārāja points out that Brahman is sad-asataḥ param, beyond all causes and effects. Having no connection with any manifest existence, subtle or gross, the Absolute cannot be expressed by either yoga-vṛtti, a meaning derived etymologically, or lakṣaṇā, metaphor, since both require some relationship of Brahman to other entities.
Thus King Parīkṣit is puzzled as to how the words of the Vedas can directly describe the Absolute Truth.
10.87.2
(2) S'rî S'uka said: 'The intelligence, senses, mind and life force of the living beings were by their Lord and Master evolved for the sake of the sensual, for the sake of getting a life and for the sake of the [emancipation of the] soul and its ultimate liberation.
At the dawn of creation, when the conditioned living entities lay dormant within the transcendental body of Lord Viṣṇu, He initiated the process of creation by sending forth the coverings of intelligence, mind and so on for the living entities' benefit. As stated here, Viṣṇu is the independent Lord (prabhu), and the living entities are His jana, dependents. Thus we should understand that the Lord creates the cosmos entirely for the living entities' sake; compassion is His sole motive.
By providing the living entities with gross and subtle bodies, the Supreme Lord enables them to pursue sense gratification and, in the human form, religiosity, economic development and liberation. In each body the conditioned soul utilizes his senses for enjoyment, and when he comes to the human form he must also discharge various duties assigned to him at the different stages of his life. If he faithfully discharges his duties, he earns more refined and extensive enjoyment in the future; if not, he is degraded. And when the soul eventually hankers to be freed from material life, the path of liberation is always available. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments that in this verse the repeated use of the word ca ("and") indicates the importance of all of what the Lord provides — not only the path of liberation, but also the paths of gradual elevation through religious life and appropriate sense enjoyment.
In all their endeavors the living entities depend on the Lord's mercy for success. Without intelligence, senses, mind and vital air, the living entities cannot achieve anything — neither elevation to heaven, purification through knowledge, perfection of the eightfold meditational yoga, nor pure devotion through following the process of bhakti-yoga, beginning with hearing and chanting the names of God.
How, then, if the Supreme arranges all these facilities for the conditioned souls' welfare, can He be impersonal? Far from presenting the Absolute Truth as ultimately impersonal, the Upaniṣads speak at great length about His personal qualities. The Absolute described by the Upaniṣads is free from all inferior, material qualities, and yet He is omniscient, omnipotent, the master and controller of all, the universally worshipable Lord, He who awards the results of everyone's work, and the reservoir of all eternity, knowledge and bliss. The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (1.1.9) states, yaḥ sarva-jñaḥ sa sarva-vid yasya jñāna-mayaḿ tapaḥ: "He who is all-knowing, from whom the potency of all knowledge comes — He is the wisest of all." In the words of the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (4.4.22, 3.7.3, and 1.2.4), sarvasya vāśī sarvasyeśānaḥ: "He is the Lord and controller of everyone"; yaḥ pṛthivyāḿ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā āntaraḥ: "He who resides within the earth and pervades it"; and so 'kāmayata bahu syām: "He desired, 'I will become many. ' " Similarly, the Aitareya Upaniṣad (3.11) states, sa aikṣata tat tejo 'sṛjata: "He glanced at His potency, who then manifested the creation," while the Taittirīya Upaniṣad (2.1.1) declares, satyaḿ jñānam anantaḿ brahma: "The Supreme is unlimited truth and knowledge."
The phrase tat tvam asi, "You are that" (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7), is often cited by impersonalists as a confirmation of the absolute identity of the finite jīva soul with his creator. Śańkarācārya and his followers elevate these words to the status of one of the few mahā-vākyas, key phrases they say express the essential purport of Vedānta. The leading thinkers of the standard Vaiṣṇava schools of Vedānta, however, vociferously disagree with this interpretation. Ācāryas Rāmānuja, Madhva, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and others have offered numerous alternative explanations according to a systematic study of the Upaniṣads and other śrutis.
The question Mahārāja Parīkṣit has submitted here — namely, "How can the Vedas directly refer to the Absolute Truth?" — has been answered as follows by Śukadeva Gosvāmī: "The Lord created intelligence and other elements for the sake of the conditioned living beings." A skeptic may object that this answer is irrelevant. But Śukadeva Gosvāmī's answer is not actually irrelevant, as Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains. Answers to subtle questions must often be phrased indirectly. As Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself states in His instructions to Uddhava (Bhāg. 11.21.35), parokṣa-vādā ṛṣayaḥ parokṣaḿ mama ca priyam: "The Vedic seers and mantras deal in esoteric terms, and I also am pleased by such confidential descriptions." In the present context, the impersonalists, on whose behalf Parīkṣit Mahārāja asked his question, cannot appreciate the direct answer, so instead Śrīla Śukadeva gives an indirect reply: "You say that Brahman is indescribable by words. But if the Supreme Lord had not created the intelligence, mind and senses, then sound and the other objects of perception would all be just as indescribable as your Brahman. You would have been blind and deaf since birth, and would know nothing about physical forms and sounds, what to speak of the Absolute. So, just as the merciful Lord has given us all faculties of perception for experiencing and describing to others the sensations of sight, sound and so forth, in the same way He may give someone the receptive capacity to realize Brahman. He may, if He chooses, create some extraordinary way for words to function — apart from their ordinary references to material substances, qualities, categories and actions — that will enable them to express the Supreme Truth. He is, after all, the almighty Lord (prabhu), and He can easily make the indescribable describable."
Lord Matsya assures King Satyavrata that the Absolute Truth can be known from the words of the Vedas:
madīyaḿ mahimānaḿ ca
vetsyasy anugrahītaḿ me
"You will be thoroughly advised and favored by Me, and because of your inquiries, everything about My glories, which are known as paraḿ brahma, will be manifest within your heart. Thus you will know everything about Me." (Bhāg. 8.24.38)The fortunate soul who has been graced by the Supreme Lord with divine inquisitiveness will ask questions about the nature of the Absolute, and by hearing the answers given by great sages, which are recorded in the Vedic literatures, he will come to understand the Lord as He is. Thus only by the special mercy of the Supreme Person does Brahman become śabditam, "literally denoted by words." Otherwise, without the Lord's exceptional grace, the words of the Vedas cannot reveal the Absolute Truth.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī suggests that the word buddhi in this verse spoken by Śukadeva Gosvāmī can indicate the mahat-tattva, from which evolve the various expansions of ether (such as sound), which are designated here as indriya. Mātrārtham, then, means "for the sake of using transcendental sound to describe Brahman," since for that precise purpose the Supreme Lord inspired prakṛti to evolve ether and sound.
A further understanding of the purpose of creation is spoken by the words bhavārtham and ātmane kalpanāya (if the reading kalpanāya instead of akalpanāya is taken). Bhavārtham means "for the good of the living entities." Worship (kalpanam) of the Supreme Self (ātmane) is the means by which the living entities can fulfill the divine purpose for which they exist. Intelligence, mind and senses are meant to be used for worshiping the Supreme Lord, whether or not the living entity has yet brought them to the stage of transcendental purification.
How both purified and unpurified devotees use their intelligence, mind and senses in worshiping the Lord is described in reference to the following quote from the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad (Pūrva 12):
sat-puṇḍarīka-nayanaḿ
meghābhaḿ vaidyutāmbaram
"The Supreme Lord, appearing in His two-armed form, had divine lotus eyes, a complexion the color of a cloud, and garments that resembled lightning. He wore a garland of forest flowers, and His beauty was enhanced by His pose of meditative silence." The transcendental intelligence and senses of the Lord's perfect devotees correctly perceive His purely spiritual beauty, and their realizations are echoed in the Gopāla-tāpanī-śruti's comparison of Lord Kṛṣṇa's eyes, body and clothing to a lotus, a cloud and lightning. On the other hand, devotees on the level of sādhana, who are in the process of becoming purified, have only barely realized the Supreme Lord's boundless spiritual beauty. Nonetheless, by hearing scriptural passages such as this one from the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad, they engage in contemplating Him to the best of their fledgling ability. Although the neophyte devotees have not yet learned how to fully realize the Lord or meditate steadily on even the effulgence surrounding His body, still they take pleasure in presuming, "We are meditating on our Lord." And the Supreme Lord, moved by the waves of His boundless mercy, Himself thinks, "These devotees are meditating on Me." When their devotion matures, He draws them to His feet to engage in His intimate service. Thus it is concluded that the Vedas have access to the personal identity of the Supreme only by His mercy.10.87.3
śrraddhayā dhārayed yas tāḿ
kṣemaḿ gacched akiñcanaḥ
(3) This same philosophical exercise concerning the Absolute Truth was observed by the predecessors [like the Kumâras] of our predecessors [like Nârada]. Whoever with faith concentrates upon it will be free from material attachment and attain peace and tranquility [see also 8.24: 38].
This confidential knowledge concerning the Absolute Truth should not be doubted, since it has been passed down through authoritative lines of learned sages from time immemorial. One who cultivates the science of the Supreme with reverence, avoiding the distractions of fruitive rituals and mental speculation, will learn to give up the false designations of material body and mundane society, and thus he will become eligible for perfection.
In the opinion of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, the first two verses of this chapter can be considered an Upaniṣad on the topic of Brahman. Śukadeva Gosvāmī here disclaims authorship on the grounds that this Upaniṣad was spoken previously by Nārada Muni, who himself heard it from Sanaka Kumāra.
10.87.4
gāthāḿ nārāyaṇānvitām
ṛṣer nārāyaṇasya ca
(4) For this purpose will I relate to you an account concerning Lord Nârâyana. It concerns a conversation between Nârâyana Rishi and Nârada Muni.
Lord Nārāyaṇa is connected in two ways with the following narration: as its speaker and as the subject it describes.
10.87.5
yayau nārāyaṇāśramam
(5) Once went the Supreme Lord's beloved Nârada as he was traveling the worlds, for a visit to the âs'rama of the Eternal Seer Nârâyana.
10.87.6
ā-kalpād āsthitas tapaḥ
(6) From the beginning of Brahmâ's day has He [Nârâyana Rishi], just for the welfare in this and the next life of the human beings who abide by dharma, jñâna and self-control, in Bhârata-varsha been performing penances [see kalpa].
10.87.7
tatropaviṣṭam ṛṣibhiḥ
parītaḿ praṇato 'pṛcchad
(7) Having arrived there bowed he down to Him who sat there surrounded by sages of Kalâpa, the village where He resided, and asked he this very same question, o best of the Kurus.
10.87.8
(8) As the seers were listening related the Supreme Lord this ancient discussion about the Absolute Truth among the inhabitants of the world of the mortals [Janaloka].
10.87.9
(9) The Supreme Lord said: 'O son of the self-born Lord [Brahmâ], in the past was there, among the ones residing in the world of the mortals, a sacrifice held for the sake of which the [ûrdhva-retah] celibate sages who had found their life in Brahmâ [- who were born from him -] exercised their spirituality.
that the word satram here refers to a Vedic sacrifice in which all the participants are equally qualified to serve as priests. In this instance, each of the sages present in Janaloka could speak equally well on the topic of Brahman.
10.87.10
(10) With you having left for S'vetadvîpa to see the Lord, ensued about Him [Vishnu in the function of Aniruddha] in whom the Vedas lay down to rest [after the dissolution of the material world], indeed a lively exposition which brought up the question that you now again are asking Me.
10.87.11
tulya-svīyāri-madhyamāḥ
(11) Even though they were equally qualified from their penance and their study of the s'ruti and equal to friends, foes and neutrals, appointed they one of them as their speaker while the rest eagerly listened.'
10.87.12-13
vandinas tat-parākramaiḥ
bodhayanty anujīvinaḥ
(12-13) S'rî Sanandana said: 'When He after having created this universe relating to its disolution withdrew and was lying asleep, awakened the Vedas in person the Supreme One with descriptions of His characteristics, the same way a sleeping king by his court poets is awakened as they as his servants approach him at dawn with [reciting] his heroic deeds.
At the time of creation, the Vedas are the first emanation from the breathing of Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu, and in personified form they serve Him by waking Him from His mystic sleep. This statement made by Sanandana implies that Sanaka and the other sages had asked him the same question that Nārada had asked Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi and Mahārāja Parīkṣit had asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Sanandana refers the question back to the example of the personified Vedas themselves in their address to Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu. Even though the Vedas knew that the Lord, being omniscient, does not need to be informed of His glories, they enthusiastically took this opportunity to praise Him.
10.87.14
aga-jagad-okasām akhila-śakty-avabodhaka te
(14) The Vedas said: 'All glories, all glories to You, please o Unconquerable One defeat the eternal illusion that assumed the form of the modes and creates the detrimental. Because You at times engage Yourself with the from Your inner self springing energies of the embodied ones who move and not move about, can You by us, the Vedas, be appreciated who in Your original status are complete in all opulences [**].
the twenty-eight verses of the prayers of the personified Vedas (Texts 14-41) represent the opinions of each of the twenty-eight major śrutis. These chief Upaniṣads and other śrutis concern themselves with various approaches to the Absolute Truth, and among them those śrutis are supreme which emphasize pure, unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Upaniṣads direct our attention to the Personality of Godhead by first negating what is distinct from Him and then defining some of His important characteristics.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī interprets the first words of this prayer, jaya jaya, to mean "please reveal Your superexcellence." The word jaya is repeated out of either reverence or joy.
"How should I reveal My excellence?" the Lord might ask.
The śrutis answer by requesting Him to mercifully destroy the ignorance of all living beings and attract them to His lotus feet.
The Lord says, "But Māyā, who imposes ignorance on the jīvas, is full of good qualities [gṛbhīta-guṇām]. Why should I oppose her?"
"Yes," the Vedas answer, "but she has taken on the three modes of nature to bewilder the conditioned souls and make them falsely identify with their material bodies. Her modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, moreover, are tainted [doṣa-gṛbhīta] because You are not manifest in their presence."
The śrutis go on to address the Lord as ajita, implying that "only You cannot be conquered by Māyā, whereas others, like Brahmā, are defeated by their own faults."
The Lord responds, "But what proof do you have that she cannot conquer Me?"
"The proof lies in the fact that in Your original state You have already realized the perfection of all opulences."
At this point the Lord might object that merely destroying the ignorance of the jīvas will not suffice to bring them to His lotus feet, since the jīva soul, even after his ignorance is dispelled, cannot attain the Lord without engaging in devotional service. As the Lord states in His own words, bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ: "I am attainable only through devotional service." (Bhāg. 11.14.21)
To this objection the śrutis reply, "My Lord, O You who awaken all energies, after creating the intelligence and senses of the living entities, You inspire them to work hard and enjoy the fruits of their labor. In addition, by Your mercy You awaken their ability to pursue the progressive paths of knowledge, mystic yoga and devotional service, allowing them to advance toward You in Your aspects of Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, respectively. And when jñāna, yoga and bhakti mature, You empower the living beings to directly realize You in each of Your three aspects."
If the Lord were to ask for authoritative evidence to support this statement by the personified Vedas, they humbly reply, "We ourselves are the evidence. On some occasions — such as now, the time of creation — You consort with Your external, Māyā potency, whereas You are always present with Your internal energy. It is at times such as the present, when Your activity is outwardly manifest, that we, the Vedas, can recognize You in Your play."
Thus endowed with authority by their personal association with the Supreme Lord, the śrutis promulgate the processes of karma, jñāna, yoga and bhakti as various means for the conditioned souls to employ their intelligence, senses, mind and vitality in search of the Absolute Truth.
In many places the Vedas glorify the transcendental, personal qualities of the Supreme. The following verse appears in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (6.11), the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad (Uttara 97), and the Brahma Upaniṣad (4.1):
eko devaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ
karmādhyakṣaḥ sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ
"The one Supreme Lord lives hidden inside all created things. He pervades all matter and sits within the hearts of all living beings. As the indwelling Supersoul, He supervises their material activities. Thus, while having no material qualities Himself, He is the unique witness and giver of consciousness.The Supreme's personal qualities are further described in the following quotations from the Upaniṣads: Yaḥ sarva-jñaḥ sa sarva-vid yasya jñāna-mayaḿ tapaḥ. "He who is all-knowing, from whom the potency of all knowledge comes — He is the wisest of all" (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.1.9); sarvasya vaśī sarvasyeśānaḥ: "He is the Lord and controller of everyone" (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.22); and yaḥ pṛthivyāḿ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā āntaro yaḿ pṛthivī na veda: "He who resides within the earth and pervades it, whom the earth does not know." (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.7.3)
The Lord's role in creation is mentioned in many statements of the śruti. The Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.2.4) states, so 'kāmayata bahu syām: "He desired, 'I will become many.' " "The phrase so 'kāmayata ("He desired") here implies that the Lord's personality is eternal, for even prior to the creation the Absolute Truth experienced desire, and desire is an attribute unique to persons. The Aitareya Upaniṣad (3.11) similarly states, sa aikṣata tat-tejo 'sṛjata: "He saw, and His power sent forth the creation." Here the word tat-tejaḥ refers to the Lord's partial expansion Mahā-Viṣṇu, who glances upon Māyā and thus manifests the material creation. Or tat-tejaḥ may refer to the Lord's impersonal Brahman feature, His potency of all-pervasive, eternal existence. As described in Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā (5.40),
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes."
In summing up this verse, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays,
"All glories, all glories to You, O unconquerable one! Please defeat the influence of Your eternal Māyā, who covers all moving and nonmoving creatures and who rules over the modes of illusion. Without Your influence, all these Vedic mantras would be powerless to sing of You as the ocean of transcendental qualities."
10.87.15
bṛhad upalabdham etad avayanty avaśeṣatayā
(15) This world is by the seers regarded as being the end product of a greater complete [of brahman], for it is like with clay that in transformation leads to forms that dissolve again but itself doesn't change. For that reason dedicated the seers their minds, words and actions to You. Where else could the footsteps of men be placed than on the ground they are walking [see also 6.16: 22, 11.24: 18 and B.G. 7: 20-25]?
There may be some doubt as to whether the Vedic mantras are unanimous when identifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead. After all, some mantras state, indro yāto 'vasitasya rājā: "Indra is the King of all moving and nonmoving beings" (Ṛg Veda 1.32.15), while others say, agnir mūrdhā divaḥ: "Agni is the chief of the heavens," and yet other mantras point to different deities as the Absolute. It would seem, then, that the Vedas present a polytheistic world view.
Answering this doubt, the Vedas themselves explain in this verse that there can be only one source of universal creation, called Brahman or Bṛhat, "the greatest," which is the singular truth underlying and pervading all existence. No finite deity like Indra or Agni can fulfill this unique role, nor would the śrutis be so ignorant as to propose such an idea. As indicated here by the word tvayi, Lord Viṣṇu alone is the Absolute Truth. Indra and other demigods may be glorified in various ways, but they possess only those powers Lord Śrī Viṣṇu has granted them.
The Vedic sages understand that this entire world — including Indra, Agni, and everything else perceivable by the eyes, ears and other senses — is identical with the one Supreme Truth, the Personality of Godhead, who is called Bṛhat, "the greatest," because He is avaśeṣa, "the ultimate substance that remains." From the Lord everything expands at creation, and into Him everything dissolves at annihilation. He exists before and after the material manifestation as the constant basis, known to philosophers as the "ingredient cause," upādāna. Despite the fact that countless manifestations emanate from Him, the Supreme Lord exists eternally unchanged — an idea the śrutis specifically emphasize here with the word avikṛtāt.
The words mṛdi vā ("as in the case of clay") allude to a famous analogy spoken by Udālaka to his son Śvetaketu in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.4.1): vācārambhanaḿ vikāro nāmadheyaḿ mṛttikety eva satyam. "The objects of the material world exist merely as names, transformations defined by language, whereas the ingredient cause, like the clay from which pots are made, is the actual reality." A mass of clay is the ingredient cause of various pots, statues and so on, but the clay itself remains in its essence unchanged. Eventually, the pots and other objects will be destroyed and return to the clay from which they came. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the total ingredient cause, yet He remains eternally untouched by transformation. This is the purport of the statement sarvaḿ khalv idaḿ brahma: "Everything is Brahman." (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14.1) Wondering at this mystery, the great devotee Gajendra prayed,
namo namas te 'khila-kāraṇāya
niṣkāraṇāyādbhuta-kāraṇāya
"Obeisances again and again to You, the source of all creation. You are the inconceivable cause of all causes, and of You there is no other cause." (Bhāg. 8.3.15)Prakṛti, material nature, is often considered the ingredient cause of creation, in Western science as well as in the Vedas. This does not contradict the higher fact of the Supreme Lord's being the final cause, since prakṛti is His energy, and is herself subject to change. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.24.19), Lord Kṛṣṇa says,
prakṛtir yasyopādānam
sato 'bhivyañjakaḥ kālo
"The material universe is real, having prakṛti as its original ingredient and final state. Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu is the resting place of nature, which becomes manifest by the power of time. Thus nature, the almighty Viṣṇu and time are not different from Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth." Prakṛti, however, undergoes transformation, while her Lord, the supreme puruṣa, does not. Prakṛti is the Personality of Godhead's external energy, but He has another energy — His internal energy — which is svarūpa-bhūtā, nondifferent from His very essence. The Lord's internal energy, like Himself, is never subject to material change.Therefore the mantras of the Vedas, along with the ṛṣis who have received these mantras in meditation and transmitted them for the benefit of mankind, direct their attention primarily toward the Personality of Godhead. The Vedic sages direct the activities of their mind and words — that is to say, the inner as well as the literal meaning (abhidhā-vṛtti) of their utterances — first of all toward Him, and only secondarily toward separated transformations of prakṛti, such as Indra and other demigods.
Just as a man's footsteps, whether placed on mud, stone or bricks, cannot fail to touch the surface of the earth, so whatever the Vedas discuss within the realm of material generation, they relate to the Absolute Truth. Mundane literature describes limited phenomena, disregarding the relation of its subjects to the total reality, but the Vedas always focus their perfect vision on the Supreme. As the Chāndogya Upaniṣad affirms in its statements mṛttikety eva satyam and sarvaḿ khalv idaḿ brahma, reality is understood properly when everything is seen to be dependent on Brahman, the Absolute, for its existence. Brahman alone is real, not because nothing we see in this world is real, but because Brahman is the absolute, final cause of everything. Thus the word satyam, as used in the phrase mṛttikety eva satyam, has been defined in another context as "ingredient cause" by no less an authority than Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself:
yad upādāya pūrvas tu
"A material object, itself composed of an essential ingredient, creates another material object through transformation. In this way one created object becomes the cause and basis of another created object. A particular thing may be called real in that it possesses the basic nature of another object that constitutes its cause and original state." (Bhāg. 11.24.18)
Explaining the word Brahman, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, "The word Brahman indicates the greatest of all and the maintainer of everything. The impersonalists are attracted by the greatness of the sky, but because of their poor fund of knowledge they are not attracted by the greatness of Kṛṣṇa. In our practical life, however, we are attracted by the greatness of a person and not by the greatness of a big mountain. Actually the term Brahman can be applied to Kṛṣṇa only; therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna admitted that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Parabrahman, or the supreme rest of everything.
"Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Brahman because of His unlimited knowledge unlimited potencies, unlimited strength, unlimited influence, unlimited beauty and unlimited renunciation. Therefore the word Brahman can be applied to Kṛṣṇa only. Arjuna affirms that because the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence emanating as rays of Kṛṣṇa's transcendental body, Kṛṣṇa is the Parabrahman. Everything is resting on Brahman, but Brahman itself is resting on Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate Brahman, or Parabrahman. The material elements are accepted as inferior energies of Kṛṣṇa because by their interaction the cosmic manifestation takes place, rests on Kṛṣṇa, and after dissolution again enters into the body of Kṛṣṇa as His subtle energy. Kṛṣṇa is therefore the cause of both manifestation and dissolution."
In summary, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays,
druhiṇa-vahni-ravīndra-mukhāmarā
"The demigods, headed by Śiva, Agni, Sūrya and Indra, and indeed all beings in the universe, do not come into existence independently of You. The mantras of the Vedas, though they speak from various viewpoints, all speak about You, the unborn Lord appearing in numerous forms."
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