The
Lord’s creation has two principal components. The spiritual
and the material worlds. The material world comprises of millions
of universes each presided by its own Brahma, each comprising of
millions of planets like our planet Earth. All this put together
makes up a fourth of the total creation. The remaining
three-fourths is the spiritual universe, containing billions of
spiritual planets, at the center of which is Goloka the eternal
abode of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The spiritual universe is also called Vaikuntha, which means
‘free from worry’, since resident of this planet are
free from birth-death-disease-old age. They have spiritual bodies
than never wear out, and they live blissfully, eternally in
service of Krishna. The material universe is like a dark cloud
covering one corner of the self illuminated spiritual worlds. In
this corner, Karanadakasayi Vishnu, an expansion of Sri Krishna
lies in a deep mystic slumber, creating innumerable universes and
destroying them as well.
When each universe is created, Karanadakasayi Vishnu expands and
enters into each of them as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and fills the
lower half of the universe with the waters of the causal ocean.
On this ocean, He lies down on His partial expansion, Ananta
Shesha, and enters into Yoganidra or a deep mystic trance. From
the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu emanates a lotus flower that
covers the complete universe, and on the lotus flower is born
Brahma, the first living entity of the material world.
Brahma, like any one of us, is born in the darkness of ignorance.
He is completely bewildered by the darkness surrounding him and
in searching for some clues tries to look in all the four
directions, thereby getting four heads. Not finding any clues
around himself, he descends down the stalk of the lotus flower,
but after a long time gives up and reverts to his original
position on the lotus flower. Finally when all fails, Brahma,
driven by the forces within himself, performs severe austerities
for one hundred of his years, concentrating on the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
Krishna, pleased by the austerities of Brahma, accepts him as a
disciple and initiates him with the sacred Gopala Gayatri mantra.
So Lord Brahma, who was born in the nescience of darkness is now
by the mercy of his spiritual master Sri Krishna, a qualified
Brahman, empowered to undertake the task of creating the
universe. As a pure devotee, Lord Brahma begins by glorifying his
spiritual master, Sri Krishna with beautiful prayers recorded in
the Brahma Samhita, and Krishna pleased by the complete surrender
of Brahma imparts to him the Vedic knowledge and empowers him to
undertake the task of creating the universe.
Lord Brahma now looks at the strong winds and water surrounding
him. Having matured with long penance, self realization and
transcendental knowledge, he drinks the wind completely along
with the water. Engaging in the devotional service of Krishna, he
enters into the whorl of the lotus spread all over the universe
and divides in into three parts and then into fourteen. The three
worlds are the Patalaloka, the Bhuvaraloka and the Svargaloka,
with the fourteen planetary systems are divided amongst them.
Having created the gross material universe, Lord Brahma then
creates the subtle elements of the material universe, which
includes self-deception, the sense of death, anger after
frustration, the sense of false ownership and the illusory body
conception or forgetfulness of one’s real identity. Even
though Lord Brahma did this as his duty, he felt sorrow at such a
sinful task and then purifies himself by meditating on Sri
Krishna. Thus he began another term of creation in which he
creates all the plant and animal life forms that would spread
over the complete universe.
In the beginning, Lord Brahma created four great sages, Sanaka,
Sanandan, Sanatana and Sanat, personifying the four principles of
spiritual knowledge. Desiring to populate the universe he had
created, Lord Brahma requested his four sons to have progeny. The
four Kumaras, as they are collectively called however were so
attached to Sri Krishna that they were unwilling to become
Grahasthas (house holders) and thus refused the request of their
father. Since the four Kumaras had refused him for a much higher
purpose, Lord Brahma accepted their decision, but being in the
mode of passion, could not control the anger in his mind.
The manifestation of this anger was born as a child from between
the eyebrows of Lord Brahma. The child had a reddish-blue body
and was crying for a name and place. Lord Brahma named him Rudra,
the foremost of the living entities. On the instructions of his
father, Rudra produced several sons and grandsons, who had the
same fiery temperament as their father and attempted to devour
the entire universe including Lord Brahma. Seeing this Lord
Brahma request Rudra to control his progenies and direct their
energy to austerity and penance. Only when the time of
annihilation comes, will these destructive energy be released in
the service of Krishna. So this is the nature of the material
world. Its destruction is imminent and fixed from the time of its
creation.
Lord Brahma then created ten sons from various parts of his body.
These included the great sage Narada, who was born from his
mental deliberation, Pualstya Muni who begot the demoniac race
which would later produce Ravana, Bhrigu Muni the greatest of the
sages who started the pious Bhargava dynasty, Prajapati Daksha
the great progenitor who fathered tens of thousands of sons and
daughters, Marici, who fathered Kasyapa Muni and married him to
the thirteen daughters of Prajapati Daksha. These wives of
Kasyapa Muni included Aditi through which the demigods like Indra
were born and Diti through which many demons like Hiranyakasha
and Hiranykashyapu were born. Also born from Brahma was Sage
Vashista, whose grandson was Parasara Muni, the father of Veda
Vyasa, and the grandfather of Sukhadeva Goswami. In this way
millions of demons and demigods were created.
Still not satisfied with the creative forces in the universe,
Lord Brahma manifested an intense desire to produce more progeny.
From his body came two forms, Syambhuva Manu and his queen
Satarupa, who united to created millions of offspring’s that
gradually filled the universe, generation after generation. So in
this way, as the universe moves under the inexorable control of
Kala or time, the living entities are moving into different life
forms driven by their desires and karmic reactions. However a
very few fortunate souls, by the mercy of a pure devotee, are
able to understand their true position as the servitors of Sri
Krishna and are able to escape this endless cycles of birth and
death to return to their eternal, indestructible abode in the
spiritual sky.