Canto
2
Chapter 5: The Cause of all Causes
(1) Nârada said [to the Creator]: 'My obeisances to you, o god of the demi-gods, as you are the first one, giving life to the living beings. Please explain which knowledge specifically directs the transcendental. (2) What is the form, the basis and the source of this created world; o master, how is it conserved, what controls it and please what of this is factually real? (3) All this for sure is known by your good self, as you know all that has become, will become and is becoming; master, the universe is like a walnut in your scientific grip. (4) What is the source of your wisdom, under whose protection and ordination are you and in what capacity do you alone create the lives of all beings with the elements of matter that are for sure empowered by the soul? (5) Employed like a spider, you self-sufficient manifest without any help out of your own all those [lives] without being defeated yourself. (6) Whether or not I know myself as superior or inferior in this world, or as an equal, o powerful one, the qualities of name and form of all that from the eternal came into existence are just temporary, like anything else that originated from another source. (7) We're weary of the fact that your good self undertook severe penances in perfect discipline and so were given the chance to doubt about the ultimate truth of you. (8) O you controller over all who knows everything, please explain to me all this I asked you about, so that I, to what the rule says, will be able to understand.'
(9) The Creator answered: 'O gentle one, so dear to me, you are very kind in your perfect inquiries that inspire me to the heroism of the Supreme Lord. (10) You are not mistaken in what you just said in your describing me; my dear, without the Supreme beyond me, will it, knowing me, certainly turn out to be as you said about me. (11) It is I who manifests the universe shining forth on the power of His effulgence [the brahmajyoti], just like the sun and the fire as well as the moon, the stars, the planets and the constellations manifest their brightness. (12) My obeisances are unto Him, the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva upon whom I meditate, by dint of whose invincible potencies one calls me the teacher [guru] of the world. (13) Unashamed in keeping a prominent position with the bewildering material energy, do those who are deluded abuse their words in talking of 'I' and 'mine', but thus speaking I am ill understood. (14) The five elements in their interaction in Eternal Time as also the natural disposition of the living being, certainly are part of Vâsudeva, o brahmin; each for themself have they in truth no value. (15) Nârâyana [Krishna as the four-armed original Personality of God and primordial Lord of man] is the cause of the knowledge, the demigods are His helping hands, for His sake do the worlds exist and all sacrifices are just there to please Him, the Supreme Lord. (16) The concentration of mind is just there to know Nârâyana, austerity is just there to achieve Nârâyana, the culture of transcendence is just there to become aware of Nârâyana and the progress on the path of salvation is there only to enter the kingdom of Nârâyana. (17) Seeing what of the Seer, of the Supersoul, the Controller over all intelligence who has created me, so immaculately has been created, do I, inspired by His glance, engage myself in creating.
(18) Of this [modal reality of] goodness, passion and slowness [see 4.23], that because of the Almighty [Lord of Time] by the external energy was assumed, are there the three qualities of transcendence: maintenance, creation and destruction. (19) Under the influence of the modes of the material energy is the eternally liberated living entity conditioned to the material knowledge [of 'I' and 'mine'] that manifests by the symptoms of cause and effect in material activities. (20) He, this Supreme Lord who by the symptoms of all these three modes, as the Superseer, verily is unseen in His movements, o brahmin, is of everyone as well as of me the controller. (21) [The Lord of] Eternal Time, the controller of the deluding potency of matter [mâyâ] that sets the workload [karma] as also the specific nature [or svabhâva - of the living entity], by the energy of its [His] own Self appears, independently merged, employing different forms. (22) From that Eternal Time it so happened that because of the transformation of the activities created by the modes of nature, the original person His modification of the complete of matter [the mahat-tattva] took place. (23) But of the transformation of the complete of matter the modes of passion and goodness were being increased so that [countering it in reaction] a prominence of the mode of darkness took place with its single material knowledge and predominance of material activities. (24) That transformed material ego, thus said, manifested itself in its three features of as well goodness, passion as ignorance, and thus, prabhu, were divided the powers of material action, knowledge in creation and guidance in intelligence. (25) From the idenfication with the darkness of matter was of the transformation to that mode the [first element of the] ether developed with its subtle form and quality of sound which is indicative of as well the seen as the seer. (26-29) Of the transformation to the ether came the touch, as the quality of the air, to the full of sound, inheriting the characteristics of the previous element, and came it thus also to a life of discrimination and the might of strength. Likewise transforming to that air generated the time as a reaction to the past naturally the element of fire duly giving form, touch and sound also. Of the water that of fire got transformed there were the juices and the taste which, as seen before, also gave sound in succession [tears, saliva, semen, blood, milk]. But by the variegatedness of that transformation of water again, found next in succession the odorous [of the earth element] its existence of the juice taking the form of the qualities of touch and sound. (30) From the mode of goodness [thus] the mind of the godly generated that act in that goodness, counting the ten of them as the controller of the directions, the air, the sun, the waters [Varuna], the longevity [As'vinî-Kumâras associated with the smell], the fire, the heavens [Indra], the deity of transcendence, ceasing [Mitra, associated with the evacuation] and the spirit [Brahmâ]. (31) From the passion of ego the according tenfold transformation concerning the power of knowledge and action to the five senses took place giving to the life energy the intelligence of all its hearing, touching, smelling, seeing and tasting to the speaking, handling, procreating, walking and defecating. (32) For the time that all these elements of the senses and the mind to the modes of nature remained separate, for that time the body [of man and mankind] could not be formed, o [Nârada] best one in knowledge. (33) When all those [elements], one after another assembled by the Supreme Energy, were applied, came distinctly, in acceptance of their primary and secondary nature, both [material and spiritual realities] of this universe into being.
(34) Countless millennia that universal reality remained drowned in the [causal] waters until the individual soul [jîva or the Lord] of the action of Eternal Time to the modes of nature caused the non-animated to be animated. (35) He Himself as the original person [the purusha] came out from within the universal egg dividing Himself in thousands of divisions of legs, arms, eyes, mouths and heads. (36) The great philosophers imagine that all the worlds in the universe are like the limbs of the body with seven systems to the lower and seven to the upper part of what can be seen. (37) The brahmins manifested as the mouth of the Original Person, the ruling class is there as His arms, the traders represent the Supreme Lord His thighs while the laborer class is of His legs. (38) The earthly [lower] worlds are of His legs one says, the ethereal worlds are from His belly, the heavenly worlds from the heart are of the chest while the supreme worlds of the saints and sages are of the great Soul. (39) While up to the neck one finds the worlds of manhood and next from the chest the worlds of renunciation and the worlds of truth with the head are found, are it the worlds of the spirit that are found in the eternal. (40-41) With down His waist the first of the lower worlds, the second on the hips, the third down to the knees, the fourth on the shanks, the fifth from His ankles, the sixth on His feet and the seventh on the soles of His feet [compare 2-1: 26-39], the body of the Lord [virâth-rûpa or universal form] is full of all the worlds. (42) Thus one [threefold] imagines oneself the earthly planets situated on the legs, the ethereal worlds on the region of His navel and the heavenly worlds from the chest upward or else the worlds as assumed otherwise [in a four or fourteen division].'
Second edition, loaded 12 April 2006.
Source texts:
The Cause of All Causes
Nârada said [to the Creator]: 'My obeisances to you, o god of the demi-gods, as you are the first one, giving life to the living beings. Please explain which knowledge specifically directs the transcendental.S'rî Nârada Muni asked Brahmâjî: O chief amongst the demigods, O firstborn living entity, I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto you. Please tell me that transcendental knowledge which specifically directs one to the truth of the individual soul and the Supersoul. (Vedabase)
What is the form, the basis and the source of this created world; o master, how is it conserved, what controls it and please what of this is factually real?
My dear father, please describe factually the symptoms of this manifest world. What is its background? How is it created? How is it conserved? And under whose control is all this being done? (Vedabase)
All this for sure is known by your good self, as you know all that has become, will become and is becoming; master, the universe is like a walnut in your scientific grip.
My dear father, all this is known to you scientifically because whatever was created in the past, whatever will be created in the future, or whatever is being created at present, as well as everything within the universe, is within your grip, just like a walnut. (Vedabase)
What is the source of your wisdom, under whose protection and ordination are you and in what capacity you alone create the lives of all beings with the elements of matter that are for sure empowered by the soul?
My dear father, what is the source of your knowledge? Under whose protection are you standing? And under whom are you working? What is your real position? Do you alone create all entities with material elements by your personal energy? (Vedabase)
Employed like a spider, you self-sufficient manifest without any help out of your own all those [lives] without being defeated yourself.
As the spider very easily creates the network of its cobweb and manifests its power of creation without being defeated by others, so also you yourself, by employment of your self-sufficient energy, create without any other's help. (Vedabase)
Whether or not I know myself as superior or inferior in this world, or as an equal, o powerful one, the qualities of name and form of all that from the eternal came into existence are just temporary, like anything else that originated from another source.
Whatever we can understand by the nomenclature, characteristics and features of a particular thing--superior, inferior or equal, eternal or temporary--is not created from any source other than that of Your Lordship, thou so great. (Vedabase)
We're weary of the fact that your good self undertook severe penances in perfect discipline and so were given the chance to doubt about the ultimate truth of you.
Yet we are moved to wonder about the existence of someone more powerful than you when we think of your great austerities in perfect discipline, although your good self is so powerful in the matter of creation. (Vedabase)
O you controller over all who knows everything, please explain to me all this I asked you about, so that I, to what the rule says, will be able to understand.'
My dear father, you know everything, and you are the controller of all. Therefore may all that I have inquired from you be kindly instructed to me so that I may be able to understand it as your student. (Vedabase)
The creator answered: 'O gentle one, so dear to me, you are very kind in your perfect inquiries that inspire me to the heroism of the Supreme Lord.
Lord Brahmâ said: My dear boy Nârada, being merciful to all. (including me) you have asked all these questions because I have been inspired to see into the prowess of the Almighty Personality of Godhead. (Vedabase)
You are not mistaken in what you just said in your describing me; my dear, without the Supreme beyond me, will it, knowing me, certainly turn out to as you said about me.
Whatever you have spoken about me is not false because unless and until one is aware of the Personality of Godhead, who is the ultimate truth beyond me, one is sure to be illusioned by observing my powerful activities. (Vedabase)
It is I who manifests the universe shining forth on the power of His effulgence [the brahmajyoti], just like the sun and the fire as well as the moon, the stars, the planets and the constellations manifest their brightness.
I create after the Lord's creation by His personal effulgence [known as the brahmajyoti], just as when the sun manifests its fire, the moon, the firmament, the influential planets and the twinkling stars also manifest their brightness. (Vedabase)
My obeisances are unto Him, the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva upon whom I meditate, by dint of whose invincible potencies one calls me the teacher [guru] of the world.
I offer my obeisances and meditate upon Lord Krishna [Vâsudeva], the Personality of Godhead, whose invincible potency influences them [the less intelligent class of men] to call me the supreme controller. (Vedabase)
Unashamed in keeping a prominent position with the bewildering material energy, do those who are deluded abuse their words in talking of 'I' and 'mine', but thus speaking I am ill understood.
The illusory energy of the Lord cannot take precedence, being ashamed of her position, but those who are bewildered by her always talk nonsense, being absorbed in thoughts of "It is I" and "It is mine. (Vedabase)"
The five elements in their interaction in Eternal Time as also the natural disposition of the living being, certainly are part of Vâsudeva, o brahmin; each for themself have they in truth no value.
The five elementary ingredients of creation, the interaction thereof set up by eternal time, and the intuition or nature of the individual living beings are all differentiated parts and parcels of the Personality of Godhead, Vâsudeva, and in truth there is no other value in them. (Vedabase)
Nârâyana [Krishna as the four-armed original Personality of God and primordial Lord of man] is the cause of the knowledge, the demigods are His helping hands, for His sake do the worlds exist and all sacrifices are just there to please Him, the Supreme Lord.
The Vedic literatures are made by and are meant for the Supreme Lord, the demigods are also meant for serving the Lord as parts of His body, the different planets are also meant for the sake of the Lord, and different sacrifices are performed just to please Him. (Vedabase)
The concentration of mind is just there to know Nârâyana, austerity is just there to achieve Nârâyana, the culture of transcendence is just there to become aware of Nârâyana and the progress on the path of salvation is there only to enter the kingdom of Nârâyana.
All different types of meditation or mysticism are means for realizing Nârâyana. All austerities are aimed at achieving Nârâyana. Culture of transcendental knowledge is for getting a glimpse of Nârâyana, and ultimately salvation is entering the kingdom of Nârâyana. (Vedabase)
Seeing what of the Seer, of the Supersoul, the Controller over all intelligence who has created me, so immaculately has been created, do I, inspired by His glance, engage myself in creating.
Inspired by Him only, I discover what is already created by Him [Nârâyana] under His vision as the all-pervading Supersoul, and I also am created by Him only. (Vedabase)
Of this [modal reality of] goodness, passion and slowness [see 4.23], that because of the Almighty [Lord of Time] by the external energy was assumed, are there the three qualities of transcendence: maintenance, creation and destruction.
The Supreme Lord is pure spiritual form, transcendental to all material qualities, yet for the sake of the creation of the material world and its maintenance and annihilation, He accepts through His external energy the material modes of nature called goodness, passion and ignorance. (Vedabase)
Under the influence of the modes of the material energy is the eternally liberated living entity conditioned to the material knowledge [of 'I' and 'mine'] that manifests by the symptoms of cause and effect in material activities.
These three modes of material nature, being further manifested as matter, knowledge and activities, put the eternally transcendental living entity under conditions of cause and effect and make him responsible for such activities. (Vedabase)
He, this Supreme Lord who by the symptoms of all these three modes, as the Superseer, verily is unseen in His movements, o brahmin, is of everyone as well as of me the controller.
O brâhmana Nârada, the Superseer, the transcendent Lord, is beyond the perception of the material senses of the living entities because of the above-mentioned three modes of nature. But He is the controller of everyone, including me. (Vedabase)
[The Lord of] Eternal Time, the controller of the deluding potency of matter [mâyâ] that sets the workload [karma] as also the specific nature [or svabhâva - of the living entity], by the energy of its [His] own Self appears, independently merged, employing different forms.
The Lord, who is the controller of all energies, thus creates, by His own potency, eternal time, the fate of all living entities, and their particular nature, for which they were created, and He again merges them independently. (Vedabase)
From that eternal time it so happened that because of the transformation of the activities created by the modes of nature, the original person His modification of the complete of matter [the mahat-tattva] took place.
After the incarnation of the first purusha [Kâranârnavas'âyî Vishnu], the mahat-tattva, or the principles of material creation, take place, and then time is manifested, and in course of time the three qualities appear. Nature means the three qualitative appearances. They transform into activities. (Vedabase)
But of the transformation of the complete of matter the modes of passion and goodness were being increased so that [countering it in reaction] a prominence of the mode of darkness took place with its single material knowledge and predominance of material activities.
Material activities are caused by the mahat-tattva's being agitated. At first there is transformation of the modes of goodness and passion, and later - due to the mode of ignorance - matter, its knowledge, and different activities of material knowledge come into play. (Vedabase)
That transformed material ego, thus said, manifested itself in its three features of as well goodness, passion as ignorance, and thus, prabhu, were divided the powers of material action, knowledge in creation and guidance in intelligence.
The self-centered materialistic ego, thus being transformed into three features, becomes known as the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance in three divisions, namely the powers that evolve matter, knowledge of material creations, and the intelligence that guides such materialistic activities. Nârada, you are quite competent to understand this. (Vedabase)
From the idenfication with the darkness of matter was of the transformation to that mode the [first element of the] ether developed with its subtle form and quality of sound which is indicative of as well the seen as the seer.
From the darkness of false ego, the first of the five elements, namely the sky, is generated. Its subtle form is the quality of sound, exactly as the seer is in relationship with the seen. (Vedabase)
Of the transformation to the ether came the touch, as the quality of the air, to the full of sound, inheriting the characteristics of the previous element, and came it thus also to a life of discrimination and the might of strength. Likewise transforming to that air generated the time as a reaction to the past naturally the element of fire duly giving form, touch and sound also. Of the water that of fire got transformed there were the juices and the taste which, as seen before, also gave sound in succession [tears, saliva, semen, blood, milk]. But by the variegatedness of that transformation of water again, found next in succession the odorous [of the earth element] its existence of the juice taking the form of the qualities of touch and sound.
Because the sky is transformed, the air is generated with the quality of touch, and by previous succession the air is also full of sound and the basic principles of duration of life: sense perception, mental power and bodily strength.When the air is transformed in course of time and nature's course, fire is generated, taking shape with the sense of touch and sound.
Since fire is also transformed, there is a manifestation of water, full of juice and taste. As previously, it also has form and touch and is also full of sound.
And water, being transformed from all variegatedness on earth, appears odorous and, as previously, becomes qualitatively full of juice, touch, sound and form respectively. (Vedabase)
From the mode of goodness [thus] the mind of the godly generated that act in that goodness, counting the ten of them as the controller of the directions, the air, the sun, the waters [Varuna], the longevity [As'vinî-Kumâras associated with the smell], the fire, the heavens [Indra], the deity of transcendence, ceasing [Mitra, associated with the evacuation] and the spirit [Brahmâ].
From the mode of goodness the mind is generated and becomes manifest, as also the ten demigods controlling the bodily movements. Such demigods are known as the controller of directions, the controller of air, the sun-god, the father of Daksha Prajâpati, the As'vinî-Kumâras, the fire-god, the King of heaven, the worshipable deity in heaven, the chief of the Âdityas, and Brahmâjî, the Prajâpati. All come into existence. (Vedabase)
From the passion of ego the according tenfold transformation concerning the power of knowledge and action to the five senses took place giving to the life energy the intelligence of all its hearing, touching, smelling, seeing and tasting to the speaking, handling, procreating, walking and defecating.
By further transformation of the mode of passion, the sense organs like the ear, skin, nose, eyes, tongue, mouth, hands, genitals, legs, and the outlet for evacuating, together with intelligence and living energy, are all generated. (Vedabase)
For the time that all these elements of the senses and the mind to the modes of nature remained separate, for that time the body [of man and mankind] could not be formed, o [Nârada] best one in knowledge.
O Nârada, best of the transcendentalists, the forms of the body cannot take place as long as these created parts, namely the elements, senses, mind and modes of nature, are not assembled. (Vedabase)
When all those [elements], one after another assembled by the Supreme Energy, were applied, came distinctly, in acceptance of their primary and secondary nature, both [material and spiritual realities] of this universe into being,
Thus when all these became assembled by force of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this universe certainly came into being by accepting both the primary and secondary causes of creation. (Vedabase)
Countless millennia that universal reality remained drowned in the [causal] waters until the individual soul [jîva or the Lord] of the action of Eternal Time to the modes of nature caused the non-animated to be animated.
Thus all the universes remained thousands of eons within the water [the Causal Ocean], and the Lord of living beings, entering in each of them, caused them to be fully animated. (Vedabase)
He Himself as the original person [the purusha] came out from within the universal egg dividing Himself in thousands of divisions of legs, arms, eyes, mouths and heads.
The Lord [Mahâ-Vishnu], although lying in the Causal Ocean, came out of it, and dividing Himself as Hiranyagarbha, He entered into each universe and assumed the virâth-rûpa, with thousands of legs, arms, mouths, heads, etc. (Vedabase)
The great philosophers imagine that all the worlds in the universe are like the limbs of the body with seven systems to the lower and seven to the upper part of what can be seen.
Great philosophers imagine that the complete planetary systems in the universe are displays of the different upper and lower limbs of the universal body of the Lord. (Vedabase)
The brahmins manifested as the mouth of the Original Person, the ruling class is there as His arms, the traders represent the Supreme Lord His thighs while the laborer class constitutes His [lower] legs.
The brâhmanas represent His mouth, the kshatriyas His arms, the vais'yas His thighs, and the s'ûdras are born of His legs. (Vedabase)
The earthly [lower] worlds are of His legs one says, the ethereal worlds are from His belly, the heavenly worlds from the heart are of the chest while the supreme worlds of the saints and sages are of the great Soul.
The lower planetary systems, up to the limit of the earthly stratum, are said to be situated in His legs. The middle planetary systems, beginning from Bhuvarloka, are situated in His navel. And the still higher planetary systems, occupied by the demigods and highly cultured sages and saints, are situated in the chest of the Supreme Lord. (Vedabase)
While up to the neck one finds the worlds of manhood and next from the chest the worlds of renunciation and the worlds of truth with the head are found, are it the worlds of the spirit that are found in the eternal.
From the forefront of the chest up to the neck of the universal form of the Lord are situated the planetary systems named Janaloka and Tapoloka, whereas Satyaloka, the topmost planetary system, is situated on the head of the form. The spiritual planets, however, are eternal. (Vedabase)
With down His waist the first of the lower worlds, the second on the hips, the third down to the knees, the fourth on the shanks, the fifth from His ankles, the sixth on His feet and the seventh on the soles of His feet [compare 2.1: 26-39], the body of the Lord [virâth-rûpa or universal form] is full of all the worlds.
My dear son Nârada, know from me that there are seven lower planetary systems out of the total fourteen. The first planetary system, known as Atala, is situated on the waist; the second, Vitala, is situated on the thighs; the third, Sutala, on the knees; the fourth, Talâtala, on the shanks; the fifth, Mahâtala, on the ankles; the sixth, Rasâtala, on the upper portion of the feet; and the seventh, Pâtâla, on the soles of the feet. Thus the virâth form of the Lord is full of all planetary systems. (Vedabase)
Thus [in sum] one imagines oneself the earthly planets situated on the legs, the ethereal worlds on the region of His navel and the heavenly worlds from the chest upward or else the worlds as assumed otherwise [in a fourteen division]."
Others may divide the whole planetary system into three divisions, namely the lower planetary systems on the legs [up to the earth], the middle planetary systems on the navel, and the upper planetary systems [Svarloka] from the chest to the head of the Supreme Personality. (Vedabase)
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