SB 3.32.14 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

आद्य: स्थिरचराणां यो वेदगर्भ: सहर्षिभि: । योगेश्वरै: कुमाराद्यै: सिद्धैर्योगप्रवर्तकै: ॥ १२ ॥ भेदद‍ृष्टय‍ाभिमानेन नि:सङ्गेनापि कर्मणा । कर्तृत्वात्सगुणं ब्रह्म पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभम् ॥ १३ ॥ स संसृत्य पुन: काले कालेनेश्वरमूर्तिना । जाते गुणव्यतिकरे यथापूर्वं प्रजायते ॥ १४ ॥ ऐश्वर्यं पारमेष्ठ्यं च तेऽपि धर्मविनिर्मितम् । निषेव्य पुनरायान्ति गुणव्यतिकरे सति ॥ १५ ॥

Verse text

ādyaḥ sthira-carāṇāṁ yo veda-garbhaḥ saharṣibhiḥ yogeśvaraiḥ kumārādyaiḥ siddhair yoga-pravartakaiḥ bheda-dṛṣṭyābhimānena niḥsaṅgenāpi karmaṇā kartṛtvāt saguṇaṁ brahma puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabham sa saṁsṛtya punaḥ kāle kāleneśvara-mūrtinā jāte guṇa-vyatikare yathā-pūrvaṁ prajāyate aiśvaryaṁ pārameṣṭhyaṁ ca te ’pi dharma-vinirmitam niṣevya punar āyānti guṇa-vyatikare sati

Synonyms

ādyaḥ — the creator, Lord Brahmā ; sthira — carāṇām — of the immobile and mobile manifestations ; yaḥ — he who ; veda — garbhaḥ — the repository of the Vedas ; saha — along with ; ṛṣibhiḥ — the sages ; yoga — īśvaraiḥ — with great mystic yogīs ; kumāra — ādyaiḥ — the Kumāras and others ; siddhaiḥ — with the perfected living beings ; yoga — pravartakaiḥ — the authors of the yoga system ; bheda — dṛṣṭyā — because of independent vision ; abhimānena — by misconception ; niḥsaṅgena — nonfruitive ; api — although ; karmaṇā — by their activities ; kartṛtvāt — from the sense of being a doer ; sa — guṇam — possessing spiritual qualities ; brahma — Brahman ; puruṣam — the Personality of Godhead ; puruṣa — ṛṣabham — the first puruṣa incarnation ; saḥ — he ; saṁsṛtya — having attained ; punaḥ — again ; kāle — at the time ; kālena — by time ; īśvara — mūrtinā — the manifestation of the Lord ; jāte guṇa — vyatikare — when the interaction of the modes arises ; yathā — as ; pūrvam — previously ; prajāyate — is born ; aiśvaryam — opulence ; pārameṣṭhyam — royal ; ca — and ; te — the sages ; api — also ; dharma — by their pious activities ; vinirmitam — produced ; niṣevya — having enjoyed ; punaḥ — again ; āyānti — they return ; guṇa — vyatikare sati — when the interaction of the modes takes place .

Translation

My dear mother, someone may worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead with a special self-interest, but even demigods such as Lord Brahmā, great sages such as Sanat-kumāra and great munis such as Marīci have to come back to the material world again at the time of creation. When the interaction of the three modes of material nature begins, Brahmā, who is the creator of this cosmic manifestation and who is full of Vedic knowledge, and the great sages, who are the authors of the spiritual path and the yoga system, come back under the influence of the time factor. They are liberated by their nonfruitive activities and attain the first incarnation of the puruṣa, but at the time of creation they come back in exactly the same forms and positions they previously had.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Sometimes, Brahmā, creator of the moving and non-moving beings, the knower of the Vedas, along with the sages, the lords of yoga, the Kumāras and other perfected beings, and practitioners of yoga, because of seeing difference and false identity by conceptions of being a doer enters into the Supreme Lord by execution of activities with detachment, but is born again after some time by the force of the Lord in the form of time, with the disturbance of the guṇas. The sages also, endowed with powers by their pious acts, come back when the guṇas become disturbed. “How can we understand that Brahmā gets liberation but he does not desire to liberate his devotees?” Brahmā’s liberation is also only an appearance. In the Gītā the Lord says mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: those who surrender to me cross over my māyā. (BG 4.11) From this it is understood that even Brahmā does not get liberation if he does not have bhakti. What to speak of his inferiors then! That is explained these verses. Brahmā, though the cause (ādyaḥ) of living beings, though the knower of all the Vedas, along with sages like Marīci, the most perfect of yogīs, what to speak of practicing yogīs, has false identity because of seeing that he is different from the Lord. “I, Brahmā, am the creator, Viṣṇu is the maintainer, Śiva is the destroyer.” Thus thinking himself the best doer, he enters into Lord endowed with auspicious qualities (saguṇam) at the time of great destruction, and again, after some time, when mahat-tattva and other elements again appear because of disturbance of the guṇas, he is born again as Brahmā (yathā pūrvam). The sages accompanying Brahmā, enjoying powers such as aṇima by their karma, jṣāna and yoga in the previous mahākalpa, come back again at the beginning of the next mahākalpa. How is it possible for the greatest of yogīs like the Kumāras and other perfected beings and gurus omniscient through yoga practice to have false conceptions of identity and to see difference? How could they be great masters of yoga but have false identity and see difference? Without false conceptions, they search out the undifferentiated Brahman, but, having the conception that Brahman takes on variety only through māyā, they see difference in the personal form of Lord who actually excludes difference, just as one sees difference between material objects. And they identify themselves as realizers of Brahman and reject the Lord with form. With this vision and identity, they think they are doers, having a right to action. Therefore they return. What has been described here are Brahmā, sages, yogīs, jṣānīs and Kumāras who are devoid of bhakti in some particular universe. The Brahmās and sages of all other universes have bhakti, and thus attain liberation and prema-bhakti with dāsya and other relationships according to their degree of bhakti.

Purport

That Brahmā becomes liberated is known to everyone, but he cannot liberate his devotees. Demigods like Brahmā and Lord Śiva cannot give liberation to any living entity. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, only one who surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, can be liberated from the clutches of māyā. Brahmā is called here ādyaḥ sthira-carāṇām. He is the original, first-created living entity, and after his own birth he creates the entire cosmic manifestation. He was fully instructed in the matter of creation by the Supreme Lord. Here he is called veda-garbha, which means that he knows the complete purpose of the Vedas. He is always accompanied by such great personalities as Marīci, Kaśyapa and the seven sages, as well as by great mystic yogīs, the Kumāras and many other spiritually advanced living entities, but he has his own interest, separate from the Lord’s. Bheda-dṛṣṭyā means that Brahmā sometimes thinks that he is independent of the Supreme Lord, or he thinks of himself as one of the three equally independent incarnations. Brahmā is entrusted with creation, Viṣṇu maintains and Rudra, Lord Śiva, destroys. The three of them are understood to be incarnations of the Supreme Lord in charge of the three different material modes of nature, but none of them is independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Here the word bheda-dṛṣṭyā occurs because Brahmā has a slight inclination to think that he is as independent as Rudra. Sometimes Brahmā thinks that he is independent of the Supreme Lord, and the worshiper also thinks that Brahmā is independent. For this reason, after the destruction of this material world, when there is again creation by the interaction of the material modes of nature, Brahmā comes back. Although Brahmā reaches the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the first puruṣa incarnation, Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is full with transcendental qualities, he cannot stay in the spiritual world. The specific significance of his coming back may be noted. Brahmā and the great ṛṣis and the great master of yoga (Śiva) are not ordinary living entities; they are very powerful and have all the perfections of mystic yoga. But still they have an inclination to try to become one with the Supreme, and therefore they have to come back. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is accepted that as long as one thinks that he is equal with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is not completely purified or knowledgeable. In spite of going up to the first puruṣa-avatāra, Mahā-Viṣṇu, after the dissolution of this material creation, such personalities again fall down or come back to the material creation. It is a great falldown on the part of the impersonalists to think that the Supreme Lord appears within a material body and that one should therefore not meditate upon the form of the Supreme but should meditate instead on the formless. For this particular mistake, even the great mystic yogīs or great stalwart transcendentalists also come back again when there is creation. All living entities other than the impersonalists and monists can directly take to devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness and become liberated by developing transcendental loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such devotional service develops in the degrees of thinking of the Supreme Lord as master, as friend, as son and, at last, as lover. These distinctions in transcendental variegatedness must always be present.