Chapter 5

Beyond the limitation of this material world is the spiritual sky, paravyoma, which has many spiritual planets, the supreme of which is called Krsnaloka. Krsnaloka, the abode of Krsna, has three divisions, which are known as Dvaraka, Mathura and Gokula. In that abode the Personality of Godhead expands Himself into four plenary portions--Krsna, Balarama, Pradyumna (the transcendental Cupid) and Aniruddha. They are known as the original quadruple forms.

In Krsnaloka is a transcendental place known as Svetadvipa or Vrndavana. Below Krsnaloka in the spiritual sky are the Vaikuntha planets. On each Vaikuntha planet a four-handed Narayana, expanded from the first quadruple manifestation, is present. The Personality of Godhead known as Sri Balarama in Krsnaloka is the original Sankarsana (attracting Deity), and from this Sankarsana expands another Sankarsana, called Maha-sankarsana, who resides in one of the Vaikuntha planets. By His internal potency, Maha-sankarsana maintains the transcendental existence of all the planets in the spiritual sky, where all the living beings are eternally liberated souls. The influence of the material energy is conspicuous there by its absence. On those planets the second quadruple manifestation is present.

Outside of the Vaikuntha planets is the impersonal manifestation of Sri Krsna, which is known as the Brahmaloka. On the other side of the Brahmaloka is the spiritual karana-samudra, or Causal Ocean. The material energy exists on the other side of the Causal Ocean, without touching it. In the Causal Ocean is Maha-Visnu, the original purusa expansion from Sankarsana. This Maha-Visnu places His glance over the material energy, and by a reflection of His transcendental body He amalgamates Himself within the material elements.

As the source of the material elements, the material energy is known as pradhana, and as the source of the manifestations of the material energy it is known as maya. But material nature is inert in that she has no independent power to do anything. She is empowered to make the cosmic manifestation by the glance of Maha-Visnu. Therefore the material energy is not the original cause of the material manifestation. Rather, the transcendental glance of Maha-Visnu over material nature produces that cosmic manifestation.

Maha-Visnu again enters every universe as the reservoir of all living entities, Garbhodakasayi Visnu. From Garbhodakasayi Visnu expands Ksirodakasayi Visnu, the Supersoul of every living entity. Garbhodakasayi Visnu also has His own Vaikuntha planet in every universe, where He lives as the Supersoul or supreme controller of the universe. Garbhodakasayi Visnu reclines in the midst of the watery portion of the universe and generates the first living creature of the universe, Brahma. The imaginary universal form is a partial manifestation of Garbhodakasayi Visnu.

In the Vaikuntha planet in every universe is an ocean of milk, and within that ocean is an island called Svetadvipa, where Lord Visnu lives. Therefore this chapter describes two Svetadvipas--one in the abode of Krsna and the other in the ocean of milk in every universe. The Svetadvipa in the abode of Krsna is identical with Vrndavana-dhama, which is the place where Krsna appears Himself to display His loving pastimes. In the Svetadvipa within every universe is a Sesa form of Godhead who serves Visnu by assuming the form of His umbrella, slippers, couch, pillows, garments, residence, sacred thread, throne and so on.

Lord Baladeva in Krsnaloka is Nityananda Prabhu. Therefore Nityananda Prabhu is the original Sankarsana, and Maha-sankarsana and His expansions as the purusas in the universes are plenary expansions of Nityananda Prabhu.

In this chapter the author has described the history of his leaving home for a personal pilgrimage to Vrndavana and his achieving all success there. In this description it is revealed that the author's original paternal home and birthplace were in the district of Katwa, in the village of Jhamatapura, which is near Naihati. Krsnadasa Kaviraja's brother invited Sri Minaketana Ramadasa, a great devotee of Lord Nityananda, to his home, but a priest named Gunarnava Misra did not receive him well, and Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami's brother, not recognizing the glories of Lord Nityananda, also took sides with the priest. Therefore Ramadasa became sorry, broke his flute and went away. This was a great disaster for the brother of Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami. But on that very night Lord Nityananda Prabhu Himself graced Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami in a dream and ordered him to leave on the next day for Vrndavana.

The all-pervading Brahman, the impersonal glowing ray of Sri Krsna, exists in the spiritual world with the Vaikuntha planets. We can get some idea of that spiritual sky by a comparison to the material sky, for the rays of the sun in the material sky can be compared to the brahmajyoti, the glowing rays of the Personality of Godhead. In the brahmajyoti there are unlimited Vaikuntha planets, which are spiritual and therefore self-luminous, with a glow many times greater than that of the sun. The Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, His innumerable plenary portions and the portions of His plenary portions dominate each Vaikuntha planet. In the highest region of the spiritual sky is the planet called Krsnaloka, which has three divisions, namely Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka.

To a gross materialist this kingdom of God, Vaikuntha, is certainly a mystery. But to an ignorant man everything is a mystery for want of sufficient knowledge. The kingdom of God is not a myth. Even the material planets, which float over our heads in the millions and billions, are still a mystery to the ignorant. Material scientists are now attempting to penetrate this mystery, and a day may come when the people of this earth will be able to travel in outer space and see the variegatedness of these millions of planets with their own eyes. In every planet there is as much material variegatedness as we find in our own planet.

This planet earth is but an insignificant spot in the cosmic structure. Yet foolish men, puffed up by a false sense of scientific advancement, have concentrated their energy in a pursuit of so-called economic development on this planet, not knowing of the variegated economic facilities available on other planets. According to modern astronomy, the gravity of the moon is different from that of earth. Therefore one who goes to the moon will be able to pick up large weights and jump vast distances. In the Ramayana, Hanuman is described as being able to lift huge weights as heavy as hills and jump over the ocean. Modern astronomy has confirmed that this is indeed possible.

The disease of the modern civilized man is his disbelief of everything in the revealed scriptures. Faithless nonbelievers cannot make progress in spiritual realization, for they cannot understand the spiritual potency. The small fruit of a banyan contains hundreds of seeds, and in each seed is the potency to produce another banyan tree with the potency to produce millions more of such fruits. This law of nature is visible before us, although how it works is beyond our understanding. This is but an insignificant example of the potency of Godhead; there are many similar phenomena that no scientist can explain.

Everything, in fact, is inconceivable, for the truth is revealed only to the proper persons. Although there are varieties of personalities, from Brahma down to the insignificant ant, all of whom are living beings, their development of knowledge is different. Therefore we have to gather knowledge from the right source. Indeed, in reality we can get knowledge only from the Vedic sources. The four Vedas, with their supplementary Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and their corollaries, which are known as smrtis, are all authorized sources of knowledge. If we are at all to gather knowledge, we must gather it from these sources without hesitation.

Revealed knowledge may in the beginning be unbelievable because of our paradoxical desire to verify everything with our tiny brains, but the speculative means of attaining knowledge is always imperfect. The perfect knowledge propounded in the revealed scriptures is confirmed by the great acaryas, who have left ample commentations upon them; none of these acaryas has disbelieved in the sastras. One who disbelieves in the sastras is an atheist, and we should not consult an atheist, however great he may be. A staunch believer in the sastras, with all their diversities, is the right person from whom to gather real knowledge. Such knowledge may seem inconceivable in the beginning, but when put forward by the proper authority its meaning is revealed, and then one no longer has any doubts about it.

The unlimited spiritual atmosphere of that Vaikuntha-dhama is far above and beyond the material cosmos. This is confirmed in the Svayambhuva-tantra in a discussion between Lord Siva and Parvati regarding the effect of chanting the mantra of fourteen syllables. There it is stated:

The places of the pastimes of Lord Krsna, such as Dvaraka, Mathura and Vrndavana, eternally and independently exist in Krsnaloka. They are the actual abode of Lord Krsna, and there is no doubt that they are situated above the material cosmic manifestation.

The abode known as Vrndavana or Gokula is also known as Goloka. The Brahma-samhita states that Gokula, the highest region of the kingdom of God, resembles a lotus flower with thousands of petals. The outer portion of that lotuslike planet is a square place known as Svetadvipa. In the inner portion of Gokula there is an elaborate arrangement for Sri Krsna's residence with His eternal associates such as Nanda and Yasoda. That transcendental abode exists by the energy of Sri Baladeva, who is the original whole of Sesa, or Ananta. The tantras also confirm this description by stating that the abode of Sri Anantadeva, the plenary portion of Baladeva, is called the kingdom of God. Vrndavana-dhama is the innermost abode within the quadrangular realm of Svetadvipa, which lies outside of the boundary of Gokula Vrndavana.

According to Jiva Gosvami, Vaikuntha is also called Brahmaloka. The Narada-pancaratra, in a statement concerning the mystery of Vijaya, describes:

tat sarvopari goloke
tatra lokopari svayam
viharet paramanandi
govindo 'tula-nayakah

From the authoritative evidence cited by Jiva Gosvami we may conclude that Krsnaloka is the supreme planet in the spiritual sky, which is far beyond the material cosmos. For the enjoyment of transcendental variety, the pastimes of Krsna there have three divisions, and these pastimes are performed in the three abodes Dvaraka, Mathura and Gokula. When Krsna descends to this universe, He enjoys the pastimes in places of the same name. These places on earth are nondifferent from those original abodes, for they are facsimiles of those original holy places in the transcendental world. They are as good as Sri Krsna Himself and are equally worshipable. Lord Caitanya declared that Lord Krsna, who presents Himself as the son of the King of Vraja, is worshipable, and Vrndavana-dhama is equally worshipable.

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, a great acarya in the preceptorial line of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, has said for our benefit that one can perfectly see the dhamas only when one completely gives up the mentality of lording it over material nature. One's spiritual vision develops proportionately to one's giving up the debased mentality of unnecessarily enjoying matter. A diseased person who has become diseased because of a certain bad habit must be ready to follow the advice of the physician, and as a natural sequence he must attempt to give up the cause of the disease. The patient cannot indulge in the bad habit and at the same time expect to be cured by the physician. Modern material civilization, however, is maintaining a diseased atmosphere. The living being is a spiritual spark, as spiritual as the Lord Himself. The only difference is that the Lord is great and the living being is small. Qualitatively they are one, but quantitatively they are different. Therefore, since the living being is spiritual in constitution, he can be happy only in the spiritual sky, where there are unlimited spiritual spheres called Vaikunthas. A spiritual being conditioned by a material body must therefore try to get rid of his disease instead of developing the cause of the disease.

Foolish persons engrossed in their material assets are unnecessarily proud of being leaders of the people, but they ignore the spiritual value of man. Such illusioned leaders make plans covering any number of years, but they can hardly make humanity happy in a state conditioned by the threefold miseries inflicted by material nature. One cannot control the laws of nature by any amount of struggling. One must at last be subject to death, nature's ultimate law. Death, birth, old age and illness are symptoms of the diseased condition of the living being. The highest aim of human life should therefore be to get free from these miseries and go back home, back to Godhead.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (Second Canto) states that in Vaikunthaloka the material modes of nature, represented by the qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance, have no influence. In the material world the highest qualitative manifestation is goodness, which is characterized by truthfulness, mental equilibrium, cleanliness, control of the senses, simplicity, essential knowledge, faith in God, scientific knowledge and so on. Nevertheless, all these qualities are mixed with passion and imperfection. But the qualities in Vaikuntha are a manifestation of God's internal potency, and therefore they are purely spiritual and transcendental, with no trace of material infection. No material planet, even Satyaloka, is comparable in quality to the spiritual planets, where the five inherent qualities of the material world--namely, ignorance, misery, egoism, anger and envy--are completely absent.

In the material world, everything is a creation. Anything we can think of within our experience, including even our own bodies and minds, was created. This process of creation began with the life of Brahma, and the creative principle is prevalent all over the material universe because of the quality of passion. But since the quality of passion is conspicuous by its absence in the Vaikuntha planets, nothing there is created: everything there is eternally existent. And because there is no mode of ignorance, there is also no question of annihilation or destruction. In the material world one may try to make everything permanent by developing the above-mentioned qualities of goodness, but because the goodness in the material world is mixed with passion and ignorance, nothing here can exist permanently, despite all the good plans of the best scientific brains. Therefore in the material world we have no experience of eternity, bliss and fullness of knowledge. But in the spiritual world, because of the complete absence of the qualitative modes, everything is eternal, blissful and cognizant. Everything can speak, everything can move, everything can hear, and everything can see in fully blessed existence for eternity. The situation being so, naturally space and time, in the forms of past, present and future, have no influence there. In the spiritual sky there is no change because time has no influence. Consequently, the influence of maya, the total external energy, which induces us to become more and more materialistic and forget our relationship with God, is also absent there.

As spiritual sparks of the beams emanating from the transcendental body of the Lord, we are all permanently related with Him and equal to Him in quality. The material energy is a covering of the spiritual spark, but in the absence of that material covering, the living beings in Vaikunthaloka are never forgetful of their identities: they are eternally cognizant of their relationship with God in their constitutional position of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord. Because they constantly engage in the transcendental service of the Lord, it is natural to conclude that their senses are also transcendental, for one cannot serve the Lord with material senses. The inhabitants of Vaikunthaloka do not possess material senses with which to lord it over material nature.

Persons with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that a place void of material qualities must be some sort of formless nothingness. In reality, however, there are qualities in the spiritual world, but they are different from the material qualities because everything there is eternal, unlimited and pure. The atmosphere there is self-illuminating, and thus there is no need of a sun, a moon, fire electricity and so on. One who can reach that abode does not come back to the material world with a material body. There is no difference between atheists and the faithful in the Vaikuntha planets because all who settle there are freed from the material qualities, and thus suras and asuras become equally obedient loving servitors of the Lord.

The residents of Vaikuntha have brilliantly black complexions much more fascinating and attractive than the dull white and black complexions found in the material world. Their bodies, being spiritual, have no equals in the material world. The beauty of a bright cloud when lightning flashes on it merely hints at their beauty. Generally the inhabitants of Vaikuntha dress in yellow clothing. Their bodies are delicate and attractively built, and their eyes are like the petals of lotus flowers. Like Lord Visnu, the residents of Vaikuntha have four hands decorated with a conchshell, wheel, club and lotus flower. Their chests are beautifully broad and fully decorated with necklaces of a brilliant diamondlike metal surrounded by costly jewels never to be found in the material world. The residents of Vaikuntha are always powerful and effulgent. Some of them have complexions like red coral cat's eyes and lotus flowers, and each of them has earrings of costly jewels. On their heads they wear flowery crowns resembling garlands.

In the Vaikunthas there are airplanes, but they make no tumultuous sounds. Material airplanes are not at all safe: they can fall down and crash at any time, for matter is imperfect in every respect. In the spiritual sky, however, the airplanes are also spiritual, and they are spiritually brilliant and bright. These airplanes do not fly business executives, politicians or planning commissions as passengers, nor do they carry cargo or postal bags, for these are all unknown there. These planes are for pleasure trips only, and the residents of Vaikuntha fly in them with their heavenly, beautiful, fairylike consorts. Therefore these airplanes, full of residents of Vaikuntha, both male and female, increase the beauty of the spiritual sky. We cannot imagine how beautiful they are, but their beauty may be compared to the clouds in the sky accompanied by silver branches of electric lightning. The spiritual sky of Vaikunthaloka is always decorated in this way.

The full opulence of the internal potency of Godhead is always resplendent in Vaikunthaloka, where goddesses of fortune are ever-increasingly attached to serving the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead. These goddesses of fortune, accompanied by their friends, always create a festive atmosphere of transcendental mirth. Always singing the glories of the Lord, they are not silent even for a moment.

There are unlimited Vaikuntha planets in the spiritual sky, and the ratio of these planets to the material planets in the material sky is three to one. Thus the poor materialist is busy making political adjustments on a planet that is most insignificant in God's creation. To say nothing of this planet earth, the whole universe, with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies, is comparable to a single mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds. But the poor materialist makes plans to live comfortably here and thus wastes his valuable human energy in something that is doomed to frustration. Instead of wasting his time with business speculations, he might have sought the life of plain living and high spiritual thinking and thus saved himself from perpetual materialistic unrest.

Even if a materialist wants to enjoy developed material facilities, he can transfer himself to planets where he can experience material pleasures much more advanced than those available on earth. The best plan is to prepare oneself to return to the spiritual sky after leaving the body. However, if one is intent on enjoying material facilities, one can transfer himself to other planets in the material sky by utilizing yogic powers. The playful spaceships of the astronauts are but childish entertainments and are of no use for this purpose. The astanga-yoga system is a materialistic art of controlling air by transferring it from the stomach to the navel, from the navel to the heart, from the heart to the collarbone, from there to the eyeballs, from there to the cerebellum and from there to any desired planet. The velocities of air and light are taken into consideration by the material scientist, but he has no information of the velocity of the mind and intelligence. We have some limited experience of the velocity of the mind because in a moment we can transfer our minds to places hundreds of thousands of miles away. Intelligence is even finer. Finer than intelligence is the soul, which is not matter like mind and intelligence but is spirit, or antimatter. The soul is hundreds of thousands of times finer and more powerful than intelligence. We can thus only imagine the velocity of the soul in its traveling from one planet to another. Needless to say, the soul travels by its own strength and not with the help of any kind of material vehicle.

The bestial civilization of eating, sleeping, fearing and sense-gratifying has misled modern man into forgetting how powerful a soul he has. As we have already described, the soul is a spiritual spark many, many times more illuminating, dazzling and powerful than the sun, moon or electricity. Human life is spoiled when man does not realize his real identity with his soul. Lord Caitanya appeared with Lord Nityananda to save man from this type of misleading civilization.

Srimad-Bhagavatam also describes how yogis can travel to all the planets in the universe. When the vital force is lifted to the cerebellum, there is every chance that this force will burst out from the eyes, nose, ears, etc., as these are places that are known as the seventh orbit of the vital force. But the yogis can block these holes by complete suspension of air. The yogi then concentrates the vital force in the middle position, that is, between the eyebrows. At this position, the yogi can think of the planet into which he wants to enter after leaving the body. He can then decide whether he wants to go to the abode of Krsna in the transcendental Vaikunthas, from which he will not be required to descend into the material world, or to travel to higher planets in the material universe. The perfect yogi is at liberty to do either.

For the perfect yogi who has attained success in the method of leaving his body in perfect consciousness, transferring from one planet to another is as easy as an ordinary man's walking to the grocery store. As already discussed, the material body is just a covering of the spiritual soul. Mind and intelligence are the undercoverings, and the gross body of earth, water, air and so on is the overcoating of the soul. As such, any advanced soul who has realized himself by the yogic process, who knows the relationship between matter and spirit, can leave the gross dress of the soul in perfect order and as he desires. By the grace of God, we have complete freedom. Because the Lord is kind to us, we can live anywhere--either in the spiritual sky or in the material sky, upon whichever planet we desire. However, misuse of this freedom causes one to fall down into the material world and suffer the threefold miseries of conditioned life. The living of a miserable life in the material world by dint of the soul's choice is nicely illustrated by Milton in Paradise Lost. Similarly, by choice the soul can regain paradise and return home, back to Godhead.

At the critical time of death, one can place the vital force between the two eyebrows and decide where he wants to go. If he is reluctant to maintain any connection with the material world, he can, in less than a second, reach the transcendental Vaikuntha and appear there completely in his spiritual body, which will be suitable for him in the spiritual atmosphere. He has simply to desire to leave the material world both in finer and in grosser forms and then move the vital force to the topmost part of the skull and leave the body from the hole in the skull called the brahma-randhra. This is easy for one perfect in the practice of yoga.

Of course, man is endowed with free will, and as such if he does not want to free himself from the material world he may enjoy the life of brahma-pada (occupation of the post of Brahma) and visit Siddhaloka, the planet of materially perfect beings who have full capacities to control gravity, space and time. To visit such higher planets in the material universe, one need not give up his mind and intelligence (finer matter), but need only give up grosser matter (the material body).

Each and every planet has its particular atmosphere, and if one wants to travel to any particular planet within the material universe, one has to adapt his material body to the climatic condition of that planet. For instance, if one wants to go from India to Europe, where the climatic condition is different, one has to change his dress accordingly. Similarly, a complete change of body is necessary if one wants to go to the transcendental planets of Vaikuntha. However, if one wants to go to the higher material planets, he can keep his finer dress of mind, intelligence and ego, but has to leave his gross dress (body) made of earth, water, fire, etc.

When one goes to a transcendental planet, it is necessary to change both the finer and gross bodies, for one has to reach the spiritual sky completely in a spiritual form. This change of dress will take place automatically at the time of death if one so desires.

The Bhagavad-gita confirms that one will attain his next material body according to his desires at the time he leaves his body. The desire of the mind carries the soul to a suitable atmosphere as the wind carries aromas from one place to another. Unfortunately, those who are not yogis but gross materialists, who throughout their lives indulge in sense gratification, are puzzled by the disarrangement of the bodily and mental condition at the time of death. Such gross sensualists, encumbered by the main ideas, desires and associations of the lives they have led, desire something against their interest and thus foolishly take on new bodies that perpetuate their material miseries.

Systematic training of the mind and intelligence is therefore needed so that at the time of death one may consciously desire a suitable body, either on this planet or another material planet or even a transcendental planet. A civilization that does not consider the progressive advancement of the immortal soul merely fosters a bestial life of ignorance.

It is foolish to think that every soul that passes away goes to the same place. Either the soul goes to a place he desires at the time of death, or upon leaving his body he is forced to accept a position according to his acts in his previous life. The difference between the materialist and the yogi is that a materialist cannot determine his next body, whereas a yogi can consciously attain a suitable body for enjoyment in the higher planets. Throughout his life, the gross materialist who is constantly after sense gratification spends all day earning his livelihood to maintain his family, and at night he wastes his energy in sex enjoyment or else goes to sleep thinking about all he has done in the daytime. That is the monotonous life of the materialist. Although differently graded as businessmen, lawyers, politicians, professors, judges, coolies, pickpockets, laborers and so on, materialists all simply engage in eating, sleeping, fearing and sense gratification and thus spoil their valuable lives pursuing luxury and neglecting to perfect their lives through spiritual realization.

Yogis, however, try to perfect their lives, and therefore the Bhagavad-gita enjoins that everyone should become a yogi. Yoga is the system for linking the soul in the service of the Lord. Only under superior guidance can one practice such yoga in his life without changing his social position. As already described, a yogi can go anywhere he desires without mechanical help, for a yogi can place his mind and intelligence within the air circulating inside his body, and by practicing the art of breath control he can mix that air with the air that blows all over the universe outside his body. With the help of this universal air, a yogi can travel to any planet and get a body suitable for its atmosphere. We can understand this process by comparing it to the electronic transmission of radio messages. With radio transmitters, sound waves produced at a certain station can travel all over the earth in seconds. But sound is produced from the ethereal sky, and as already explained, subtler than the ethereal sky is the mind, and finer than the mind is the intelligence. Spirit is still finer than the intelligence, and by nature it is completely different from matter. Thus we can just imagine how quickly the spirit soul can travel through the universal atmosphere.

To come to the stage of manipulating finer elements like mind, intelligence and spirit, one needs appropriate training, an appropriate mode of life and appropriate association. Such training depends upon sincere prayers, devotional service, achievement of success in mystic perfection, and the successful merging of oneself in the activities of the soul and Supersoul. A gross materialist, whether he be an empiric philosopher, a scientist, a psychologist or whatever, cannot attain such success through blunt efforts and word jugglery.

Materialists who perform yajnas, or great sacrifices, are comparatively better than grosser materialists who do not know anything beyond laboratories and test tubes. The advanced materialists who perform such sacrifices can reach the planet called Vaisvanara, a fiery planet similar to the sun. On this planet, which is situated on the way to Brahmaloka, the topmost planet in the universe, such an advanced materialist can free himself from all traces of vice and its effects. When such a materialist is purified, he can rise to the orbit of the pole star (Dhruvaloka). Within this orbit, which is called the Sisumara-cakra, are situated the Aditya-lokas and the Vaikuntha planet within this universe.

A purified materialist who has performed many sacrifices, undergone severe penances and given the major portion of his wealth in charity can reach such planets as Dhruvaloka, and if he becomes still more qualified there, he can penetrate still higher orbits and pass through the navel of the universe to reach the planet Maharloka, where sages like Bhrgu Muni live. In Maharloka one can live even to the time of the partial annihilation of the universe. This annihilation begins when Anantadeva, from the lowest position in the universe, produces a great blazing fire. The heat of this fire reaches even Maharloka, and then the residents of Maharloka travel to Brahmaloka, which exists for twice the duration of parardha time.

In Brahmaloka there is an unlimited number of airplanes that are controlled not by yantra (machine) but mantra (psychic action). Because of the existence of the mind and intelligence on Brahmaloka, its residents have feelings of happiness and distress, but there is no cause of lamentation from old age, death, fear or distress. They feel sympathy, however, for the suffering living beings who are consumed in the fire of annihilation. The residents of Brahmaloka do not have gross material bodies to change at death, but they transform their subtle bodies into spiritual bodies and thus enter the spiritual sky. The residents of Brahmaloka can attain perfection in three different ways. Virtuous persons who reach Brahmaloka by dint of their pious work become masters of various planets after the resurrection of Brahma, those who have worshiped Garbhodakasayi Visnu are liberated with Brahma, and those who are pure devotees of the Personality of Godhead at once push through the covering of the universe and enter the spiritual sky.

The numberless universes exist together in foamlike clusters, and so only some of them are surrounded by the water of the Causal Ocean. When agitated by the glance of Karanodakasayi Visnu, material nature produces the total elements, which are eight in number and which gradually evolve from finer to gross. A part of ego is the sky, a part of which is air, a part of which is fire, a part of which is water, a part of which is earth. Thus one universe inflates to an area of four billion miles in diameter. A yogi who desires gradual liberation must penetrate all the different coverings of the universe, including the subtle coverings of the three qualitative modes of material nature. One who does this never has to return to this mortal world.

According to Sukadeva Gosvami, the above description of the material and spiritual skies is neither imaginary nor utopian. The actual facts are recorded in the Vedic hymns, and Lord Vasudeva disclosed them to Lord Brahma when Brahma satisfied Him. One can achieve the perfection of life only when he has a definite idea of Vaikuntha and the Supreme Godhead. One should always think about and describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for this is recommended in both the Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavata Purana, which are two authorized commentaries upon the Vedas. Lord Caitanya has made all these subject matters easier for the fallen people of this age to accept, and Sri Caitanya-caritamrta has therefore presented them for the easy understanding of all concerned.

tarksyadhirudham tadid-ambudabham
laksmi-dharam vaksasi pankajaksam
hasta-dvaye sobhita-sankha-cakram
visnum dadrsur bhagavantam adyam

a-janu-bahum kamaniya-gatram
parsva-dvaye sobhita-bhumi-nilam
pitambaram bhusana-bhusitangam
catur-bhujam candana-rusitangam

There is the following reference to the sri, bhu and nila energies in the Sitopanisad: maha-laksmir devesasya bhinnabhinna-rupa cetanacetanatmika. sa devi tri-vidha bhavati, sakty-atmana iccha-saktih kriya-saktih saksac-chaktir iti. iccha-saktis tri-vidha bhavati, sri-bhumi-nilatmika. "Maha-Laksmi, the supreme energy of the Lord, is experienced in different ways. She is divided into material and spiritual potencies, and in both features she acts as the willing energy, creative energy and the internal energy. The willing energy is again divided into three, namely sri, bhu and nila."

Quoting from the revealed scriptures in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gita (4.6), Madhvacarya has stated that mother material nature, which is conceived of as the illusory energy, Durga, has three divisions, namely sri, bhu and nila. She is the illusory energy for those who are weak in spiritual strength because such energies are created energies of Lord Visnu. Although each energy has no direct relationship with the unlimited, they are subordinate to the Lord because the Lord is the master of all energies.

In his Bhagavat-sandarbha (Part 23, Texts 8-9), Srila Jiva Gosvami Prabhu states: "The Padma Purana refers to the eternally auspicious abode of Godhead, which is full in all opulences, including the energies sri, bhu and nila. The Maha-samhita, which discusses the transcendental name and form of Godhead, also mentions Durga as the potency of the Supersoul in relationship with the living entities. The internal potency acts in relation with His personal affairs, and the material potency manifests the three modes." Quoting elsewhere from the revealed scriptures, he states that sri is the energy of Godhead that maintains the cosmic manifestation, bhu is the energy that creates the cosmic manifestation, and nila, Durga, is the energy that destroys the creation. All these energies act in relation with the living beings, and thus they are together called jiva-maya.

From this incident one can understand that even a person who thinks of Krsna as an enemy and is killed by Him may be liberated by becoming one with the body of Krsna. What then must be the destination of devotees who always think favorably of Krsna as their master or friend? These devotees must attain a situation better than Brahmaloka, the impersonal bodily effulgence of Krsna. Devotees cannot be situated in the impersonal Brahman effulgence, into which impersonalists desire to merge. The devotees are placed in Vaikunthaloka or Krsnaloka.

This discussion between Maitreya Muni and Parasara Muni centered on whether devotees come down into the material world in every millennium like Jaya and Vijaya, who were cursed by the Kumaras to that effect. In the course of these instructions to Maitreya about Hiranyakasipu, Ravana and Sisupala, Parasara did not say that these demons were formerly Jaya and Vijaya. He simply described the transmigration through three lives. It is not necessary for the Vaikuntha associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to come to take the roles of His enemies in all the millenniums in which He appears. The "falldown" of Jaya and Vijaya occurred in a particular millennium; Jaya and Vijaya do not come down in every millennium to act as demons. To think that some associates of the Lord fall down from Vaikuntha in every millennium to become demons is totally incorrect.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has all the tendencies that may be found in the living entity, for He is the chief living entity. Therefore it is natural that sometimes Lord Visnu wants to fight. Just as He has the tendencies to create, to enjoy, to be a friend, to accept a mother and father, and so on, He also has the tendency to fight. Sometimes important landlords and kings keep wrestlers with whom they practice mock fighting, and Visnu makes similar arrangements. The demons who fight with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the material world are sometimes His associates. When there is a scarcity of demons and the Lord wants to fight, He instigates some of His associates of Vaikuntha to come and play as demons. When it is said that Sisupala merged into the body of Krsna, it should be noted that in this case he was not Jaya or Vijaya; he was actually a demon.

In his Brhad-bhagavatamrta, Srila Sanatana Gosvami has explained that the attainment of salvation by merging into the Brahman effulgence of the Lord cannot be accepted as the highest success in life, because demons like Kamsa, who were famous for killing brahmanas and cows, attained that salvation. For devotees such salvation is abominable. Devotees are actually in a transcendental position, whereas nondevotees are candidates for hellish conditions of life. There is always a difference between the life of a devotee and the life of a demon, and their realizations are as different as heaven and hell.

Demons are always accustomed to be malicious toward devotees and to kill brahmanas and cows. For demons, merging in the Brahman effulgence may be very glorious, but for devotees it is hellish. A devotee's aim in life is to attain perfection in loving the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who aspire to merge into the Brahman effulgence are as abominable as demons. Devotees who aspire to associate with the Supreme Lord to render Him transcendental loving service are far superior.

The actions in the spiritual sky are manifested by the internal potency in pure spiritual existence. They expand in six transcendental opulences, which are all manifestations of Maha-sankarsana, who is the ultimate reservoir and objective of all living entities. Although belonging to the marginal potency known as jiva-sakti, the spiritual sparks known as the living entities are subjected to the conditions of material energy. It is because these sparks are related with both the internal and external potencies of the Lord that they are known as belonging to the marginal potency.

In considering the quadruple forms of the absolute Personality of Godhead, known as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, the impersonalists, headed by Sripada Sankaracarya, have interpreted the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra in a way suitable for the impersonalist school. To provide the intrinsic import of such aphorisms, however, Srila Rupa Gosvami, the leader of the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana, has properly replied to the impersonalists in his Laghu-bhagavatamrta, which is a natural commentary on the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra.

The Padma Purana, as quoted by Srila Rupa Gosvami in his Laghu-bhagavatamrta, describes that in the spiritual sky there are four directions, corresponding to east, west, north and south, in which Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna are situated. The same forms are also situated in the material sky. The Padma Purana also describes a place in the spiritual sky known as Vedavati-pura, where Vasudeva resides. In Visnuloka, which is above Satyaloka, Sankarsana resides. Maha-sankarsana is another name of Sankarsana. Pradyumna lives in Dvaraka-pura, and Aniruddha lies on the eternal bed of Sesa, generally known as ananta-sayya, on the island called Svetadvipa, in the ocean of milk.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is not like a material object that can be known by experimental knowledge or sense perception. In the Narada-pancaratra this fact has been explained by Narayana Himself to Lord Siva. But Sankaracarya, the incarnation of Siva, under the order of Narayana, his master, had to mislead the monists, who favor ultimate extinction. In the conditioned stage of existence, all living entities have four basic defects, of which one is the cheating propensity. Sankaracarya has carried this cheating propensity to the extreme to mislead the monists.

Actually, the quadruple forms explained in the Vedic literature cannot be understood by the speculation of a conditioned soul. The quadruple forms should therefore be accepted just as They are described. The authority of the Vedas is such that even if one does not understand something by his limited perception, he should accept the Vedic injunction and not create interpretations to suit his imperfect understanding. In his Sariraka-bhasya, however, Sankaracarya has increased the misunderstanding of the monists.

The quadruple forms have a spiritual existence that can be realized in vasudeva-sattva (suddha-sattva), or unqualified goodness, which accompanies complete absorption in the understanding of Vasudeva. The quadruple forms, who are full of the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are the enjoyers of the internal potency. Thinking the absolute Personality of Godhead to be poverty-stricken or to have no potency--or, in other words, to be impotent--is simply rascaldom. This rascaldom is the profession of the conditioned soul, and it increases his bewilderment. One who cannot understand the distinctions between the spiritual world and the material world has no qualification to examine or know the situation of the transcendental quadruple forms. In his commentary on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.42-45, His Holiness Sripada Sankaracarya has made a futile attempt to nullify the existence of these quadruple forms in the spiritual world.

Sankaracarya says (sutra 42) that devotees think the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vasudeva, Sri Krsna, to be one, to be free from material qualities and to have a transcendental body full of bliss and eternal existence. He is the ultimate goal of the devotees, who believe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands Himself into four other eternal transcendental forms--Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. From Vasudeva, who is the primary expansion, come Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha in that order. Another name of Vasudeva is Paramatma, another name of Sankarsana is jiva (the living entity), another name of Pradyumna is mind, and another name of Aniruddha is ahankara (false ego). Among these expansions, Vasudeva is considered the origin of material nature. Therefore Sankaracarya says that Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha must be creations of that original cause.

Great souls assert that Narayana, who is known as Paramatma, the Supersoul, is beyond material nature, and this is in accordance with the statements of the Vedic literature. Mayavadis also agree that Narayana can expand Himself in various forms. Sankara says that he does not attempt to argue that portion of the devotees' understanding, but he must protest the idea that Sankarsana is produced from Vasudeva, Pradyumna is produced from Sankarsana, and Aniruddha is produced from Pradyumna, for if Sankarsana is understood to represent the living entities created from the body of Vasudeva, the living entities would have to be noneternal. The living entities are supposed to be freed from material contamination by engaging in prolonged temple worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, reading Vedic literature and performing yoga and pious activities to attain the Supreme Lord. But if the living entities had been created from material nature at a certain point, they would be noneternal and would have no chance to be liberated and associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When a cause is nullified, its results are nullified. In the second chapter of the Vedanta-sutra's second khanda, Acarya Vedavyasa has also refuted the conception that the living beings were ever born (natma sruter nityatvac ca tabhyah). Because there is no creation for the living entities, they must be eternal.

Sankaracarya says (sutra 43) that devotees think that Pradyumna, who is considered to represent the senses, has sprung from Sankarsana, who is considered to represent the living entities. But we cannot actually experience that a person can produce senses. Devotees also say that from Pradyumna has sprung Aniruddha, who is considered to represent the ego. But Sankaracarya says that unless the devotees can show how ego and the means of knowledge can generate from a person, such an explanation of the Vedanta-sutra cannot be accepted, for no other philosophers accept the sutras in that way.

Sankaracarya also says (sutra 44) that he cannot accept the devotees' idea that Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are equally as powerful as the absolute Personality of Godhead, full in the six opulences of knowledge, wealth, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation, and free from the flaw of generation at a certain point. Even if They are full expansions, the flaw of generation remains. Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, being distinct individual persons, cannot be one. Therefore if They are accepted as absolute, full and equal, there would have to be many Personalities of Godhead. But there is no need to accept that there are many Personalities of Godhead, because acceptance of one omnipotent God is sufficient for all purposes. The acceptance of more than one God is contradictory to the conclusion that Lord Vasudeva, the absolute Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. Even if we agree to accept that the quadruple forms of Godhead are all identical, we cannot avoid the incongruous flaw of noneternity. Unless we accept that there are some differences among the personalities, there is no meaning to the idea that Sankarsana is an expansion of Vasudeva, Pradyumna is an expansion of Sankarsana, and Aniruddha is an expansion of Pradyumna. There must be a distinction between cause and effect. For example, a pot is distinct from the earth from which it is made, and therefore we can ascertain that the earth is the cause and the pot is the effect. Without such distinctions, there is no meaning to cause and effect. Furthermore, the followers of the Pancaratric principles do not accept any differences in knowledge and qualities between Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The devotees accept all these expansions to be one, but why should they restrict oneness to these quadruple expansions? Certainly we should not do so, for all living entities, from Brahma to the insignificant ant, are expansions of Vasudeva, as accepted in all the srutis and smrtis.

Sankaracarya also says (sutra 45) that the devotees who follow the Pancaratra state that God's qualities and God Himself, as the owner of the qualities, are the same. But how can the Bhagavata school state that the six opulences--wisdom, wealth, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation--are identical with Lord Vasudeva? This is impossible.

In his Laghu-bhagavatamrta (Purva 5.165-193), Srila Rupa Gosvami has refuted the charges directed against the devotees by Sripada Sankaracarya regarding their explanation of the quadruple forms Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. He says that these four expansions of Narayana are present in the spiritual sky, where They are famous as Mahavastha. Among Them, Vasudeva is worshiped within the heart by meditation because He is the predominating Deity of the heart, as explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.3.23).

Sankarsana, the second expansion, is Vasudeva's personal expansion for pastimes, and since He is the reservoir of all living entities, He is sometimes called jiva. The beauty of Sankarsana is more than that of innumerable full moons radiating light beams. He is worshipable as the principle of ego. He has invested Anantadeva with all the potencies of sustenance. For the dissolution of the creation, He also exhibits Himself as the Supersoul in Rudra, irreligiosity, sarpa (the snake), antaka (death) and the demons.

Pradyumna, the third manifestation, appears from Sankarsana. Those who are especially intelligent worship this Pradyumna expansion of Sankarsana as the principle of the intelligence. The goddess of fortune always chants the glories of Pradyumna in the place known as Ilavrta-varsa, and she always serves Him with great devotion. His complexion appears sometimes golden and sometimes bluish like new monsoon clouds in the sky. He is the origin of the creation of the material world, and He has invested His creative principle in Cupid. It is by His direction only that all men and demigods and other living entities function with energy for regeneration.

Aniruddha, the fourth of the quadruple expansions, is worshiped by great sages and psychologists as the principle of the mind. His complexion is similar to the bluish hue of a blue cloud. He engages in the maintenance of the cosmic manifestation and is the Supersoul of Dharma (the deity of religiosity), the Manus (the progenitors of mankind) and the devatas (demigods). The Moksa-dharma Vedic scripture indicates that Pradyumna is the Deity of the total mind, whereas Aniruddha is the Deity of the total ego, but previous statements regarding the quadruple forms are confirmed in the Pancaratra tantras in all respects.

In the Laghu-bhagavatamrta (Purva 5.86-100), there is a lucid explanation of the inconceivable potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Negating Sankaracarya's statements, the Maha-varaha Purana declares:

sarve nityah sasvatas ca
dehas tasya paratmanah
hanopadana-rahita
naiva prakrti-jah kvacit

Confirming these statements, the Narada-pancaratra asserts:

manir yatha vibhagena
nila-pitadibhir yutah
rupa-bhedam avapnoti
dhyana-bhedat tathacyutah

Each incarnation is distinct from all the others. This is possible by the Lord's inconceivable potency, by which He can simultaneously represent Himself as one, as various partial forms and as the origin of these partial forms. Nothing is impossible for His inconceivable potencies.

Krsna is one without a second, but He manifests Himself in different bodies, as stated by Narada in the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam:

citram bataitad ekena
vapusa yugapat prthak
grhesu dvy-asta-sahasram
striya eka udavahat
(Bhag. 10.69.2)

The Padma Purana also explains:

sa devo bahudha bhutva
nirgunah purusottamah
eki-bhuya punah sete
nirdoso harir adi-krt

In the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, yajanti tvan-mayas tvam vai bahu-murty-eka-murtikam: "O my Lord, although You manifest Yourself in varieties of forms, You are one without a second. Therefore pure devotees concentrate upon You and worship only You." (Bhag. 10.40.7) In the Kurma Purana it is said:

asthulas cananus caiva
sthulo 'nus caiva sarvatah
avarnah sarvatah proktah
syamo raktanta-locanah

By material calculation all this may appear contradictory, but if we understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has inconceivable potencies, we can accept these facts as eternally possible in Him. In our present condition we cannot understand the spiritual activities and how they occur, but although they are inconceivable in the material context, we should not disregard such contradictory conceptions.

Although it is apparently inconceivable, it is quite possible for the Absolute to reconcile all opposing elements. Srimad-Bhagavatam establishes this in the Sixth Canto (6.9.34-37):

  "O my Lord, Your transcendental pastimes and enjoyments all appear inconceivable because they are not limited by the causal and effective actions of material thought. You can do everything without performing bodily work. The Vedas say that the Absolute Truth has multifarious potencies and does not need to do anything personally. My dear Lord, You are entirely devoid of material qualities. Without anyone's help, You can create, maintain and dissolve the entire qualitative material manifestation, yet in all such activities You do not change. You do not accept the results of Your activities, unlike ordinary demons and demigods, who suffer or enjoy the reactions of their activities in the material world. Unaffected by the reactions of work, You eternally exist with Your full spiritual potency. This we cannot fully understand.
  "Because You are unlimited in Your six opulences, no one can count Your transcendental qualities. Philosophers and other thoughtful persons are overwhelmed by the contradictory manifestations of the physical world and the propositions of logical arguments and judgments. Because they are bewildered by word jugglery and disturbed by the different calculations of the scriptures, their theories cannot touch You, who are the ruler and controller of everyone and whose glories are beyond conception.
  "Your inconceivable potency keeps You unattached to the mundane qualities. Surpassing all conceptions of material contemplation, Your pure transcendental knowledge keeps You beyond all speculative processes. By Your inconceivable potency, there is nothing contradictory in You.   "People may sometimes think of You as impersonal or personal, but You are one. For persons who are confused or bewildered, a rope may manifest itself as different kinds of snakes. For similar confused persons who are uncertain about You, You create various philosophical methods in pursuance of their uncertain positions."

We should always remember the differences between spiritual and material actions. The Supreme Lord, being all-spiritual, can perform any act without extraneous help. In the material world, if we want to manufacture an earthen pot, we need the ingredients, a machine and also a laborer. But we should not extend this idea to the actions of the Supreme Lord, for He can create anything in a moment without that which appears necessary in our own conception. When the Lord appears as an incarnation to fulfill a particular purpose, this does not indicate that He is unable to fulfill it without appearing. He can do anything simply by His will, but by His causeless mercy He appears to be dependent upon His devotees. He appears as the son of Yasodamata not because He is dependent on her care but because He accepts such a role by His causeless mercy. When He appears for the protection of His devotees, He naturally accepts trials and tribulations on their behalf.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the Lord, being equally disposed toward every living being, has no enemies and no friends but He has special affection for a devotee who always thinks of Him in love. Therefore neutrality and partiality are both among the transcendental qualities of the Lord, and they are properly adjusted by His inconceivable energy. The Lord is Parabrahman, or the source of the impersonal Brahma, which is His all-pervading feature of neutrality. In His personal feature, however, as the owner of all transcendental opulences, the Lord displays His partiality by taking the side of His devotees. Partiality, neutrality and all such qualities are present in God; otherwise they could not be experienced in the creation. Since He is the total existence, all things are properly adjusted in the Absolute. In the relative world such qualities are displayed in a perverted manner, and therefore we experience nonduality as a perverted reflection. Because there is no logic to explain how things happen in the realm of spirit, the Lord is sometimes described as being beyond the range of experience. But if we simply accept the Lord's inconceivability, we can then adjust all things in Him. Nondevotees cannot understand the Lord's inconceivable energy, and consequently for them it is said that He is beyond the range of conceivable expression. The author of the Brahma-sutras accepts this fact and says, srutes tu sabda-mulatvat: the Supreme Personality of Godhead, being inconceivable to an ordinary man, can be understood only through the evidence of the Vedic injunctions. The Skanda Purana confirms, acintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet: "Matters inconceivable to a common man should not be a subject for argument." We find very wonderful qualities even in material jewels and drugs. Indeed, their qualities often appear inconceivable. Therefore if we do not attribute inconceivable potencies to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we cannot establish His supremacy. It is because of these inconceivable potencies that the glories of the Lord have always been accepted as difficult to understand.

Ignorance and the jugglery of words are very common in human society, but they do not help one understand the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we accept such ignorance and word jugglery, we cannot accept the Supreme Lord's perfection in six opulences. For example, one of the opulences of the Supreme Lord is complete knowledge. Therefore, how could ignorance be conceivable in Him? Vedic instructions and sensible arguments establish that the Lord's maintaining the cosmic manifestation and simultaneously being indifferent to the activities of its maintenance cannot be contradictory, because of His inconceivable energies. To a person who is always absorbed in the thought of snakes, a rope always appears to be a snake, and similarly to a person bewildered by material qualities and devoid of knowledge of the Absolute, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears according to diverse bewildered conclusions.

Someone might argue that the Absolute would be affected by duality if He were both all-cognizance (Brahman) and the Personality of Godhead with six opulences in full (Bhagavan). To refute such an argument, the aphorism svarupa-dvayam iksyate declares that in spite of appearances, there is no chance of duality in the Absolute, for He is but one in diverse manifestations. Understanding that the Absolute displays varied pastimes by the influence of His energies at once removes the apparent incongruity of His inconceivably opposite energies. Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.4.16) gives the following description of the inconceivable potency of the Lord:

karmany anihasya bhavo 'bhavasya te
durgasrayo 'thari-bhayat palayanam
kalatmano yat pramada-yutasrayah
svatman-rateh khidyati dhir vidam iha

Had these activities of the Lord not been a reality, sages would not have been puzzled by them. Therefore such activities should never be considered imaginary. Whenever the Lord desires, His inconceivable energy (yogamaya) serves Him in creating and performing such pastimes.

The scriptures known as the Pancaratra-sastras are recognized Vedic scriptures that have been accepted by the great acaryas. These scriptures are not products of the modes of passion and ignorance. Learned scholars and brahmanas therefore always refer to them as satvata-samhitas. The original speaker of these scriptures is Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is especially mentioned in the Moksa-dharma (349.68), which is part of the Santi-parva of the Mahabharata. Liberated sages like Narada and Vyasa, who are free from the four defects of conditioned souls, are the propagators of these scriptures. Sri Narada Muni is the original speaker of the Pancaratra-sastra. Srimad-Bhagavatam is also considered a satvata-samhita. Indeed, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu declared, srimad-bhagavatam puranam amalam: "Srimad-Bhagavatam is a spotless Purana." Malicious editors and scholars who attempt to misrepresent the Pancaratra-sastras to refute their regulations are most abominable. In the modern age, such malicious scholars have even commented misleadingly upon the Bhagavad-gita, which was spoken by Krsna, to prove that there is no Krsna. How the Mayavadis have misrepresented the pancaratrika-vidhi will be shown below.

(1) In commenting on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.42, Sripada Sankaracarya has claimed that Sankarsana is a jiva, an ordinary living entity, but there is no evidence in any Vedic scripture that devotees of the Lord have ever said that Sankarsana is an ordinary living entity. He is an infallible plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Visnu category, and He is beyond the creation of material nature. He is the original source of the living entities. The Upanisads declare, nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam: "He is the supreme living entity among all the living entities." Therefore He is vibhu-caitanya, the greatest. He is directly the cause of the cosmic manifestation and the infinitesimal living beings. He is the infinite living entity, and ordinary living entities are infinitesimal. Therefore He is never to be considered an ordinary living being, for that would be against the conclusion of the authorized scriptures. The living entities are also beyond the limitations of birth and death. This is the version of the Vedas, and it is accepted by those who follow scriptural injunctions and who have actually descended in the disciplic succession.

(2) In answer to Sankaracarya's commentary on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.43, it must be said that the original Visnu of all the Visnu categories, which are distributed in several ways, is Mula-sankarsana. Mula means "the original." Sankarsana is also Visnu, but from Him all other Visnus expand. This is confirmed in the Brahma-samhita, wherein it is said that just as a flame transferred from another flame acts like the original, so the Visnus who emanate from Mulasankarsana are as good as the original Visnu. One should worship that Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, who thus expands Himself.

(3) In reply to the commentary of Sankaracarya on the forty-fourth aphorism, it may be said that no pure devotees strictly following the principles of Pancaratra will ever accept the statement that all the expansions of Visnu are different identities, for this idea is completely false. Even Sripada Sankaracarya, in his commentary on the forty-second aphorism, has accepted that the Personality of Godhead can automatically expand Himself variously. Therefore his commentary on the forty-second aphorism and his commentary on the forty-fourth aphorism are contradictory. It is a defect of Mayavada commentaries that they make one statement in one place and a contradictory statement in another place as a tactic to refute the Bhagavata school. Thus Mayavadi commentators do not even follow regulative principles. It should be noted that the Bhagavata school accepts the quadruple forms of Narayana, but that does not mean that it accepts many Gods. Devotees know perfectly well that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. They are never pantheists, worshipers of many Gods, for this is against the injunction of the Vedas. Devotees completely believe, with strong faith, that Narayana is transcendental and has inconceivable proprietorship of various transcendental potencies. We therefore recommend that scholars consult the Laghu-bhagavatamrta of Srila Rupa Gosvami, where these ideas are explicitly stated. Sripada Sankaracarya has tried to prove that Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha expand through cause and effect. He has compared Them with earth and earthen pots. That is completely ignorant, however, for there is no such thing as cause and effect in Their expansions (nanyad yat sad-asat-param). The Kurma Purana also confirms, deha-dehi-vibhedo 'yam nesvare vidyate kvacit: "There is no difference between body and soul in the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Cause and effect are material. For example, it is seen that a father's body is the cause of a son's body, but the soul is neither cause nor effect. On the spiritual platform there are none of the differences we find in cause and effect. Since all the forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are spiritually supreme, They are equally controllers of material nature. Standing on the fourth dimension, They are predominating figures on the transcendental platform. There is no trace of material contamination in Their expansions because material laws cannot influence Them. There is no such rule as cause and effect outside of the material world. Therefore the understanding of cause and effect cannot approach the full, transcendental, complete expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic literature proves this:

It is most apparent that nondevotees violate the rules and regulations of devotional service to equate the whole cosmic manifestation, which is the external feature of Visnu, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the controller of maya, or with His quadruple expansions. The equalization of maya and spirit, or maya and the Lord, is a sign of atheism. The cosmic creation, which manifests life in forms from Brahma to the ant, is the external feature of the Supreme Lord. It comprises one fourth of the Lord's energy, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (ekamsena sthito jagat). The cosmic manifestation of the illusory energy is material nature, and everything within material nature is made of matter. Therefore, one should not try to compare the expansions of material nature to the catur-vyuha, the quadruple expansions of the Personality of Godhead, but unfortunately the Mayavadi school unreasonably attempts to do this.

(4) To answer Sankaracarya's commentary on Vedanta-sutra 2.2.45, the substance of the transcendental qualities and their spiritual nature is described in the Laghu-bhagavatamrta (Purva 5.208-214) as follows: "Some say that transcendence must be void of all qualities because qualities are manifested only in matter. According to them, all qualities are like temporary, flickering mirages. But this is not acceptable. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is absolute, His qualities are nondifferent from Him. His form, name, qualities and everything else pertaining to Him are as spiritual as He is. Every qualitative expansion of the absolute Personality of Godhead is identical with Him. Since the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is the reservoir of all pleasure, all the transcendental qualities that expand from Him are also reservoirs of pleasure. This is confirmed in the scripture known as Brahma-tarka, which states that the Supreme Lord Hari is qualified by Himself, and therefore Visnu and His pure devotees and their transcendental qualities cannot be different from their persons. In the Visnu Purana Lord Visnu is worshiped in the following words: 'Let the Supreme Personality of Godhead be merciful toward us. His existence is never infected by material qualities.' In the same Visnu Purana it is also said that all the qualities attributed to the Supreme Lord, such as knowledge, opulence, beauty, strength and influence, are known to be nondifferent from Him. This is also confirmed in the Padma Purana, which explains that whenever the Supreme Lord is described as having no qualities, this should be understood to indicate that He is devoid of material qualities. In the First Chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.16.29) it is said: 'O Dharma, protector of religious principles, all noble and sublime qualities are eternally manifested in the person of Krsna, and devotees and transcendentalists who aspire to become faithful also desire to possess such transcendental qualities.' " It is therefore to be understood that Lord Sri Krsna, the transcendental form of absolute bliss, is the fountainhead of all pleasurable transcendental qualities and inconceivable potencies. In this connection we may recommend references to Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Canto, Chapter Twenty-Six, verses 21, 25, 27 and 28.

Sripada Ramanujacarya has also refuted the arguments of Sankara in his own commentary on the Vedanta-sutra, which is known as the Sri-bhasya: "Sripada Sankaracarya has tried to equate the Pancaratras with the philosophy of the atheist Kapila, and thus he has tried to prove that the Pancaratras contradict the Vedic injunctions. The Pancaratras state that the personality of jiva called Sankarsana has emerged from Vasudeva, the supreme cause of all causes, that Pradyumna, the mind, has come from Sankarsana, and that Aniruddha, the ego, has come from Pradyumna. But one cannot say that the living entity (jiva) takes birth or is created, for such a statement is against the injunction of the Vedas. As stated in the Katha Upanisad (2.18), living entities, as individual spiritual souls, can have neither birth nor death. All Vedic literature declares that the living entities are eternal. Therefore when it is said that Sankarsana is jiva, this indicates that He is the predominating Deity of the living entities. Similarly, Pradyumna is the predominating Deity of the mind, and Aniruddha is the predominating Deity of the ego.

"It has been said that Pradyumna, the mind, was produced from Sankarsana. But if Sankarsana were a living entity, this could not be accepted, because a living entity cannot be the cause of the mind. The Vedic injunctions state that everything--including life, mind and the senses--comes from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is impossible for the mind to be produced by a living entity, for the Vedas state that everything comes from the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Lord.

"Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha have all the potent features of the absolute Personality of Godhead, according to the revealed scriptures, which contain undeniable facts that no one can refute. Therefore these quadruple forms are never to be considered ordinary living beings. Each of Them is a plenary expansion of the Absolute Godhead, and thus each is identical with the Supreme Lord in knowledge, opulence, energy, influence, prowess and potencies. The evidence of Pancaratra cannot be neglected. Only untrained persons who have not genuinely studied the Pancaratras think that the Pancaratras contradict the srutis regarding the birth or beginning of the living entity. In this connection, we must accept the verdict of Srimad-Bhagavatam, which says: 'The absolute Personality of Godhead, who is known as Vasudeva and who is very affectionate toward His surrendered devotees, expands Himself in quadruple forms who are subordinate to Him and at the same time identical with Him in all respects.' The Pauskara-samhita states: 'The scriptures that recommend that brahmanas worship the quadruple forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are called agamas [authorized works of Vedic literature].' In all Vaisnava literature it is said that worshiping these quadruple forms is as good as worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vasudeva, who in His different expansions, complete in six opulences, can accept offerings from His devotees of the results of their prescribed duties. Worshiping the expansions for pastimes, such as Nrsimha, Rama, Sesa and Kurma, promotes one to the worship of the Sankarsana quadruple. From that position one is raised to the platform of worshiping Vasudeva, the Supreme Brahman. In the Pauskara-samhita it is said: 'If one fully worships according to the regulative principles, one can attain the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva.' It is to be accepted that Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are as good as Lord Vasudeva, for They all have inconceivable power and can accept transcendental forms like Vasudeva. Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are never born, but They can manifest Themselves in various incarnations before the eyes of pure devotees. This is the conclusion of all Vedic literature. That the Lord can manifest Himself before His devotees by His inconceivable power is not against the teaching of the Pancaratra. Since Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are actually the predominating Deities of all living entities, the total mind and the total ego, the descriptions of Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha as jiva, mind and ego are never contradictory to the statements of the scriptures. These names identify these Deities, just as the terms 'sky' and 'light' sometimes identify the Absolute Brahman.

"The scriptures completely deny the birth or production of the living entity. In the Parama-samhita it is described that material nature, which is used for others' purposes, is factually inert and always subject to transformation. The field of material nature is the arena of the activities of fruitive actors, and since the material field is externally related with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is also eternal. In every samhita, the jiva (living entity) has been accepted as eternal, and in the Pancaratra the birth of the jiva is completely denied. Anything that is produced must also be annihilated. Therefore if we accept the birth of the living entity, we also have to accept his annihilation. But since the Vedic literature says that the living entity is eternal, one should not think the living being to be produced at a certain time. In the beginning of the Parama-samhita it is definitely stated that the face of material nature is constantly changeable. Therefore 'beginning,' 'annihilation' and all such terms are applicable only in the material nature.

"Considering all these points, one should understand that Sankaracarya's statement that Sankarsana is born as a jiva is completely against the Vedic statements. His assertions are completely refuted by the above arguments. In this connection the commentary of Sridhara Svami on Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.1.34) is very helpful."

For a detailed refutation of Sankaracarya's arguments to prove Sankarsana an ordinary living being, one may refer to Srimat Sudarsanacarya's commentary on Sri-bhasya, which is known as the Sruta-prakasika.

The original quadruple forms Krsna, Baladeva, Pradyumna and Aniruddha expand into another quadruple, which is present in the Vaikuntha planets of the spiritual sky. Therefore the quadruple forms in the spiritual sky are the second manifestation of the original quadruple in Dvaraka. As explained above, Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are all changeless, transcendental plenary expansions of the Supreme Lord who have no relation to the material modes. The Sankarsana form in the second quadruple is not only a representation of Balarama but also the original cause of the Causal Ocean, where Karanodakasayi Visnu lies asleep, breathing out the seeds of innumerable universes.

In the spiritual sky there is a spiritual creative energy technically called suddha-sattva, which is a pure spiritual energy that sustains all the Vaikuntha planets with the full opulences of knowledge, wealth, prowess, etc. All these actions of suddha-sattva display the potencies of Maha-sankarsana, who is the ultimate reservoir of all individual living entities who are suffering in the material world. When the cosmic creation is annihilated, the living entities, who are indestructible by nature, rest in the body of Maha-sankarsana. Sankarsana is therefore sometimes called the total jiva. As spiritual sparks, the living entities have the tendency to be inactive in the association of material energy, just as sparks of a fire have the tendency to be extinguished as soon as they leave the fire. The spiritual nature of the living being can be rekindled, however, in association with the Supreme Being. Because the living being can appear either in matter or in spirit, the jiva is called the marginal potency.

Sankarsana is the origin of Karana Visnu, who is the original form who creates the universes, and that Sankarsana is but a plenary expansion of Sri Nityananda Rama.

Karanodakasayi Visnu, who lies on the Causal Ocean, creates the universes merely by glancing upon material nature. Therefore Krsna personally has nothing to do with the material creation. The Bhagavad-gita confirms that the Lord glances over material nature and thus she produces the many material universes. Neither Krsna in Goloka nor Narayana in Vaikuntha comes directly in contact with the material creation. They are completely aloof from the material energy.

It is the function of Maha-sankarsana in the form of Karanodakasayi Visnu to glance over the material creation, which is situated beyond the limits of the Causal Ocean. Material nature is connected with the Personality of Godhead by His glance over her and nothing more. It is said that she is impregnated by the energy of His glance. The material energy, maya, never even touches the Causal Ocean, for the Lord's glance focuses upon her from a great distance away.

The glancing power of the Lord agitates the entire cosmic energy, and thus its actions begin at once. This indicates that matter, however powerful she may be, has no power by herself. Her activity begins by the grace of the Lord, and then the entire cosmic creation is manifested in a systematic way. The example of a woman's conception can help us understand this subject to a certain extent. The mother is passive, but the father puts his energy within the mother, and thus she conceives. She supplies the ingredients for the birth of the child in her womb. Similarly, the Lord activates material nature, which then supplies the ingredients for cosmic development.

Material nature has two different phases. The aspect called pradhana supplies the material ingredients for cosmic development, and the aspect called maya causes the manifestation of her ingredients, which are temporary, like foam in the ocean. In reality, the temporary manifestations of material nature are originally caused by the spiritual glance of the Lord. The Personality of Godhead is the direct, or remote, cause of creation, and material nature is the indirect, or immediate, cause. Materialistic scientists, puffed-up by the magical changes their so-called inventions have brought about, cannot see the real potency of Godhead behind matter. Therefore the jugglery of science is gradually leading people to a godless civilization at the cost of the goal of human life. Having missed the goal of life, materialists run after self-sufficiency, not knowing that material nature is already self-sufficient by the grace of God. Thus creating a colossal hoax in the name of civilization, they create an imbalance in the natural self-sufficiency of material nature.

To think of material nature as all in all, not knowing the original cause, is ignorance. Lord Caitanya appeared in order to dissipate this darkness of ignorance by igniting the spark of spiritual life that can, by His causeless mercy, enlighten the entire world.

To explain how maya acts by Krsna's power, the author of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta gives the example that an iron rod in a fire, although it is not fire, becomes red-hot and acts like fire itself. Similarly, all the actions and reactions of material nature are not actually the work of material nature but are actions and reactions of the energy of the Supreme Lord manifested through matter. The power of electricity is transmitted through the medium of copper, but this does not mean that the copper is electricity. The power is generated at a powerhouse under the control of an expert living being. Similarly, behind all the jugglery of the natural laws is a great living being, who is a person like the mechanical engineer in the powerhouse. It is by His intelligence that the entire cosmic creation moves in a systematic way.

The modes of nature that directly cause material actions are also originally activated by Narayana. A simple example will explain how this is so: When a potter manufactures a pot from clay, the potter's wheel, his tools and the clay are the immediate causes of the pot, but the potter is the chief cause. Similarly, Narayana is the chief cause of all material creations, and the material energy supplies the ingredients of matter. Therefore without Narayana, all other causes are useless, just as the potter's wheel and tools are useless without the potter himself. Since materialistic scientists ignore the Personality of Godhead, it is as if they were concerned with the potter's wheel and its rotation, the potter's tools and the ingredients for the pots, but had no knowledge of the potter himself. Therefore modern science has created an imperfect, godless civilization that is in gross ignorance of the ultimate cause. Scientific advancement should have a great goal to attain, and that great goal should be the Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that after conducting research for many, many births, great men of knowledge who stress the importance of experimental thought can know the Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all causes. When one knows Him perfectly, one surrenders unto Him and then becomes a mahatma.

kalo daivam karma jivah svabhavo
dravyam ksetram prana atma vikarah
tat-sanghato bija-roha-pravahas
tvan-mayaisa tan-nisedham prapadye

Although the living entity is primarily related to the causal portion of maya, he is nevertheless conducted by the ingredients of maya. Three forces work in the causal portion of maya: knowledge, desire and activity. The material ingredients are a manifestation of maya as pradhana. In other words, when the three qualities of maya are in a dormant stage, they exist as prakrti, avyakta or pradhana. The word avyakta, referring to the nonmanifest, is another name of pradhana. In the avyakta stage, material nature is without varieties. Varieties are manifested by the pradhana portion of maya. The word pradhana is therefore more important than avyakta or prakrti.

yatholmukad visphulingad
dhumad vapi sva-sambhavat
apy atmatvenabhimatad
yathagnih prthag ulmukat

The material elements (earth, water, fire, etc.) are like smoke, the living entities are like sparks, and material nature as pradhana is like the flaming wood. But all of them together are recipients of power from the Supreme Personality of Godhead and are thus able to manifest their individual capacities. In other words, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the origin of all manifestations. Material nature can supply only when it is activated by the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Just as a woman can deliver a child after being impregnated by the semen of a man, so material nature can supply the material elements after being glanced upon by Maha-Visnu. Therefore pradhana cannot be independent of the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (9.10): mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram. Prakrti, the total material energy, works under the superintendence of the Lord. The original source of the material elements is Krsna. Therefore the attempt of the atheistic Sankhya philosophers to consider material nature the source of these elements, forgetting Krsna, is useless, like trying to get milk from the nipplelike bumps of skin hanging on the neck of a goat.

The conditioned state is caused by misuse of the individual independence of the spiritual platform, for this separates the living entity from the association of the spiritual energy. But when the living entity is enlightened by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His pure devotee and becomes inclined to revive his original state of loving service, he is on the most auspicious platform of eternal bliss and knowledge. The marginal jiva, or living entity, misuses his independence and becomes averse to the eternal service attitude when he independently thinks he is not energy but the energetic. This misconception of his own existence leads him to the attitude of lording it over material nature.

Material nature appears to be just the opposite of the spiritual energy. The fact is that the material energy can work only when in contact with the spiritual energy. Originally the energy of Krsna is spiritual, but it works in diverse ways, like electrical energy, which can exhibit the functions of refrigerating or heating through its manifestations in different ways. The material energy is spiritual energy covered by a cloud of illusion, or maya. Therefore, the material energy is not self-sufficient in working. Krsna invests His spiritual energy into material energy, and then it can act, just as iron can act like fire after being heated by fire. The material energy can act only when empowered by the spiritual energy.

When covered by the cloud of material energy, the living entity, who is also a spiritual energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, forgets about the activities of the spiritual energy and considers all that happens in the material manifestation to be wonderful. But a person who is engaged in devotional service in full Krsna consciousness and who is therefore already situated in the spiritual energy can understand that the material energy has no independent powers: whatever actions are going on are due to the help of the spiritual energy. The material energy, which is a perverted form of the spiritual energy, presents everything pervertedly, thus causing misconceptions and duality. Material scientists and philosophers conditioned by the spell of material nature suppose that material energy acts automatically, and therefore they are frustrated, like an illusioned person who tries to get milk from the nipplelike bunches of skin on the neck of a goat. As there is no possibility of getting milk from these bunches of skin, there is similarly no possibility that anyone will be successful in understanding the original cause of creation by forwarding theories produced by the material energy. Such an attempt is a manifestation of ignorance.

The material energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called maya, or illusion, because in two capacities (by supplying the material elements and by causing the material manifestation) it makes the conditioned soul unable to understand the real truth of creation. When a living entity is liberated, however, from the conditioned life of matter, he can understand the two different activities of material nature, namely covering and bewildering.

The origin of creation is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (9.10), the cosmic manifestation is working under the direction of the Supreme Lord, who invests the material energy with three material qualities. Agitated by these qualities, the elements supplied by the material energy produce varieties of things, just as an artist produces varieties of pictures by mixing the three colors red, yellow and blue. Yellow represents the quality of goodness, red represents passion, and blue represents ignorance. Therefore the colorful material creation is but an interaction of these three qualities, represented in eighty-one varieties of mixtures (3 x 3 equaling 9, 9 x 9 thus equaling 81). Deluded by material energy, the conditioned soul, enamored by these eighty-one varieties of manifestation, wants to lord it over material energy, just as a moth wants to enjoy a fire. This illusion is the net result of the conditioned soul's forgetfulness of his eternal relationship with the Supreme personality of Godhead. When conditioned, the soul is impelled by the material energy to engage in sense gratification, whereas one enlightened by the spiritual energy engages himself in the service of the Supreme Lord in his eternal relationship.

Krsna is the original cause of the spiritual world, and He is the covered cause of the material manifestation. He is also the original cause of the marginal potency, the living entities. He is both the leader and maintainer of the living entities, who are called the marginal potency because they can act under the protection of the spiritual energy or under the cover of the material energy. With the help of the spiritual energy we can understand that independence is visible only in Krsna, who by His inconceivable energy is able to act in any way He likes.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Absolute Whole, and the living entities are parts of the Absolute Whole. This relationship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities is eternal. One should never mistakenly think that the spiritual whole can be divided into small parts by the small material energy. The Bhagavad-gita does not support this Mayavada theory. Rather, it clearly states that the living entities are eternally small fragments of the supreme spiritual whole. As a part can never be equal with the whole, so a living entity, as a minute fragment of the spiritual whole, cannot be equal at any time to the Supreme Whole, the absolute Personality of Godhead. Although the Supreme Lord and the living entities are quantitatively related as the whole and the parts, the parts are nevertheless qualitatively one with the whole. Thus the living entities, although always qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord, are in a relative position. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the controller of everything, and the living entities are always controlled, either by the spiritual energy or by the material energy. Therefore a living entity can never become the controller of material or spiritual energies. The natural position of the living being is always as a subordinate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one agrees to act in such a position, he attains perfection in life, but if one rebels against this principle, he is in the conditioned state.

Although the causal and element-supplying features exist in material nature by dint of the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord is never affected by glancing over the material qualities. By the will of the Supreme Lord the different qualitative changes in the material world take place, but there is no possibility of material affection, change or contamination for Lord Visnu.

The material manifestation cannot exist separate from the Supreme Lord, yet Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in spite of His connection with material nature, cannot be subordinate to nature's influence. His original form of eternal bliss and knowledge is never subordinate to the three qualities of material nature. This is a specific feature of the Supreme Lord's inconceivable potencies.

Describing the features of the three purusas, the Laghu-bhagavatamrta says that Garbhodakasayi Visnu has a four-handed form, and when He Himself enters the hollow of the universe and lies down in the ocean of milk He is known as Ksirodakasayi Visnu, who is the Supersoul of all living entities, including the demigods. In the Satvata-tantra it is said that the third purusa incarnation, Ksirodakasayi Visnu, is situated as the Supersoul in everyone's heart. This Ksirodakasayi Visnu is an expansion of Garbhodakasayi Visnu for pastimes.

sahasra-sirsa purusah sahasraksah sahasra-pat sa bhumim visvato vrtvatyatisthad dasangulam

Because Lord Visnu expands the quality of goodness, He has the name Sattvatanu. The multifarious incarnations of Ksirodakasayi Visnu are known as Sattvatanu. Therefore in all Vedic scriptures Visnu has been described as being free from all material qualities. In the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said:

harir hi nirgunah saksat
purusah prakrteh parah
sa sarva-drg upadrasta
tam bhajan nirguno bhavet

One can attain freedom from the contamination of material nature by worshiping Visnu, and therefore He is called Sattvatanu, as described above.

svetadvipa-patau cittam
suddhe dharma-maye mayi
dharayan chvetatam yati
sad-urmi-rahito narah

yam ahur asya sthiti janma-samyamam
tribhir vihinam yam anantam rsayah
na veda siddartham iva kvacit sthitam
bhu-mandalam murdha-sahasra-dhamasu

The Bhagavatam further says (5.25.2):

yasyedam ksiti-mandalam bhagavato 'nanta-murteh sahasra-sirasa ekasminn eva sirsani dhriyamanam siddhartha iva laksyate.

"Lord Anantadeva has thousands of hoods. Each sustains a global sphere that appears like a grain of mustard."

The Laghu-bhagavatamrta gives the following description: "The Sankarsana of the second group of quadruple forms appears as Rama, taking with Him Sesa, who bears the global spheres. There are two features of Sesa. One is the bearer of the globes, and the other is the bedstead servitor. The Sesa who bears the globes is a potent incarnation of Sankarsana, and therefore He is sometimes also called Sankarsana. The bedstead feature of Sesa always presents himself as an eternal servitor of the Lord."

yei yei rupe jane, sei taha kahe
sakala sambhave krsne, kichu mithya nahe

In the Laghu-bhagavatamrta Srila Rupa Gosvami has explained Krsna's being both Ksirodakasayi Visnu and Narayana in the spiritual sky and expanding in quadruple forms like Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. He has refuted the idea that Krsna is an incarnation of Narayana. Some devotees think that Narayana is the original Personality of Godhead and that Krsna is an incarnation. Even Sankaracarya, in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gita, has accepted Narayana as the transcendental Personality of Godhead who appeared as Krsna, the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. Therefore this matter may be difficult to understand. But the Gaudiya Vaisnava-sampradaya, headed by Rupa Gosvami, has established the principle of the Bhagavad-gita that everything emanates from Krsna, who says in the Bhagavad-gita, aham sarvasya prabhavah: "I am the original source of everything." "Everything" includes Narayana. Therefore Rupa Gosvami, in his Laghu-bhagavatamrta, has established that Krsna, not Narayana, is the original Personality of Godhead.

In this connection he has quoted a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.2.15) that states:

sva-santa-rupesv itaraih svarupair
abhyardyamanesv anukampitatma
paravareso mahad-amsa-yukto
hy ajo 'pi jato bhagavan yathagnih

Arani wood is used to ignite a sacrificial fire without matches or any other flame. Just as fire appears from arani wood, the Supreme Lord appears when there is friction between devotees and nondevotees. When Krsna appears, He appears in full, including within Himself all His expansions like Narayana, Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna. Krsna is always integrated with His other incarnations, like Nrsimhadeva, Varaha, Vamana, Nara-Narayana, Hayagriva and Ajita. In Vrndavana sometimes Lord Krsna exhibits the functions of such incarnations.

In the Brahmanda Purana it is said: "The same Personality of Godhead who is known in Vaikuntha as the four-handed Narayana, the friend of all living entities, and in the milk ocean as the Lord of Svetadvipa, and who is the best of all purusas, appeared as the son of Nanda. In a fire there are many sparks of different dimensions; some of them are very big, and some are small. The small sparks are compared to the living entities, and the large sparks are compared to the Visnu expansions of Lord Krsna. All the incarnations emanate from Krsna, and after the end of their pastimes they again merge with Krsna."

Therefore in the various Puranas Krsna is described sometimes as Narayana, sometimes as Ksirodakasayi Visnu, sometimes as Garbhodakasayi Visnu and sometimes as Vaikunthanatha, the Lord of Vaikuntha. Because Krsna is always full, Mula-sankarsana is in Krsna, and since all incarnations are manifested from Mula-sankarsana, it should be understood that He can manifest different incarnations by His supreme will, even in the presence of Krsna. Great sages have therefore glorified the Lord by different names. Thus when the original person, the source of all incarnations, is sometimes described as an incarnation, there is no discrepancy.

vairagya-yug-bhakti-rasam prayatnair
apayayan mam anabhipsum andham
krpambudhir yah para-duhkha-duhkhi
sanatanas tam prabhum asrayami

Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami also, in the last section of Caitanya-caritamrta, specifically mentions the names of Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami and Srila Jiva Gosvami and offers his respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of these three spiritual masters, as well as Raghunatha dasa. Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami also accepted Sanatana Gosvami as the teacher of the science of devotional service. Srila Rupa Gosvami is described as the bhakti-rasacarya, or one who knows the essence of devotional service. His famous book Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu is the science of devotional service, and by reading this book one can understand the meaning of devotional service. Another of his famous books is Ujjvala-nilamani. In this book he elaborately explains the loving affairs and transcendental activities of Lord Krsna and Radharani.

Lord Brahma lives in the highest planetary system, known as Brahmaloka or Satyaloka. In every planet there is a predominating deity. As the predominating deity in Satyaloka is Lord Brahma, so in the heavenly planets Indra is the predominating deity, and on the sun, the sun-god, Vivasvan, is the predominating deity. The inhabitants and predominating deities of every planet are all recommended to worship Govinda either by meditation or by chanting.

The Lord can appear anywhere and everywhere because His diverse energies are distributed everywhere like sunshine. We should therefore understand whatever we see to be the energy of the Supreme Lord and should not differentiate between the Lord and His arca form made from clay, metal, wood or paint. Even if one has not developed this consciousness, one should accept it theoretically from the instructions of the spiritual master and should worship the arca-murti, or form of the Lord in the temple, as nondifferent from the Lord.

The Padma Purana specifically mentions that anyone who thinks the form of the Lord in the temple to be made of wood, stone or metal is certainly in a hellish condition. Impersonalists are against the worship of the Lord's form in the temple, and there is even a group of people who pass as Hindus but condemn such worship. Their so-called acceptance of the Vedas has no meaning, for all the acaryas, even the impersonalist Sankaracarya, have recommended the worship of the transcendental form of the Lord. Impersonalists like Sankaracarya recommend the worship of five forms, known as pancopasana, which include Lord Visnu. Vaisnavas, however, worship the forms of Lord Visnu in His varied manifestations, such as Radha-Krsna, Laksmi-Narayana, Sita-Rama and Rukmini-Krsna. Mayavadis admit that worship of the Lord's form is required in the beginning, but they think that in the end everything is impersonal. Therefore, since they are ultimately against worship of the Lord's form, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has described them as offenders.

Srimad-Bhagavatam has condemned those who think the body to be the self as bhauma ijya-dhih. Bhauma means earth, and ijya-dhih means worshiper. There are two kinds of bhauma ijya-dhih: those who worship the land of their birth, such as nationalists, who make many sacrifices for the motherland, and those who condemn the worship of the form of the Lord. One should not worship the planet earth or land of his birth, nor should one condemn the form of the Lord, which is manifested in metal or wood for our facility. Material things are also the energy of the Supreme Lord.

The present city of Vrndavana has been established by the Gaudiya Vaisnavas since the six Gosvamis went there and directed the construction of their different temples. Of all the temples in Vrndavana, ninety percent belong to the Gaudiya Vaisnava sect, the followers of the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda, and seven temples are very famous. The inhabitants of Vrndavana do not know anything but the worship of Radha and Krsna. In recent years some unscrupulous so-called priests known as caste gosvamis have introduced the worship of demigods privately, but no genuine and rigid Vaisnavas participate in this. Those who are serious about the Vaisnava method of devotional activities do not take part in such worship of demigods.

The Gaudiya Vaisnavas never differentiate between Radha-Krsna and Lord Caitanya. They say that since Lord Caitanya is the combined form of Radha-Krsna, He is not different from Radha and Krsna. But some misled people try to prove that they are greatly elevated by saying that they like to chant the holy name of Lord Gaura instead of the names Radha and Krsna. Thus they purposely differentiate between Lord Caitanya and Radha-Krsna. According to them, the system of nadiya-nagari, which they have recently invented in their fertile brains, is the worship of Gaura, Lord Caitanya, but they do not like to worship Radha and Krsna. They put forward the argument that since Lord Caitanya Himself appeared as Radha and Krsna combined, there is no necessity of worshiping Radha and Krsna. Such differentiation by so-called devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is considered disruptive by pure devotees. Anyone who differentiates between Radha-Krsna and Gauranga is to be considered a plaything in the hands of maya.

There are others who are against the worship of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, thinking Him mundane. But any sect that differentiates between Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krsna, either by worshiping Radha-Krsna as distinct from Lord Caitanya or by worshiping Lord Caitanya but not Radha-Krsna, is in the group of prakrta-sahajiyas.

Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, the author of Caitanya-caritamrta, predicts in verses 225 and 226 that in the future those who manufacture imaginary methods of worship will gradually give up the worship of Radha-Krsna, and although they will call themselves devotees of Lord Caitanya, they will also give up the worship of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and fall down into material activities. For the real worshipers of Lord Caitanya, the ultimate goal of life is to worship Sri Sri Radha and Krsna.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Fifth Chapter, describing the glories of Lord Nityananda Balarama.