KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.5.11 TODAY (06/28/21):
- In this verse, Brahmājī clears up the wrong impression held by the less intelligent and affirms that he creates the universal variegatedness after the creation by the glaring effulgence of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
- Brahmājī in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.40), says – “I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental bodily effulgence, known as the brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life.”
- The Brahmajyoti is not independent or self-sufficient. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is ultimately the creator of the Brahmajyoti, mentioned in this verse as sva-rociṣā, or the effulgence of the transcendental body of the Lord.
- This brahmajyoti is all-pervading, and all creation is made possible by its power; therefore the Vedic hymns declare that everything that exists is being sustained by the brahmajyoti (sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma).
- The potent seed of all creation is the brahmajyoti, and the same brahmajyoti, unlimited and unfathomed, is established by the Lord. Therefore the Lord (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) is ultimately the supreme cause of all creation (ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ).
- One should not expect the Lord to create like a blacksmith with a hammer and other instruments. The Lord creates by His potencies. He has His multifarious potencies (parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate).
- Just as the small seed of a banyan fruit has the potency to create a big banyan tree, the Lord disseminates all varieties of seeds by His potent brahmajyoti (sva-rociṣā), and the seeds are made to develop by the watering process of persons like Brahmā.
- Brahmā cannot create the seeds, but he can manifest the seed into a tree, just as a gardener helps plants and orchards to grow by the watering process.
- In the material world the sun is the cause of all illumination: fire, electricity, the rays of the moon, etc. All luminaries in the sky are creations of the sun, the sun is the creation of the brahmajyoti, and the brahmajyoti is the effulgence of the Lord. Thus the ultimate cause of creation is the Lord.
- The living entity, although Brahman by nature, has the desire to lord it over the material world, and due to this he falls down.
- In his constitutional position, a living entity is above the three modes of material nature, but association with material nature entangles him in the different modes of material nature – goodness, passion and ignorance.
- BS 5.16 – “The innumerable jīvas as spiritual particles emanating from the oversoul in the form of pencils of rays of effulgence, have no relation with the mundane world when they come to know themselves to be the eternal servants of the Supreme Lord. They are then incorporated into the realm of Vaikuṇṭha. But when they desire to lord it over Māyā, forgetting their real identity. the egotistic principle Śambhu entering into their entities makes them identify themselves as separated enjoyers of mundane entities. Hence Śambhu is the primary principle of the egotistic mundane universe and of perverted egotism in jīvas that identifies itself with their limited material bodies.”
- By engagement in devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is immediately situated in the transcendental position, and his unlawful desire to control material nature is removed.
- The process of devotional service, beginning with hearing, chanting, remembering – the prescribed nine methods for realizing devotional service – should be practiced in the association of devotees. Gradually, by such association, by the influence of the spiritual master, one’s material desire to dominate is removed, and one becomes firmly situated in the Lord’s transcendental loving service.
SB 2.5.11 TRANSLATION
I create after the Lord’s creation by His personal effulgence [known as the brahmajyoti], just as when the sun manifests its fire, the moon, the firmament, the influential planets and the twinkling stars also manifest their brightness.
Lord Brahmājī said to Nārada that his impression that Brahmā was not the supreme authority in the creation was correct. Sometimes less intelligent men have the foolish impression that Brahmā is the cause of all causes. But Nārada wanted to clear the matter by the statements of Brahmājī, the supreme authority in the universe. As the decision of the supreme court of a state is final, similarly the judgment of Brahmājī, the supreme authority in the universe, is final in the Vedic process of acquiring knowledge. As we have already affirmed in the previous verse, Nāradajī was a liberated soul; therefore, he was not one of the less intelligent men who accept a false god or gods in their own ways. He represented himself as less intelligent and yet intelligently presented a doubt to be cleared by the supreme authority so that the uninformed might take note of it and be rightly informed about the intricacies of the creation and the creator.
In this verse Brahmājī clears up the wrong impression held by the less intelligent and affirms that he creates the universal variegatedness after the creation by the glaring effulgence of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Brahmājī has also separately given this statement in the saṁhitā known as the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.40), where he says:
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental bodily effulgence, known as the brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life.”
The same statement is in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.27). Lord Kṛṣṇa is the background of the brahmajyoti (brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham). In the Nirukti, or Vedic dictionary, the import of pratiṣṭhā is mentioned as “that which establishes.” So the brahmajyoti is not independent or self-sufficient. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is ultimately the creator of the brahmajyoti, mentioned in this verse as sva-rociṣā, or the effulgence of the transcendental body of the Lord. This brahmajyoti is all-pervading, and all creation is made possible by its power; therefore the Vedic hymns declare that everything that exists is being sustained by the brahmajyoti (sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma). Therefore the potent seed of all creation is the brahmajyoti, and the same brahmajyoti, unlimited and unfathomed, is established by the Lord. Therefore the Lord (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) is ultimately the supreme cause of all creation (ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ).
One should not expect the Lord to create like a blacksmith with a hammer and other instruments. The Lord creates by His potencies. He has His multifarious potencies (parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate). Just as the small seed of a banyan fruit has the potency to create a big banyan tree, the Lord disseminates all varieties of seeds by His potent brahmajyoti (sva-rociṣā), and the seeds are made to develop by the watering process of persons like Brahmā. [Lord is both the cause and the affect] Brahmā cannot create the seeds, but he can manifest the seed into a tree, just as a gardener helps plants and orchards to grow by the watering process. [The people who do farming are closer to God, when you grow things you know… There is a material cause and an efficient cause. Krishna is the efficient cause.. ] The example cited here of the sun is very appropriate. In the material world the sun is the cause of all illumination: fire, electricity, the rays of the moon, etc. All luminaries in the sky are creations of the sun, the sun is the creation of the brahmajyoti, and the brahmajyoti is the effulgence of the Lord. Thus the ultimate cause of creation is the Lord. [This is the truth and everything else is an offshoot. Misinformation and mis perception which leads to development of ego which locks us in the gigantic … Bware of False Ego. Solution – is The person has to submit to the process… How can we say we are fine, when we have forgotten Krsna and are in the cycle of birth and death… ]
Today we learned something new that is that the Brahma Jyothi the personal effulgence of the lord is the potential energy that creates the material universe. The same thing is said in BG 5.40
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
[ALTERNATE TRANSLATION] “I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental bodily effulgence, known as the brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life.”
SB 5.40
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.
The mundane universe created by Māyā is one of the infinite external manifestations accommodating space, time and gross things. The impersonal aspect of Godhead, the nondifferentiated Brahman, is far above this principle of mundane creation. But even the nondifferentiated Brahman is only the external effulgence emanating from the boundary wall of the transcendental realm of Vaikuṇṭha displaying the triquadrantal glory of Govinda. The nondifferentiated Brahman is indivisible, hence is also one without a second, and is the infinite, and residual entity.
It is clear that Brahma is the secondary creator. Primary creator is the supreme lord. Brahman effulgence is Krsna’s effulgence and it is not independent. “Brahmani pratistaham… “ Some people think Brahma Jyothi is the source of everything and ignore Krsna. Some people think Brahma is the source is everything and is the supreme.
When people are not advanced in spiritual life, they are in the state of a spark in the Brahma Jyothi effulgence.
BS 5.16
“The innumerable jīvas as spiritual particles emanating from the oversoul in the form of pencils of rays of effulgence, have no relation with the mundane world when they come to know themselves to be the eternal servants of the Supreme Lord. They are then incorporated into the realm of Vaikuṇṭha. But when they desire to lord it over Māyā, forgetting their real identity. the egotistic principle Śambhu entering into their entities makes them identify themselves as separated enjoyers of mundane entities. Hence Śambhu is the primary principle of the egotistic mundane universe and of perverted egotism in jīvas that identifies itself with their limited material bodies.”
BG 14.27
The living entity, although Brahman by nature, has the desire to lord it over the material world, and due to this he falls down. In his constitutional position, a living entity is above the three modes of material nature, but association with material nature entangles him in the different modes of material nature – goodness, passion and ignorance. Due to the association of these three modes, his desire to dominate the material world is there. By engagement in devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is immediately situated in the transcendental position, and his unlawful desire to control material nature is removed. Therefore the process of devotional service, beginning with hearing, chanting, remembering – the prescribed nine methods for realizing devotional service – should be practiced in the association of devotees. Gradually, by such association, by the influence of the spiritual master, one’s material desire to dominate is removed, and one becomes firmly situated in the Lord’s transcendental loving service. This method is prescribed from the twenty-second to the last verse of this chapter. Devotional service to the Lord is very simple: one should always engage in the service of the Lord, should eat the remnants of foodstuffs offered to the Deity, smell the flowers offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, see the places where the Lord had His transcendental pastimes, read of the different activities of the Lord, His reciprocation of love with His devotees, chant always the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, and observe the fasting days commemorating the appearances and disappearances of the Lord and His devotees. By following such a process one becomes completely detached from all material activities. One who can thus situate himself in the brahma-jyotir or the different varieties of the Brahman conception is equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in quality.
This is not the mayavadi philosophy. They have bastardized the meaning of Brahman. They say that it is the ultimate. Real Brahman conception – Brahma Jyothi, Paramatma, and Bhagavan. The false prophets redefine the words, they bring the words to the lower significance and nullify..
It is a gradual process to wait through the sophistry to be achieved by the horrible domination of the material modes of nature. Destroy them, dissipate them,,,.. It can happen anytime. All it requires is to be a little inattentive… in following the regulative principles, Maya will enter. She will smash a living entity. She will correct us by punishing us. In another way, Krsna empowers Jiva like Vyasdeva to produce the entire Vedic literature to help us understand this material world.
By the desire to enjoy and dominate..
To go back to simple living and high thinking is almost impossible. It requires the gradual process of hearing, chanting,
The main thing is – you want to come out of this material entanglement and go back to Godhead.