CREATION, Bhagavan’s dream

Class Notes | May 12, 2019

When one depends on wealth, then that becomes ones focus, and not knowing the Creator. For one who is independently joyous, wealth comes and goes, positions come and go, but that person is free to focus on the Creator and to serve the Higher, to love God.

Someone who depends on pleasure, possession and position is said to be thoughtless as they are NOT realizing that these don’t last, they are unstable. One who focuses on Peace is thoughtful, as they are focused on the Creator, the One who lasts, and not the creation.

Similar to how our annual physical exam is a reality check on our Body Mass Index, our course Shrimad Bhagavata is a reality check on how we are trying to find peace. If we are trying to find Peace through our Creator or our own nature, then we are thoughtful.

The third skanda is all about creation. There are 64 theories about creation in Sanatana Dharma. In Shrimad Bhagavata, there are three important words to understand: potential, awareness, expression. Everyone of us has potential, we have a potential to speak, a potential to run, a potential to think. When we are aware of our potential then we express it.

This is what creation is like; the potential is Bhagavan; the awareness of that potential is maya; and the expression of that awareness is srishti. So Bhagavan, through maya presents srishti. This defies logic as it’s beyond logic. This is similar to a dream. In a dream, you create all the objects in your dream, and you are experiencing all the objects in the dream. In a dream, the potential is there and you become aware of it. You keep on elaborating in the dream about all its details. That is all creation is!

The implication for us — Everything is always changing, so we should not take everything so seriously. We know our seriousness is mixed up when we feel stress, since we are taking that which is not to be taken seriously, seriously. And when we are feeling cheerful, it means that we are taking seriously that which is to be taken seriously — Our happiness!

There are a whole lot of questions and answers in Shrimad Bhagavata. Mahatma Vidura asks hundreds of questions to Rishi Maitreya. Halfway through the answers, Mahatma Vidura says Hari Om and leaves as he understood the essence of the answers. The essence being that all that we experience in creation comes back to the Creator. Mahatma Vidura was not being disrespectful as devotion was created, and he didn’t need his questions answered anymore.

The implication for us: You are spiritually evolving when you have less questions to ask. As you become faithful, devotion is created and you just follow the process.

Rishi Maitreya tells Mahatma Vidura that Bhagavan Brahma was born from a lotus which came out of Bhagavan Narayana’s navel. And Bhagavan Brahma used this raw material of the lotus to create creation. If we think about all the raw material that we have used to create all the things that we have, we realise how much we owe to the Creator. The sperm and egg creating a child, where did it all come from? How did two cells become what we are now?

Then there is the description of the end of creation. There are three types of pralaya.

- Nithya pralaya is the dissolution which happens regularly, when we sleep or go back to the earth. When we sleep, do we know who we are or if there is any creation?

- Naimitthika pralaya is when Bhagavan Brahma goes to sleep, when some of the worlds are dissolved by fire. There are 14 worlds or dimensions.

- Prakrita pralaya is destruction by water and that happens when Bhagavan Narayana goes to sleep. When this pralaya is over, creation starts over again.

Then matter in creation is highlighted. Bhagavan Brahma created -

- 6 types of plants initially. Plants are described as being nourished from down to up. Plants react, but their reactions are kept inside.

- 56 types of animals and they live by smell and instinct. Animals react outside.

- Only One type of human, and in a human nourishment goes from upwards to downward. Humans are described as being addicted. They are addicted to work and to sadness. We keep on working thinking it will make us happier, but then we try to trick ourselves into thinking that our misery is happiness.

There are eight types of super humans like the devas and Gandharvas who are celestial musicians.

Now let us look at space, the magnitude of space. The smallest unit of creation is called a Paramanu or God particle (that which cannot be reduced any more). Now the universe is described as being 50 crore yojanas or approximately 5 billion miles. Outside of this universe there are more layers — earth layer, water layer, fire layer, air layer and space layer with each layer being 10 times larger than the previous layer. So our multi-universe is 500 billion miles or 1 brahmanda and in Bhagavata, each of these brahmandas is described as a paramanu when compared to Bhagavan Vishnu.

Now time is described. Time is measured in reference to how long matter and space takes to pass the sun. There are 8 yamas in a day, which are approximately 3 hours long. We should wake up in the 3rd yama 3–6am yama. 360 human years is 1 divine year. 4.32 million human years is a chaturyuga — 2000 chaturyugas is known as 1 day of Bhagavan Brahma. And 360 days of Bhagvan Brahmas days is 1 year of Bhagavan Brahma. And 360 years of Bhagavan Brahma is 1 nimisha (wink) of Bhagavan Narayana! So does it make sense to find happiness in the creation or in the Creator behind the creation, who is really the Macro, the Magnanimous?

Rishi Maitreya also shares with Mahatma Vidura that when Bhagavan Brahma made the creation, he actually made a mistake. He also created ignorance! There are five expressions of ignorance:

• Tamas — when one forgets that ones nature is happiness
• Moha — when one thinks that one is the body
• Maha Moha — when one lives ones life for pleasure
• Taamisra — when one doesn’t get pleasure one gets angry
• Andataamisra — when one gets pleasure and when it ends one becomes sad

Skanda three is about creation and Vivekji highlights how relevant and truthful all this is. Bhagavan Brahma’s responsibility was to use the lotus to further creation. He divided his body into two; one part became male and the other became female, and creation continued with males and females coming together.

The purpose of being a child is to further the happiness of your parents. If you’re not furthering the happiness of your parents, then you’re not doing your duty. The first four children of Bhagavan Brahma are the Sanatkumaras. They were contemplative children and all they wanted to do was contemplate and didn’t want to be involved in creation. So Bhagavan Brahma got angry and out of his eyebrows came this bluish- reddish being that was crying and was called Rudra — the first devata. Then ganas were created by Rudra and Brahma had to tell Rudra to stop creating.

Then Brahma created the 10 Rishis and they engaged in creation. He tried to give them more raw material and gave them the vedas which came from each of his four faces and the Rishis used the vedas to further creation. From all the faces combined came the ithihasas and the puranas. In Shrimad Bhagavata, we are studying the essence of all the four vedas.

Anyone who wants to live responsibly and cheerfully has to follow these four parts of dharma which came from each of Bhagavan Brahma’s four faces:

• vidya — bring more knowledge about who you are into your life
• dana — share that knowledge with others
• tapa — expand your comfort zone to the larger community and society
• satya — be truthful in your thoughts, words and actions

Also, from Bhagavan Brahma’s movement came the seven musical notes or sapta svaras.

Finally, Bhagavan Brahma felt that creation was moving very slowly. He felt he wasn’t helping or doing what Bhagavan Narayana wanted the most from him. So in the hope of doing God’s work, his body naturally divided into two. This was called kaya or body. So who created the man and the woman? Though the material is Bhagavan Brahma, this body has been created through the will of Bhagavan Narayana alone. So does this body belong to us? No it belongs to Bhagavan Brahma and his body in turn belongs to Bhagavan Narayana. So since we don’t own this body we should take good care of it and eat responsibly.

The kaya split into Puman and Sthri. Puman was called Manu and Sthri was called Shatarupa, the first human beings. Manu putra iti manava — and their offsprings were called manavas. Shatarupa means many, many forms. So Bhagavan Brahma through Manu and Shatarupa became you, me, and all others. This ends the canto on creation.

RAM: Read each and every shloka of Bhagavata because if the devil is in the details, so is divinity.