Of the senses-I am the Mind

2025-08-23

Srimad Bhagavatam 03.08.13-15 - Of the senses-I am the Mind (download mp3)

by Satyananda Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty

www.iskcondesiretree.com

SB 03.08.13

tasyārtha-sūkṣmābhiniviṣṭa-dṛṣṭer

antar-gato ’rtho rajasā tanīyān

guṇena kālānugatena viddhaḥ

sūṣyaṁs tadābhidyata nābhi-deśāt

Translation:

The subtle subject matter of creation, on which the Lord’s attention was fixed, was agitated by the material mode of passion, and thus the subtle form of creation pierced through His abdomen.

SB 03.08.14

sa padma-kośaḥ sahasodatiṣṭhat

kālena karma-pratibodhanena

sva-rociṣā tat salilaṁ viśālaṁ

vidyotayann arka ivātma-yoniḥ

Translation:

Piercing through, this sum total form of the fruitive activity of the living entities took the shape of the bud of a lotus flower generated from the Personality of Viṣṇu, and by His supreme will it illuminated everything, like the sun, and dried up the vast waters of devastation.

SB 03.08.15

tal loka-padmaṁ sa u eva viṣṇuḥ

prāvīviśat sarva-guṇāvabhāsam

tasmin svayaṁ vedamayo vidhātā

svayambhuvaṁ yaṁ sma vadanti so ’bhūt

Translation:

Into that universal lotus flower Lord Viṣṇu personally entered as the Supersoul, and when it was thus impregnated with all the modes of material nature, the personality of Vedic wisdom, whom we call the self-born, was generated.

Purport:

This lotus flower is the universal virāṭ form, or the gigantic form of the Lord in the material world. It becomes amalgamated in the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu, in His abdomen, at the time of dissolution, and it becomes manifest at the time of creation. This is due to Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, who enters into each of the universes. In this form is the sum total of all the fruitive activities of the living entities conditioned by material nature, and the first of them, namely Brahmā, or the controller of the universe, is generated from this lotus flower. This first-born living being, unlike all the others, has no material father, and thus he is called self-born, or svayambhū. He goes to sleep with Nārāyaṇa at the time of devastation, and when there is another creation, he is born in this way. From this description we have the conception of three — the gross virāṭ form, the subtle Hiraṇyagarbha and the material creative force, Brahmā.