Sage Narada Questions Lord Brahma

A concise summary of Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 2 Chapter 5

Sage Narada, the son of Lord Brahma questions his father as follows:

• What knowledge leads one to self-realization?

• Do you create everything with your power?

• I see that you performed austere penance and meditation. So, is there a power superior to you?

• Do you create all material manifestations like a spider creates its web?

• What does the material creation consist of? Who supports this creation?

Lord Brahma, the first living being in each Universe responds as follows:

Your questions are laudable and are beneficial to all human beings. You have made me describe the glories of Lord Vasudeva, the Supreme Person.

Q: What knowledge leads one to self-realization?

A: Human beings under the influence of Maya (illusory energy) think of themselves as independent and assume that they are the owners of their body, nature, etc. They sometimes assume that the creation happened by random events without any source.

Earth, fire, water, air, space, time, nature, and soul are not distinct but are transformations of Lord Vasudeva’s spiritual energies.

One who realizes Lord Narayana is the ultimate object of the Vedas, source of all gods, source of heaven and hell, the ultimate beneficiary of all fire sacrifices, the object of Yoga, and the ultimate goal of life becomes self-realized and quickly attains liberation.

Q: Do you create everything with your power? I see that you performed austere penance and meditation. So, is there power superior to you?

A: The Supreme Lord who resides in everyone as the Super Soul (Paramatma) is my creator. I create this Universe which actually is his creative activity. He is my Lord from whom I got the knowledge of creation.

Q: Do you create all material manifestations like a spider creates its web? What does the material creation consist of? Who supports this creation?

A: The Supreme Lord supports the creation by assuming the three fundamental forces of matter; goodness, passion, and ignorance through the qualitative forms of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva respectively. These fundamental forces make one act thus creating the cycle of Karma, which binds the soul to the matter. Though the soul is really free, he is enveloped by Maya, the illusory energy.

The Lord introduces “Time” (Kala) into matter (Prakriti) thus resulting in a sum total of material energy called “Mahat-Tattva”. This Mahat is composed of imbalanced fundamental forces, time, false ego (ahamkara), 11 senses, 5 material elements, and innumerable Universes.

I (Brahma) am created in each Universe by the Lord to create water, fire, air, earth, space, living beings, plants, animals, Sun, Moon, gods, and planetary systems.

Earth, air, fire, water, and space are created from the forces of ignorance. The senses are created from the forces of passion. The mind and Moon are created from the forces of goodness. Passion is denser than Goodness and Ignorance is denser than Passion. A wise person should aim towards uplifting one's consciousness from ignorance to passion to goodness. The lighter the consciousness is, the more the mind becomes calm and steady.