PURPORT

Devastating time, which controls even the celestial demigods by its manifestations of past, present and future, does not act on the transcendental plane. The influence of time is exhibited by the symptoms of birth, death, old age and disease, and these four principles of material conditions are present everywhere in any part of the material cosmos up to the planet Brahmaloka, where the duration of life of the inhabitants appears to us to be fabulous. Insurmountable time even brings about the death of Brahma, so what to speak of other demigods like Indra, Candra, Surya, Vayu, Varuna, etc.? The astronomical influence directed by the different demigods over mundane creatures is also conspicuous by its absence. In the material existence, the living entities are afraid of Satanic influence, but for a devotee on the transcendental plane there is no such fear at all. The living entities change their material bodies in different shapes and forms under the influence of the different modes of material nature, but in the transcendental state the devotee is gunatita, or above the material modes of goodness, passion or ignorance, and as such the false ego of "I am the Lord of all I survey" does not arise there. In the material world the false ego of the living being trying to lord it over the material nature is something like the moth's falling in the blazing fire. The moth is captivated by the glaring beauty of the fire, and when he comes to enjoy it, the blazing fire consumes him. In the transcendental state the living being is pure in his consciousness, and as such he has no false ego to lord it over the material nature, but his pure consciousness dictates him to surrender unto the Supreme Lord, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita (7.19): "vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah." All this indicates that on the transcendental state there is neither material creation nor the Causal Ocean for material nature.