Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.318–329 – December 23, 1966, New York

661223CC-New York [24:36 Minutes]

Prabhupada:

This is a quotation from Srimad-Bhagavatam in which Brahma, the creator of this particular universe, he says that "I am engaged, I am appointed, by the Supreme Lord." So the creator and the annihilator, Siva, they are appointed agents of the Supreme Lord. They are not supreme. Srjami tan-niyukto 'ham haro harati tad-vasaḥ. Tad-vasaḥ means we are under the control of the Supreme Lord. Nobody is free, or independent. Only Krsna. Mattaḥ parataram nanyat asti kincid dhananjaya [Bg 7.7].

You have this statement in the Bhagavad-gita, Ninth Chapter, that "Nobody is greater than Him." And another version is there, na tat-samas cabhyadhikas ca drsyate [Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.8]: "Nobody is equal or greater than Him." There are so many statements in the Vedic literature. So here is also another statement from Srimad-Bhagavatam. This was spoken by Brahma to his disciple Narada. Narada questioned him that "So far we know that you are the supreme, but you also sometimes meditate and worship somebody." So in that connection Brahma explained that "We are not supreme. We are all appointed agents. Supreme is the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

Visvam purusa-rūpena paripati trisakti-dhrk. Visvam, this cosmic manifestation, is being maintained by His threefold energies. Trisakti-dhrk. Trisakti means three kinds of energies. When it is materially conceived, the three kinds of energies are the modes of goodness, the modes of passion and the modes of ignorance. And when they are spiritually conceived, the same three kinds of energies are manifested as spiritual potency, material potency and marginal potency. So anyway, the Lord is always full with different kinds of energies, of which these three are main divisions.

Now Lord Caitanya has explained about... Out of six kinds of incarnations, He has explained to you the incarnation of purusavatara, three, then lilavatara, then gunavatara. Three kinds of incarnations are already explained. Now the remainder three kinds of incarnations, manvantaravatara, yugavatara and saktyavesavatara, He is going... Out of that three, first the manvantaravatara, Manu. So Lord Caitanya says that "I shall now explain to you about the manvantavatara." And He says, manvantaravatara ebe suna, sanatana: "My dear Sanatana, just now I shall explain to you about the manvantaravatara. You hear it."

Asahkhya ganana tahra, sunaha karana: "And this manvantaravatara... So far other incarnations are concerned, we have somehow counted three or say ten, like that. But here, when we speak of manvantaravatara, oh, they are countless." Asahkhya. Asahkhya means countless. Nobody can count how many manvantaravataras are there. How it is so? He is explaining.

"In one day of Brahma..., in one day of Brahma..." That you have calculated according to Bhagavad-gita, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduḥ [Bg 8.17]. Brahmano, or Brahma, arhat. Arhat means one day, twelve hours. What is that twelve hours according to our calculation? Sahasra-yuga-paryantam. Sahasra, one thousand yugas. And what is the duration of yuga? Four million, three hundred thousands of years, one yuga. Such one thousand, that makes Brahma's one day, twelve hours. Similarly night, twelve hours. Similarly one month. In this way he has got hundred years' duration of life.

Now, this one day, twelve hours, within this twelve hours, there are fourteen Manus. Twelve hours of Brahma means Four, three, five zero..., eight zero. What is that, four, three, eight zeroes? What is the calculation according to your arithmetic, four, three, eight zeroes? Huh?

Hayagriva: 4,300,000,000.

Rūpanuga: Four billion three hundred and eight.

Prabhupada: Four, three, eight zeroes.

Devotee: 4,300,000,000.

Rūpanuga: Yes. That's right.

Prabhupada: Four billion...

Rūpanuga: ...three hundred million.

Prabhupada: 4,300,000,000. That's all right. Within that 4,300,000,000's divide into fourteen. That is the duration of one Manu. Four billion, three hundred millions divide into fourteen, that will make... That one part is the duration of a Manu. So anyway, fourteen Manus are taking place in one day of Brahma.

These are also... They are also incarnation of the Supreme Lord.

If in one day of Brahma there are fourteen Manus, then in one month of Brahma it comes to cari-sata, 420. Thirty days a month. So 420 Manus in one month of Brahma. Brahmara vatsare panca-sahasra callisa [Cc Madhya 20.321]. Similarly, in one year of Brahma there is 5,040 Manus in one year, and he lives for hundred years. So 5,040 Manus in one month, er, one year. Now hundred. So 5,040 plus two zero.

So it comes to panca-laksa cari-sahasra manvantaravatara [Cc Madhya 20.322].

Panca-laksa means fifty millions. Not fifty millions; ten millions a laksa. That means five millions... Five millions and four thousands of Manus are there in one Brahma's life. Five thousand and..., er, five million and four hundred thousand of manvantaravatara, incarnation of Manu, in one brahmanḍa. And Lord Caitanya... Ananta brahmanḍe aiche karaha [Cc Madhya 20.323]. And there are innumerable brahmanḍas, universes. Now you can calculate how many Manus are there. Therefore you cannot calculate. He says "innumerable."

And all these Manus and Brahmas, they are living only on the breathing period of Maha-Visnu.

And just imagine what is that breathing. Eka manvantaravatarera dekha lekhara anta. So in one breathing of Maha-Visnu, you cannot calculate how many Manus are there. This is called, what is called, unlimited. We say "unlimited," but we should have some knowledge how it is unlimited. There is no question of counting the energies displayed by the Supreme Lord in so many ways. Because we cannot explain something, we dismiss the whole thing. "There is void. Nothing. Void." Because my mind, my intelligence, cannot go so far, we say, "Perhaps," "It may be it was like this." So this is all mental speculation.

And how we can say? Now, the opposite party may say, "How you can say?" Now, we have got evidence from the Vedic literature. But the other party, they have no evidence. They are simply speculationist. We can give some evidence. The Vedas are accepted by acaryas, and they are following, and they are getting the result.

So therefore, sruti-pramana. Sruti-pramana. There are three kinds of evidences. Out of that, sruti-pramana, evidence from higher authorities, that is the first-class evidence. What are those evidence? Pratyaksa, aitihya and sruti. Pratyaksa means direct perception. Direct perception, that is evidence. People with poor fund of knowledge, they want direct perception of everything. But that is not possible. Direct perception of everything is not possible. Therefore aitihya. Aitihya, aitihya means historical, historical, parampara, hearing, traditional.

And the next first-class evidence is sruti. Sruti means to hear from the authority. That is sruti. Just like the example we have several times cited here that the evidence "Who is my father?" that evidence is to hear from my mother. That's all. There is no other evidence. The mother says that "This is your father. He is your father." This is sruti, hearing from the mother, authority. And we have no other authority to understand father. Similarly, we have to understand our supreme father from the sruti mother, Vedas mother, mother Vedic mother. We have to accept Vedas as mother, sruti. The Vedas are considered as mother, and the Puranas are considered as sister. That is explained. So, sruti-pramana. Sruti-pramana.

Simply one manvantara in one universe, we cannot count how many manvantaras are there, and what to speak of...? There are innumerable, uncountable universes, and there are so many manvantaravataras.

Now He is giving the names of Manus. Just like the sun, the present sun-god is named as Vivasvan, similarly, in every planet there are heads: sun-god, moon-god, heavenly god, Indra, Candra, Varuna, Vayu, so many, thirty-three koti. Koti means ten millions. Such thirty-three [million] demigods are there, and each of them has got a separate planet, and their names are similarly there. So here Lord Caitanya is giving some of the names of the Manu.

You cannot count how many Manus are there, but for one day the fourteen Manus are named, and that is given here.

A different period of Manus are differently named. So the fourteen names are Yajna, Vibhu, Satyasena, Hari, fourth; then Vaikuntha, Ajita, Vamana, Sarvabhauma, Rsabha, Visvaksena, Dharmasavarnye, Sudhama, Indra-savarnya, Brhadbhanu. In this..., fourteen Manus. Brhadbhanu.

[aside:] Yes. I will answer your question.

Now yugavatara. We have finished manvantaravatara. This is fourth. Purusavatara, lilavatara, gunavatara and the manvantaravatara, fourth. Purusa incarnation, and then quality, modes of nature, three modes, gunavatara, then lilavatara. Then manvantaravatara we have finished. Now Lord Caitanya is explaining about the yugavatara, incarnation in every millennium, yuga. What is that?

Now, there are four yugas. Each yuga is divided into four: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali. This is the Kali, this age we are passing. Similarly, these four yugas, such thousand four yugas, when passed away, then one twelve hours of Brahma is finished, when such thousand four yugas passes away. So satya-treta-dvapara-kali-yugera ganana. So each yuga is divided into four. Satya-yuga is about eighteen lakhs. Eighteen lakhs means 1,800,000's of years. That is Satya-yuga, 1,800,000's. And the next yuga, Treta, is 1,200,000's of years; and the next yuga, Dvapara, 800,000's of years; and this Kali-yuga is 400,000's of years, 427,000's of years...., er, 32,000's of years Out of that, five thousands of years we have already passed. Now there is balance: 427,000 years, there is balance of this Kali-yuga. And the symptoms of Kali-yuga we have already seen, how it is.

So the more we will pass this Kali-yuga, the symptoms will be more acute, intolerable. So we should care. We should take care of this so that we may not come back again to this Kali-yuga. [laughter] You see? This life should be utilized. Now we are conscious, Krsna conscious. It should be so utilized that no more coming back to United States of America and no more coming back of this condemned earthly planet. That should be the aim. Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama [Bg 15.6].

We have to be determined to go back to Godhead, to Krsna, where going nobody will come to this condemned place. One should know that this is a condemned place. Unless one is fully convinced that this is a place condemned, one cannot make progress. If he is satisfied with this condemned condition... Just like these [chuckles] Bowery Street men, they are lying on the footpath. They are satisfied. Condemned condition, but they are satisfied. We should not be satisfied in that way. That is very wretched condition. So we are all in wretched condition under the grip of material nature, always suffering threefold miseries. So we should be conscious. Unless we are conscious about this fact, then our human life is spoiled. They say that "You spiritualist, you are very pessimistic." Yes. He should be pessimistic. There is no question of being optimistic. Where is the optimistic view?

So unless one becomes very much pessimistic of this material world... Actually, they are, but they want to forget. Somebody is trying to forget it by liquor, somebody is trying to forget by LSD, and somebody is marijuana, or ganja. But that forgetfulness will not save you. You have to actually forget it, that "This is a condemned place." And you cannot forget this unless you have got ideal place before you. Therefore this sruti-pramana, the Vedic knowledge, will give you: "Here is your ideal place: Krsna. Come back to Krsna. Try for it. Try your best for this." That is the life. That is human life. And unless one is not conscious to this platform, he is defeated.

Parabhavas tavad abodha-jataḥ. We are born ignorant. And if we are educated more, more, more into the platform of ignorance, then our life is all defeat, parabhava. Parabhavas tavad abodha-jato yavan na jijnasata atma-tattvam [SB 5.5.5] So long one is not awakened to spiritual consciousness... "What I am? Why I am suffering? Is there any remedy? How I can save me?"-these questions should arise. This is called brahma-jijnasa.

The Vedanta-sūtra explains this brahma-jijnasa. Athato brahma-jijnasa. Athato: "Now. Now it is the time for you to enquire about your Brahman realization, of your Brahman life." That Brahman life begins when we understand that "I am not this material body. I am spirit soul." That is brahma-jnana. And one who has got this knowledge, he is brahmana. He is brahmana. One who has actually attained this knowledge, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," that is brahma-jnana.

Now, simply to have brahma-jnana is not sufficient. When you act like Brahman, that is called Vaisnava. That is Vaisnava. That is Krsna consciousness. To understand yourself, that you are not this body, you are Brahman, and when you act factually in that Brahman stage, that is called bhakti. Bhakti. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita,

So as soon as you begin your activities in Krsna consciousness, you at once come to the stage of Brahman. And the more you execute functions for satisfaction of Krsna, the more you realize yourself and more you are well situated in spiritual life. And kaunteya prati... I was discussing. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktaḥ pranasyati [Bg 9.31].

The Lord declares through Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, declare it to all the world that anyone who is My devotee, he will never be destroyed." So we should take up this Krsna consciousness very seriously and try to execute it thoroughly under the guidance of the sruti-pramana. The Vedic literatures are there. Everything is there. We should utilize it.

Thank you very much. Any question? Yes.

Kirtanananda: You spoke of the energy of the Lord as being threefold... [end]