Srimad Bhagavatam – day 652
Why did Brahma get trapped in illusion?
Narayana
“Shaken due to astonishment, the eleven senses of Lord Brahma remained motionless. Like an immobile doll he simply stared in awe.
The Supreme Lord, who is full of transcendence, is beyond all logic and reasoning. He is self-effulgent, soaked in his own bliss, exists in His original form and is beyond illusion which is the original state of the Supreme Essence. He is beyond even the birthless illusionary energy”.
As Brahma has his origins in the Supreme Lord, it should be understood that He (Supreme Lord) exists even beyond Brahma. The truth is that He is birthless. He is self-manifest. Then, how is one to understand this state of the Supreme Lord?
“While rejecting the non-existent objects that appear to have an existence separate from the Supreme Lord, the Upanishads reveal to us the Supreme Lord”.
The Upanishads reject the unreal objects and thus make known the facts about the Supreme Lord.
“The birthless Supreme Lord pervades through the creation. He has enveloped everything in creation. He is Parabrahma”.
Do not equate Brahma, the husband of Saraswati i.e. the Goddess of Knowledge, with the Supreme Lord Parabrahma who is all-pervading.
“Even Brahma, the husband of Saraswati, failed to understand the illusion created by such Supreme Lord. Confounded, he thought, ‘What is this?’. Exactly at that moment, the Supreme Lord cut in him the veil of the birthless illusion. The moment illusion was destroyed, Brahma obtained external consciousness. Like a corpse that has come back to life, suddenly he stood up”.
All this while Brahma was like a lifeless corpse. Dumbfounded, he was standing like a statue. The moment the veil of illusion was shred, he suddenly became conscious and stood up.
“With utmost difficulty, he opened his eyes and observed himself along with the universe. Brahma who was observing all the directions noticed Brindavana, which was surrounded by dense trees that provided a proper means of livelihood to human beings living there”.
The trees surrounding Brindavan were not fanciful decorations. Every tree was creating livelihood for humans.
“This land called Brindavan was the residence of the Supreme Lord Srikrishna. In this sacred land, even natural enemies such as humans and tigers give up enmity and wander like friends”.
Enmity is common in living entities that are filled with tamo guna (traits of ignorance), but here in Brindavan such enmity failed to exist. Big cats behaved like harmless tiny cats. Lion and deer would play together. Could this be possible in any place barring Brindavan? Brindavan overflowed with feelings of goodness and purity (sattva guna). Traits of passion/action emerged occasionally nevertheless traits of ignorance (tamas) did not exist even slightly. This was because Krishna would destroy the traits of ignorance as and when it arose.
“Being the abode of the Supreme Lord Srikrishna, traits such as anger, fear and greed did not have a place in Brindavan”.
How can fear, greed and other such negative traits exist where Krishna resides? All these traits are manifestations of the traits of ignorance (tamas).
“As before, Krishna, who was living in Brindavan was behaving like any other cowherd boy. He, who was the Lord of the entire universe, was behaving exactly as a boy belonging to the cowherd clan would behave. Brahma observed the eternal and indestructible Lord behaving like a small boy. The Supreme Essence, which is without a second and which is omniscient, had taken on a form called Krishna”.
The Lord is non-dual. He has no second. Brahma had the vision of this non-dual Lord who pervades everything. Occasionally Brahma’s intellect becomes clouded due to the illusion cast by the Lord. At such times, the Lord blesses him with His divine vision thereby correcting him. For the purposes of creation, Brahma needs to use the traits of ignorance (tamo guna) which at times, pollute his mind. It is said that the characteristics of the doll which is created, at times, enter into its creator. Only when the creator attains oneness with the object he seeks to create, he can create it perfectly. When creating the eyes, he should become the eye. When creating the face, he should be totally merged into it. He should experience oneness with the object being created. Only then the end product will be perfect. This is the nature of creation.
Brahma, who has been created by the Supreme Lord, has been entrusted with the task of creating multitudes of living entities comprising of traits of ignorance (tamas), traits of passion (rajas) and traits of goodness. His activities are not limited to creation of living entities. He creates everything be it a jasmine creeper or a thorny bush. When he creates a jasmine creeper, he has to fill it with the qualities appropriate to it. For this, he needs to mentally become one with it. While creating a thorny bush he has to fill in it its appropriate characteristics. For this reason, he takes on the qualities of the thorny bush while creating it. When creating a parthenium plant he merges into its qualities so as to fill the plant with those qualities.
At times, the remnants of these traits of passion or ignorance stick to him and suddenly envelop him in illusion. This was one such instance wherein he had got deluded. Krishna destroyed this illusion.
When a person gets totally absorbed into the task he/she is performing, the characteristics of that task seep into him. If we repeatedly listen to Bhagavatam while thinking of Krishna, if we repeatedly recapitulate the stories that have been heard, then due to this sadhana the entire creation will be visible to us as Krishna. We merge into those incidents. We become a part and parcel of that story. Only then that incident can be grasped perfectly by us.
Only when the actor becomes one with the character he has to depict, he can enact his role to perfection. When enacting the role of Krishna, he becomes Krishna. When enacting the role of demon Kamsa, he behaves perfectly like a demon.
A person who pure-heartedly worships the Lord (sattvik puja), will naturally be blessed with pure traits. The world will then be visible to him as an embodiment of goodness. The person who offers worship with impure traits finds the world to be filled with impurity and ignorance.
Srihari Krishna