Srimad Bhagavatam – day 593
Vāmanāya namah
Maharishi Śuka continued, “The Supreme Lord, who had incarnated as little Krishna, opened His mouth and showed it to His mother. Yashoda saw within his mouth, the entire universe consisting of all moving and non-moving entities, the atmosphere surrounding the earth, light, moon, star, other planetary systems, directions, mountains, islands along with the oceans which surround the Earth”.
In addition to seeing Earth, she also saw the layers of atmosphere which surround the Earth for a distance of 100 miles. The mutual attraction between Earth and these atmospheric layers are responsible for the existence of Earth. This phenomenon has been going on from eternity. Such is God’s creation! Nevertheless, since everything created is subject to destruction, this too eventually has to get destroyed. We need to be prepared for this eventuality. However, on a different note, the Lord Himself will prepare us for it. Everything moves as per His plan. We do not have to ponder about it. Can you escape from Earth fearing its destruction? Is it feasible? Can you escape to a mountain trying to escape pralaya (destruction)? Pralaya has the power to destroy even a mountain!
Wind, light, Sun, Moon, Stars, other planetary systems, directions etc. exist in outer space. From time immemorial, scientists have been eternally engaged in discovering newer planets. Nevertheless, in this infinite, extra-ordinary creation, it is impossible to completely discover everything! Even if a person spends the entire period of creation in discovering newer objects, he will fail to complete his research. That is to say, even if endless research is continued for innumerable trillions of years, his project would remain incomplete. Even after attempting the discoveries with newer technologies and even after travelling in space endlessly, complete understanding of the universe can never be achieved. This is the transcendental sport of the Lord!
Just as they would have discovered a new planet, the existence of another solar system in the universe comes to light. They then begin to discover the planets in those solar systems. In this way, discovery continues.
This creation is strange. Similar to this Earth, there could be many other Earths elsewhere in the creation which are far beyond our reach. The various upper and lower planetary systems also exist within this creation itself. The planetary systems located upwards of Earth are the upper planetary systems. The planetary systems located below Earth in space are the lower planetary systems. This creation has no beginning and no ending.
In a moving ball, can the beginning or ending be identified? Can anyone definitely describe which is east, north-east etc. in that ball? It is the same with Earth. We cannot identify the beginning and ending points. Ok. If so, what about the layers that surround Earth? The same problem persists. Then, what about those layers which are beyond the intermediate layers? The same story repeats there too. We cannot identify the beginning and ending anywhere.
Even after speaking endlessly on this subject for innumerable births, the person would not be anywhere close to conclusion. It is impossible to complete discovering the entire creation. For this reason, it is best to salute it.
To be truthful, even the Lord can never see the beginning or ending of this creation. This is explained in the story of Shiva, who manifests as a pillar of unending effulgence, to destroy the pride of Vishnu and Brahma. Vishnu travelled downwards searching for the Lord’s feet. Even after travelling endlessly for eons at stretch, He could not locate the end. Helplessly He returned back and expressed His inability in locating the end.
Brahma travelled upwards to see the Lord’s head. He too failed in his mission, but then, instead of accepting His failure He lied. For having lied, Brahma was cursed that no worship would ever be offered to Him. From then on, pujas are not performed for Brahma. To add to this, since Brahma had brought a cow as a witness to support His claims, the cow was cursed. Hence no worship is offered to its face and only its hind-part is worshipped. It is a very strange story. From this it is evident that Brahma, who created the universe, could not locate its end. Since it is impossible to identify the beginning and ending of this creation, it is said to be a transcendental sport of the Lord.
Here, Yashoda could see the mountains, oceans, planetary systems, directions etc. within the Lord’s mouth. It was rotating like a small ball within his mouth. She saw the stars, Sun, Moon, light, wind, space etc. within his mouth.
“She saw within His mouth, Indra and other Devatas, who are the Guardian-deities for the senses and who emerge from Sattvik-ahamkara (egoism born from traits of goodness). She saw Hiranyagarbha, who is the ruler of the composite mind of living entities.
She saw the subtle sense perceptions known as sound, touch, form, taste and smell and the three attributes of Nature called sattva, rajas and tamas (traits of goodness, passion and ignorance respectively).
In her son’s mouth Yashoda, at one go, saw this entire universe, which stems out of the different characteristics of the subtle body such as individual entity, spiritual ignorance, eternal time, fruitive actions (karma) and subtle impressions of the fruitive actions (karma vasana). Seeing herself along with the entire hamlet of Gokula in His mouth, Yashoda became doubtful”.
She saw the entire hamlet there. Within His mouth, she also saw little Krishna who had opened His mouth. Yashoda saw herself in his mouth. It was as if Krishna was showing her a TV in that eon when TV was not invented. In that era when internet did not exist, He showed her all the planetary systems simultaneously. Although we claim television to be a new invention, Krishna showed to His mother a television image in that era itself.
Narayana