Page 52 - THE FOURTH DIMENSION

Brahma was stunned to silence and awed by the powerful effulgence of the innumerable Vishnu forms. He
attempted to bewilder the Lord, who appeared as a small child. Brahma was thinking of himself as the most
powerful person in the universe. His pride was shattered by the Lord’s inconceivable powers.

The following verse and purport by Bhaktivedanta Swami brilliantly explains the bewilderment of Brahma:

The Supreme Brahman is beyond mental speculation, He is self-manifest, existing in His own bliss, and He is
beyond the material energy. He is known by the crest jewels of the Vedas by refutation of irrelevant knowledge.
Thus in relation to that Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead, whose glory had been shown by the
manifestation of all the four-armed forms of Viṣṇu, Lord Brahmā, the lord of Sarasvatī, was mystified. “What is
this?” he thought, and then he was not even able to see. Lord Kṛṣṇa, understanding Brahmā’s position, then at
once removed the curtain of His yoga-māyā. (SB 10.13.57)
Brahmā was completely mystified. He could not understand what he was seeing, and then he was not even able
to see. Lord Kṛṣṇa, understanding Brahmā’s position, then removed that yoga-māyā covering. In this verse,
Brahmā is referred to as ireśa. Irā means Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, and Ireśa is her husband, Lord
Brahmā (the husband of Saraswati). Brahmā, therefore, is most intelligent. But even Brahmā, the lord of
Sarasvatī, was bewildered about Kṛṣṇa. Although he tried, he could not understand Lord Kṛṣṇa. In the beginning
the boys, the calves and Kṛṣṇa Himself had been covered by yoga-māyā, which later displayed the second set of
calves and boys, who were Kṛṣṇa’s expansions, and which then displayed so many four-armed forms. Now, seeing
Brahmā’s bewilderment, Lord Kṛṣṇa caused the disappearance of that yoga-māyā. One may think that
the māyā taken away by Lord Kṛṣṇa was mahā-māyā, but Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura comments that it
was yoga-māyā, the potency by which Kṛṣṇa is sometimes manifest and sometimes not manifest. The potency
which covers the actual reality and displays something unreal is mahā-māyā, but the potency by which the
Absolute Truth is sometimes manifest and sometimes not is yoga-māyā.Therefore, in this verse the
word ajā refers to yoga-māyā.

Kṛṣṇa’s energy — His māyā-śakti, or svarūpa-śakti — is one, but it is manifested in varieties. Parāsya śaktir
vividhaiva śrūyate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8). The difference between Vaiṣṇavas and Māyāvādīs is that
Māyāvādīs say that this māyā is one, whereas Vaiṣṇavas recognize its varieties. There is unity in variety. For
example, in one tree, there are varieties of leaves, fruits and flowers. Varieties of energy are required for
performing the varieties of activity within the creation. To give another example, in a machine all the parts may
be iron, but the machine includes varied activities. Although the whole machine is iron, one part works in one
way, and other parts work in other ways. One who does not know how the machine is working may say that it is
all iron; nonetheless, in spite of its being iron, the machine has different elements, all working differently to
accomplish the purpose for which the machine was made. One wheel runs this way, another wheel runs that
way, functioning naturally in such a way that the work of the machine goes on. Consequently, we give different
names to the different parts of the machine, saying, “This is a wheel,” “This is a screw,” “This is a spindle,” “This
is the lubrication,” and so on. Similarly, as explained in the Vedas:
parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate
svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca

Kṛṣṇa’s power is variegated, and thus the same śakti, or potency, works in variegated ways. Vividhā means
“varieties.” There is unity in variety. Thus yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā are among the varied individual parts of
the same one potency, and all of these individual potencies work in their own varied ways. The saṁvit,
sandhinī and āhlādinī potencies — Kṛṣṇa’s potency for existence, His potency for knowledge and His potency for
pleasure — are distinct from yoga-māyā. Each is an individual potency. The āhlādinī potency is Rādhārāṇī. As
Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī has explained, rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmāt (Cc. Ādi 1.5).
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