Brahma becomes attracted to his daughter and abandons his body
Brahma created a daughter called Vāk, the predominant deity of speech. Somehow, Brahma became attracted and started following her, which led Marīci and his other sons to voice their condemnation.
At the beginning of creation, Brahma created the four Kumāras, and when they refused his order to get married and help to populate the universe, Lord Śiva appeared from the anger of Brahma.
After that, Brahma continued his work of creation, creating ten great sons: Marīci, Atri, Aṅgirā, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhṛgu, Vasiṣṭha, Dakṣa, and Nārada.
The first nine of these sons, led by Dakṣa, were mostly inclined to perform fruitive activities. Brahma entrusted them with the knowledge of the karma-kanda section of the Vedas and engaged them in performing sacrifices. Later, after performing sacrifices, Brahma got these sons married to the daughters and granddaughters of Svāyambhuva Manu and engaged them in populating the universe. Almost all the living beings who exist, both humans and animals, are descendants of these nine sons, especially of Daksa, who is the main progenitor in the universe. These ten sons are the original Prajāpatis, who give birth to the first human beings and demigods, as well as other prajapatis who populate the universe manvantara after Manvantara.
The great Kasyapa Muni, for example, who is described later as the husband of Aditi and Diti, the mothers of the demigods and demons on the 6th manvantara, is the son of Marici. Similarly, all the great personalities mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam can have their ancestry traced back to these sons of Brahma, as well as Svāyambhuva Manu and Kasyapa, who were generated a little later.
Each of these nine sons where born from a part of the body of Brahma. Narada however, was born from Brahma's transcendental deliberation. Narada is thus the best of the sons of Brahma because of his natural devotional attitude and was thus entrusted with the bhakti-kanda, the knowledge about devotional service to the Lord that he distributes through the universe. Nāra means the “Supreme Lord,” and "da" means “one who can deliver.”
The appearance of Narada Muni as the son of Brahma is a continuation of the events narrated in the first canto, with Narada being born in his previous life as the son of a maidservant who had the opportunity of associating with great sages. These events happened on the previous day of Brahma. After attaining spiritual realization, he appeared as the son of Brahma in the current day.
Narada is a Nitya-Siddha, an eternally liberated soul. However, at the same time, he performs his pastime of taking birth in the material world and playing the role of a conditioned soul who meets devotees and attains self-realization. This is also the case with other great devotees like Prahlada Maharaja and Dhruva Maharaja, who continuously appear in different universes to perform their pastimes to guide the conditioned souls and help them to rediscover their lost relationship with Krsna.
Although Narada Muni (just like the Kumaras) doesn't engage in generating population, Lord Brahma is never dissatisfied with him, because He performs the most important service, helping the inhabitants of the universe go back to Godhead.
The talks between Brahma and Narada Muni described in the 2nd canto happened at this stage, when the universe had just been created, and Narada Muni started enquiring about the purpose of creation and other philosophical topics.
After generating these ten great sons, Brahma continued his process of creation by generating religion and irreligion, lust and desire, anger, greed, the power of speaking, and so on. All these were created from different parts of his body.
We can see that just like the senses and other components of the universe, these are energies that were created by the Lord in the process of primary creation, as described in the 10th chapter of the 2nd canto. At this stage, the Lord creates the universal form, the Virat-rupa, which contains all the different senses, objects of the senses, material potencies, etc., together with their predominating deities. This Virat-rupa manifests inside each universe and serves as a foundation for the creation of Brahma. When it is described that Brahma created anger, for example, it means he created the manifestation of anger (together with its predominating deity) for this particular universe, while at the previous stage, the Lord created the blueprint of anger for all the universes.
One way to understand that is that there is one original Lord Shiva (Sada-Shiva) who presides over all material creation, and there is one Lord Shiva inside each universe. The original Shiva appears from Lord Maha-Vishnu, while the numerous Shivas in each universe are expansions of this original Lord Shiva that appear to be created by Brahma.
Brahma also created Kardama Muni from his shadow. Kardama Muni is a great sage who also received from Brahma the mission of helping him to populate the universe. This is a difficulty that is present in all ages, including at the current time. Although all kinds of living beings produce descendants, like horses, dogs, and low-class people, elevated human beings and great sages capable of understanding God are rare in the creation, because they can be generated only from elevated fathers and mothers. Such elevated devotees are not common, and many are not inclined to generate descendants, like the four Kumaras. Therefore, there is always a lack of qualified couples all over the universe, capable of generating and educating such elevated children who can guide others back to Godhead.
With this in mind, Kardama Muni meditated for a very long period to purify himself and obtain the blessings of the Supreme Lord. Soon afterward, Kardama married Devahuti, and apart from nine very qualified daughters, they begot Lord Kapila, who benefited the whole world by explaining the theistic philosophy of Sankhya. Kardama Muni is the perfect example of family life in Krsna consciousness, and his story is narrated in detail later in the third canto.
Brahma also created a daughter called Vāk, the predominant deity of speech. Somehow, Brahma became attracted and started following her, which led Marīci and his other sons to voice their condemnation.
"O father, this performance in which you are endeavoring to complicate yourself was never attempted by any other Brahmā, nor by anyone else, nor by you in previous kalpas, nor will anyone dare to attempt it in the future. Even though you are the most powerful being, this act does not suit you because your character is followed for spiritual improvement by people in general." (SB 3.12.30-31)
It's difficult to understand how a great personality like Brahma, who doesn't even have a gross body like ours, could be inclined in such a way, even though he just contemplated it in his mind, but Srila Prabhupada offers a possible explanation in one of his purports:
"It might be that Brahmā wanted to warn his subordinates about human frailties in their dealings with women. This is always very dangerous for persons who are on the path of self-realization. Therefore, great personalities like Brahmā, even when in the wrong, should not be neglected, nor could the great sages headed by Marīci show any disrespect because of his extraordinary behavior."
In the Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Srila Sanatana Goswami mentions that often great personalities commit mistakes to call our attention to mistakes we can also commit and their results. Brahma becoming attracted to his daughter led him to be condemned by his sons, Bharata Maharaja becoming attached to the deer led him to take two additional births before going back to Godhead, and so on. Sanatana Goswami explains that such examples are not due to their falling in Maya, but a play performed for our benefit.
It is described that after seeing the reaction of his sons, Brahma understood his mistake and became ashamed. He then abandoned the body he was using, and this body became the darkness of ignorance that covers the whole universe. The only antidote for this darkness is to take shelter in the Supreme Lord.
"The father of all Prajāpatis, Brahmā, thus seeing all his Prajāpati sons speaking in that way, became very much ashamed and at once gave up the body he had accepted. Later that body appeared in all directions as the dangerous fog in darkness." (3.12.33)
As Prabhupada explains in his purport:
"The best way to compensate for one’s sinful acts is to give up one’s body at once, and Brahmā, the leader of the living entities, showed this by his personal example. Brahmā has a fabulous duration of life, but he was obliged to give up his body due to his grievous sin, even though he had merely contemplated it in his mind without having actually done it."
"Ignorance is the cause of sinful life, or sinful life is the cause of gross ignorance. The feature of ignorance is darkness or fog. Darkness or fog still covers the whole universe, and the sun is the only counteracting principle. One who takes shelter of the Lord, the perpetual light, has no fear of being annihilated in the darkness of fog or ignorance."
One can question how Brahma could leave his body. It is understood that Brahma didn't simply drop dead, otherwise, it would be the end of the universe. What exactly does this change of body mean?
This is connected with something we studied on SB 2.2.28:
"After reaching Satyaloka, the devotee is specifically able to be incorporated fearlessly by the subtle body in an identity similar to that of the gross body, and one after another he gradually attains stages of existence from earthly to watery, fiery, glowing and airy, until he reaches the ethereal stage."
Different grades of gross bodies are used by inhabitants of the intermediate planetary systems. In Kali-yuga, our bodies are of the grossest type, while other inhabitants of Bhu-Mandala have different grades of more refined bodies. The inhabitants of Swargaloka also have bodies composed of the five elements, but their bodies are very refined. As one goes up, from Maharloka to Janaloka, and then to Tapoloka, the bodies become more and more refined, to the point that there are practically no more vestiges of material elements. When one comes to Satyaloka, there are no material elements at all. They use only their subtle bodies, composed of mind, intelligence, and ego. These subtle bodies, however, assume a form similar to a gross body, allowing them to perform activities. That's how the inhabitants of these high planetary systems can have such fabulous durations of life, surviving the devastation at the end of the day of Brahma and living for trillions of years.
This gives us an idea of the type of body Brahma has. His body is simply formed by his consciousness, without traces of gross material elements. His consciousness assumes a certain form, according to what activities he is performing, and when the consciousness moves into something else, this form is abandoned and a new form is manifested. This process happens numerous times during the process of creation.
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