The Lord creates an illusory world, just for us

The Lord Has nothing to do with this temporary place, but He creates it, and appear here in His innumerable incarnations just for us.

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We are all eternal servants of Krsna, as Prabhupada explains many times in his books. However, we also have free will, and thus we have the choice of acting according to our original nature or rejecting it, trying to compete with Krsna, and becoming imitation enjoyers. When this happens, the Lord creates an illusory world, where we can display this dominating tendency. That’s the material world where we are currently entrapped. The Lord has nothing to do with this temporary place, but He creates it, and appears here in His innumerable incarnations just for us.

Māyāvādis argue that the material world is false, fruit of the influence of avidyā (or ignorance) over the Supreme Brahman. Due to the covering of avidyā, they say, the transcendental and undifferentiated Brahman thinks he has become many, and imagines the existence of a material world, where many jīvas are entrapped. According to them, the Supreme Brahman then assumes material bodies and acts under the material mode of goodness to play the role of Īśvara, in the different forms of Viṣnu and different incarnations. According to their doctrine, all of this exists only under the realm of illusion and is proven to be false once one attains self-realization, just as we may see a rope on the road at night and experience fear thinking it is a snake.

Prabhupada, however, explains that this is incorrect. There is nothing false in the creation of the Lord. Both the souls and the material energy are eternal potencies of the Lord. The material potency is organized in a certain way to create the temporary material manifestation, and the souls who so desire are given freedom to play with it, performing material actions and enjoying or suffering the results. The material world is thus temporary and illusory, but it is not false.

We, as souls, are also not the product of an illusioned Brahman that thinks it has become many, but eternal parts and parcels of the Lord, identical with Him in quality, but different in quantity, and eternally separated from Him, as explained in the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva philosophy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This understanding is the hallmark of Vaiṣnava philosophy, the basis for the conclusion that pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life, and eternal life in the company of the Lord in the spiritual realm is our ultimate destination. This love of Godhead is the ultimate reality, contrasted with our illusory and temporary life in this material world.

The process of material creation is explained in different passages spread throughout the first three cantos of Srimad Bhagavatam. It starts with the description of the Puruṣa avatāras in the first canto, the incarnations of the Lord who create the material world:

“In the beginning of the material creation, that Absolute Personality of Godhead [Vāsudeva], in His transcendental position, created the energies of cause and effect by His own internal energy. After creating the material substance, the Lord [Vāsudeva] expands Himself and enters into it. And although He is within the material modes of nature and appears to be one of the created beings, He is always fully enlightened in His transcendental position.

The Lord, as Supersoul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second. The Supersoul enters into the bodies of the created beings who are influenced by the modes of material nature and causes them to enjoy the effects of these modes by the subtle mind. Thus the Lord of the universes maintains all planets inhabited by demigods, men and lower animals. Assuming the roles of incarnations, He performs pastimes to reclaim those in the mode of pure goodness.” (SB 1.2.30-34)

The material energy is originally one of the spiritual potencies of Lord Mahā-Viṣnu, His external potency. This external potency is like a shadow, which stays behind the Lord. From this spiritual potency, pradhāna, or the unmanifested material elements, is manifested. This pradhāna is just like a cloud floating above the spiritual waters of the causal ocean.

To create the material manifestation, the Lord, as Mahā-Viṣnu, looks in the direction of this cloud, and His look carries all the souls, as well as the time energy. This puts this energy into movement, activating the three material modes (goodness, passion, and ignorance), putting the universes in movement, and starting the process of creation.

In the spiritual world, there is no time in the way we perceive it here. All the souls in the spiritual world live in an eternal present, based on their eternal relationships with the Lord. There, nothing decays, and nothing ends. Because of this characteristic, the spiritual world is called Vaikuṇṭha, the place without anxiety.

In the material world, however, time is divided into past, present, and future, and acts as an oppressive force, making everything change and eventually be destroyed. As soon as the time energy comes in contact with the material elements, the whole material nature enters into movement, and when time is withdrawn by Lord Mahā-Viṣnu, matter lies dormant until the next cycle of creation. Time is thus eternal as an energy, but its effect upon material energy has a beginning, the start of creation. In this way, time is eternal (as a cause), but at the same time, it has a beginning (as an effect).

Understanding the difference between the way time works in the material world and in the spiritual world is essential to understand many details about the nature of the soul and how we “fall” into the material creation. In the material world, everything has a beginning. The material identity we have right now has a beginning. The combination of mind, intelligence, and ego I currently use (my subtle body) also has a beginning, and the material creation itself has a beginning. However, I, as a soul, am eternal. In this way, my relationship with all these material coverings has a beginning, but as a soul, I’m eternal. I thus have an eternal nature that is separated from and independent of this material creation.

After impregnating matter with the souls and the time energy, Lord Mahā-Viṣnu emanates all the innumerable material universes from His breath and the pores of His body, and enters into each universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣnu. At first, the universe is empty, without any place to rest, so He fills half of it with water. Lord Śeṣa then manifests Himself, acting as a bed, where the Lord comfortably rests. Lord Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣnu then produces the universal lotus flower, from which Brahma appears. Initially, Brahma sees only darkness and does not know what to do, but after meditating on the Lord, he can see the subtle manifestation of the universe and gain the knowledge and potency to create the planets and living beings exactly as conceived by the Lord.

Simultaneously, the Lord expands himself again as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣnu (Paramātmā), who enters into the hearts of all and into everything, up to the individual atoms. There is no part of the universe where Paramātmā is not present; therefore, He knows everything. Lord Kṣīrodakaśāyī Vishnu is also known as Lord Hari, and He is the source of all different incarnations that appear in this universe.

Sometimes we may think that there is a separate form of Paramātmā in each living being and every atom, but in reality, there is just one Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣnu who observes everything and is present everywhere. The same Kṣīrodakaśāyī Vishnu lives on a small island in the ocean of milk. This is the form of Viṣnu to whom the demigods pray when they are defeated by the demons, and in other situations of emergency, as described in different pastimes of Srimad Bhagavatam.

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