When did Brahma meet with Krsna?
In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is described how Brahma met the Lord in his original form as Krsna and was instructed in the four seed-verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam. When did this happen?
In the Srimad Bhagavatam, chapter 2.9, it is described how Brahma met the Lord in his original form as Krsna and was instructed in the four seed-verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam, known as the catuh-sloki.
“The Lord was seated on His throne and was surrounded by different energies like the four, the sixteen, the five, and the six natural opulences, along with other insignificant energies of the temporary character. But He was the factual Supreme Lord, enjoying His own abode. Lord Brahmā, thus seeing the Personality of Godhead in His fullness, was overwhelmed with joy within his heart, and thus in full transcendental love and ecstasy, his eyes filled with tears of love. He thus bowed down before the Lord. That is the way of the highest perfection for the living being [paramahaṁsa]. And seeing Brahmā present before Him, the Lord accepted him as worthy to create living beings, to be controlled as He desired, and thus being much satisfied with him, the Lord shook hands with Brahmā and, slightly smiling, addressed him thus.” (SB 2.9.17-19)
One could question when this conversation between Lord Brahma and Krsna happened.
This is actually a difficult question to answer because the focus of the Srimad Bhagavatam is the spiritual instructions and not the historical descriptions. The event is described in detail, but when it happened is not so clear.
We can understand that we are currently on the first day of the second half of the life of Brahma. This conversation happened at the very beginning of one of his days, but each one?
In SB 3.4.13, Krsna describes to Uddhava that He spoke to Brahma at the beginning of creation, at the Padma Kalpa (the lotus millennium):
purā mayā proktam ajāya nābhye padme niṣaṇṇāya mamādi-sarge
“O Uddhava, in the lotus millennium in the days of yore, at the beginning of the creation, I spoke unto Brahmā, who is situated on the lotus that grows out of My navel.”
The different days of Brahma receive names, and two kalpas are referred to as the Padma Kalpa. The first is the second day of the first half of his life, as described in SB 3.11.35-36:
“In the beginning of the first half of Brahmā’s life, there was a millennium called Brāhma-kalpa, wherein Lord Brahmā appeared. The birth of the Vedas was simultaneous with Brahmā’s birth. The millennium which followed the first Brāhma millennium is known as the Pādma-kalpa because in that millennium the universal lotus flower grew out of the navel reservoir of water of the Personality of Godhead, Hari.”
The second Padma Kalpa is the current day of Brahma. It’s also called Padma because in this millennium, the lotus flower also appears, following the complete devastation at the end of the first half of Brahma’s life. The current day is also referred to as the Varāha-kalpa and the Śvetavarāha-kalpa, which can be confusing. However, on SB 2.10.47, Prabhupada makes it clear:
“The present duration of a kalpa of Brahmā is called the Varāha-kalpa or Śvetavarāha-kalpa because the incarnation of the Lord as Varāha took place during the creation of Brahmā, who was born on the lotus coming out of the abdomen of Viṣṇu. Therefore this Varāha-kalpa is also called Pādma-kalpa, and this is testified by ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī as well as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in pursuance of the first commentator, Svāmī Śrīdhara. So there is no contradiction between the Varāha and the Pādma-kalpa of Brahmā.”
As described in the same verse, the events described in the 3rd canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam onward happened in the current day of Brahma, the Padma Kalpa. The conversation between Brahma and Krsna could thus have happened at the beginning of the current day, or in the previous Padma Kalpa, at the beginning of Brahma’s life.
However, in the Krsna Sandharbha, section 64, Srila Jiva Goswami quotes a verse from the Gopala Tapani Upanisad (1.27):
tad u hovaca brāhmaṇaḥ asāv anavaratam me dhyātaḥ stutaḥ parārdhante so ‘budhyata. gopa-vešo me purastād āvirbabhūva.
“Brahmā replied, “O brāhmaņas, during the first half of my life, I meditated upon Him and praised Him constantly. Then at the end of a parārdha, that Supreme Puruṣa awoke and appeared before me as a cowherd boy.”
In this verse, Lord Brahma speaks to the Kumāras. It suggests that Krsna appeared to him after the end of the first half of his life (parārdhante). Since we are on the first day of the second half of his life, this would put the meeting at the beginning of the current day, which is also known as the Padma-Kalpa.
If this version is accepted, then the chronology of the Srimad Bhagavatam would be that Brahma had the view of the Lord and received the catuh-sloke Srimad Bhagavatam from Him (described in the 9th chapter of the 2nd canto) at the very beginning of the current day. Brahma then transmitted this knowledge to Nārada Muni, who transmitted it to Vyāsadeva. Vyasadevva then expanded this knowledge and spoke it to Śukadeva Goswami, who expanded it further in his description to Maharaja Pariksit.
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Brahma populates the universe
It’s mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam that when Brahma started the process of creating the universe, he started by creating illusory engagements, such as self-deception, the sense of death, anger after being frustrated, the sense of false ownership, and the illusory bodily conception (that makes one forget his real identity as a soul). It’s easy to understand why such influences were created first, since they constitute the basis of conditioned life in this material world. If one does not identify with the body and believes he possesses things in this material world, what is the possibility of remaining conditioned here? These are influences that affect all conditioned living beings.