Sri Brahma-samhita Chapter 5 Verse 10

Chapter 5: Hymn to the Absolute Truth

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā 5.10

śaktimān puruṣaḥ so 'yaḿ

lińga-rūpī maheśvaraḥ

tasminn āvirabhūl lińge

mahā-viṣṇur jagat-patiḥ

SYNONYMS

śaktimān — joined to his female consort; puruṣaḥ — person; saḥ — he; ayam — this; lińga-rūpī — in the form of the male generating organ; mahā-īśvaraḥ — Śambhu, the lord of this mundane world; tasmin — in that; āvirabhūt — manifested; lińge — in the manifested emblem; mahā-viṣṇuḥ — Mahā-Viṣṇu; jagat-patiḥ — the Lord of the world.

TRANSLATION

The person embodying the material causal principle, viz., the great lord of this mundane world [Maheśvara] Śamhhu, in the form of the male generating organ, is joined to his female consort the limited energy [Māyā] as the efficient causal principle. The Lord of the world Mahā-Viṣṇu is manifest in him by His subjective portion in the form of His glance.

PURPORT

In the transcendental atmosphere (para-vyoma), where spiritual majesty preponderates, there is present Śrī Nārāyaṇa who is not different from Kṛṣṇa. Mahā-Sańkarṣaṇa, subjective plenary facsimile of the extended personality of Śrī Nārāyaṇa, is also the divine plenary portion of the propagatory embodiment of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. By the power of His spiritual energy a plenary subjective portion of Him, eternally reposing in the neutral stream of Virajā forming the boundary between the spiritual and mundane realms, casts His glance, at creation, unto the limited shadow potency. Māyā, who is located far away from Himself. Thereupon Śambhu, lord of pradhāna embodying the substantive principle of all material entities, who is the same as Rudra, the dim reflection of the Supreme Lord's own divine glance, consummates his intercourse with Māyā, the efficient mundane causal principle. But he can do nothing independently of the energy of Mahā-Viṣṇu representing the direct spiritual power of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, the principle of mahat, or the perverted cognitive faculty. is produced only when the subjective plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa, viz., the prime divine avatāra Mahā-Viṣṇu who is the subjective portion of Sańkarṣaṇa, Himself the subjective portion of Kṛṣṇa, is propitious towards the active mutual endeavors of Māyā, Śiva's consort (śakti), and pradhāna or the principle of substantive mundane causality. Agreeably to the initiative of Mahā-Viṣṇu the consort of Śiva creates successively the mundane ego (ahańkāra), the five mundane elements (bhūtas) viz., space etc., their attributes (tan-mātras) and the limited senses of the conditioned soul (jīva). The constituent particles, in the form of pencils of effulgence of Mahā-Viṣṇu, are manifest as the individual souls (jīvas). This will be elaborated in the sequel.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness