BG 09.08 prakrtim svam avasabhya... cited

Expressions researched:
"avasam prakrter vasat" |"bhuta-gramam imam krtsnam" |"prakrtim svam avastabhya" |"visrjami punah punah"

BG Chapters 7 - 12

BG 9.8, Translation and Purport:

The whole cosmic order is under Me. Under My will it is automatically manifested again and again, and under My will it is annihilated at the end.

This material world is the manifestation of the inferior energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This has already been explained several times. At the creation, the material energy is let loose as the mahat-tattva, into which the Lord as His first puruṣa incarnation, Mahā-viṣṇu, enters. He lies within the Causal Ocean and breathes out innumerable universes, and into each universe the Lord again enters as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Each universe is in that way created. He still further manifests Himself as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and that Viṣṇu enters into everything—even into the minute atom. This fact is explained here. He enters into everything.

Now, as far as the living entities are concerned, they are impregnated into this material nature, and as a result of their past deeds they take different positions. Thus the activities of this material world begin. The activities of the different species of living beings are begun from the very moment of the creation. It is not that all is evolved. The different species of life are created immediately along with the universe. Men, animals, beasts, birds—everything is simultaneously created, because whatever desires the living entities had at the last annihilation are again manifested. It is clearly indicated here by the word avaśam that the living entities have nothing to do with this process. The state of being in their past life in the past creation is simply manifested again, and all this is done simply by His will. This is the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of God. And after creating different species of life, He has no connection with them. The creation takes place to accommodate the inclinations of the various living entities, and so the Lord does not become involved with it.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.10.13, Translation and Purport:

The Lord, while lying on His bed of mystic slumber, generated the seminal symbol, golden in hue, through external energy out of His desire to manifest varieties of living entities from Himself alone.

In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.7-8) the creation and annihilation of the material world are stated as follows:

sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya

prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām

kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni

kalpādau visṛjāmy aham

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya

visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ

bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam

avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt

"At the end of each millennium the creative forces, namely the material nature and the living entities who struggle in the material nature, all merge together into the transcendental body of the Lord, and again when the Lord desires to manifest them, all of them are again displayed by the Lord.

"Therefore the material nature is working under the control of the Lord. All of them, under the agency of material nature and under the control of the Lord, are thus repeatedly created and annihilated by the will of the Lord."

As such, before the creation or manifestation of the material cosmic world, the Lord exists as total energy (mahā-samaṣṭi), and thus desiring Himself to be diffused to many, He expands Himself further into multitotal energy (samaṣṭi). From the multitotal energy He further expands Himself into individuals in three dimensions, namely adhyātmic, adhidaivic and adhibhautic, as explained before (vyaṣṭi).

SB Canto 3

SB 3.10.13, Translation and Purport:

This cosmic manifestation is as it is now, it was the same in the past, and it will continue in the same way in the future.

There is a systematic schedule for the perpetual manifestation, maintenance and annihilation of the material world, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (9.8): bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt. As it is created now and as it will be destroyed later on, so also it existed in the past and again will be created, maintained and destroyed in due course of time. Therefore, the systematic activities of the time factor are perpetual and eternal and cannot be stated to be false. The manifestation is temporary and occasional, but it is not false as claimed by the Māyāvādī philosophers.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 9.7-10 -- New York, November 25, 1966:

Now, we are concerned how to get out of this temporary life. We are hankering after eternal life, how to get out of this temporary life. That should be our problem. There is no use calculating for how many years one kalpa, one duration of this cosmic manifestation, is maintained. But our concern is that whether we can get out of these clutches of material nature and get into our spiritual nature and have our eternal blissful life. That is our problem. That we can make solution. If we culture the Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then even after annihilation of this body, we can get into the spiritual nature and spiritual nature, and we are also spirit. Therefore there is no difference; there is no question of birth and death. That is the problem.

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya

visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ

bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam

avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt

Prakṛter vaśāt. We are completely under the grip of the stringent laws of material nature, and we are repeatedly put into that stringent laws of material nature so that we may come into our consciousness that "Why we are suffering this repeated birth and death?" But we have become so much dull and so much accustomed to this habit... Because it is continuing since a very, very long time, time immemorial, so we have become accustomed. We have become accustomed. So we don't take it very seriously that why we are dying and why we are getting again body and why we are suffering these miseries. So this is called ignorance. This is called ignorance. So we are not very serious. Especially in this age we are not very serious. We think this is the process of life. No. This is not the process of life.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And again there is kalpa. Again they come out. In this way they do not become liberated. Just like the child, those who are being, what is called, contraceptive method, abortion. These are very sinful. Because they have done killing, so they enter into the mother's womb and they are again killed, and again enter into the mother's womb, and again killed. He does not see the light. Similarly, those who are sinful, they are given chance in material manifestation, "Now work for Kṛṣṇa consciousness." But they do not do that. Again enters, again come out. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). This is going on. How much they are wasting their time, not taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Dr. Patel:

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya

visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ

bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam

avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt

Prabhupāda: Now visṛjāmi. The Gods, He creates. Here they comes. The rascals, they do not believe it, that "There is no creator." The Jains, they do not believe it, that creator has done it. "It has come automatically." Buddhist philosophy is like that, that "Everything is coming by combination..."

Dr. Patel: Prakṛti and puruṣa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is wrong theory. Actually, He says visṛjāmi, ahaṁ visṛjāmi: "I do."

Dr. Patel: Prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya: "Controlling my prakṛti."

Prabhupāda: Avaṣṭabhya, now entering.

Dr. Patel: "Entering into My prakṛti, I am sṛjāmi, punaḥ punaḥ."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. He is outside; He is inside.

Indian: And then leave it in the control of the prakṛti, prakṛter vaśāt, avaṣaṁ prakṛter vaṣāt. Bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam avaṣām prakṛter vaśāt.

Prabhupāda: Bhūta-grāmam, not He.

Dr. Patel: Bhūta-grāmam, is due to the prakṛti, after creating the bhūtas.

Prabhupāda: Yes.