Pradyumna: Translation: "The transcendental Lord is indirectly associated with the three modes of material nature, namely passion, goodness and ignorance, and just for the material world's creation, maintenance and destruction He accepts the three qualitative forms of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. Of these three, all living beings can derive ultimate benefit from Viṣṇu, the form of the quality of goodness."
Prabhupāda: Hmm.
- sattvaṁ rajas tama iti prakṛter guṇās tair
- yuktaḥ paraḥ puruṣa eka ihāsya dhatte
- sthity-ādaye hari-viriñci-hareti saṁjñāḥ
- śreyāṁsi tatra khalu sattva-tanor nṛṇāṁ syuḥ
- (SB 1.2.23)
The material creation, mahat-tattva . . . sa īkṣata, as it is said in the Vedic literature, simply by glancing over the material nature and agitating the three modes of material nature, the whole creation comes out. This is an sum . . . sum and substance of material creation. Mahā-Viṣṇu is lying in the Causal Ocean, Kāraṇārṇava, and He is breathing, and from His breathing innumerable universes are coming out. And in each and every universe, Mahā-Viṣṇu, in His further expansion as Garbhodakaśāyī-Viṣṇu, He enters. That Garbhodakaśāyī-Viṣṇu, from His abdomen there is a lotus stem, and in that lotus flower Lord Brahmā is born. In this way, creation is made.