When Brahma Returns

When Brahma Returns Conversation between Sukadeva Goswami and Maharaja Pariksit

When Lord Brahma returned after a moment of his time, he saw that although by human measurement a complete year had passed, Lord Krishna, was still playing with the boys and calves just as before. These were of course His own expansions. Lord Brahma thought: I have left the boys and calves that were in Gokula sleeping under the spell of my mystic potency, and to this very day they have not risen. Yet a similar number of boys and calves seem to have been playing with Krishna for an entire year. They are certainly different from the ones enspelled by my mystic potency. Who are they? Where did they come from? Thus Lord Brahma thought long and hard, trying to distinguish between the two sets of boys, who were separately existing. He tried to understand who was real and who was not real, but he could not understand at all. Thus, because Lord Brahma wanted to mystify the all-pervading Lord Krishna, who can never be mystified, but who, on the contrary, mystifies the entire universe, Brahma himself was mystified.

As the darkness of snow on a dark night and the light of a glowworm in the daytime have no value, the mystic power of an inferior person who tries to use it against a person with far greater power is unable to accomplish anything; instead, the power of that inferior person is diminished. Suddenly, while Lord Brahma looked on, all the calves and the boys tending them appeared with complexions the color of bluish rainclouds and were dressed in yellow silken garments. All those personalities had four arms, and were holding a conchshell, disc, mace and lotus flower in Their hands. They wore helmets on Their heads, earrings on Their ears and garlands of forest flowers around Their necks. On the upper portion of the right side of Their chests was the emblem of the goddess of fortune. Furthermore, They wore armlets on Their arms, the kaustubha gem around Their necks – which were marked with three lines like a conchshell – and bracelets on Their wrists. With bangles on Their ankles, ornaments on Their feet, and sacred belts around Their waists, They all appeared very handsome. Every part of Their bodies – from Their feet to the top of Their heads – was well decorated with fresh, tender garlands of tulasi leaves offered by devotees engaged in worshiping the Lord by the greatest pious activities, of hearing and chanting. Those Vishnu forms, by Their pure smiling, which resembled the increasing light of the waxing moon, and by the sidelong glances of Their reddish eyes, created and protected the desires of Their own devotees, as if by the modes of passion and goodness. All beings, both moving and nonmoving, from the four-headed Lord Brahma down to the most insignificant living entity, had taken forms and were differently worshiping those viṣṇu-mūrtis, according to their respective capacities, with various  means of worship, such as dancing and singing. All the viṣṇu-mūrtis were surrounded by the personified mystic perfections, headed by aṇimā-siddhi; by the personified mystic potencies, headed by Ajā; and by the personified twenty-four elements of the material world, headed by the mahat-tattva.

Then Lord Brahma saw that time itself (kāla), associated nature (svabhāva), purificatory rituals (saṁskāra), desire (kāma), fruitive activity (karma) and the three modes of material nature (guṇa), their independence being completely
subordinate to the potency of the Lord, had all taken forms and were also worshiping those viṣṇu-mūrtis. The viṣṇu-mūrtis all had eternal, unlimited forms, full of knowledge and bliss and existing beyond the influence of time. Their greatness was well beyond the scope of the jnānīs engaged in studying the Upaniṣads. Lord Brahma saw the Supreme Brahman, by whose energy this entire universe, with its moving and nonmoving living beings, is manifested. He also saw at the same time all the calves and boys as the Lord’s expansions.

Then, by the power of the effulgence of those viṣṇu-mūrtis, Lord Brahma, his eleven senses jolted by astonishment and stunned by transcendental bliss, became silent, just like a child’s clay doll in the presence of the village deity. The Supreme Brahman is beyond mental speculation, He is self-manifest, existing in His own bliss, and He is beyond the material energy. He is known by the crest jewels of the Vedas by refutation of irrelevant knowledge. Thus in relation to that Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead, whose glory had been shown by the manifestation of all the four-armed forms of Vishnu, Lord Brahma, the lord of Sarasvati, was mystified.

“What is this?” he thought, as he was not able to see anything within his comprehension. Lord Krishna, understanding Brahma’s position, at once removed the curtain of His yogamaya. Lord Brahma’s external consciousness revived, he stood up, like a dead man coming back to life. Opening his eyes with great difficulty, he saw the entire universe, along with himself. Then, looking in all directions, Lord Brahma immediately saw Vrindavana before him, filled with trees, which were the means of livelihood for the inhabitants and which were equally pleasing in all seasons.

Vrindavana is the transcendental abode of the Lord, where there is no hunger, anger or thirst. Though naturally inimical, both human beings and fierce animals live there together in transcendental friendship. Then Lord Brahma
saw the Absolute Truth who is one without a second, who possesses full knowledge and who is unlimited. He saw Him assuming the role of a child in a family of cowherd men and standing alone, just as before, with a morsel of food in His hand, searching everywhere for the calves and His cowherd friends. Seeing this, Lord Brahma hastily got down from his swan carrier, fell to the ground like a golden rod and touched the lotus feet of Lord Krishna with the tips of the four crowns on his heads. Offering his obeisance, he bathed the feet of Krishna with the water of his tears of joy. Rising and falling again and again at the lotus feet of Lord Krishna for a long time, Lord Brahma repeatedly remembered the Lord’s greatness he had just seen. Then, rising very slowly and wiping his eyes, Lord Brahma looked up at Mukunda (Krishna). Lord Brahma, his head bent low, his mind concentrated and his body trembling, very humbly began, with faltering words, to offer praises to Lord Krishna.

— Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) » Canto 10: The Summum Bonum » Chapter Thirteen: The Stealing of the Boys and Calves by Brahma » Verses: 40-64.