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<\/a>maya-bhartajanda-sanghasrayangah<\/em>\nsete saksat karanambhodhi-madhye<\/em>
\nyasyaikamsah sri-puman adi-devas<\/em>
\ntam sri-nityananda-ramam prapadye<\/em><\/p>\n
I offer my full obeisances unto the feet of Sri Nityananda Rama, whose partial representation called Karanodakasayi Vishnu, lying on the Karana Ocean, is the original\u00a0purusa<\/i>, the master of the illusory energy, and the shelter of all the universes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Godhead\u2019s desire to bestow liberation\u2014his compassion\u2014requires another world. Thus from the trans-spatial, timeless realm of Vaikuntha, the world of time and space manifests, and in the above verse, Krsnadasa Kaviraja identifies the deity from whom our world issues forth. Maha Sankarsna of Vaikuntha incarnates as Karanadakasayi, also known as Mahavisnu. He is the\u00a0adi avatara<\/i>, the original\u00a0avatara<\/i>through whom all other\u00a0avataras<\/i>\u00a0appear. He is sometimes described as having thousands of heads and hands for this very reason: innumerable\u00a0avataras<\/i>\u00a0manifest through him.1<\/a>\u00a0In this verse, Sri Krsnadasa refers to him as \u201cadi deva puman<\/i>,\u201d the original Person\/God. However, he is the original God only in terms of those manifestations of the Godhead who cross from up to down (ava-tara<\/i>), from the trans-spatial realm into time and space. Rather than presiding as Maha Sankarsana does, far beyond\u00a0maya<\/i>\u2014mayatite<\/i>\u2014 in his form as Mahavisnu, he is the master the maintainer of\u00a0maya<\/i>\u2014maya bharta<\/i>. And here the objective world of time and space is referred to as an \u201cegg<\/i>.\u201d The words \u201caja<\/i>\u201d and \u201canda<\/i>\u201d speak literally of \u201cunborn eggs<\/i>.\u201d The master of\u00a0maya<\/i>\u00a0manifests the cluster of unborn eggs. With his glance of consciousness that arouses matter, nature takes shape and the multiverse is formed. The un-hatched, egg-like universes are said to be so numerable that they emanate form Mahavisnu\u2019s pores. The truth is that they are numberless, as the entire expanse of time and space knows no bounds. The attempt to measure it with any finality is the folly of the influence of\u00a0maya-sakti<\/i>.\u00a0Maya<\/i>\u00a0means \u201cillusion\u201d and well as \u201cto measure.\u201d And the measure of its illusory power is itself inestimable.2<\/a><\/p>\n
Furthermore while the universes are said to emanate from Mahavisnu, in another sense they are unborn in that even when unmanifest, the entire multiverse remains within the body of God. As the\u00a0Bhagavad-gita\u00a0<\/i>declares, the world rests within the unmanifest form of God\u2014jagat avyakta murtina<\/i>. He is the soul of the world that is his body. In other words, the world is dependent upon him as the body is dependent upon the soul. But unlike our souls, which are dependent upon our bodies to act in this world, the Godhead is in no way dependent upon the world. Objections to such panentheism with regard to the world\u2019s imperfections being God\u2019s imperfections\u2014if the world is in some sense God, it\u2019s flaws are God\u2019s flaws, as well\u2014do not hold up. Not only does the dependent relation between the world and God run only one way (the world being dependent, God not), but moreover the world\u2019s defects do not affect God.<\/p>\n
The word \u201ckarana<\/i>\u201d in this epithet for Mahavisnu\u2014Karanambodhi-\u2014means \u201ccause.\u201d He is the first cause, even as he himself has nothing to accomplish, depicted as he is floating comfortably on a raft within the \u201ccausal ocean\u201d\u2014karana ambhodhi<\/i>\u2014 an ocean of\u00a0cit<\/i>\u00a0that is causal only in that it is the resting place of the first cause. And the world of Mahavisnu\u2019s concern, his jurisdiction, is the world of cause and effect\u2014the realm of\u00a0karma<\/i>\u00a0as opposed to the realm of\u00a0lila<\/i>. While he is involved in this world as its creator, his participation is nonetheless distant. He is more of a witness, whose watch or glance sets the world ofkarma<\/i>\u00a0in motion, while he himself remains aloof from\u00a0karma<\/i>\u2019s influence. As first cause he is merely expressing his fullness, and thus the world is manifest out of joy and not for any necessity on the part of the Godhead. The One, it is said, becomes many out of\u00a0ananda<\/i>, a love that transcends reason. The\u00a0sutras<\/i>of Vyasa concisely state it thus;\u00a0lokavat tu lila kaivalyam<\/i>: \u201cThe motive of God in manifesting the world is only sport, as we see in ordinary life people sometimes dance for no reason other than joy.\u201d In other words, his \u201ccreation\u201d is motiveless and thus\u00a0lila<\/i>. But in the\u00a0srsti-lila<\/i>\u00a0we find\u00a0lila<\/i>\u00a0transitioning into\u00a0karma<\/i>. The two,\u00a0lila<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0karma<\/i>, are worlds apart. However, Mahavisnu\u2019s\u00a0sristi-lila<\/i>\u00a0sets the world of\u00a0karma<\/i>\u00a0in motion. While he does not enter this world, he glances at it and thus his\u00a0amsabhasa<\/i>\u00a0or reflection of himself in the form of innumerable\u00a0jivas<\/i>\u00a0merged in homogeneity enters the world, one which lacks causal closure.3<\/a><\/p>\n
At first sight, dualism appears palpable in the world of Mahavisnu. There is consciousness and there is matter, two different substances very much unlike one another. Consciousness is the mover, while matter is moved. In today\u2019s world some would be quick to ask that if consciousness moves matter, why can\u2019t we observe the interaction between the two? Perhaps the best answer to this query, which implies that dualism is false and consciousness is not causal, lies in exploring the depths of the implications of the very power to observe. In other words, the act of observation itself is above matter\u2019s pay-grade, and when it is understood as such through spiritual practice, the reality of consciousness\u2019 causal role becomes evident. One has to do the spiritual math\u2014sadhana<\/i>.<\/p>\n
However, in Mahavisnu\u2019s world, matter, having been moved, also moves itself, and to a large extent. The\u00a0Gita<\/i>\u00a0states that through misidentification with matter the\u00a0jiva<\/i>\u00a0thinks that it is the doer of that which is in actuality done by matter.4<\/a>\u00a0In other words, the brain\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0responsible for much of what we mistakenly think to be a product of our volition\u2014for much, but not for everything. Nor are we a brain. The neural causal connections discovered by modern science are as influential to our behavior as neuroscience claims to be, but they are not the cause of consciousness itself. Consciousness is only dependent upon the brain in the manner that a driver\u2019s speed is dependent upon the particular car he is driving. Consciousness expresses itself relative to the body it identifies with. And it experiences the world vicariously, witnessing through neuronal causal connections involving interactions between subtle (mind) and gross (brain) matter, which in and of themselves do not experience at all. And as macrocosmically there is power in the glancing\u2014the witnessing of Mahavisnu\u2014microcosmically there is also power in the witnessing of the individual observer, the\u00a0jivatma<\/i>. Indeed, often something particular happens only because someone is present as a witness.<\/p>\n
Thus, arguably substance dualism in the strictest sense is not entirely at play in Mahavisnu\u2019s world. While consciousness is causal, at the same time matter causes much of what we mistakenly attribute to consciousness, and furthermore both consciousness and matter are not entirely different substances. Matter \u201cshapes\u201d the extent to which consciousness is expressed and in this sense alone consciousness is partially dependent upon matter, an idea not foreign to a number of today\u2019s prominent thinkers.5<\/a>Furthermore, both matter and consciousness are\u00a0saktis<\/i>\u00a0of Bhagavan and therefore the world of Mahavisnu is a nondual\/monistic world consisting of God (the energetic) and his\u00a0saktis<\/i>\u00a0(its energies) that have no existence independent of him.\u00a0Jiva-sakti<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0maya-sakti\u00a0<\/i>are different from one another in that one is animate and the other inanimate, one conscious the other unconscious, but they are united as energies of their energetic source, with which they are both one and different.<\/p>\n