Prayers by the Personified Vedas
303
Parampuruṣa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead under whose superintendence material nature works, being created, maintained and destroyed. After the creation, the Supreme Lord incarnates into three, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva. All of these take charge of the three qualities of material nature, but the ultimate direction is in the hand of Lord Viṣṇu. The complete activities of material nature under the three modes are being conducted under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā ,  nyadarśana , and in the  Vedas: sa aikṣata .
The atheistic Sāṅkhyaite philosophers offer their arguments that this material cosmic manifestation is due to  prakṛti  and  puruṣa . They argue that nature and material energy constitute the material cause and the effective cause. But Kṛṣṇa is the cause of all causes. He is the cause of all material and effective causes.  Prakṛti  and  puruṣa  are not the ultimate cause. Superficially it appears that a child is born due to the combination of the father and mother, but the ultimate cause of both the father and the mother is Kṛṣṇa. He is therefore the original cause, or the cause of all causes, as is confirmed in the  Brahma-saṁhitā .
In the material nature, both the Supreme Lord and the living entities enter. The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, by one of His plenary expansions, manifests as the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and the Mahā-Viṣṇu, the gigantic Viṣṇu form lying in the Causal Ocean. Then from that gigantic form of the Mahā-Viṣṇu, the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu expands in every universe. From Him, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva expand. Viṣṇu enters into the hearts of all living entities, as well as into all material elements, including the atom. The  Brahma-saṁhitā  says:  aṇḍāntarastha-paramāṇu-cayāntarastham . He is within this universe and also within every atom.
The living entity has a small material body taken from various species and forms, and similarly the whole universe is but the material body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This body is described in the  śāstras  as  virāṭa rūpa . As the individual living entity maintains his particular body, the Supreme Personality of Godhead maintains the whole cosmic creation and everything within it. As soon as the individual living entity leaves the material body, the body is immediately annihilated, and similarly as soon as Lord Viṣṇu leaves the cosmic manifestation, everything is annihilated. Only when the individual living entity surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is his liberation from material existence assured. This is confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā :  mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te . Surrendering unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is therefore the cause of liberation and nothing else. How the living entity