136
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 3]
So this  puruṣa  form is the confirmation of the same principle. The original Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva or Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is famous as the son of King Vasudeva or King Nanda, is full with all opulences, all potencies, all fames, all beauties, all knowledge and all renunciation. Part of His opulences is manifested as impersonal Brahman, and part of His opulences is manifested as Paramātmā. This  puruṣa  feature of the same Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Paramātmā manifestation of the Lord. There are three  puruṣa  features in the material creation, and this form, who is known as the  Kāraṇodakaśāyī  Viṣṇu, is the first of the three. The others are known as the  Garbhodakaśāyī  Viṣṇu and the  Kṣīrodakaśāyī  Viṣṇu, which we shall know one after another. The innumerable universes are generated from the skinholes of this  Kāraṇodakaśāyī  Viṣṇu, and in each one of the universes the Lord enters as  Garbhodakaśāyī  Viṣṇu.
In the  Bhagavad-gītā  it is also mentioned that the material world is created at certain intervals and then again destroyed. This creation and destruction is done by the supreme will because of the conditioned souls or the  nitya-badhya  living beings. The  nitya-badhya  or the eternally conditioned souls have the sense of individuality or  ahaṅkara , which dictates them sense enjoyment, which they are unable to have constitutionally. The Lord is the only enjoyer, and all others are enjoyed. The living beings are predominated enjoyers. But the eternally conditioned souls, forgetful of this constitutional position, have strong aspirations to enjoy. This chance to enjoy matter is given to the conditioned souls in the material world, and side by side they are given the chance to understand their real constitutional position. Those fortunate living entities who catch the truth and surrender unto the lotus feet of Vāsudeva after many, many births in the material world, join the eternally liberated souls and thus are allowed to enter into the kingdom of Godhead. After this, such fortunate living entities need not come again within the occasional material creation. But those who cannot catch the constitutional truth are again merged into the  mahat-tattva  at the time of annihilation of the material creation. When the creation is again set up, this  mahat-tattva  is again let loose. This  mahat-tattva  contains all the ingredients of the material manifestations, including the conditioned souls. Primarily this  mahat-tattva  is divided into sixteen parts, namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses. It is like the cloud in the clear sky. In the spiritual sky, the effulgence of Brahman is spread all round, and the whole system is dazzling in spiritual light. The  mahat-tattva  is assembled in some corner of the vast unlimited spiritual sky, and the part which is thus covered by the  mahat-tattva  is called the material sky. This part of the