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The Cause of All Causes
257
vaikārikāt —from the mode of goodness;  manaḥ —the mind;  jajñe —generated;  devāḥ —demigods;  vaikārikāḥ —in the mode of goodness;  daśa —ten in number;  dik —the controller of direction;  vāta —the controller of air;  arka —the sun;  pracetaḥ —Varuṇa;  aśvi —the Aśvinīkumāras;  vahni —the fire-god;  indra —the King of heaven;  upendra —the deity in heaven;  mitra —one of the twelve Ādityas;  kāḥ —Prajāpati Brahmā.
TRANSLATION
From the mode of goodness the mind was generated and became manifest, as also the ten demigods controlling the bodily movements. Such demigods are known as the controller of directions, the controller of air, the sun-god, the father of Dakṣa Prajāpati, the Aśvinīkumāras, the fire-god, the King of heaven, the worshipable deity in the heaven, the chief of the Ādityas, and Brahmājī the Prajāpati. All came into existence.
PURPORT
Vaikārika  is the neutral stage of creation, and  tejas  is the initiative of creation, while  tamas  is the full display of material creation under the spell of the darkness of ignorance. Manufacture of the “necessities of life” in factories and workshops, excessively prominent in the age of Kali or in the age of the machine, is the summit stage of the quality of darkness. Such manufacturing enterprises by the human society are in the mode of darkness because factually there is no necessity for the commodities manufactured. The human society primarily requires food for subsistence, shelter for sleeping, defense for protection and commodities for satisfaction of the senses. The senses are the practical signs of life, as will be explained in the next verse. Human civilization is meant for purifying the senses, and objects of sense satisfaction should be supplied as much as absolutely required, but not for aggravating artificial sensory needs. Food, shelter, defense and sense gratification are all needs of material existence. Otherwise, in his pure uncontaminated state of original life, the living entity has no such needs. The needs are, therefore, artificial, and in the pure state of life there are no such needs. As such, increasing the artificial needs, as is the standard of material civilization, or advancing the economic development of human society, is a sort of engagement in the darkness of knowledge. By such engagement, human energy is spoiled, because human energy is primarily meant for purifying the senses in order to be engaged in satis-