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Bhāgavatam is the Answer
603
The material nature is one of the energies of the Lord, and she can work under the direction of the Lord ( adhyakṣeṇa ). When the Lord throws His transcendental glance over the material nature, then only can the material nature act, as the father contacts the mother, and then the mother is able to conceive a child. The material nature therefore produces the moving and standing manifestations of the material world after being contacted by the supreme father, and not independently. Therefore although it appears, to the layman, that the mother gives birth to the child, the experienced man knows that the father gives birth to the child. To consider material nature as the cause of creation, maintenance, etc., is called the “logic of nipples on the neck of the goat.” The  Caitanya-caritāmṛta  by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī describes this logic of  ajagalastana  as follows (as explained by His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja): “The material nature, as the material cause, is known as  pradhāna , and as efficient cause is known as  māyā . But being inert matter, it is not the remote cause of creation.” Kavirāja Gosvāmī states as follows:
ataeva kṛṣṇa mul, jagat karan prakṛti karan jaichhe ajagalastan  (C.c.,  Ādi  5.61)
Because the Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu is a plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa, it is He who electrifies the matter to be in motion. The example of electrification is quite appropriate. A piece of iron is certainly not fire, but when the iron is made red-hot, certainly it has the quality of fire through its burning capacity. Matter is compared with the piece of iron, and it is electrified or made red-hot by the glance or manipulation of the supreme consciousness of Viṣṇu. By such electrification only does the energy of matter become displayed by various actions and reactions. Therefore the inert matter is neither efficient nor is it the material cause of the cosmic manifestation. Śrī Kapiladeva has said:
yatholmukād visphulingād dhūmād vāpi svasambhavāt apy ātma-tvenābhimatād yathāgniḥ pṛthag ulmukāt (Bhāg. 3.28.40)
The original fire, its flame, its sparks, and its smoke are all one, as fire is still fire yet is different from the flame, flame is different from sparks, and sparks are different from the smoke. In every one of them, namely in the flames, in the sparks and in the smoke, the integrity of fire is present, and still all of them and each and every one of them are differently situated with different positions. The cosmic manifestation is compared to the