Text 17]
Conversation Between Maitreya and Vidura
769
is independently able to create the rest of the manifested universe. The lotus is described here to be as effulgent as the glare of a thousand suns. This indicates that the living entities, as parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, are also of the same quality, since the Lord also diffuses His bodily glare, known as  brahmajyoti . The description of Vaikuṇṭhaloka, as stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  and other Vedic literatures, is confirmed herewith. In Vaikuṇṭha, the spiritual sky, there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, electricity or fire. Every planet there is self-effulgent like the sun.
TEXT 17
सोऽनुविष्टो भगवता यः शेते सलिलाशये । लोकसंस्थां यथापूर्वं निर्ममे संस्थया स्वया ॥१७॥
so 'nuviṣṭo bhagavatā yaḥ śete salilāśaye loka-saṁsthāṁ yathā pūrvaṁ nirmame saṁsthayā svayā
saḥ—Lord Brahmā; anuviṣṭaḥ—was entered; bhagavatā—by the Lord; yaḥ—who; śete—sleeps; salila-āśaye—on the Garbhodaka Ocean; loka-saṁsthāṁ—the universe; yathā pūrvaṁ—as previously; nirmame—created; saṁsthayā—by intelligence; svayā—his own.
TRANSLATION
When that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is lying on the Garbhodaka Ocean entered the heart of Brahmā, Brahmā brought his intelligence to bear, and with the intelligence invoked he began to create the universe as it was before.
PURPORT
At a certain time, the Personality of Godhead, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, lies in the Kāraṇa Ocean and produces many thousands of universes from His breathing; then He enters again into each and every universe as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and fills up half of each universe with His own perspiration. The other half of the universe remains vacant, and that vacant region is called outer space. Then the lotus flower sprouts from His abdomen and produces the first living creature, Brahmā. Then again, as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Lord enters into the heart of every living entity,