144
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 7, Ch. 8]
touch Him. Whenever the Lord is present, there cannot be any darkness from the mode of ignorance. It is stated in  Caitanya-caritāmṛta  ( Madhya  22.31):
kṛṣṇa  —  sūrya-sama, māyā haya andhakāra yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra
“Godhead is light. Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience.” This material world is full of darkness and ignorance of spiritual life, but by  bhakti-yoga  this ignorance is dissipated. The Lord appeared because of the  bhakti-yoga  exhibited by Prahlāda Mahārāja, and as soon as the Lord appeared, the influence of Hiraṇyakaśipu’s passion and ignorance was vanquished as the Lord’s quality of pure goodness, or the Brahman effulgence, became prominent. In that prominent effulgence, Hiraṇyakaśipu became invisible, or his influence became insignificant. An example illustrating how the darkness of the material world is vanquished is given in the  śāstra . When Brahmā was created from the lotus stem growing from the abdomen of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Lord Brahmā saw everything to be dark, but when he received knowledge from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, everything became clear, as everything becomes clear when one comes from night to sunshine. The important point is that as long as we are in the material modes of nature, we are always in darkness. This darkness cannot be dissipated without the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which is invoked by the practice of  bhakti-yoga .  Bhakti-yoga  creates a transcendental situation with no tinges of material contamination.
TEXT 25
ततोऽभिपद्याभ्यहनमहासुरो
रुषा नृसिंहं गदयोरुवेगया ।
तं विक्रमन्तं सगदं गदाधरो
महोरगं तार्त्यसुतो यथाग्रहीत् ॥२५॥
tato 'bhipadyābhyahanan mahāsuro
ruṣā nṛsiṁhaṁ gadayoruvegayā