PLATE TWO
As Queen Kuntī begins her prayers, she immediately reveals her knowledge of Lord Kṛṣṇa's exalted, divine nature: “O Kṛṣṇa, I offer my obeisances unto You because You are the original personality and are unaffected by the qualities of the material world. You are existing both within and without everything, yet You are invisible to all.” In His original form as a young cowherd boy, Lord Kṛṣṇa always resides in Goloka Vṛndāvana, the highest of the innumerable planets in the spiritual realm. All of these planets are eternal, self-illuminated, and (except for Goloka Vṛndāvana itself) presided over by one of Kṛṣṇa's Viṣṇu expansions. For the purpose of creating and maintaining the material universes, Kṛṣṇa expands into a different kind of Viṣṇu form known as Mahā-Viṣṇu. Mahā-Viṣṇu sleeps within the Causal Ocean, and from His transcendental body myriad universes emanate like so many bubbles. Within each of those universal globes, Mahā-Viṣṇu expands Himself as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, from whose navel a lotus flower grows. Upon that lotus appears Lord Brahmā, the secondary creator in each universe. The final Viṣṇu expansion is the all-pervading Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, or Supersoul, who resides within every atom and within the heart of all creatures. In this way Kṛṣṇa is indeed “within and without everything,” as Queen Kuntī declares. ( p. 1 )