Adi-lila, Chapter 6 529
varieties of manifestations. Thus originally matter is the cause. In refuting this
argument, we may say that an animal of the same species as the cow—namely, the
bull—also eats straw like the cow but does not produce milk. Under the circum-
stances, it cannot be said that straw in connection with a particular species produces
milk. The conclusion should be that there is superior management, as confirmed in
Bhagavad-gita (9.10), where the Lord says, mayddhyaksena prakrtih stiyate sa-
cardcaram: ‘This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti,
and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings.’ The Supreme Lord says,
mayadhyaksena (‘under My superintendence’). When He desires that the cow
produce milk by eating straw, there is milk, and when He does not so desire it, the
mixture of such straw cannot produce milk. If the way of material nature had been
that straw produced milk, a stack of straw could also produce milk. But that is not
possible. And the same straw given to a human female also cannot produce milk.
That is the meaning of Bhagavad-gitd’s statement that only under superior orders
does anything take place. Matter itself has no power to produce independently. The
conclusion, therefore, is that matter, which has no self-knowledge, cannot be the
cause of the material creation. The ultimate creator is the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.

“If matter were accepted as the original cause of creation, all the authorized
scriptures in the world would be useless, for in every scripture, especially the Vedic
scriptures like the Manu-smrti, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is said to be
the ultimate creator. The Manu-smrti is considered the highest Vedic direction to
humanity. Manu is the giver of law to mankind, and in the Manu-smrti it is clearly
stated that before the creation the entire universal space was darkness, without
information and without variety, and was in a state of complete suspension, like
a dream. Everything was darkness. The Supreme Personality of Godhead then
entered the universal space, and although He is invisible, He created the visible
cosmic manifestation. In the material world the Supreme Personality of Godhead
is not manifested by His personal presence, but the presence of the cosmic mani-
festation in different varieties is the proof that everything has been created under
His direction. He entered the universe with all creative potencies, and thus He
removed the darkness of the unlimited space.

“The form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described to be transcen-
dental, very subtle, eternal, all-pervading, inconceivable and therefore nonmanifested
to the material senses of a conditioned living creature. He desired to expand Himself
into many living entities, and with such a desire He first created a vast expanse of
water within the universal space and then impregnated that water with living en-
tities. By that process of impregnation a massive body appeared, blazing like a
thousand suns, and in that body was the first creative principle, Brahma. The great
Parasara Rsi has also confirmed this in the Visnu Purdna. He says that the cosmic
manifestation visible to us is produced from Lord Visnu and sustained under His
protection. He is the principal maintainer and destroyer of the universal form.

“This cosmic manifestation is one of the diverse energies of the Supreme Person-
ality of Godhead. As a spider secretes saliva and weaves a web by its own movements
but at the end winds the web within its body, so Lord Visnu produces this cosmic
