Text 21] Departure of Lord Krsna for Dvaraka 533
PURPORT

There are two types. of dissolution of the manifestive cosmos. At the
end of every 4,320,000,000 solar years, when Brahma, the lord of one par-
ticular universe, goes to sleep, there is one annihilation. And at the end of
Brahma’s life, which takes place at the end of Brahma’s one hundred years
of age, in our calculation at the end of 8,640,000,000 x 30 x 12 x 100
solar years, there is complete annihilation of the entire universe, and in
both the periods both the material energy called the mahat-tattva and the
marginal energy called jiva-tattva merge in the person of the Supreme
Lord. The living beings remain asleep within the body of the Lord until
there is another creation of the material world, and that is the way of
creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation.

The material creation is effected by the interaction of the three modes
of material nature set in action by the Lord, and therefore it is said here
that the Lord existed before the modes of material nature were set in
motion. In the Snuti mantra it is said that only Visnu, the Supreme Lord,
existed before the creation, and there were no Brahma or Siva and other
demigods. Visnu means the Maha-Visnu who is lying on the Causal Ocean,
and by His breathing only all the universes are generating in seeds and
gradually developing into gigantic forms with innumerable planets within
each and every universe. The seeds of universes develop into gigantic forms
in the way seeds of a banyan tree develop into numberless banyan trees.

This Maha-Visnu is the plenary portion of the Lord Sri Krsna, who is
mentioned in the Brahma-samhita as follows:

“Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the original Personality of
Godhead, Govinda, whose plenary portion is the Maha-Visnu. All the
Brahmas or the heads of the universes live only for the period of His
exhaling, after the universes are generated from the pores of His transcen-
dental body.” (Brahma-samhita 5.58).

Thus Govinda, or Lord Krsna, is the cause of Maha-Visnu also. The
ladies talking about this Vedic truth must have heard it from authoritative
sources. An authoritative source is the only means of knowing about
transcendental subject matter definitely. There is no other alternative.

The merging of the living beings into the body of Maha-Visnu takes place
automatically at the end of Brahma’s one hundred years. But that does
not mean that the individual living being loses his identity. The identity is
there, and as soon as there is another creation by the supreme will of the
Lord, all the sleeping or inactive living beings are again let loose to begin
their activities in the continuation of past different spheres of life. It is
called suptotthita naya, or awakening from sleep and again engaging in
