228 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 10, Ch. 3

red, because Brahma represents the qualities of passion for creation.
Darkness is entrusted to Lord Siva because he annihilates the cosmos.
The creation, annihilation and maintenance of this cosmic manifestation
are conducted by Your potencies, yet You are always unaffected by those
qualities.” As confirmed in the Vedas, harir hi nirgunah saksat: the
Supreme Personality of Godhead is always free from all material
qualities. It is also said that the qualities of passion and ignorance are
nonexistent in the person of the Supreme Lord.

In this verse, the three colors mentioned—Sukla, rakta and krsna—
are not to be understood literally, in terms of what we experience with
our senses, but rather as representatives of sattva-guna, rajo-guna and
tamo-guna. After all, sometimes we see that a duck is white, although it
is in tamo-guna, the mode of ignorance. Illustrating the logic called
bakdndha-nyaya, the duck is such a fool that it runs after the testicles of
a bull, thinking them to be a hanging fish that can be taken when it
drops. Thus the duck is always in darkness. Vyasadeva, however, the
compiler of the Vedic literature, is blackish, but this does not mean that
he is in tamo-guna; rather, he is in the highest position of sattva-guna,
beyond the material modes of nature. Sometimes these colors (Sukla-
raktas tathé pitah) are used to designate the bréhmanas, ksatriyas,
vaisyas and Siidras. Lord Ksirodakasayi Visnu is celebrated as possessing
a blackish color, Lord Siva is whitish, and Lord Brahma is reddish, but
according to Srila Sandtana Gosvami in the Vaisnava-tosani-tikd, this ex-
hibition of colors is not what is referred to here.

The real understanding of sukla, rakta and krsna is as follows. The
Lord is always transcendental, but for the sake of creation He assumes
the color rakta as Lord Brahma. Again, sometimes the Lord becomes

angry. As He says in Bhagavad-gita (16.19):

tan aham dvisatah kriran
samsaresu narddhaman

ksipamy ajasram asubhan
dsurisv eva yonisu

“Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among
men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various
demoniac species of life.” To destroy the demons, the Lord becomes
