Text 11] The Cause of All Causes 233
the potential creation by the glaring effulgence of Lord Sri Krsna.
Brahmaji has separately also given this statement in the samhita known as
the Brahma-samhita, and he says there:
yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-
kotisv asesa-vasudhdadi asesa-bhiittam
tad-brahma niskalam anantam asesa bhiitam
govindam adi purusam tam aham bhajami
“I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord
whose effulgence of His transcendental body, known as the brahmajyoti,
unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of
unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varietics of climates and specific
conditions of life.”

The same statement is in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 14.27). Lord Krsna is
the background of the brahmajyoti (brahmane hi pratisthaham). In the
Nirukti, or Vedic dictionary, the import of pratistha is mentioned as that
which establishes. So the brahmajyoti is not independent or self-sufficient.
Lord Sri Krsna is ultimately the creator of the brahmajyoti, mentioned in
this verse as sva-rocisd, or the effulgence of the transcendental body of the
Lord. This brahmajyoti is all-pervading, and all creation is made possible
by its potential power; therefore the Vedic hymns declare that everything
that exists is being sustained by the brahmajyoti (sarvam khalv idam
brahma). Therefore the potential seed of all creation is the brahmajyoti,
and the same brahmajyoti, unlimited and unfathomed, is established by
the Lord. Therefore the Lord (Sri Krsna) is ultimately the supreme cause
of all creation (aham sarvasya prabhavah).

One should not expect the Lord to create like the blacksmith with a ham-
mer and other instruments. The Lord creates by His potencies. He has His
multifarious potencies (parasya Saktir vividhaiva srityate). Just as the small
seed of a banyan fruit has the potency to create a big banyan trec, similarly
the Lord disseminates all varieties of seeds by His potential brahmajyoti
(sva-rocisd), and the seeds are made to develop by the watering process of
persons like Brahma. Brahma cannot create the seeds, but he can manifest
the seed into a tree, just as a gardener helps the plants and orchards to
grow by the watering process. The example cited here of the sun is very
appropriate. In the material world the sun is the cause of all illumination:
fire, electricity, the rays of the moon, ete. All luminaries in the sky are
creations of the sun, the sun is the creation of the brahmajyoti, and the
brahmajyoti is the effulgence of the Lord. Thus the ultimate cause of
creation is the Lord.
