PLATE TWO

As Queen Kunti begins her prayers, she immediately reveals her
knowledge of Lord Krsna’s exalted, divine nature: ‘‘O Krsna, 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 Krsna always resides in
Goloka Vrndavana, the highest of the innumerable planets in the spiri-
tual realm. All of these planets are eternal, self-illuminated, and (except
for Goloka Vrndavana itself) presided over by one of Krsna’s Visnu ex-
pansions. For the purpose of creating and maintaining the material uni-
verses, Krsna expands into a different kind of Visnu form known as
Maha-Visnu. Maha-Visnu sleeps within the Causal Ocean, and from His
transcendental body myriad universes emanate like so many bubbles.
Within each of those universal globes, Maha-Visnu expands Himself as
Garbhodakasayi Visnu, from whose navel a lotus flower grows. Upon
that lotus appears Lord Brahma, the secondary creator in each universe.
The final Visnu expansion is the all-pervading Ksirodakasayi Visnu, or
Supersoul, who resides within every atom and within the heart of all
creatures. In this way Krsna is indeed ‘‘within and without everything,”
as Queen Kunti declares. (p. J)
