प्राणेन्द्रियमनोबुद्धिविकारैर्व्यक्तिमीयुषे ॥२८॥
nama ÄdyÄya bÄ«jÄya
jñÄna-vijñÄna-mÅ«rtaye
prÄṇendriya-mano-buddhi-
vikÄrair vyaktim Ä«yuá¹£e
namaḥ - I offer my respectful obeisances; ÄdyÄya - unto the original living creature; bÄ«jÄya - the seed of the cosmic manifestation; jñÄna - of knowledge; vijñÄna - and of practical application; mÅ«rtaye - unto the deity or form; prÄṇa - of the life air; indriya - of the senses; manaḥ - of the mind; buddhi - of the intelligence; vikÄraiḥ - by transformations; vyaktim - manifestation; Ä«yuá¹£e - who has obtained.
I offer my obeisances to the original personality within this universe, Lord BrahmÄ, who is cognizant and who can apply his mind and realized intelligence in creating this cosmic manifestation. It is because of his activities that everything within the universe is visible. He is therefore the cause of all manifestations.
The VedÄnta-sÅ«tra begins by declaring that the Absolute Person is the original source of all creation (janmÄdy asya yataḥ). One may ask whether Lord BrahmÄ is the Supreme Absolute Person. No, the Supreme Absolute Person is Kṛṣṇa. BrahmÄ receives his mind, intelligence, materials and everything else from Kṛṣṇa, and then he becomes the secondary creator, the engineer of this universe. In this regard we may note that the creation does not take place accidentally, because of the explosion of a chunk. Such nonsensical theories are not accepted by Vedic students. The first created living being is BrahmÄ, who is endowed with perfect knowledge and intelligence by the Lord. As stated in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, tene brahma há¹›dÄ ya Ädi-kavaye: although BrahmÄ is the first created being, he is not independent, for he receives help from the Supreme Personality of Godhead through his heart. There is no one but BrahmÄ at the time of creation, and therefore he receives his intelligence directly from the Lord through the heart. This has been discussed in the beginning of ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam.
Lord BrahmÄ is described in this verse as the original cause of the cosmic manifestation, and this applies to his position in the material world. There are many, many such controllers, all of whom are created by the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu. This is illustrated by an incident described in Caitanya-caritÄmá¹›ta. When the BrahmÄ of this particular universe was invited by Kṛṣṇa to DvÄrakÄ, he thought that he was the only BrahmÄ. Therefore when Kṛṣṇa inquired from His servant which BrahmÄ was at the door to visit, Lord BrahmÄ was surprised. He replied that of course Lord BrahmÄ, the father of the four KumÄras, was waiting at the door. Later, Lord BrahmÄ asked Kṛṣṇa why He had inquired which BrahmÄ had come. He was then informed that there are millions of other BrahmÄs because there are millions of universes. Kṛṣṇa then called all the BrahmÄs, who immediately came to visit Him. The catur-mukha BrahmÄ, the four-headed BrahmÄ of this universe, thought himself a very insignificant creature in the presence of so many BrahmÄs with so many heads. Thus although there is a BrahmÄ who is the engineer of each universe, Kṛṣṇa is the original source of all of them.
