Origin of Gods - Part II - Origin of Sambhu

The spiritual potency in the form of Ramä-devi, who is dear to the Lord Krsna, is Destiny. That goddess is always controlled by the Supreme Lord and She is always dedicated to His service. For the sake of all the conversation we are going to have, it is important to remember that, Rama-devi is inseparable from the Lord and she is not the maya that we are going to talk about in this blog. I have found the Yantra which might explain the arrangement of Goloka as described in my previous blog.

Earlier, we already talked about Sankarsana, being one of the personal expansion of Lord Krsna. Väsudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are the personal expansions of the Lord. These four are adorned with the objectives namely religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation, and the causes of those four objectives, are the four Vedas Rig, Yajur, Säma and Atharva. Sankarsana lying in the 'causal ocean' takes the form of Purusa and casts a glance towards maya which becomes the instrumental cause of the creation.

At the onset of creation, the effulgence of Mahä-Visnuu, an expansion of Krishna’s plenary portion, is manifest in the form of Sambhu (Siva). That Sambhu is called the linga or His generative capacity, and appears for the purpose of preparing the cosmic manifestation of the material universes. The linga in the form of Sambhu is a reflection of the eternal light or effulgence. The feminine receptive potency is manifest from Ramä-devi. That potency which gives birth to the material creation is the inferior energy called mäyä, whose intrinsic form is the yoni, the womb of universal creation. The union of the yoni and linga is the unmanifested material energy (mahat-tattva) in the form of the twenty-four elements of creation.

At this point I recall reading that this is not the only Siva which we saw above. There are other Siva forms (Sadasiva/visnu-tattva) which are manifestations of Maha-Visnu for specific purposes. May be it will be the point of discussion at some other time. But please remember that first incarnation of the Lord involving material universe / external energy is Sambhu.

All progeny such as humans and demigods, along with their respective worlds, have issued forth from this combination of the purusa (Lord), pradhana (Sambhu) and prakriti (maya). The Mahä-Sankarsana of His quadruple expansion is also a partial expansion of Baladeva (Balarama), Krishna’s first pastime expansion.

By the influence of the purusa, Mahä-Sankarsana attains the form of His partial expansion Karanodakasayi Mahä-Visnu eternally reposes (rests) in Virajä, which is the borderline between the conscious and unconscious realms. From there He glances toward mäyä, which is the remotely situated shadow of the spiritual potency. The semblance (image) of that transcendental glance is sambhu (pradhäna) which is replete (complete) with the potential material ingredients. Sambhu, in the form of Rudra, unites with mäyä, the instrumental cause. However, he cannot do anything without the influence of the direct spiritual might of Krsna (purusa) in the form of Karanodakasayi Mahä-Visnu (Sankarsana). Therefore the unmanifest material energy (mahat-tattva) emerges only when the active endeavors of mäyä (jiva-sakti/prakriti) and the primordial material ingredients (pradhäna) are sanctioned by Sankarsana, (krsna’s personal expansion), and Mahä-Visnu, (who is Sankarsana’s personal expansion) the first purusa-avatära.