Canto 3: The Status Quo
SB3.6

Canto 3 · Chapter 6 · 40 verses · 1 story

Creation of the Universal Form

The Lord enters the material elements, manifesting the universal form with its senses, deities, and social orders.

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Connected storiesThe churning of the oceanViśvarūpa
Who is speakingSūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King ParīkṣitMaitreya Ṛṣi → ViduraEvery voice in this chapter ›

What this chapter speaks about · the ten subjects

In this chapter

Who · Vidura, Maitreya

The story · Vidura reached Hardwar, where the learned sage Maitreya was seated. He asked to hear the extraordinary activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Maitreya told him that the Lord had left instructions for his sake, then described the development of material creation and the universal form. Vidura continued asking about the soul, illusion, the planets, devotional service, and the duties of spiritual teachers and disciples.

What it teaches · Hearing and discussing the Lord’s activities is the highest perfectional gain of humanity. Through serious devotional hearing, knowledge and renunciation become complete.

Beyond this chapter

Connected stories across the Bhāgavatam

Stories told in other chapters that this chapter's verses or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports bring in, the other Bhāgavatam verses the purports quote, and stories in other cantos with the same themes. Each link shows the sentence it comes from.

What it teaches · Even the demigods depend on the Supreme Lord’s help. Their preparations follow His direction rather than relying only on their own strength.

The airs of life are called prāṇa, apāna, udāna, vyāna and samāna and are also differently qualified as nāga, kūrma, kṛkara, devadatta and dhanañjaya.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.6.7 (Text 7)

The air which helps contraction is called kūrma air.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.6.9 (Text 9)
Read the story in SB 8.5–6

What it teaches · Pride in wealth can lead one to neglect the spiritual master and fall into difficulty. The Nārāyaṇa-kavaca prayers seek the Lord’s protection for the intelligence, senses, mind and life air.

When the twenty-three principal elements were set in action by the will of the Supreme, the gigantic universal form, or the viśvarūpa body of the Lord, came into existence.

Read the story in SB 6.7–8