Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 2.6.39
Āśraya· The supreme shelterKṛṣṇa Remains Supreme While Expanding Everything
“That supreme original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, expanding His plenary portion as Mahā-Viṣṇu, the first incarnation, creates this manifested cosmos, but He is unborn. The creation, however, takes place in Him, and the material substance and manifestations are all Himself. He maintains them for some time and absorbs them into Himself again.”
What the purport teaches
- Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, unborn even while creating. He expands as Mahā-Viṣṇu, from whom the universes and material manifestations are generated.
- The creation rests in the Lord and is nondifferent from Him, yet Kṛṣṇa remains aloof from it as the original Personality of Godhead. His impersonal feature exists alongside His personal form; it does not replace that form.
- The Lord creates, maintains and again absorbs the material manifestations through His inconceivable personal energies. This truth is accepted on scriptural authority and practically realized through progress in devotional service, not mental speculation.
Try this today
Read the translation aloud once, then offer a brief prayer of worship to Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the original Personality of Godhead.
Ask yourself
How does knowing that Kṛṣṇa remains a person while sustaining everything shape my desire to serve Him?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.