Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi 1.50

yatha brahmane bhagavan

svayam upadisyanubhavitavan

SYNONYMS

yatha -- just as; brahmane -- unto Lord Brahma; bhagavan -- the Supreme Lord; svayam -- Himself; upadisya -- having instructed; anubhavitavan -- caused to perceive.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead [svayam bhagavan] taught Brahma and made him self-realized.

PURPORT

The English maxim that God helps those who help themselves is also applicable in the transcendental realm. There are many instances in the revealed scriptures of the Personality of Godhead's acting as the spiritual master from within. The Personality of Godhead was the spiritual master who instructed Brahma, the original living being in the cosmic creation. When Brahma was first created, he could not apply his creative energy to arrange the cosmic situation. At first there was only sound, vibrating the word tapa, which indicates the acceptance of hardships for spiritual realization. Refraining from sensual enjoyment, one should voluntarily accept all sorts of difficulties for spiritual realization. This is called tapasya. An enjoyer of the senses can never realize God, godliness or the science of theistic knowledge. Thus when Brahma, initiated by Sri Krishna by the sound vibration tapa, engaged himself in acts of austerity, by the pleasure of Vishnu he was able to visualize the transcendental world, Sri Vaikuntha, through transcendental realization. Modern science can communicate using material discoveries such as radio, television and computers, but the science invoked by the austerities of Sri Brahma, the original father of mankind, was still more subtle. In time, material scientists may also know how we can communicate with the Vaikuntha world. Lord Brahma inquired about the potency of the Supreme Lord, and the Personality of Godhead answered his inquiry in the following six consecutive statements. These instructions, which are reproduced from Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.31-36), were imparted by the Personality of Godhead, acting as the supreme spiritual master.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness