Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 2.7.39

sarge tapo 'ham rishayo nava ye prajeśāh

sthāne 'tha dharma-makha-manv-amarāvanīśāh

ante tv adharma-hara-manyu-vaśāsurādyā

māyā-vibhūtaya imāh puru-śakti-bhājah

SYNONYMS

sarge — in the beginning of the creation; tapah — penance; aham — myself; rishayah — sages; nava — nine; ye prajeśāh — those who would generate; sthāne — in the middle while maintaining the creation; atha — certainly; dharma — religion; makha — Lord Vishnu; manu — the father of mankind; amara — the demigods deputed to control the affairs of maintenance; avanīśāh — and the kings of different planets; ante — at the end; tu — but; adharma — irreligion; hara — Lord Śiva; manyu-vaśa — subjected to anger; asura-ādyāh — atheists, the enemies of the devotees; māyā — energy; vibhūtayah — powerful representatives; imāh — all of them; puru-śakti-bhājah — of the supreme powerful Lord.

TRANSLATION

At the beginning of creation there are penance, myself [Brahmā], and the Prajāpatis, the great sages who generate; then, during the maintenance of the creation, there are Lord Vishnu, the demigods with controlling powers, and the kings of different planets. But at the end there is irreligion, and then Lord Śiva and the atheists full of anger, etc. All of them are different representative manifestations of the energy of the supreme power, the Lord.

PURPORT

The material world is created by the energy of the Lord, which is manifested in the beginning of the creation by the penance of Brahmājī, the first living being in the creation, and then there are the nine Prajāpatis, known as great sages. In the stage when the creation is maintained, there are devotional service to Lord Vishnu, or factual religion, the different demigods, and the kings of different planets who maintain the world. At last, when the creation is preparing to wind up, there is first the principle of irreligion, then Lord Śiva along with the atheists, full of anger. But all of them are but different manifestations of the Supreme Lord. Therefore Brahmā, Vishnu and Mahādeva (Śiva) are different incarnations of the different modes of material nature. Vishnu is the Lord of the mode of goodness. Brahmā is the lord of the mode of passion, and Śiva is the lord of the mode of ignorance. Ultimately, the material creation is but a temporary manifestation meant to give the chance of liberation to the conditioned souls, who are entrapped in the material world, and one who develops the mode of goodness under the protection of Lord Vishnu has the greatest chance of being liberated by following the Vaishnava principles and thus being promoted to the kingdom of God, no more to return to this miserable material world.

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