Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.29.44

guṇābhimānino devāḥ

sargādiṣv asya yad-bhayāt

vartante 'nuyugaḿ yeṣāḿ

vaśa etac carācaram

SYNONYMS

guṇa — the modes of material nature; abhimāninaḥ — in charge of; devāḥ — the demigods; sarga-ādiṣu — in the matter of creation and so on; asya — of this world; yat-bhayāt — out of fear of whom; vartante — carry out functions; anuyugam — according to the yugas; yeṣām — of whom; vaśe — under the control; etat — this; cara-acaram — everything animate and inanimate.

TRANSLATION

Out of fear of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the directing demigods in charge of the modes of material nature carry out the functions of creation, maintenance and destruction; everything animate and inanimate within this material world is under their control.

PURPORT

The three modes of material nature, namely goodness, passion and ignorance, are under the control of three deities — Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva. Lord Viṣṇu is in charge of the mode of goodness, Lord Brahmā is in charge of the mode of passion, and Lord Śiva is in charge of the mode of ignorance. Similarly, there are many other demigods in charge of the air department, the water department, the cloud department, etc. Just as the government has many different departments, so, within this material world, the government of the Supreme Lord has many departments, and all these departments function in proper order out of fear of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Demigods are undoubtedly controlling all matter, animate and inanimate, within the universe, but above them the supreme controller is the Personality of Godhead. Therefore in the Brahma-saḿhitā it is said, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ [Bs. 5.1]. Undoubtedly there are many controllers in the departmental management of this universe, but the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa.

There are two kinds of dissolutions. One kind of dissolution takes place when Brahmā goes to sleep during his night, and the final dissolution takes place when Brahmā dies. As long as Brahmā does not die, creation, maintenance and destruction are actuated by different demigods under the superintendence of the Supreme Lord.

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