Understanding the Vedic Universe (Srimad Bhagavatam #32)

The soul is transcendental, just like the Lord, but because the soul is very small, it can fall under the control of material energy. The question is: how to get out of here?

In this second part of the course on the teachings of Lord Kapila, we will study the nature of this material world and our relationship with it. The soul is transcendental, just like the Lord is, but because the soul is very small, it can fall under the control of material energy, while the Lord never falls into illusion. Even though it may be dificult to understand how the transcendental soul falls into illusion, and how the spiritual soul can become related to matter, it is still a fact that we are here. By understanding the nature of this world, we can see the light behind the illusion and find our way back.

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Understanding The Srimad Bhagavatam #32

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Understanding Material nature and how it imprisons us

In the previous chapter, Lord Kapila offered a summary of his teachings, explaining the supreme goal and how the process of devotional service allows one to achieve it. This chapter, the 25th chapter of the 3rd canto, is also explained by Srila Prabhupada in his book Teachings of Lord Kapila, which offers a very concise explanation of the Sankhya philosophy and how it elevates us to the platform of pure devotional service to the Lord.

Now, starting from chapter 3.26, Lord Kapila offers a more detailed explanation of the Sankhya philosophy, an explanation that goes all the way up to chapter 3.32. This is a school of knowledge that has existed for billions of years, since the reign of Svāyambhuva Manu. This is knowledge that can liberate us by helping us to understand both the nature of this material world and the process of devotional service that makes us free from it. These chapters include some of the deepest purports Prabhupada wrote in the whole Srimad Bhagavatam. In this work I will try to explain these purports, so you can easily grasp the details of the topics he discuss and thus be able to go deeper in his purports.

Like in other passages of the Srimad Bhagavatam, a blessing is offered to those who study this section of the teachings of Lord Kapila with faith and attention. The blessing, offered by Maitreya is that by studying this section one becomes fixed in meditation into the Supreme Lord, and at the time of death goes to the Supreme abode, where he attains the transcendental loving service of the Lord.

Knowledge of the absolute truth

"The Personality of Godhead, Kapila, continued: My dear mother, now I shall describe unto you the different categories of the Absolute Truth, knowing which any person can be released from the influence of the modes of material nature. Knowledge is the ultimate perfection of self-realization. I shall explain that knowledge unto you by which the knots of attachment to the material world are cut." (SB 3.26.1-2)

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna explains the concept that different forms of sacrifices and spiritual realization culminate in transcendental knowledge. This transcendental knowledge is compared to a sword that can be used to cut down the forest of material illusion, breaking the knots of attachment that keep us bound to it.

When one achieves love of Godhead, knowledge becomes secondary. Mother Yashoda doesn't remember that Krishna is God, she just loves Him as her son. However, as long as we are in the conditioned platform, transcendental knowledge is essential, because it allows us to differentiate reality from illusion and thus maintain ourselves in the spiritual path.

Lord Kapila continues:

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Soul, and He has no beginning. He is transcendental to the material modes of nature and beyond the existence of this material world. He is perceivable everywhere because He is self-effulgent, and by His self-effulgent luster the entire creation is maintained. As His pastime, that Supreme Personality of Godhead, the greatest of the great, accepted the subtle material energy, which is invested with three material modes of nature and which is related with Viṣṇu." (SB 3.26.3-4)

Vedanta philosophy deals with five basic truths: The Supreme Lord, the jivas, material nature, time, and activities (karma). The jivas are eternally connected with the Supreme Lord, but when they somehow come in contact with material nature, their natural propensity to serve Krishna is converted into material activity, performed under the influence of the three modes. These material activities generate reactions that keep the soul entangled in the material world. All material activities happen under the purview of material time, and both time and material nature are eternal, being energies of the Supreme Lord. However, the interaction between them, which leads to the creation of the material world is temporary.

All material activities happen inside this material manifestation, which exists under the limits of material time. Although material nature (as an energy) is eternal, the universe goes through innumerable cycles of creation and destruction. The soul is not part of the material manifestation, but we are here for so long that is not possible to trace it back. In this way, Krishna, the souls, material nature, and time are eternal, but the material manifestation is not, and thus karma, or the actions and reactions of the living entities is also not eternal. Since Karma is not eternal, it can be changed and eventually destroyed, and when this happens we can return to our original spiritual position. The only true process to achieve that is devotional service to the Lord. Other processes of self-realization, such as jñāna and yoga are effective only to the extent that they are mixed with bhakti.

These five truths, as well as the interactions between them and the process of devotional service, are explained in detail by Lord Kapila in his Sankhya philosophy. In these first verses, He explains about the Lord.

a) He is the chief amongst all living entities.

b) He is eternal, without beginning. This also implies he doesn't change and has no end.

c) He is transcendental to this material world and to the three modes.

d) He is present everywhere as Paramatma and can be seen everywhere by the pure devotee.

e) He is self-effulgent, and this transcendental light (the Brahmajoti) maintains all creation.

f) Different from the souls, who somehow become covered by the material energy, the Lord participates in the material creation just as a pastime, without being affected by it.

Description of the material nature

Having described the Lord, Kapila Muni proceeds to describe the material nature:

"Divided into varieties by her threefold modes, material nature creates the forms of the living entities, and the living entities, seeing this, are illusioned by the knowledge-covering feature of the illusory energy. Because of his forgetfulness, the transcendental living entity accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and thus actuated, he wrongly applies the activities to himself. Material consciousness is the cause of one’s conditional life, in which conditions are enforced upon the living entity by the material energy. Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life." (SB 3.26.5-7)

The soul is transcendental, just like the Lord is, but because the soul is very small, it can fall under the control of material energy, while the Lord never falls into illusion. Even though it may be dificult to understand how the transcendental soul falls into illusion, and how the spiritual soul can become related to matter, it is still a fact that we are here.

Material nature is originally undifferentiated, as pradhāna, but after being agitated by the time energy it manifests three qualities: the modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance. When the three modes become manifested, pradhana becomes the mahat-tattva. By the combination of these three modes with time and the energy of the mahat-tattva, everything else is created, including the false ego, sense objects, material elements, etc.

Material nature manifests thus into many temporary manifestations that attract the conditioned souls. The souls thus accept many layers of material coverings to try to enjoy these creations, starting with the false ego, mind, and intelligence, going all the way to the material body and senses. Due to these coverings, the soul forgets his real nature and identifies with the body, accepting the body and the environment around it as his ksetra, or field of activities. Originally, the soul is free to go anywhere in the creation, but becoming attached to a particular body and certain objects of the senses, the soul becomes restricted to a certain space, where he lives under very strict conditions, just like in a prison. That's what we call conditioned life. However, under the influence of illusion, the soul considers himself happy and has no desire to leave this position. When Indra was cursed to become a hog on our planet, he was initially very afraid, but when he finally came, he became so attached to his hog's life that he didn't want to go back to his position as the king of the heavens. Such is the power of illusion.

In reality, the soul has no relationship with the body and performs no material activities, but under the influence of illusion, we erroneously accept the activities of the body as our own, and due to this illusion we become affected by conditioned life, sharing the pains and pleasures of the body. One example that can be offered is that there are many cars parked all over the city. If one sees a truck crashing into some random car, he will not think much about it, but if he sees the same truck crashing into his own car, the reaction will be very different. The situation is the same, but because he is attached to this particular car, he feels pain and anxiety when it is damaged, although the damage to the car doesn't directly affect him as a human being. Similarly, the soul has nothing to do with the body or the objects related to the body, but due to attachment to it, the soul becomes affected.

The nature of material attachment is such that it always ends in pain and frustration because everything in the material creation is temporary. Being the soul eternal, we always hanker for a permanent situation, where we don't have to part from whatever we have. However, this is impossible in the material world. We thus become attached to different people and objects and lament when they wither and are taken away. The final loss is the body itself. One may lose a son, a spouse, or a limb, but death means losing all of this simultaneously.

In this way, as long as we are not ready to return to our original position of service to Krishna, we live engrossed in anxiety and lamentation, accepting one temporary situation after the other in the material ocean.

Who is responsible for our current position?

Lord Kapila continues:

"The cause of the conditioned soul’s material body and senses, and the senses’ presiding deities, the demigods, is the material nature. This is understood by learned men. The feelings of happiness and distress of the soul, who is transcendental by nature, are caused by the spirit soul himself." (SB 3.26.8)

When the Lord comes to this material world, He comes and goes according to His own will. He is completely free to execute His pastimes and assume any form He wants. What about the soul? Who determines what kind of body will we accept? Who is responsible for our happiness and distress in this material world? Are we also just playing a pastime here, just like Krishna?

Mayavadis sometimes cynically say that, but that's not the fact. One may imagine himself as Narayana, and claim that he can control everything, but when a toothache comes he screams in pain and begs a dentist for help. It's quite easy to understand that our situation in the material world is different from the Lord when He comes as an incarnation.

We receive bodies according to the superior judgment of the material nature based on our past activities. In this sense, we are different from Krishna. He is completely free, while we are forced to take one body after the other according to the results of our previous actions. We are thus the cause of our own happiness and distress and we indirectly choose in which condition we will live by our actions and desires.

We come to this material world due to our free will and at every step, we can choose between continuing our existence here, moving up or down, or starting our way back. Although the soul is part of the spiritual potency of Krishna, it is called the marginal potency due to the presence of free will. This free will is an intrinsic characteristic of the soul, the very thing that makes us different from inanimate matter. Free will implies that we are free to make the wrong choices, decisions that even Krishna respects. However, when we desire to return to our original, eternal position, Krishna helps us in every way.

As Prabhupada explains in his purport: "The living entity is the cause of his own suffering, but he can also be the cause of his eternal happiness. When he wants to engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, a suitable body is offered to him by the internal potency, the spiritual energy of the Lord, and when he wants to satisfy his senses, a material body is offered. Thus it is his free choice to accept a spiritual body or a material body, but once the body is accepted he has to enjoy or suffer the consequences."

Devahuti enquires further

Up to this point, Lord Kapila spoke about the Lord, the material energy, the jivas, and the relationship of the jivas with material nature. Now Devahuti wants to know more about the interaction between the Lord's different energies and the causes of the material creation. She asks:

"O Supreme Personality of Godhead, kindly explain the characteristics of the Supreme Person and His energies, for both of these are the causes of this manifest and unmanifest creation." (SB 3.26.9)

In the Bhagavad-Gita (2.16), Krishna defines the spiritual potency as sat (existent) and the material world as asat (nonexistent), nāsato vidyate bhāvo, nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ. This is a quite delicate point of our philosophy. In one sense, the material world exists, because it is a manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Lord. Just like the Lord is not false, His energies are not false, and whatever is produced from the interaction of these different energies is also not false. However, at the same time, the material world is temporary, and in this sense, it is called "asat", because it is impermanent. The material world is thus different in nature from the spiritual reality.

The material manifestation is the result of the interaction of two potencies of the Supreme Lord: the external potency and the time potency, or kala. To this, are added the conditioned souls, who want to enjoy it, and the Lord Himself, present inside each universe as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and everywhere as Paramatma.

Both the external potency and the time potency are spiritual and eternal, but the material manifestation that comes from their combination is temporary. The fact that they are eternal, also implies that both energies don't change as a result of the material creation, since change would contradict their description as eternal. Only temporary things can undergo change because once changes happen, one change leads to the other, which eventually leads to destruction.

As you can see, this is quite dificult to explain. How can something eternal produce something temporary, and how can the external potency give birth to the material manifestation without being changed?

These are points Lord Kapila will answer in detail in the next verses. In short, the material creation exists eternally in a subtle form as the energy of the Lord, but it sometimes becomes manifested and sometimes unmanifested. The energies are thus eternal, but the interactions between them that give birth to the material manifestation are not. One example that can be given is that when we go to a cinema, we see many images projected onto a screen. The screen is permanent, and the projector is permanent, but the images we see are impermanent and constantly changing. The movie in itself is impermanent and eventually comes to an end, just to be repeated in the next session. In this example, both the screen and the projector don't change, although temporary images are projected onto the screen.

Another example that can be given is that the external potency is like a piece of gold, and time is like a hammer that is used to shape it into different forms. Although the form of the gold changes, the metal itself remains the same, and in the end is returned to the original form, just to be again shaped into different forms later.

Description of the material elements

From verses ten to fifteen, Lord Kapila describes the material elements that compose the material creation. These material elements are counted incorrectly in the atheistic Sankhya (which tries to artificially divide them into five groups of five), but Lord Kapila gives the correct classification:

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The unmanifested eternal combination of the three modes is the cause of the manifest state and is called pradhāna. It is called prakṛti when in the manifested stage of existence. The aggregate elements, namely the five gross elements, the five subtle elements, the four internal senses, the five senses for gathering knowledge and the five outward organs of action, are known as the pradhāna. There are five gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten, namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, and the active organs for speaking, working, traveling, generating and evacuating. The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. Distinctions between them can be made only by different functions, since they represent different characteristics. All these are considered the qualified Brahman. The mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth element." (SB 3.26.10-15)

Originally, the material nature appears in the form of pradhāna, the subtle, undifferentiated sum total of all material elements, just like milk contains many different components, such as proteins, fat, sugars, etc. in a dissolved form. When pradhāna is touched by time, the three modes of material nature become apparent (just as cream comes to the top when we put milk to rest overnight) and by the further interaction of the three modes, time and the total material energy, all material elements become apparent (just as we may separate milk into butter, cream, powder milk, etc. and then create different preparations by mixing these different ingredients in different ways and in different proportions).

When the material modes as well as the material elements become apparent, the result is called prakṛti, or mahat-tattva. Pradhāna and prakṛti are thus basically the same thing, but on the stage of pradhāna the material elements are dissolved, and on the stage of prakṛti, they are apparent.

In this way, we have:

1) Brahman: The pure, transcendental manifestation, beyond the three modes of material nature.

2) Jiva: The souls, who can choose between being part of the eternal spiritual manifestation, or joining the material creation.

3) Kala (time): The eternal energy of the Lord that puts the material energy in movement.

4) Pradhāna: The subtle, undifferentiated form of the material nature.

5) Prakṛti: The stage of material nature when the material elements become apparent.

The material elements can be counted in different ways, as Krishna Himself explains in the 11th canto. However, in the Sankhya system of Lord Kapila, the material elements are counted as twenty-five. These 25 elements are:

a) The five material elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether).

b) The qualities of these elements (odor, taste, form, touch, and sound).

c) The five senses for acquiring knowledge (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch).

d) The five senses of action (the tongue, hands, legs, genital and excretory system).

e) The four internal senses (mind, intelligence, material ego, and material consciousness).

f) Time, which is counted as the 25th element.

In material science, the chemical elements are counted according to their atomic composition. Hydrogen is composed of atoms with one proton and one electron, lithium is composed of atoms with two of each, iron is made of atoms with twenty-six, and so on. There are also variations, like tritium, which is a hydrogen isotope, with one proton and two neutrons, for example.

The Vedas however classify the elements according to their characteristics, and not according to their atomic structure. The reason is that material reality is composed of different levels of existence, that go from gross to subtle. In the gross level we live, matter is composed of atoms, but in the subtle realms of the inhabitants of Bhu-Mandala, of the demigods, great sages, etc. matter has different compositions. The classification of modern science, based on types of atoms is valid only for our plane, while the classification of the Vedas in terms of fire, ether, water, smell, taste, sight, hearing, etc. describes reality in all planes, because everywhere people see, taste, hear, and matter has properties of having taste, form, odor and so on. This classification of elements given by Lord Kapila is thus much more scientific than it may seem at first.

When we come to the four internal senses (mind, intelligence, material ego, and material consciousness), we can say that consciousness is a symptom of the soul. We can't see the soul, but we can understand the soul is present by the manifestation of consciousness. Originally, the consciousness of the soul is completely spiritual. However, when the soul comes in contact with matter, this consciousness is manifested in a perverted way, just as the light of the sun may appear to be red or blue when reflected in a blue or red object, or the moon may appear to be trembling when reflected in the waters of a lake agitated by the wind.

The first layer that covers the original consciousness of the soul is the false ego, which leads one to identify with both the subtle and gross material bodies. The subtle material body includes the material mind and intelligence. The mind creates different material desires, and material intelligence makes plans on how to satisfy them. In order to experience the world, we receive a gross body, which includes senses. Due to the false ego, the soul identifies with this combination of mind, intelligence, senses, and gross body and tries to enjoy the material world through it. We then see ourselves as men or women, members of certain families, countries, or groups, and so on. These false identifications that form our material identity are called ahaṅkāra.

There are many separate details in the explanation of the material elements given by Lord Kapila, but one essential point to understand is that all energies are part of Krishna or the Supreme Brahman. Everything that exists is part of Krishna, there is nothing separated or independent from Him. At the same time, however, He has multiple potencies, and they have different characteristics and distinctions. As souls, we are parts and parcels of Krishna, but at the same, we are separate individuals. All these parent contradictions were harmonized by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in his achintya-bheda-abheda tattva philosophy, or the inconceivable simultaneously oneness and difference.

Mayavadis believe that Brahman is formless and qualityless, but as Vaishnavas we believe in the precise opposite: Krishna has all qualities, controls all types of energies, performs all activities, and cultivates all kinds of relationships, and everything simultaneously. Some of these qualities, potencies, activities, etc. may appear to be contradictory, but they are inconceivably harmonized in the Supreme Person.

The study of the material elements inside the philosophy of Lord Kapila should, therefore, not be seen as something separated from Krishna, because the material elements are part of Krishna's energy. By studying the material elements and the interactions between them we can better understand how the material creation works, what keeps us bound here, and how can we free ourselves. People are naturally curious about the structure of the universe, and this curiosity leads to the development of material science. However, because there are no studies about the soul and the subtle material manifestations, scientific theories are incomplete and don't help us on the path of self-realization. The teachings of Lord Kapila offer a more complete view.

The time factor

Lord Kapila proceeds, explaining now about time:

"The influence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is felt in the time factor, which causes fear of death due to the false ego of the deluded soul who has contacted material nature. My dear mother, O daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu, the time factor, as I have explained, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, from whom the creation begins as a result of the agitation of the neutral, unmanifested nature. By exhibiting His potencies, the Supreme Personality of Godhead adjusts all these different elements, keeping Himself within as the Supersoul and without as time." (SB 3.26.16-18)

Ultimately, no material identity can be eternal because the material world is not the original position of the soul. We can temporarily assume a material body and a material identity under the influence of the false ego, but because this is not our original identity, eventually we have to move. The material creation itself is based on the permutation of energy, and therefore it can't also be eternal. The energies are eternal, but the interaction between them, or the cosmic manifestation, has a beginning and an end. That material world can be considered eternal in the sense that the cycles of creation and destruction are going on indefinitely, however, inside of it everything is temporary.

Everything that exists in the material creation exists under the limits of material time. Time can't be stopped, because it is the divine energy of the Lord, and this also reminds us that we must surrender unto the Lord.

Time also exists in the spiritual world, but time manifests itself there in the form of an eternal present. Everything that exists is eternal, and full of bliss. Nothing changes and therefore there is no anxiety. Once we have something it is ours forever. However, in the material world, time manifests as an oppressive force that changes and gradually destroys everything. Everything material exists inside this purview of past, present, and future, and therefore everything is temporary, including the universe itself. There is no death or destruction for the soul, but because we identify with the temporary body and the temporary world, we fear loss and death.

Pradhāna is originally inert, but as soon as it is touched by time, it starts moving and producing the material manifestations. As Prabhupada explains in his purport: "The unmanifested state of material nature, pradhāna, is being explained. The Lord says that when the unmanifested material nature is agitated by the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it begins to manifest itself in different ways. Before this agitation, it remains in the neutral state, without interaction by the three modes of material nature. In other words, material nature cannot produce any variety of manifestations without the contact of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is very nicely explained in Bhagavad-gītā. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of the products of material nature. Without His contact, material nature cannot produce anything."

Lord Kapila describes the creation of the universe

After describing the Lord, the jivas, material nature, and time, Lord Kapila will describe how the universe appears from the combination of these four. Once manifested, the universe serves as a stage for the performance of material activities, or karma, which is the final component of the five.

"After the Supreme Personality of Godhead impregnates material nature with His internal potency, material nature delivers the sum total of the cosmic intelligence, which is known as Hiraṇmaya. This takes place in material nature when she is agitated by the destinations of the conditioned souls. Thus, after manifesting variegatedness, the effulgent mahat-tattva, which contains all the universes within itself, which is the root of all cosmic manifestations and which is not destroyed at the time of annihilation, swallows the darkness that covered the effulgence at the time of dissolution." (SB 3.26.19-20)

Originally, material nature exists in the unmanifested stage, as pradhāna. This pradhāna is impregnated by the look of Maha-Vishnu, which contains the time energy, as well as all the souls who will participate in the cosmic creation. The word used in the verse is "vīryam". Srila Jiva Goswami described this vīryam as the jivakhya cit-rupa sakti, or the conditioned souls who want to participate in the material creation. These souls are part of the internal potency of the Lord, but because they have free will, and can thus choose between staying in contact with the spiritual potency or coming to the material manifestation, they are called marginal.

In the word-for-word meaning for verse nineteen, Prabhupada adds another meaning to the word: "semen", giving the analogy that the souls are like the semen of the Lord, which impregnates the material nature. The material nature is thus compared to the mother, who produces the bodies of the living entities, and the Lord with the father, who puts the souls inside the womb of the mother.

Apart from containing the souls, the look itself is an expansion of the Lord, Sadha-Shiva, who later expands himself into all the forms of Shiva that appear inside each universe. Lord Sadha-Shiva, the look of Maha-Vishnu, carries the souls, and acts like a father for all living beings of the universe, constantly working for their deliverance. In Caitanya Lila, he appears as Advaita Acharya, who takes the responsibility for bringing the Lord to our planet through his incessant prayers. Sometimes it's said that Advaita Acharya is the incarnation of Maha-Vishnu or the combined incarnation of Maha-Vishnu and Sadha-Shiva. All these explanations are valid because Sadha-Shiva is an incarnation of Lord Maha-Vishnu and is non-different from Him. Sadha-Shiva becomes Shiva-tattva when he expands himself into the many forms of Shiva inside each universe. In this case, due to his association with the material nature, part of his qualities are covered and he displays just 84% of the qualities of the Lord.

The look of Lord Maha-Vishnu, personified in the person of Sadha-Shiva, contains thus two components: the time energy, kala, and the marginal potency of the Lord, the souls. Being impregnated by these two energies, pradhāna is agitated and the three modes of nature become apparent, leading to the manifestation of the mahat-tattva. Simultaneously, the presence of the souls adds consciousness, making the mahat-tattva golden and effulgent. This effulgent combination is called hiraṇmaya, the sum total of the cosmic intelligence, and from it, all the material universes are generated.

We have thus three words that describe the same thing but at different stages. Pradhāna refers to the original manifestation, where all material elements are dissolved. Mahat-tattva describes the stage when the material elements become apparent, and hiraṇmaya describes the combination of the mahat-tattva and the souls, which add consciousness to it.

The mahat-tattva is also sometimes described as saguṇa Brahman in both Vedanta philosophy and the Sankhya system. This comes from the idea that everything is Brahman, and therefore there is the nirguṇa Brahman, the supreme spirit, transcendental to matter, and saguṇa Brahman, or mahat-tatva, the energy of the Supreme where the 24 elements become manifested. Just like we say "Krishna" and "material energy", some prefer to say "nirguṇa Brahman" and "saguṇa Brahman", it is just a difference in terminology.

Like oil and water

Although put into the mahat-tattva, the souls don't mix with the material elements, remaining separate, just like oil floating on top of water. In fact, even when the universe is fully manifested, the soul never mixes with the material creation, remaining always aloof. Our material experience comes just from our identification with different material bodies, just as someone looking at his phone and identifying with whatever is going on the screen.

As Prabhupada explains (conversation, July 6, 1976, with Swarupa Damodhara Maharaja): "The living entities are always in pure goodness. This material covering is separated. The living entities can be freed from material covering at any moment. Just like water and oil, it is always separated; it does not mix. The Vedic mantra also says, asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. Actually, it is not mixed, but it is covered. Such covering can be taken away at any moment simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Another component is the material desires of the souls. Every time the universe is destroyed, the subtle bodies containing the material desires of the souls are destroyed, and the pure souls merge into Lord Maha-Vishnu for a long sleep. When the universe is created again, the Lord remembers the previous nature of each individual soul and restores their material propensities and desires, as well as their karma, from the point they stopped in the last cycle. The souls then become active and desire to assume material bodies to continue their activities. From this, point they continue to enjoy or suffer the reactions from their previous activities, continuing from where they stopped in the previous cycle.

That's why it's described that material nature is agitated by the destinations of the conditioned souls. The Sanskrit word is "daivāt", which means "according to destiny", or "due to one's fate". As long as the souls desire to enjoy the material manifestation, they continue on the path determined by their previous activities. This process stops only when one surrenders to the Lord and seriously practices the process of devotional service.

The second verse (3.26.20) mentions that the mahat-tattva is not destroyed at the time of annihilation because at that time the material manifestation is dissolved and the energy returns to its original state, as pradhāna. The cosmic manifestation is thus destroyed but the energy is eternal. The mahat-tattva is thus never destroyed, it just returns to its original state as pradhāna. We should remember that these are two stages of the same thing, just as milk in its original state, and milk with the cream separated on the top. As soon as the milk is mixed, the cream dissolves and it returns to its initial state.