Lord Shesha is often seen floating on the causal waters of the Garbhodaka Ocean, which exists on the bottom of the universe. Lord Vishnu is thus resting on Sheshanaga as They float on the ocean. At other times, They are viewed floating on the Kshiramudra, or an ocean of white milk. This represents the Prakriti or the ingredients of the unmanifest material nature in its purest form.
Sometimes, Lord Vishnu is also seen riding on his carrier bird, Garuda. This is a half-man and half-eagle bird, whose name means "Wings of Speech." It is described that he is huge and has a fierce expression. His color is that of molten gold. He has the head of an eagle with a red beak and feathered wings, and two arms like a man.8 Different divisions of the Vedas are parts of the body of Garuda. The sound of his wings reflect the utterances of the Vedic hymns, which can carry a person to another world with the speed of light and the power of lightning. Thus, it is also the sound of the Veda that carries Lord Vishnu, and which can also transport Him into the hearts and minds of people.
According to the Puranas, Garuda is a son of Kashyapa and Vinata, who was a daughter of Daksha.9 He is also the younger brother of Aruna. Garuda is known for his dislike of snakes, which he will eat. One reason for this is explained in the Mahabharata (1.20-35). Vinata once quarreled with her co-wife, Kadru, who was the mother of the serpent species known as nagas. It was from her that he inherited this hostility toward snakes. Then Garuda, with his wife Unnati, produced six sons, from whom descended all the bird species that eat snakes.
LORD VISHNU IS AN EXPANSION OF LORD KRISHNA
Many people think that Lord Vishnu is the source of all other avatars or incarnations of God. This is true, but not in the case of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is actually the source of Lord Vishnu. When Lord Krishna descends into this world, He appears as Himself and not as an expansion of Lord Vishnu. To verify this, let me present the following details.
It is explained that for the maintenance of the universe Lord Krishna descends in the form of Lord Vishnu, who is His personal plenary expansion and the director of the mode of goodness. Thus, Lord Vishnu is above the influence of the material energy. However, being in the category of svamsha (another form of God with unlimited potencies), Vishnu's opulences are almost equal to Lord Krishna's. Yet Krishna is the original person and Vishnu is His personal expansion. This can be compared to one candle lighting the flame of another. The second burns separately in a different position, but its illumination is equal to the original candle. In the same way, Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality, expands Himself into the different forms of Vishnu, who are equally bright and powerful.10
Furthermore, it is described that outside the boundaries of the unlimited spiritual Vaikuntha planets is the transcendental sky known as the Brahman effulgence. Beyond that and in a small corner of it is the Karana or Causal Ocean, which is also spiritual.11 This is what surrounds the innumerable material universes. Lord Vishnu in His form as Karanadakashayi Vishnu, or Maha-Vishnu, lies on the Causal Ocean and creates the universes merely by glancing upon the material nature. Thus, Lord Krishna personally has nothing to do with the material creation, nor does He ever come in touch with the material energy. He remains absorbed and unaffected in Goloka Vrindavan, the highest planet in the spiritual sky. The material energy never comes in contact with the spiritual world, nor even the Causal Ocean, as explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.22.17):
"In the beginning of creation nature assumes, by the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, its form as the embodiment of all subtle causes and gross manifestations within the universe. The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not enter the interaction of material manifestation but merely glances upon nature. As the material elements, headed by the mahat-tattva, are transformed, they receive their specific potencies from the glance of the Supreme Lord, and being amalgamated by the power of nature, they create the universal egg."
Before the mahat-tattva, however, there is the pradhana, which is the sum total of all material energy in its subtle and undifferentiated stage. Material nature is always existing in its subtle form as the energy of the Lord. Sometimes, under the direction of the Supreme, it manifests its temporary existence in the form of the material cosmos.
In spite of the fact that everything comes from the Supreme Being, He is still aloof from it all. He does not disengage Himself from His eternal pleasure pastimes with His devotees in the spiritual realm. So, in the process of creating the material worlds, the Supreme expands Himself into various forms, which are His plenary parts. Krishna is the primeval Lord, the original Personality of Godhead, so if He wants He can expand Himself into unlimited forms with all potencies. They are no different from Him, but may exhibit differences in form.
It is explained that Lord Krishna first expands Himself into Baladeva, or Balarama, who is considered Krishna's second body and brother. Balarama assists in Lord Krishna's innumerable spiritual pastimes in both the spiritual and material realms.
Lord Balarama is also Lord Sankarshana, the predominator of the creative energy. He creates and is the shelter of the material and spiritual worlds. By the will of Krishna and the power of the spiritual energy, Lord Balarama creates the spiritual world, which consists of the planet Goloka Vrindavana and the Vaikuntha planets.12 Lord Balarama especially assists Lord Krishna in the creation of the material worlds. After Balarama has expanded Himself into Lord Maha-Sankarshana, He expands Himself into four different forms, including: 1) Karanadakashayi Vishnu [Maha-Vishnu], 2) Garbhodakashayi Vishnu [the expansion in each universe], 3) Kshirodakashayi Vishnu [the Supersoul in each individual], and 4) Sesha, also called Seshanaga. These first four plenary portions assist in the material cosmic manifestation. Sesha is Balarama's form who assists in the Lord's personal service. He is also called Ananta, meaning unlimited, because He assists the Lord in His unlimited variety of pastimes.13
All expansions of the Lord begin with Sri Krishna. For His pastimes in one of the highest levels of the spiritual realm, called Dvaraka, Sri Krishna expands Himself into Balarama, who then expands Himself into Pradyumna and Aniruddha. These four (Krishna, Balarama, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha) expand into a second quadruple which is present in the unlimited Vaikuntha planets of the spiritual sky. The second quadruple is known as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. They are changeless, transcendental expansions of the Supreme Lord, Krishna. In this second quadruple, Vasudeva is an expansion of Krishna, and Sankarshana is a representation of Balarama.
Therefore, the center of the spiritual domain is Goloka Vrindavana, Lord Krishna's personal abode which is shaped like a huge lotus, where simple but deep loving devotion is the means of all spiritual relations. This is surrounded by the spiritual realm of Dwaraka, which is based on more opulent relations. Then, throughout the rest of the unlimited and effulgent spiritual sky are the spiritual Vaikuntha planets which are the residences of all the different forms of Krishna in His four-armed Vishnu expansions.
In the Vaikuntha sky there is the pure, spiritual creative energy called Shuddha-sattva that sustains all of the spiritual planets with the full opulences of knowledge, wealth, power, beauty, etc., all of which pervade the entire spiritual kingdom and are fully enjoyed by the residents there. This energy is but a display of the creative potencies of Balarama, Maha-Sankarshana. It is also this Sankarshana who is the original cause of the Causal Ocean where Karanodakashayi Vishnu (Maha-Vishnu) sleeps, while breathing out the seeds of innumerable universes. When the cosmic creation is annihilated, all of the materially conditioned, although indestructible, living entities merge back into the body of Maha-Vishnu where they rest until the time of the next creation. So, Balarama as Sankarshana is the origin of Maha-Vishnu, from who originates all of the potencies of the material manifestation.14
Therefore, to summarize, for His spiritual pastimes in the Vaikuntha realm, Lord Krishna has four original expansions, namely Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. Maha-Vishnu is an expansion of Sankarshana; Garbhodakashayi Vishnu is an expansion of P
radyumna; and Kshirodakashayi Vishnu is an expansion of Aniruddha.15 These expansions are the basis of the whole cosmic creation, while Lord Krishna Himself remains in His own abode of Goloka Vrindavana, unless He personally descends into the material realm to display the attractiveness of His pastimes and the spiritual world to the materially conditioned souls.
THE FUNCTIONS OF LORD VISHNU
To begin explaining the purpose and function of these Vishnu expansions, the Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.6.42) describes that, "Maha-Vishnu (Karanadakashayi Vishnu) is the first incarnation of the Supreme Lord in the process of creating the material worlds. He is the master of eternal time, space, cause and effects, mind, elements, material ego, the modes of nature, senses, the universal form of the Lord (Garbhodakashayi Vishnu) and the sum total of all living beings, both moving and nonmoving."
It is further explained that Maha-Vishnu, who appears in the Karana Ocean and is an avatar of Lord Sankarshana, becomes the resting place of the jiva-shakti.16 This is the collective energy of all the individual spirit souls, the jivatmas. "There is one marginal potency, known as the jiva. Maha-Sankarshana is the shelter of all jivas."17 It is this Sankarshana who is the original source of all living entities because they are expansions of His marginal potency. Some become conditioned by the material energy while others are under the protection of the spiritual nature.18
Lord Maha-Vishnu is the source of thousands of avatars in His thousands and thousands of subjective portions or expansions. He is also the creator or source of countless individual souls. He is also known by the name of Narayana, meaning the shelter of all the individual jiva souls. From Him springs forth the vast expanse of water known as the spiritual Causal Ocean wherein the material creation takes place. Maha-Vishnu then reclines in the waters of the Causal Ocean in a state of divine sleep, called yoga-nidra. Thus, it is said that the universal creation is but the dream of Maha-Vishnu.19
Then Maha-Vishnu lies down in the Causal Ocean, also called the Viraja River, which is the border between the spiritual and material worlds.20
Since the water of the Causal Ocean, known as the Karana Ocean, come from the body of Maha-Vishnu, it is completely spiritual. The sacred Ganga (Ganges River) is but a drop from that ocean, which has entered this universe and can purify the fallen souls.21
It is Lord Balarama who expands into the great serpent known as Ananta, or Seshanaga. He reposes on the Causal Ocean and serves as the couch upon whom Lord Maha-Vishnu reclines.22 That Ananta-Sesha is the devotee incarnation of God who knows nothing but service to Lord Krishna. With His thousands of mouths He always sings the endless glories of Lord Krishna. He also expands Himself to serve as Lord Krishna's paraphernalia, including such items as the umbrella, slippers, bedding, pillow, garments, resting chair, residence, sacred gayatri thread, and His throne in the pastimes of Lord Krishna. Thus, He has attained and exhibits the ultimate end of servitude to Lord Krishna.23
At the time of creation, after the Supreme has been sleeping for some time, the first emanations from the breathing of Lord Maha-Vishnu are the personified Vedas who serve Him by waking Him from His mystic sleep. They begin to enthusiastically sing His glories, pastimes, and praises, just as a King is awoken in the morning by poets who recite his heroic deeds.24 This shows the eternal nature of the Vedic literature. They are not merely the writings of men, but they are shabda-brahma, or eternal spiritual vibrations that exist before and after the material creation, and which emanate from the Supreme Lord.
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.87.50) when the personified Vedas are offering their prayers to Lord Narayana [Maha-Vishnu], they relate His all-powerful position. "He is the Lord who eternally watches over this universe, who exists before, during and after its manifestation. He is the master of both the unmanifest material energy and the spirit soul. After sending forth the creation He enters within it, accompanying each living entity. There He creates the material bodies and then remains as their regulator. By surrendering to Him one can escape the embrace of illusion, just as a dreaming person forgets his own body. One who wants liberation from fear should constantly meditate upon Him, Lord Hari, who is always on the platform of perfection and thus never subject to material birth."
Once the Lord is awoken, He casts His glance upon the material energy of maya. This glance is how the Supreme impregnates material nature with all the original seeds of the living beings. Thus, the Lord does not personally touch the material energy, but by His functional expansion He places the living entities into the material nature by His glance. Then maya, the material nature, becomes agitated.25 This functional expansion of the Lord then takes the form as Shiva, known in this activity as Shambhu. It is Shambhu who carries the living entities in the glance of the Lord into the material energy.
So, the Supreme Being in His feature as Maha-Vishnu impregnates the material nature by His glance [Shambhu]. Through this glance, which is the impregnation of consciousness, and by the influence of the time element, the innumerable living beings appear.26 The Supreme Being then, out of His own body, sowed the seeds of universal manifestation within the mahat-tattva.27 [The mahat-tattva is the essential seeds of the material ingredients in their undesignated form, and it is into that in which the living beings are injected by the glance of Maha-Vishnu.] In this way, the Lord, who is the controller of all energies, by His own potency creates eternal time, the fate of all living entities, and their particular nature [by which they become active within the newly formed cosmic creation]. At the end of the cosmic creation He again merges them back into Him.28
The Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.9.16-18) relates that the Lord of the universe, Narayana, Maha-Vishnu, is the worshipable Lord of all beings. With no other assistance, the Lord creates the universe by His own potency, and at the time of annihilation He destroys the universe through His expansion of time. At that time He withdraws the complete universe and all materially conditioned living beings back into Himself. In this way, His unlimited Self is the shelter and reservoir of all potencies. The Lord stands alone after the universal annihilation. He is the supreme worshipable object for all beings, such as liberated souls, demigods, and ordinary conditioned souls. He is eternally free from the material energy and constitutes the totality of spiritual bliss, which a person can experience by seeing the Lord's spiritual form. In this way, the Lord exhibits the full meaning of liberation.
T he countless souls that appear within the material energy in the variegated species of life are all spiritual in their essential nature, they are all spiritual beings. However, they can also become deluded by the material energy. When they are thus deluded, they hanker for material activities and attractions. In order to accommodate this, the Supreme provides this material world as a playground in which they can work out their material desires. This means that regardless of species, whether it is Lord Brahma, or humans, animals, birds, or even tiny insects, material nature is the mother and the Supreme Lord is the seed-giving, universal Father.
After agitating material nature into three qualities, which are the modes of nature in the form of passion, goodness and ignorance, they become active and material nature begins to give birth to the total material energy known as the hiranya-mahat-tattva. This is the sum total of cosmic intelligence. Thus, material nature becomes agitated by the destinations of the conditioned souls as determined by the influence of the modes of nature.29 Simply by the glance of Maha-Vishnu consciousness is created, which is known as the mahat-tattva. The predominating deity of the mahat-tattva is Lord Vasudeva, another expansion of Lord Krishna. This explains how the material energy is like the mother of the living beings while the Lord is the Supreme Father of everyone. Just as a woman cannot give birth without the contact of a man, or at least his seed, so material nature cannot create without the contact of the Supreme Being.
So, as it is continued to be described, first the total material energy is manifest, and from this arises the three types of egotism, which are the original sources of all the demigods [the minor controlling deities]
, the senses, and material elements. By combining the different elements, the Supreme Lord creates all of the unlimited universes. Once the material elements have been manifested, and the full potential for creating the universes has been established, the innumerable universes begin to emanate from the pores of the body of Maha-Vishnu, and from His exhalations. They appear just like atomic particles that float in sunshine and pass through a screen. When Maha-Vishnu inhales at the time of the universal annihilation, they return to His body. In this way, Maha-Vishnu is the Supersoul of all the universes.30
Brahma, the demigods, and each universe remain alive for the duration of one of His exhalations.31 However, there is no limit to the exhalations of Maha-Vishnu.32
Garbhodakashayi Vishnu, who is known within the universe as Hiranyagarbha and Antaryami, the Supersoul, is glorified in the Vedic hymns. He is the master of each and every universe and shelter of the external or material energy. However, being transcendental, He is completely beyond the touch of the external energy.
Next is the third expansion of Vishnu, called Kshirodakashayi Vishnu, who is the incarnation of the quality of goodness. He is the universal form of the Lord and expands Himself as the Supersoul within every living entity. He is known as Kshirodakashayi Vishnu because He lies on the ocean of milk (kshira) on the island of Svetadvipa. These are the three expansions of Lord Vishnu who oversee and make the creation of the material worlds possible.33
A typical print of Lord Vishnu in His expansion as Garbhodakashayi Vishnu who expands into each universe, laying on the Sheshanaga serpent on the Garbhodaka Ocean, being served by Goddess Lakshmi, with the lotus sprouting from His navel, the top of which is where Lord B rahma appears to continue with the creation of the universe. The stem of the lotus holds the ingredients for the creation of the planetary systems that fill the universe.
Hindu Gods & Goddesses Page 9