Prāṇa-govinda dāsa (from Alachua): In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sixth Canto, Chapter 1, Verse 1 [purport by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja], it is said that at the end of one hundred years of Brahmā’s life, all the residents of his planet will go back home, back to Godhead. Praviśanti paraṁ padam.
Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: No, this is not at all true. He did not say this. They will enter the body of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu along with Brahmā.
Prāṇa-govinda dāsa: So what is paraṁ padam? Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja put a verse in the end of his purport, saying praviśanti paraṁ padam.*
Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: With regard to those who are not liberated, how can they go to the spiritual world?** Only if one is liberated by completing his course of bhakti can he be admitted there. Regarding those who still have anarthas and are still committing sins, how can they go?
They will sleep within the divine body of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and at that time their physical bodies will no longer be with them. At the time of death their souls (covered by a type of subtle body), along with Brahmā, will enter into the body of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu will then merge into Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. They will all be there, and after creation they will all take birth again according to their previous karmas.
There is no pralaya, meaning devastation or annihilation, on Brahmaloka at the end of Brahmā’s day. At that time the topmost heavenly planets remain, and all the other heavenly and lower planets are annihilated. At the time of mahā-pralaya, however, which is the end of Brahmā’s life, all the planets below the Virajā River will be abolished.***
Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja: Will Brahmā be liberated at that time?
Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: If Brahmā is qualified, he will be liberated – otherwise not.**** Regarding the other residents of his planet, they will also sleep within the transcendental body of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.
Prāṇa-govinda dāsa: I heard from someone that our Śrīla Prabhupāda said on a morning walk that all jīvas first took birth in this material world as Brahmā. I never heard this from him personally.
Śrīpāda Bhāgavata Mahārāja: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja and Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja have both said that the first birth of the jīva in this world was as Brahmā.
Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: I have not heard this in my entire life of eighty-seven years. I am very well acquainted with both Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja and Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Mahārāja. I know that they did not say this.
* As Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja said that Brahmā and his associates attain the spiritual world only if they are perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja also wrote that in the reference referred to in the text:
Bhagavad-gītā 8.16
From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.
Purport (by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja)
All kinds of yogīs – karma, jñāna, haṭha, etc. – eventually have to attain devotional perfection in bhakti-yoga, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, before they can go to Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental abode and never return. Those who attain the highest material planets, the planets of the demigods, are again subjected to repeated birth and death. As persons on Earth are elevated to higher planets, people on higher planets such as Brahmaloka, Candraloka, and Indraloka fall down to earth. The practice of sacrifice called pañcāgni-vidyā, recommended in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, enables one to achieve Brahmaloka, but if on Brahmaloka one does not cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he must return to Earth. Those who progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness on the higher planets are gradually elevated to higher and higher planets and at the time of universal devastation are transferred to the eternal spiritual kingdom. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana, in his commentary on Bhagavad-gītā, quotes this verse:
brahmaṇā saha te sarve
samprāpte pratisañcare
parasyānte kṛtātmānaḥ
praviśanti paraṁ padam
When there is devastation of this material universe, Brahmā and his devotees who are constantly engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness are all transferred to the spiritual universe and to specific spiritual planets according to their desires.
** Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.32.12–15
When the interaction of the three modes of material nature begins, Brahmā, who is the creator of this cosmic manifestation and who is full of Vedic knowledge, and the great sages, who are the authors of the spiritual path and the yoga system, come back under the influence of the time factor. They are liberated by their nonfruitive activities and they attain the first incarnation of the puruṣa (Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu), but at the time of creation they come back in exactly the same forms and positions as they had previously.
Purport (by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja)
Sometimes Brahmā thinks that he is independent of the Supreme Lord, and the worshiper also thinks that Brahmā is independent. For this reason, after the destruction of this material world, when there is again creation by the interaction of the material modes of nature, Brahmā comes back. Although Brahmā reaches the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the first puruṣa incarnation, Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is full with transcendental qualities, he cannot stay in the spiritual world.
*** Virajā – literally, ‘free from the influence of rajo-guṇa, the material mode of passion.’ The Virajā, sometimes referred to as the River Virajā, is the boundary between the material and spiritual worlds.
**** In the following excerpt, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja again confirms Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja’s statement that Brahmā and his associates go to the spiritual world only if they are perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We again and again see that it is supremely beneficial for us to understand the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda under the guidance of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja:
Purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.1 (by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja)
Bhakti-yoga itself is so powerful that even an impious man with no assets in karma-yoga or an illiterate with no assets in jñāna-yoga can undoubtedly be elevated to the spiritual world if he simply adheres to bhakti-yoga. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (8.7) that by the process of bhakti-yoga one undoubtedly goes back to Godhead, back home to the spiritual world. Yogis, however, instead of going directly to the spiritual world, sometimes want to see other planetary systems, and therefore they ascend to the planetary system where Lord Brahmā lives, as indicated here by the word brāhmaṇa. At the time of dissolution, Lord Brahmā, along with all the inhabitants of Brahmaloka, goes directly to the spiritual world. This is confirmed in the Vedas as follows:
brahmaṇā saha te sarve
samprāpte pratisañcare
parasyānte kṛtātmānaḥ
praviśanti paraṁ padam
Because of their exalted position, those who are on Brahmaloka at the time of dissolution go directly back home, back to Godhead, along with Lord Brahmā.
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