Causal Ocean

Causal Ocean is the substance (originally a cloudlike darkness in one corner of the spiritual sky in Vaikuntha) from which the material world is created. Material nature resides eternally within the Causal Ocean. To initiate the material creation, Maha Vishnu glances at Material Nature, thus agitating her to begin expanding the material elements. Viewed from inside the material universe, the same Causal Ocean appears like a surrounding shell of water and is named the Viraja River.

Maha-Vishnu

Maha-Vishnu is the first of the Purushas (“controllers,” also known as Vishnus), incarnations of Krishna for the creation of the material universe.

Maha-Vishnu creates innumerable universes. He lies down in the Causal Ocean on the bed of Ananta Shesha and initiates the creation by glancing at His personified material energy, Maya.

From Maha-Vishnu come the other two Vishnus: Garbhodakashayi Vishnu and Kshirodakashayi Vishnu.

Reincarnation

The Vedic literature tells us that we souls can inhabit any of millions of forms of life, including aquatics, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, animals, and human beings. At the time of death, we leave one body and enter a new one. That is called reincarnation.

The Three Modes of Nature

The Vedas describe three forces, or modes, whose influence pervades the universe: goodness, passion, and ignorance. “Mode” is a translation of the Sanskrit word guna, which literally means “rope,” implying that goodness, passion, and ignorance are the ropes that bind us souls to the material world. These three modes, or qualities, underlie everything we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Permutations of these qualities make up the world, mixing like the primary colors to produce countless variations.

Karma

Time

Universal Management

Planetary Systems

The Vedas tell us that life exists everywhere in creation. Scientists looking for life on other planets may never find it, because their criteria for life-supporting environments are too restrictive. Life, being spiritual, doesn’t depend on a certain mix of chemicals. The soul, or the life force, can exist within subtle forms imperceptible to scientific instruments. (We have some experience of this at night, when we exist in a subtle dream world.)

Secondary Creation

After God (Maha-Vishnu) supplies the basic ingredients, He empowers Brahma, the first created being, as a secondary creator and universal manager.

Brahma creates all the species of life, which are the bodies for us souls to inhabit, as well as all the planets, upon which we reside.

Primary Creation

Once we accept the principle that the creation requires a creator, we can understand that the only way to learn about how He created the world is to hear from the creator Himself. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Krishna explains in detail how He, in His expansion as Maha-Vishnu, creates the material world from His own energy.