SB 2.5.11
yena sva-rocisa visvam
rocitam rocayamy aham
yatharko ’gnir yatha somo
yatharksa-graha-tarakah
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
I create after the Lord’s creation by His personal effulgence [known as the brahmajyoti], just as when the sun manifests its fire, the moon, the firmament, the influential planets and the twinkling stars also manifest their brightness.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Lord Brahmaji said to Narada that his impression that Brahma was not the supreme authority in the creation was correct. Sometimes less intelligent men have the foolish impression that Brahma is the cause of all causes. But Narada wanted to clear the matter by the statements of Brahmaji, the supreme authority in the universe. As the decision of the supreme court of a state is final, similarly the judgment of Brahmaji, the supreme authority in the universe, is final in the Vedic process of acquiring knowledge. As we have already affirmed in the previous verse, Naradaji was a liberated soul; therefore, he was not one of the less intelligent men who accept a false god or gods in their own ways. He represented himself as less intelligent and yet intelligently presented a doubt to be cleared by the supreme authority so that the uninformed might take note of it and be rightly informed about the intricacies of the creation and the creator.
In this verse Brahmaji clears up the wrong impression held by the less intelligent and affirms that he creates the universal variegatedness after the creation by the glaring effulgence of Lord Sri Krsna. Brahmaji has also separately given this statement in the samhita known as the Brahma-samhita (5.40), where he says:
yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-
kotisv asesa-vasudhadi-vibhuti-bhinnam
tad brahma niskalam anantam asesa-bhutam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
“I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental bodily effulgence, known as the brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life.”
The same statement is in the Bhagavad-gita (14.27). Lord Krsna is the background of the brahmajyoti (brahmano hi pratisthaham). In the Nirukti, or Vedic dictionary, the import of pratistha is mentioned as “that which establishes.” So the brahmajyoti is not independent or self-sufficient. Lord Sri Krsna is ultimately the creator of the brahmajyoti, mentioned in this verse as sva-rocisa, or the effulgence of the transcendental body of the Lord. This brahmajyoti is all-pervading, and all creation is made possible by its power; therefore the Vedic hymns declare that everything that exists is being sustained by the brahmajyoti (sarvam khalv idam brahma). Therefore the potent seed of all creation is the brahmajyoti, and the same brahmajyoti, unlimited and unfathomed, is established by the Lord. Therefore the Lord (Sri Krsna) is ultimately the supreme cause of all creation (aham sarvasya prabhavah).
One should not expect the Lord to create like a blacksmith with a hammer and other instruments. The Lord creates by His potencies. He has His multifarious potencies (parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate). Just as the small seed of a banyan fruit has the potency to create a big banyan tree, the Lord disseminates all varieties of seeds by His potent brahmajyoti (sva-rocisa), and the seeds are made to develop by the watering process of persons like Brahma. Brahma cannot create the seeds, but he can manifest the seed into a tree, just as a gardener helps plants and orchards to grow by the watering process. The example cited here of the sun is very appropriate. In the material world the sun is the cause of all illumination: fire, electricity, the rays of the moon, etc. All luminaries in the sky are creations of the sun, the sun is the creation of the brahmajyoti, and the brahmajyoti is the effulgence of the Lord. Thus the ultimate cause of creation is the Lord.