adyah sthira-caranam yo

 veda-garbhah saharsibhih

yogesvaraih kumaradyaih

 siddhair yoga-pravartakaih

 

bheda-drstyabhimanena

 nihsangenapi karmana

kartrtvat sagunam brahma

 purusam purusarsabham

 

sa samsrtya punah kale

 kalenesvara-murtina

jate guna-vyatikare

 yatha-purvam prajayate

 

aisvaryam paramesthyam ca

 te ’pi dharma-vinirmitam

nisevya punar ayanti

 guna-vyatikare sati

 

Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada: 

 

My dear mother, someone may worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead with a special self-interest, but even demigods such as Lord Brahma, great sages such as Sanat-kumara and great munis such as Marici have to come back to the material world again at the time of creation. When the interaction of the three modes of material nature begins, Brahma, 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 attain the first incarnation of the purusa, but at the time of creation they come back in exactly the same forms and positions they previously had.

 

Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada: 

 

That Brahma becomes liberated is known to everyone, but he cannot liberate his devotees. Demigods like Brahma and Lord Siva cannot give liberation to any living entity. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, only one who surrenders unto Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, can be liberated from the clutches of maya. Brahma is called here adyah sthira-caranam. He is the original, first-created living entity, and after his own birth he creates the entire cosmic manifestation. He was fully instructed in the matter of creation by the Supreme Lord. Here he is called veda-garbha, which means that he knows the complete purpose of the Vedas. He is always accompanied by such great personalities as Marici, Kasyapa and the seven sages, as well as by great mystic yogis, the Kumaras and many other spiritually advanced living entities, but he has his own interest, separate from the Lord’s. Bheda-drstya means that Brahma sometimes thinks that he is independent of the Supreme Lord, or he thinks of himself as one of the three equally independent incarnations. Brahma is entrusted with creation, Visnu maintains and Rudra, Lord Siva, destroys. The three of them are understood to be incarnations of the Supreme Lord in charge of the three different material modes of nature, but none of them is independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Here the word bheda-drstya occurs because Brahma has a slight inclination to think that he is as independent as Rudra. Sometimes Brahma thinks that he is independent of the Supreme Lord, and the worshiper also thinks that Brahma 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, Brahma comes back. Although Brahma reaches the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the first purusa incarnation, Maha-Visnu, who is full with transcendental qualities, he cannot stay in the spiritual world.

 

The specific significance of his coming back may be noted. Brahma and the great rsis and the great master of yoga (Siva) are not ordinary living entities; they are very powerful and have all the perfections of mystic yoga. But still they have an inclination to try to become one with the Supreme, and therefore they have to come back. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is accepted that as long as one thinks that he is equal with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is not completely purified or knowledgeable. In spite of going up to the first purusa-avatara, Maha-Visnu, after the dissolution of this material creation, such personalities again fall down or come back to the material creation.

 

It is a great falldown on the part of the impersonalists to think that the Supreme Lord appears within a material body and that one should therefore not meditate upon the form of the Supreme but should meditate instead on the formless. For this particular mistake, even the great mystic yogis or great stalwart transcendentalists also come back again when there is creation. All living entities other than the impersonalists and monists can directly take to devotional service in full Krsna consciousness and become liberated by developing transcendental loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such devotional service develops in the degrees of thinking of the Supreme Lord as master, as friend, as son and, at last, as lover. These distinctions in transcendental variegatedness must always be present.