Category:Mahat-tattva
Theme Analysis
The Vedic science of creation is vast and meticulously detailed. Within these quotes, Śrīla Prabhupāda provides a profound explanation of the mahat-tattva, the total material energy from which the entire cosmic manifestation emerges. Before the universe takes shape, all gross and subtle elements exist in a dormant state within this causal truth. By understanding the mechanics of how the mahat-tattva is agitated by the Supreme Lord and transformed into the material elements, one gains clear insight into the temporary nature of the material world and the eternal reality of the spirit soul.
- The Total Material Cause: The mahat-tattva is the foundational source of the cosmic manifestation, containing all the ingredients of the material world in their unmanifested state.
- The Glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu: The creation process begins when the Supreme Lord, in His plenary expansion as Mahā-Viṣṇu, glances over the unmanifested material nature, injecting it with time and the seeds of the living entities.
- Transformation into False Ego: Upon being agitated by the three modes of material nature, the mahat-tattva transforms into false ego, which further expands into the mind, intelligence, senses, and the gross material elements.
- A Cloud in the Spiritual Sky: Despite its seemingly unlimited vastness to human perception, the entire material creation is merely an insignificant cloud covering a tiny corner of the eternal spiritual sky.
- The Playground for Conditioned Souls: The living entities who desire to lord it over material nature are placed within this mahat-tattva to play out their desires under the control of the Lord's external energy.
- Transcending the Material Energy: Ultimate liberation requires the living entity to disentangle itself from the twenty-four elements of the mahat-tattva and revive its pure spiritual consciousness.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Understanding the Mahat-tattva as the Total Material Energy.
Pages in category "Mahat-tattva"
The following 134 pages are in this category, out of 134 total.
1
A
- A fractional portion of the mahat-tattva is called the false ego. A portion of the ego is the vibration of sound, and a portion of sound is atmospheric air
- Accompanying Him (God) were all of the seven primary elements - the five material elements, the total energy (mahat-tattva) and the false ego. This entrance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead involves His entering even the atoms of the material world
- Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Krsna, Goloka Vrndavana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. BG 1972 purports
- After creating the total material energy, the mahat-tattva, and thereby manifesting the gigantic universal form with senses and sense organs, the Supreme Lord entered within it
- After finishing this material world, there is covering of the universe, stock matter, mahat-tattva, wherefrom all these material comings. There is stock
- After the incarnation of the first purusa (Karanarnavasayi Visnu), the mahat-tattva, or the principles of material creation, take place, and then time is manifested, and in course of time the three qualities appear
- All activities begin with the creation of the total energy, the mahat-tattva. Then, by the agitation of the three gunas, the physical elements are created, as well as the mind, ego and the controllers of the senses
- All that is manifested in the material world is the product of the mahat-tattva-avyakta, and things that are visible in our material vision are nothing but combinations and permutations of such variegated material products
- All the living entities injected within the womb of the mahat-tattva are divided in all universes with the incarnation of Garbhodakasayi Visnu, and all of them lie down with the Lord until Brahma is born
- All these combined together (mahat-tattva, false ego, the vibration of sound, atmospheric air, forms, the power of electricity or heat, the smell of the aroma of the earth and the gross earth) constitute the cosmic phenomenon
- All these planets (the innumerable Vaikuntha planets) are eternally situated in the spiritual sky, the paravyoma, which is on the other side of the Causal Ocean within the mahat-tattva
- And for His material creative energies, He (the Lord) is served by four, namely the principles of prakrti, purusa, mahat-tattva and ego
- Anyone who knows these three Visnus (Maha-Visnu, known as mahat-tattva, Garbhodakasayi Visnu and Ksirodakasayi Visnu) can be liberated from material entanglement. BG 1972 purports
- As impelled by the destiny of the jiva, the false ego, which is of three kinds, evolved from the mahat-tattva, in which the element of rajas predominates. From the ego, in turn, evolved many groups of five principles
- At the creation, the material energy is let loose as mahat-tattva, into which the Lord as His first Purusa incarnation, Maha-Visnu, enters. He lies within the Causal Ocean and breathes out innumerable universes. BG 1972 purports
B
- Because the sun enters the universe and divides the sky, it is known as Martanda, and because it is produced from Hiranyagarbha, the body of the mahat-tattva, it is also called Hiranyagarbha
- Before the material creation, the Supreme Lord, by His plenary expansion, accepts the Purusa incarnations, and from Him everything begins. Therefore He is atma, the soul of the mahat-tattva, the universal elements. BG 1972 purports
- Brahman is the resort of the mahat-tattva, which includes all material and spiritual entities. It is described in this connection that the Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead, is the master of both pradhana and purusa
- By the yogic process, when his pure identity is realized in self-realization, one has to revert to the original position by amalgamating the five gross elements and the subtle elements, mind and intelligence, into the mahat-tattva again
D
- Devaki prayed - (After cosmic annihilation) the mahat-tattva enters, by the force of time, into the nonmanifested total material energy, the total material energy enters into the energetic pradhana, and the pradhana enters into You - the SP of Godhead
- Devaki prayed - After many millions of years, when Lord Brahma comes to the end of his life, the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation takes place. At that time the five elements - namely earth, water, fire, air and ether - enter into the mahat-tattva
- Dhrtarastra merged these five elements into the original mahat-tattva. By identifying his material conception of life, he gradually separated his spirit soul from material connections and placed himself at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of God
E
- Empiric philosophers, unable to go beyond these (24 material) elements (5 gross and 3 subtle), 5 knowledge-acquiring senses, 5 active senses, 5 objects of sense pleasure & mahat-tattva, speculate that anything beyond them must be avyakta or inexplicable
- Everything that is created, sustained, and at the end annihilated is within the compass of the mahat-tattva and is known as the material world
F
- First the Karanodakasayi who creates aggregate material ingredients in the mahat-tattva, second the Garbhodakasayi who enters in each and every universe, and third the Ksirodakasayi Visnu who is the Paramatma of every material object, organic or inorganic
- From the avyakta, nonmanifested material mahat-tattva, this material creation has been, become possible. Before the material creation, beyond the material creation, there is Krsna
- From the mahat-tattva all the other twenty-four divisions have sprung, namely the eleven senses (including the mind), the five sense objects, the five material elements, and then consciousness, intelligence and false ego
- From the mahat-tattva his (the living being's) false identity with the material world, intelligence, mind and senses is developed. This covers his pure spiritual identity
- From the total energy, the mahat-tattva, I have manifested the false ego, the three modes of material nature, the five material elements, the individual consciousness, the eleven senses & the material body. Similarly, the universe has come from the SPG
H
- He (God) expands Himself by His different energies, as well as by His plenary portions. In a corner of the spiritual sky of brahmajyoti a spiritual cloud sometimes appears, and the covered portion is called the mahat-tattva
- He (Krsna) is accompanied by the purusas, who create the mahat-tattva. It is confirmed in the Vedic hymns, mahantam vibhum atmanam. Krsna appeared, just like electricity, when there was friction between Kamsa and Vasudeva and Ugrasena
- He amalgamated the mind with the senses and the senses with the sense objects, according to their respective positions, and he also amalgamated the material ego with the total material energy, mahat-tattva
- His (the pure devotee's) so-called material body does not exist, being surcharged with the spiritual current of the Lord's identical interest, and thus he is permanently freed from all contaminations of the sum total of the mahat-tattva
I
M
- Maha-Visnu has placed Himself in this material energy, maha-tattva, and by His nisvasa, by His inhaling and exhaling, the material energy is agitated. Then the three gunas are there. Then, by interaction, counteraction, the whole creation takes place
- Mahat-tattva, or the great causal truth, transforms into false ego, which is manifested in three phases - cause, effect and the doer
- Mahat-tattva, or the great causal truth, transforms into false ego, which is manifested in three phases - cause, effect and the doer. All such activities are on the mental plane and are based on the material elements, gross senses and mental speculation
- Mahat-tattva, or the great causal truth, transforms into false ego, which is manifested in three phases -- cause, effect and the doer
- Material activities are caused by the mahat - tattva's being agitated
- Material creations of every description are more or less due to the development of the mode of passion (rajas). The mahat-tattva is the principle of material creation
- Material nature's primal factor is the mahat-tattva, or breeding source of all varieties. This part of material nature, which is called pradhana as well as Brahman, is impregnated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- Material world is composed of material elements, ingredients supplied by the mahat-tattva, the total material energy
O
- O lord, you are the original source of Vedic literature. You are the original cause of material creation, the life force, the senses, the five elements, the three modes and the mahat-tattva
- O Supreme Self, please give us, who are created in the beginning from the mahat-tattva, the total cosmic energy, Your kind directions on how we shall act
- Of the nine creations, the first one is the creation of the mahat-tattva, or the sum total of the material ingredients, wherein the modes interact due to the presence of the Supreme Lord
- One may argue that the mahat-tattva is also different from pradhana because in the mahat-tattva there are manifestations
P
- Part of this all-pervasive brahmajyoti, which is compared to the sun rays, is covered by the darkness of the mahat-tattva, and this insignificant part is known as the material world
- Primarily this mahat-tattva is divided into sixteen parts, namely the five gross material elements & the eleven working instruments or senses. It is like the cloud in the clear sky
S
- Sat means - effect, asat means - cause, and param refers to the ultimate truth, which is transcendental to cause and effect. The cause of the creation is called the mahat-tattva, or total material energy, and its effect is the creation itself
- Simply by the glance of the Maha-Visnu, consciousness is created, and this consciousness is known as mahat-tattva, The predominating Deity of the mahat-tattva is Vasudeva
- Since the ultimate cause in the material world is mahat-tattva, everything was wound up and amalgamated with the mahat-tattva. This may be compared to sunya-vada, or voidism, but this is the process for cleansing the real spiritual mind, or consciousness
- Some philosopher says, "There was a chunk, and it became broken, and the creation took place." This can be applicable... The mahat-tattva, the total material energy, by, when the three gunas break them, they become twenty-four elements
- Srila Sridhara Svami confirms that a part of the material nature, after being initiated by the Lord, is known as the mahat-tattva
T
- The appearance of the Kumaras is both (vaikrta, e.g., mahat-tattva, false ego, sense perceptions, knowledge, working capacity, controlling deities, ignorant darkness and prakrta creations e.g., immovable entities, lower species of life, human beings)
- The Causal Ocean is created by the Lord as the mahat-tattva, as a cloud in the spiritual sky, and is only a part of His different manifestations. The spiritual sky is an expansion of His personal rays, and He is the mahat-tattva cloud also
- The dimensions of the universe are estimated here (in SB 3.26.52). The outer covering is made of layers of water, air, fire, sky, ego and mahat-tattva, and each layer is ten times greater than the one previous
- The existence of Narayana, or the Personality of Godhead, is not within the jurisdiction of this mahat-tattva, and as such, the name, form, attributes, etc. of Narayana are beyond the jurisdiction of the material world
- The first (plenary expansion of Lord Krsna), Maha-Visnu, creates the total material energy, known as mahat-tattva. BG 1972 purports
- The five elements, namely sky, air, fire, water and earth, are all but different qualities of the darkness of false ego. This means that the false ego in the sum total form of mahat-tattva is generated from the marginal potency of the Lord
- The individual body is temporary; similarly, the entire universe, which is considered to be the body of the Supreme Lord, is also temporary, and both the individual and universal bodies are products of the mahat-tattva
- The living being under the condition of material nature, called mahat-tattva, misidentifies himself as being different from the Lord
- The living being, by his desiring to lord it over the material world and declining to cooperate with the Supreme Lord, contacts the sum total of the material world, namely the mahat-tattva
- The living entity is different from such material products - the products of the mahat-tattva-avyakta
- The living entity, the soul, is within the material covering of the mahat-tattva, ego and panca-tanmatra, the five objects of sense gratification. When these seven are in proper order, the living entity is in a mood of pleasure
- The Lord then, by His plenary portion as Maha-Visnu, lies down within the water of the mahat-tattva, and the water is called the Causal Ocean - Karana-jala
- The mahat-tattva cloud of the material creation, in which the conditioned souls, who want to lord it against the will of the Lord, are put into play as they desire under the control of the Lord by the agency of His external energy
- The mahat-tattva is assembled in some corner of the vast, unlimited spiritual sky, and the part which is thus covered by the mahat-tattva is called the material sky
- The mahat-tattva is chiefly in the mode of ignorance, and it generates the false ego. It is a plenary expansion of the Personality of Godhead, with full consciousness of creative principles and time for fructification
- The mahat-tattva is divided into different subtle categories, but originally it is called the mahat-tattva
- The mahat-tattva is the total cause of the total cosmic manifestation, and because in the total substance of the material cause there are three modes of nature, it is sometimes called Brahman. BG 1972 purports
- The mahat-tattva is the total consciousness because a portion of it is represented in everyone as the intellect. The mahat-tattva is directly connected with the supreme consciousness of the Supreme Being, but still it appears as matter
- The mahat-tattva is the via medium between pure spirit and material existence. It is the junction of matter and spirit wherefrom the false ego of the living entity is generated
- The mahat-tattva is transformed into three divisions: (1) vaikarika, egotism in goodness (sattvika-ahankara), from which is manifested the eleventh sense organ, the mind, whose predominating Deity is Aniruddha - SB 3.26.27-28
- The mahat-tattva is transformed into three divisions: (2) taijasa, or egotism in passion (rajasa-ahankara), from which are manifested the active and knowledge-acquiring senses, along with the intelligence, whose predominating Deity is Lord Pradyumna
- The mahat-tattva is transformed into three divisions: (3) tamasa, or egotism in ignorance, from which sound vibration expands. From sound vibration, the sky is manifested, and then the senses, beginning with the sense of hearing, are also manifested
- The mahat-tattva principle is the generating source of all the modes of material nature, and the living entities take birth in the material world in bodies supplied by the mother, material nature, in terms of their previous work
- The mahat-tattva, is described as Brahman in the Vedic literature: tasmad etad brahma nama-rupam annam ca jayate. Into that Brahman the seeds of the living entities are impregnated by the Supreme Person. BG 1972 purports
- The mahat-tattva, is only an insignificant portion of the whole spiritual sky, and within this mahat-tattva there are innumerable universes
- The mahat-tattva, or shadow of pure consciousness, is the germinating place of all creation. It is pure goodness with the slight addition of the material mode of passion, and therefore activity is generated from this point
- The mahat-tattva, or the sum total of the material creation, is to be understood to be the ultimate end of all universes, including all the living entities therein
- The mahat-tattva, the total material energy, is undivided, but because of the material modes of nature, it appears to separate into earth, water, fire, air and ether - SB 10.3.15-17
- The mahat-tattva, the total material energy, rests on His lotus feet, for the cosmic manifestation is but another opulence of the Lord
- The material cosmos is composed of twenty-four elements: the five gross material elements, the three subtle material elements, the five knowledge-acquiring senses, the five active senses, the five objects of sense pleasure, and the mahat-tattva
- The material ego springs up from the mahat-tattva, which evolved from the Lord's own energy. The material ego is endowed predominantly with active power of three kinds - good, passionate and ignorant
- The mode of goodness, which is the clear, sober status of understanding the Personality of Godhead and which is generally called vasudeva, or consciousness, becomes manifest in the mahat-tattva
- The origin or the total energy of the cosmic manifestation is the mahat-tattva
- The parts of the body, such as the senses, are the creation of the mahat-tattva, and when they are assembled by the will of the Lord, the material body comes into existence, and the living entity is allowed to use it for further activities
- The planets in the spiritual sky are at least three times the number of those within the innumerable universes in the mahat-tattva
- The real sky is the spiritual sky, eternally filled with the rays of the brahmajyoti, and a portion of this unlimited sky is covered by the mahat-tattva cloud of the material creation
- The Rsi Maitreya said: The Lord thus heard about the suspension of the progressive creative functions of the universe due to the noncombination of His potencies, such as the mahat-tattva
- The Sankhya philosophy regards the total energy (mahat-tattva), the false ego and the five objects of sense perception as the seven diverse manifestations of material nature, which has two features, known as the material cause and efficient cause
- The Supreme Lord is described as mahat-pada, which means that the total material energy, known as the mahat-tattva, is lying at His lotus feet
- The Supreme Personality impregnates that total substance, and thus innumerable universes become possible. This total material substance, the mahat-tattva, is described as Brahman in the Vedic literature. BG 1972 purports
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead glanced over the mahat-tattva, or the total material energy, and when it was agitated, everything came into existence
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of the mahat-tattva
- The three material qualities are set into motion, and the material energy is manifested first in the form of the mahat-tattva, then egotism, then ether, then air, fire, water and earth
- The three types of egotism (ahankara) are technically known as vaikarika, taijasa and tamasa. The mahat-tattva is situated within the heart, or citta, and the predominating Deity of the mahat-tattva is Lord Vasudeva - SB 3.26.21
- The total energy of the mahat-tattva, in the form of the gigantic virat-rupa, divided Himself by Himself into the consciousness of the living entities, the life of activity, and self-identification, which are subdivided into one, ten & three respectively
- The total material energy is not the cause of the creation, but actually the Maha-Visnu enters into the mahat-tattva, the total material energy. He is the soul. BG 1972 purports
- The twenty-four elements mentioned (in SB 10.13.52) are the five working senses, the five senses for obtaining knowledge, the five gross material elements, the five sense objects, the mind (manas), the false ego, the mahat-tattva, and material nature
- The unmanifest material world is the subtle mahat-tattva, and from that mahat-tattva the material manifestation has emerged
- The Vedic information. Sa asrjata. We give seeds with a particular part of the body, but Maha-Visnu, simply by glancing over the material nature, mahat-tattva, He impregnates the material nature with so many living entities. Sa asrjata, sa aiksata
- The very same transcendental form of the Lord is manifested by His internal potency, and the formation of His multifarious manifestations of incarnations is always of the same transcendental quality, without any touch of the mahat-tattva
- The world beyond the twenty-four elements (5 gross material elements, 3 subtle material elements, 5 knowledge-acquiring senses, 5 active senses, 5 objects of sense pleasure, & mahat-tattva) is not inexplicable, for it is explained in the BG as eternal
- Thereafter, influenced by the interactions of eternal time, the supreme sum total of matter called the mahat-tattva became manifested, and in this mahat-tattva the unalloyed goodness, the SL, sowed the seeds of universal manifestation out of His own body
- They are (sky, air, fire, water and earth) all mutually the cause and effect of one another, but the original cause is the Lord Himself in plenary portion, as Maha-Visnu lying in the causal water of the mahat-tattva
- This earth is one of the innumerable material planets within the universe, and there are innumerable universes also within the compass of the mahat-tattva
- This is another feature of the mahat-tattva. The vasudeva expansion is also called Krsna consciousness: it is free from all tinges of material passion and ignorance. This clear state of understanding helps one to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- This mahat-tattva contains all the ingredients of the material manifestations, including the conditioned souls
- This process of creation and annihilation described in summary herein (SB 2.10.46) is the regulative principle during the duration of Brahma's one day. It is also the regulative principle in the creation of mahat, in which the material nature is dispersed
- This universal egg, or the universe in the shape of an egg, is called the manifestation of material energy. Its layers of water, air, fire, sky, ego and mahat-tattva increase in thickness one after another
- This universe, containing billions of stars and planets, is one of the billions of such universes clustered together within the compass of the mahat-tattva
- Those who cannot catch the constitutional truth are again merged into the mahat-tattva at the time of the annihilation of the material creation
- Thus, after manifesting variegatedness, the effulgent mahat-tattva, which contains all the universes within itself, which is the root of all cosmic manifestations, swallows the darkness that covered the effulgence at the time of dissolution
W
- Western philosophers sometimes think that the original cause of creation was a chunk that exploded. If one thinks of this chunk as the total material energy, the mahat-tattva, one can understand that the chunk was agitated by the glance of the Lord
- When His consciousness separately manifested itself, the total energy, mahat-tattva, entered with His conscious part. Thus the living entity is able to conceive specific knowledge
- When it is (the mahat-tattva) agitated by the will of the Supreme at first the modes of passion and goodness are prominent
- When the creation is again set up, this mahat-tattva is again let loose
- When the mahat-tattva appears after the night of dissolution, the effulgence is manifested to exhibit the variegatedness of this material world
- When the mahat-tattva was created, it manifested the material ego and swallowed up the darkness which covered the cosmic manifestation at the time of dissolution. This idea can be further explained
- When this material creation is not yet manifested from the mahat-tattva, it is called avyakta, and when it is demonstrated from that total energy, it is called vyakta