Understanding the Mahat-tattva as the Total Material Energy
The Vedic science of creation presents a highly detailed understanding of how the cosmic manifestation unfolds. Through his purports and lectures, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the mahat-tattva is the sum total of all material ingredients—the foundational energy from which everything in the universe is generated. By studying this transcendental science, a sincere seeker can understand the temporary nature of the material world and the eternal reality that exists beyond it.
The Total Material Cause
Before the universe is fully manifested, all physical and subtle ingredients exist in a dormant state within the total material energy. The mahat-tattva serves as this original reservoir of all elements. It is the ultimate breeding source for the entire cosmic manifestation, containing everything that will be created, sustained, and eventually annihilated.
- Material world is composed of material elements, ingredients supplied by the mahat-tattva, the total material energy.
- 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.
- The origin or the total energy of the cosmic manifestation is 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.
The Glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu
Matter alone is inert and cannot create anything independently; it requires the touch of the supreme spirit. The creation process begins when the Supreme Personality of Godhead, expanding as Mahā-Viṣṇu, glances over the unmanifested mahat-tattva. This divine glance agitates the total material energy, setting the modes of nature into motion and impregnating the material substance with the seeds of the living entities.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead glanced over the mahat-tattva, or the total material energy, and when it was agitated, everything came into existence.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Transformation into Material Elements
Once agitated by the three modes of material nature, the mahat-tattva begins its systematic transformation. The first manifestation is false ego, which serves as the crucial junction between spirit and matter. From this false ego, the mind, intelligence, senses, and the five gross material elements evolve to form the complex arena of the universe.
- Mahat-tattva, or the great causal truth, transforms into false ego, which is manifested in three phases -- cause, effect and the doer.
- 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.
- 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 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.
A Cloud in the Spiritual Sky
To properly understand the position of the material world, one must view it from a broader, transcendental perspective. The eternal spiritual sky, filled with the brilliant brahmajyoti, is unlimited. The mahat-tattva is merely a small portion of this spiritual sky covered by a cloud of material energy, within which all the universes cluster together.
- 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.
- 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 only an insignificant portion of the whole spiritual sky, and within this mahat-tattva there are innumerable universes.
- 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.
The Conditioned Souls
The entire cosmic manifestation is created specifically for the rebellious living entities. Those who decline to cooperate with the Supreme Lord and desire to exercise false lordship are placed within the mahat-tattva. Here, they are given material bodies composed of the gross and subtle elements to play out their desires under the strict laws of nature.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- This mahat-tattva contains all the ingredients of the material manifestations, including the conditioned souls.
Transcending the Material Elements
The ultimate goal of human life is to penetrate through the coverings of the mahat-tattva and realize one's eternal spiritual identity. By reviving pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the living entity can become free from the twenty-four material elements and merge their consciousness once again in the transcendental service of the Supreme Lord.
- 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.
- The living entity is different from such material products - the products of the mahat-tattva-avyakta.
- Getting freed from the clutches of the mahat-tattva, he has to merge in the existence of the Supersoul.
- 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.
Conclusion
By understanding the science of the mahat-tattva, one realizes the temporary and subordinate nature of the material world. It is simply an expansion of the Lord's external energy designed to facilitate the conditioned souls. By awakening one's original Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as taught by Śrīla Prabhupāda, the soul easily pierces through the twenty-four elements of the mahat-tattva and enters the eternal reality of the spiritual sky.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Mahat-tattva. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.