SB 1.3.1

सूत उवाच
जगृहे पौरुषं रूपं भगवान्महदादिभिः ।
सम्भूतं षोडशकलमादौ लोकसिसृक्षया ॥१॥

sūta uvāca
jagṛhe pauruṣaṁ rūpaṁ
bhagavān mahad-ādibhiḥ
sambhūtaṁ ṣoḍaśa-kalam
ādau loka-sisṛkṣayā

sūtaḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigsutah

a son (born of Lord Brahmā's mind); a son; as Your son (you wanted a son exactly like Me); her son; his son; one son; son (Baladeva, born of Rohiṇī); son; the soma-yajña; the son (Prahlāda); the son; was the son. uvācaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_biguvāca

answered; described; explained; he recited; he said; inquired; prayed; replied; said; she said; she spoke; spoke; talked with them.—Sūta said; jagṛheplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigjagṛhe

accepted; captured; caught; exacted; he assumed; manifested; took; took up.—accepted; pauruṣamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigpauruṣam

ability; as the Supreme Personality of Godhead; distressing to others; human; of His Lordship; of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; pertaining to the Supreme Person; plenary portion as the puruṣa incarnation; powerful actions; the puruṣa incarnation.—plenary portion as the puruṣa incarnation; rūpamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigrupam

a form; beauty; beauty of a young man; bodily features; body; dress; eternal form; form; form of the Lord; form or substance; forms; Her beauty; His bodily features; his form; in Your Viṣṇu form; My form as the Supreme Personality of Godhead with four hands; that shadowy form; the beauty; the dress of a sannyāsī; the false dress of a saintly person; the form; the natural position; the same bodily features; the symptoms of manifestation; this form; transcendental form; universal form; what beauty; Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.—form; bhagavānplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigbhagavan

my dear Lord; my lord; O exalted sage; O godly personality; O great brāhmaṇa; O great sage (Śukadeva Gosvāmī); O great sage; O great saint; O great soul; O Lord; O Lord, Supreme Personality of Godhead; O most powerful; O most powerful devotee; O most powerful sage; O my Lord; O my lord, O great one; O Personality of Godhead; O possessor of all opulences; O powerful one; O Supreme; O Supreme Lord; O Supreme Lord, O Personality of Godhead; O Supreme Personality of Godhead; O supremely powerful one; O worshipful sage; O Your Lordship; the Personality of Godhead.—the Personality of Godhead; mahatplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigmahat

a great; a great personality; a Vaiṣṇava; all-perfect; astounding; by great personalities; exalted; glorious; great; great soul; insurmountable; into a gigantic body; most exalted; of an exalted personality; of great devotees; of great saintly persons; of great souls; of the great devotees; severely; supreme; the best; the great; the greatest; the total material energy; the total material existence; thick; to a great personality; to great personalities; very big; very great; very great, exalted; very, very great.-ādibhiḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigādibhiḥ

and by other soldiers; and by other symptoms; and by others; and by others as well; and others; and others also; and so on; and the others; and with other colors; and with other paraphernalia for bathing; beginning with; by all these and other transcendental opulences; by all these qualities; by other opulences also; by them; by them and others also; combined together; with all of these.—with the ingredients of the material world; sambhūtamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigsambhutam

caused; created; thus there was the creation of.—thus there was the creation of; ṣoḍaśaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigṣoḍaśa

in sixteen divisions; sixteen; sixteenth; the sixteen.-kalamplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigkalam

elements; energies; very sweetly.—sixteen primary principles; ādauplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigādau

at first; first; in the beginning (the Second and Third Cantos); in the beginning; in the beginning of creation; original in the creative energy of matter; originally.—in the beginning; lokaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigloka

the region of the Siddhas.—the universes; sisṛkṣayāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigsisṛkṣayā

desiring to create; for creating; for the matter of creating the universal affairs; for the sake of creation; generates the false ego; on the intention of creating; with a desire for the creation; with a desire to create; with the desire to create.—on the intention of creating. ¶

Sūta said: In the beginning of the creation, the Lord first expanded Himself in the universal form of the puruṣa incarnation and manifested all the ingredients for the material creation. And thus at first there was the creation of the sixteen principles of material action. This was for the purpose of creating the material universe. ¶

The Bhagavad-gītā states that the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa maintains these material universes by extending His plenary expansions. So this puruṣa form is the confirmation of the same principle. The original Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva, or Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is famous as the son of King Vasudeva or King Nanda, is full with all opulences, all potencies, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. Part of His opulences are manifested as impersonal Brahman, and part of His opulences are manifested as Paramātmā. This puruṣa feature of the same Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Paramātmā manifestation of the Lord. There are three puruṣa features in the material creation, and this form, who is known as the Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, is the first of the three. The others are known as the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, which we shall know one after another. The innumerable universes are generated from the skin holes of this Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and in each one of the universes the Lord enters as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. ¶

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also mentioned that the material world is created at certain intervals and then again destroyed. This creation and destruction is done by the supreme will because of the conditioned souls, or the nitya-baddha living beings. The nitya-baddha, or the eternally conditioned souls, have the sense of individuality or ahaṅkāra, which dictates them sense enjoyment, which they are unable to have constitutionally. The Lord is the only enjoyer, and all others are enjoyed. The living beings are predominated enjoyers. But the eternally conditioned souls, forgetful of this constitutional position, have strong aspirations to enjoy. The chance to enjoy matter is given to the conditioned souls in the material world, and side by side they are given the chance to understand their real constitutional position. Those fortunate living entities who catch the truth and surrender unto the lotus feet of Vāsudeva after many, many births in the material world join the eternally liberated souls and thus are allowed to enter into the kingdom of Godhead. After this, such fortunate living entities need not come again within the occasional material creation. But those who cannot catch the constitutional truth are again merged into the mahat-tattva at the time of the annihilation of the material creation. When the creation is again set up, this mahat-tattva is again let loose. This mahat-tattva contains all the ingredients of the material manifestations, including the conditioned souls. Primarily this mahat-tattva is divided into sixteen parts, namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses. It is like the cloud in the clear sky. In the spiritual sky, the effulgence of Brahman is spread all around, and the whole system is dazzling in spiritual light. 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. This part of the spiritual sky, called the mahat-tattva, is only an insignificant portion of the whole spiritual sky, and within this mahat-tattva there are innumerable universes. All these universes are collectively produced by the Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, called also the Mahā-Viṣṇu, who simply throws His glance to impregnate the material sky. ¶