Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 02, Chapter 10, Text 13

SB 2.10.13

eko nanatvam anvicchan
yoga-talpat samutthitah
viryam hiranmayam devo
mayaya vyasrjat tridha
 
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada: 
 
The Lord, while lying on His bed of mystic slumber, generated the seminal symbol, golden in hue, through external energy out of His desire to manifest varieties of living entities from Himself alone.
 
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada: 
 
In the Bhagavad-gita (9.7-8) the creation and annihilation of the material world are stated as follows:
 
sarva-bhutani kaunteya
 prakrtim yanti mamikam
kalpa-ksaye punas tani
 kalpadau visrjamy aham
 
prakrtim svam avastabhya
 visrjami punah punah
bhuta-gramam imam krtsnam
 avasam prakrter vasat
 
“At the end of each millennium the creative forces, namely the material nature and the living entities who struggle in the material nature, all merge together into the transcendental body of the Lord, and again when the Lord desires to manifest them, all of them are again displayed by the Lord. Therefore the material nature is working under the control of the Lord. All of them, under the agency of material nature and under the control of the Lord, are thus repeatedly created and annihilated by the will of the Lord.”
 
As such, before the creation or manifestation of the material cosmic world, the Lord exists as total energy (maha-samasti), and thus desiring Himself to be diffused to many, He expands Himself further into multitotal energy (samasti). From the multitotal energy He further expands Himself into individuals in three dimensions, namely adhyatmic, adhidaivic and adhibhautic, as explained before (vyasti). As such, the whole creation and the creative energies are nondifferent and different simultaneously. Because everything is an emanation from Him (the Maha-Visnu or Maha-samasti), nothing of the cosmic energies is different from Him; but all such expanded energies have specific functions and display as designed by the Lord, and therefore they are simultaneously different from the Lord. The living entities are also similar energy (marginal potency) of the Lord, and thus they are simultaneously one with and different from Him.
 
At the stage of nonmanifestation, the living energies remain potent in the Lord, and when they are let loose in the cosmic manifestation they are exhibited differently in terms of different desires under the modes of nature. Such differential manifestations of the living energies are conditional states of the living entities. The liberated living entities, however, in the sanatana (eternal) manifestation, are unconditionally surrendered souls, and therefore they are not subject to the conditions of creation and annihilation. So this creation takes place by the glance of the Lord from His bedstead of mystic slumber. And thus all the universes and the lord of the universe, Brahma, are again and again manifested and annihilated.
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 02, Chapter 10, Text 12
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 02, Chapter 10, Text 14