Vishnupurana 6.7.68

6.7.68

etāny aśeṣarūpāṇi tasya rūpāṇi pārthiva
yatas tacchaktiyogena yuktāni nabhasā yathā //

Kháńd́ikya then said to Keśidhwaja, "Illustrious sage, inform me what is that perfect asylum of the mind, resting on which it destroys all the products of (human) infirmity." To this, Keśidhwaja replied, "The asylum of mind is spirit (Brahma), which of its own nature is twofold, as being with or without form; and each of these is supreme and secondary. Apprehension of spirit, again, is threefold. I will explain the different kinds to you: they are, that which is called Brahma, that which is named from works, and that which comprehends both. That mental apprehension which consists of Brahma is one; that which is formed of works is another; and that which comprehends both is the third: so that mental apprehension (of the object or asylum of the thoughts) is threefold. Sanandana and other (perfect sages) were endowed with apprehension of the nature of Brahma. The gods and others, whether animate or inanimate, are possessed of that which regards acts. The apprehension that comprehends both works and spirit exists in Hirańyagarbha and others, who are possessed of contemplative knowledge of their own nature, and who also exercise certain active functions, as creation and the rest. Until all acts, which are the causes of notions of individuality, are discontinued, spirit is one thing, and the universe is another, to those who contemplate objects as distinct and various; but that is called true knowledge, or knowledge of Brahma, which recognises no distinctions, which contemplates only simple existence, which is undefinable by words, and is to be discovered solely in one's own spirit. That is the supreme, unborn, imperishable form of Vishńu, who is without (sensible) form, and is characterised as a condition of the supreme soul, which is variously modified from the condition of universal form. But this condition cannot be contemplated by sages in their (early) devotions, and they must therefore direct their minds to the gross form of Hari, which is of universal perceptibility. They must meditate upon him as Hirańyagarbha, as the glorious Vásava, as Prajápati, as the winds, the Vasus, the Rudras, the suns, stars, planets, Gandharbas, Yakshas, Daityas, all the gods and their progenitors, men, animals, mountains, oceans, rivers, trees, all beings, and all sources of beings, all modifications whatever of nature and its products, whether sentient or unconscious, one-footed, two-footed, or many-footed; all these are the sensible form of Hari, to be apprehended by the three kinds of apprehension. All this universal world, this world of moving and stationary beings, is pervaded by the energy of Vishńu, who is of the nature of the supreme Brahma. This energy is either supreme, or, when it is that of conscious embodied spirit, it is secondary. Ignorance, or that which is denominated from works, is a third energy; by which the omnipresent energy of embodied spirit is ever excited, and whence it suffers all the pains of repeated worldly existence. Obscured by that energy (of ignorance or illusion), the energy that is denominated from embodied spirit is characterised by different degrees of perfection in all created beings. In things without life it exists in a very small degree: it is more in things that have life, but are (without motion): in insects it is still more abundant, and still more in birds; it is more in wild animals, and in domestic animals the faculty is still greater: men have more of this (spiritual). faculty than animals, and thence arises their authority over them: the faculty exists in an ascending degree in Nágas, Gandharbas, Yakshas, gods, Śakra, Prajápati, and Hirańyagarbha: and is above all predominant in that male (Vishńu) of whom all these various creatures are but the diversified forms, penetrated universally by his energy, as all-pervading as the ether.