Vishnupurana 2.7.5

The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition 2.7.5

Language: English

2.7.5

The world is encompassed on every side and above and below by the shell of the egg of Brahmá, in the same manner as the seed of the wood-apple is invested by its rind. Around the outer surface of the shell flows water, for a space equal to ten times the diameter of the world. The waters, again, are encompassed exteriorly by fire; fire by air; and air by Mind; Mind by the origin of the elements (Ahankára); and that by Intellect: each of these extends ten times the breadth of that which it encloses; and the last is encircled by the chief Principle, Pradhána, which is infinite, and its extent cannot be enumerated: it is therefore called the boundless and illimitable cause of all existing things, supreme nature, or Prakriti; the cause of all mundane eggs, of which there are thousands and tens of thousands, and millions and thousands of millions, such as has been described. Within Pradhána resides Soul, diffusive, conscious, and self-irradiating, as fire is inherent in flint, or sesamum oil in its seed. Nature (Pradhána) and soul (Pumán) are both of the character of dependants, and are encompassed by the energy of Vishńu, which is one with the soul of the world, and which is the cause of the separation of those two (soul and nature) at the period of dissolution; of their aggregation in the continuance of things; and of their combination at the season of creation. In the same manner as the wind ruffles the surface of the water in a hundred bubbles, which of themselves are inert, so the energy of Vishńu influences the world, consisting of inert nature and soul. Again, as a tree, consisting of root, stem, and branches, springs from a primitive seed, and produces other seeds, whence grow other trees analogous to the first in species, product, and origin, so from the first unexpanded germ (of nature, or Pradhána) spring Mahat (Intellect)

2.7.5.n1

Of the Kapittha (Feronia Elephantum).

2.7.5.n2

See before the order in which the elements are evolved (p. 14).

2.7.5.n3

The followers of Anaximander and Democritus taught "an ἀπειρία κόσμων 'an infinity of worlds;' and that not only successive in that space which this world of ours is conceived now to occupy, in respect of the infinity of past and future time, but also a contemporary infinity of coexistent worlds, at all times, throughout endless and unbounded space." Intellect. System, I. 303.

2.7.5.n4

Literally 'in wood,' the attrition of two pieces of which does not create, but developes, their latent heat and flame.

2.7.5.n5

Thus in Scipio's dream the divinity is made the external limit of the universe: "Novem tibi orbibus vel potius globis connexa sunt omnia, quorum unus est cælestis externus qui reliquos omnes complectitur, summus ipse deus arcens et continens ceteros:" which Macrobius explains as to be understood of the Supreme First Cause of all things, only in respect of his supremacy over all, and from his comprehending as well as creating all things, and being regarded as the soul of the world: "Quod et virtutes omnes, quæ illam primæ omnipotentiam summitates sequuntur, aut ipse faciat aut ipse contineat: ipsam denique Jovem veteres vocaverunt, et apud theologos Jupiter est mundi anima." In Somn. Scip. c. XVII.

Linked texts (1)

Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit