Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.98

c8.98

According to the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa, the self-existent Brahman is Vāsudeva;⁵⁰ he is originally and essentially but one, still he exists in three successively proceeding forms, Puruṣa, Pradhāna and Kāla the last acting as the connecting bond for the former two. Pradhāna produces Mahān or Buddhi when the Supreme Deity enters Puruṣa and Pradhāna. Buddhi produces Ahaṃkāra; and so are produced the five subtle elements, the gross elements and the eleven organs much in the same way as is taught in the Sāṅkhya philosophy. But the Purāṇas teach, in addition to the evolutionary theory, that each generating principle or element envelopes the one generated by it.⁵¹ The gross elements combine into a compact mass, the Brahmāṇḍa, which rests on the waters, and is surrounded by seven envelopes—water, wind, fire, air, ahaṃkāra, buddhi and pradhāna. In the Brahmāṇḍa, the highest deity which is invested with the guṇa activity, appeared in the form of Brahmā, and created all things. The same deity in the guṇa sattva, preserves, as Viṣṇu, the universe till the end of a Kalpa, when the same god in the awful form of Rudra destroys it. Then is described the raising of the earth from beneath the waters by Nārāyaṇa in the form of a boar, and the creation of earth, sky, heaven and maharloka.