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by those who are acquainted with the system of the universe, the heavenly sphere. These three spheres are termed transitory. The three highest,-Janas, Tapas, and Satya,-are styled durable.' Mahar-loka, as situated between the two, has, also, a mixed character; for, although it is deserted at the end of the Kalpa, it is not destroyed. † These seven spheres, together with the Pátálas, forming the extent of the whole world,‡ I have, thus, Maitreya, explained to you.

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-apple2 is

the Pársís. Seven - suggested, originally, perhaps, by the seven planets, seems to have been a favourite number with various nations of antiquity. Amongst the Hindus, it was applied to a variety of sacred or mythological objects, which are enumerated in a verse in the Hanuman Nátaka. Ráma is described, there, as piercing seven palm-trees with an arrow, on which other groups of seven take fright; as the seven steeds of the sun, the seven spheres, Munis, seas, continents, and mothers of the gods:

अश्वाः सप्त जगन्ति सप्त मुनयः सप्ताब्धयः सप्तगाः ।

सत्यं सप्त च मातरो भयभृतः संख्या न साम्यादिह || ||

1 Kŕitaka and Akŕitaka, literally, 'made and unmade'; the former being renewed every Kalpa, the latter perishing only at the end of Brahma's life. ¶

2 Of the Kapittha (Feronia Elephantum).

* Swarloka.

+ कृतकाकृतयोर्मध्ये महर्लोक इति स्मृतः ।
शून्यो भवति कल्पान्ते योऽत्यन्तं न विनश्यति ॥
§ Andakaťáha.

+ Brahmanda.

? I have not been able to verify this half-stanza.

| From the larger commentary: त्रैलोक्यं कृतकं प्रतिकल्पं कार्यं जना दिचयं चाकृतकं तद्विपरीतम् । The smaller commentary remarks to

the same effect.

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 ether+; ether, by the origin of the elements (Ahamkára); 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.❜§

1 See before the order in which the elements are evolved (Vol. I., pp. 29, &c.)

2 The followers of Anaximander and Democritus taught “an άлεigíα xóσμшv, '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, Book I., III., 33.

*

See Original Sanskrit Texts, Part I., p. 195.

† Nabhas. Professor Wilson had "Mind" in the text, which I have changed, unhesitatingly, as above. In taking nabhas to mean ákáśa, ordinarily rendered "ether", I have assumed that the Vishnu-puráňa, as to its cosmogony, is at unity with itself. See Vol. I., P. 84.

Bhútádi, here rendered rightly. See Vol. I., pp. 33, 34, and 169, where the term is interpreted "rudimental", "elementary", and "the first element". Ahamkára as stagnant-támasa-is here intended.

$ हेतुभूतमशेषस्य प्रकृतिः परमा मुने ।
अण्डानां तु सहस्राणां सहस्राण्ययुतानि च ।
ईदृशानां तथा तत्र कोटिकोटिशतानि च ॥

Within Pradhána resides Soul, diffusive, conscious, and self-irradiating; as fire ( is inherent) in flint 1, or sesamum oil in its seed. Nature (Pradhána) and soul (Pums) are, both, of the character of dependants, and are encompassed by the energy of Vishnu, 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.2* In the same manner as the wind

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

± 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 cœlestis extimus, qui reliquos complectitur omnis, summus ipse deus arcens et continens ceteros:"

‘Supreme prakriti, Sage, became cause of all, – of thousands of mundane eggs and of such there are thousands and tens of thousands, and so, there, hundreds of hundred billions . '

:

प्रधानं च पुमांश्चैव सर्वभूतात्मभूतया ।
विष्णुशक्त्या महाबुद्धे वृतौ संश्रयधर्मिणौ ॥
तयोः सैव पृथग्भावकारणं संश्रयस्य च ।

क्षोभकारणभूता च सर्गकाले महामते ॥

‘Pradhána and spirit, most wise one, are enveloped — i. e. governed — by the energy of Vishnu, which is the soul of all beings: they have the property of resorting to one another. And this energy is the cause of their becoming separated, and of their resorting to one another; and it is the cause, great Sage, of their commotion at the time of creation.'

On these stanzas the smaller commentary remarks as follows: तयोरपि परमेश्वराधिष्ठितत्वमाह । प्रधानं चेति द्वाभ्याम् विष्णोः स्वरूपभूतया चिच्छक्त्या वृतौ अधिष्ठित । संश्रयधर्मिणी नियम्य नियन्तृभावेन स्थितौ। सैव कालात्मना स्थिता सती तयोः प्रलयकाले पृथग्भावे कारणं स्थितिकाले संश्रयस्य च कारणं सर्गकाले चोभकारणभूता चेत्यर्थः ।

*

ruffles the surface of the water in a hundred bubbles, (which, of themselves, are inert), so the energy of Vishnu 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) and the other rudiments of things. From them proceed the grosser elements, and, from them, men and gods, who are succeeded by sons and the sons of sons.† In the growth

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 virtutes omnes, quæ illam primæ omnipotentiam summitatis sequuntur, aut ipse faciat, aut ipse contineat. Ipsum denique Jovem veteres vocaverunt, et apud theologos Jupiter est mundi anima." In Somn. Scip., c. XVII.

* Professor Wilson should seem to have followed this lection:

यथाशक्तं जले वातो बिभर्ति कणिकाशतम् ।

'As the wind carries powerless a hundred particles that are in the water.' On this line, and its various readings, the smaller commentary remarks:

यथेति । जले स्थितं कणिकाशतं परमाणुस्तोकमशक्तं यथा भवत्येवं वातो यथा बिभर्ति तथा प्रधानपुरुषात्मकं जगत्तचैव स्थितत्वादात्मन्यशक्तमेव विष्णुशक्तिर्बिभर्ति । पाठान्तरे तु जले स्थितं शैत्यं कणिकाद्वारेणागतं यथा वातो बिभर्ति । पाठान्तरे तु जले स्थितं शैत्यं कणिकाद्वारेणागतं यथा वातो बिभर्ति यथा जलस्थानीयं जगत्कणिकास्थानीयमहदादिद्वारेणागतं वातस्थानीया विष्णोः शक्तिर्बिभर्तीत्यर्थः । + एवमव्याकृतात्पूर्वं जायन्ते महदादयः । विशेषान्तास्ततस्तेभ्यः संभवन्त्यसुरादयः ॥ तेभ्यश्च पुत्रास्तेषां च पुत्राणामपरे सुताः ।

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of a tree from the seed, no detriment occurs to the parent plant; neither is there any waste of beings by the generation of others. In like manner as space, and time, and the rest are the cause of the tree (through the materiality of the seed), so the divine Hari is the cause of all things by successive developments (through the materiality of nature).1 As all the parts of the future plant, existing in the seed of rice, or the root, the culm, the leaf, the shoot, the stem, the bud, the fruit, the milk, the grain, the chaff, the ear,-spontaneously evolve, when they are in approximation with the subsidiary means of growth (or earth and water), so gods, men, and other beings, involved in many actions (or necessarily existing in those states which are the consequences of good or evil acts), become manifested only in their full growth, through the influence of the energy of Vishnu.

1 The two passages in parentheses are thé additions of the commentator, intended to explain how the deity is the material cause of the world. He is not so of his own essence, not so immediately, but through the interposition of Pradhana: त्वमपि हरेः प्रकृतिद्वारैव न स्वरूपेणेति भावः । ' As, however, he is the source of Prakriti, he must be considered the material as well as immaterial cause of being.'

"Thus, from the unmanifested first spring mahat and the like, inclusive of the elements; then from these originate the demons, &c.; and, from them, sons; and of these sons there are other sons.'

*

This is to render ákása, on which term see my first note at p. 34 of Vol. I.

+ Add 'in consequence of proximity', eifarneną .

This ellipsis was supplied by the Translator.

§ This is from the smaller commentary, and means: 'Hari's material causativity is through the instrumentality of prakriti, and is not in his own essence. Such is the import.'

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