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PURUSHA SUKTHAM
into the sytem where it did not exist. In the process of this yajna, the sacrificial Purusha was cut up. This verse asks about what happened to the various parts of His body. What came of his face and mouth? What did the arms become? What became of his thighs and feet? It would imply that the sacrificers actually destroyed the form of Purusha and modeled them into what they wanted each part should be. They destroyed what was intended of the universe and made the world as they wanted thus destroying the form and image of God.
This was the first murder. Devas being freewilled choose to sacrifice the Purusha which was the wholeness of cosmos and gave life to the parts instead of the whole, for favor of profit for themselves. Out of this fall came the hierarchy system, a system which alone will work in a fallen world. Such a fallen world is indeed a world of decay and death.
The devas themselves believed that they were the real creators of the world. This is the story told by the Gnostics. Here is the Gnostic myth of creation:
"The pleroma was the substance of the realm of God. It was here that the higher spiritual powers resided - among them, Sophia (Greek for wisdom). Sophia wished to know the nature of the Father (God), and would not stop trying to understand the incomprehensible. Eventually her wish twisted itself and she became impregnated by her desire for unattainable knowledge. Born from her mistaken intentions was the being Ialdaboath, who was exiled from the pleroma due to what he was. Sophia contented herself with the fact that she would never understand the Father, because He was beyond understanding. Although things turned out all right for the mother, her son Ialdaboath was not so lucky. Exiled from the pleroma, he attempted to return by bringing the pleroma to himself. In the Gnostic improvisation on the Creation, the creating god is not the Transcendent God the Gnostics referred to as Jesus had) the Father. Rather, the creating god was Ialdaboath (with several spelling derivations). This being was known as the Demi-Urge - which is taken from the Greek word for the creator of the physical world - and is identified as being the God of the old testament - YHWH. The Gnostic identification of the creator and the true God being different caused some problems with the Orthodox church on the basis of the phrase "creator of Heaven and Earth" being applied to God.
Ialdaboath was referred to as an archon (Greek for ruler). He had a company of six other archons (bringing the total to seven). His intention for creating the world was to glorify himself and to bring the pleroma to him. To do this, he required something that could hold the pleroma. The only proper vessel for this was a living being. Before he and his cronies had been expelled, they had seen a brief vision of Eternal Man (a purely spiritual creature). Ialdaboath attempted to recreate Man from what he remembered, but the only materials he had was the matter of the material universe. Thus the finished product fell short of its inspiring original. The finished product was, of course, Adam.
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