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42
The Pañcarātra
[CH. Nīlā, as benediction, power, and as the Sun, the Moon and Fire. The third form is responsible for the development of all kinds of vegetation and all temporal determinations!
In the sixth chapter of the Ahirbudhnya-samhitā the intermediate creation is described. It is said there that the power of God as the supreme ego is at once one and different from Him. The Lord cannot exist without His power nor can the power exist without Him. These two are regarded as the ultimate cause of the world. The manifestations that are revealed as the vyūhas and the vibhavas are regarded as pure, for through their meditations the yogins attain their desired end?. From the ryūha and the ribhava proceed the impure creation (śuddhetarā-systi). Power is of two kinds, i.e. power as activity, and power as determinants of being or existence (bhūti-sakti). This bhūti-sakti may be regarded as a moving Idea (samkalpamayī mūrti). The process of activity inherent in it may be regarded as manifesting itself in the form of ideas or concepts actualizing themselves as modes of reality. The impure creation is of a threefold nature as puruşa, guna and kāla (time). Puruşa is regarded as a unity or colony of pairs of males and females of the four castes, and these four pairs emanate from the mouth, breast, thighs and legs of Pradyumna. From the forehead, eyebrows, and ears of Pradyumna also emanate the subtle causal state of time and the guņas (sūkşma-kāla-guņā-rasthā). After the emanation of these entities the work of their growth and development was left to Aniruddha, who by the fervour of his Yoga evolved the original element of time in its twofold form as kāla and niyati. Ile also evolved the original energy as guna into the three forms of sattva,
i Certain peculiar interpretations of the iccha-sakti, kriya-sakti and sākşātsakti are to be found in the Sitā-upanişad. The Sātvatu-samhitā (ix. 85) describes twelve other energies such as
lakşmih, pusțir, dayā nidrā, kşamā, kāntis sarasvati,
dhrtir maitri ratis tuştir matir dvädušni smrtā. See also Schrader's Introduction to Pancarátra, p. 55. The theory of these energies is associated with the avatāra theory.
? Schrader, on the evidence of Padma-tantru, says that god as para or ultimate is sometimes identified with and sometimes distinguished from the tyūhu Vasudeva. The para Vasudeva becomes zyüha Vasudeva with His one half and remains as Nārāyana, the creator of the primeval water (māyā). Pancarátra, P. 53
bhūtiḥ śuddhetarā visnoh puruṣo dri-caturmayaḥ sa manünām samāhāro brahma-kşattrādi-bhedinām.
Ghirbudhnya-sunnhitā, vi. 8-9.
