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XV1] Philosophy of the Ahirbudhnya-samhitā 45 from God, the possessor of this energy. It is designated variously Lakşmi and desire (samkalpa) or free will (svātantrya-müla icchātmā). This will operates as an intellectual visualization (prekṣā-rūpaḥ kriya-phalaḥ), which again produces the other manifestations of God as avyakta, kāla and puruşa. At the time of each creatio: He associates the avyakta with the evolutionary tendencies, the kāla with its operative movement (kalana) and the purușa with all kinds of experiences. At the time of dissolution these powers are withdrawn.
In the foetus-like condition of the manus in the energy (sakti) of God there exist the entities of guna and kāla. Through the operation of the supreme energy or will of God (Vişnu-samkalpa-coditaḥ) there springs up from time-energy (kāla-sakti) the subtle Destiny (niyati), which represents the universal ordering element (sarvaniyāmakaḥ). The time and guna exist in the womb of the sakti. The conception of this sakti is thus different from that of prakrti of the Sāmkhya-Pātañjala in that the gunas are the only root-elements, and time is conceived as somehow included in the operation of the guņas. As the niyati is produced from the time-energy, the manus descend into this category. Later on there springs from niyati, time (kāla) through the will of God, and then the manus descend again into this category! It has already been said that the kāla energy and guna are co-existing elements in the primordial sakti of God. Now this guna-potential manifests itself in a course of gradual emergence through time. As the sattva-guna first manifests itself through time, the manus descend into that category and later on, with the emergence of rajas from sattva and of tamas from rajas, they descend into the rajas and the tamas. The emergence of rajas from sattva and of tamas from rajas is due to the operation of the will-activity of God (vişnu-samkalpa-coditāt). Though the willdynamic of Vişnu is both immanent and transcendent throughout the process of succeeding emergents, yet Vişņu is regarded as specially presiding over sattva, Brahmā over rajas, and Rudra over tamas. Tamas is regarded as heavy (guru), agglutinative (viştam
In describing the process of dissolution it is said that at one stage the universe exists only as time (kāla). The energy inanifested in time (kāla-gataŚaktih) is called kāla, and it is this energy that moves all things or behaves as the transformer of all things (aśesa-prakālinī). Ahirbudhnya-samhitā, iv. 48. Time is described also as the agent that breaks up all things, just as the violence of a river breaks its banks: Kalayaty akhilam kālyam nadi-külam yathā rayah. Ibid. vi. 51.
