BPHS Ch.1 — Vyuha Cosmology (Vasudeva/Sankarshana/Pradyumna/Aniruddha), Paramatma in Jivas & A9 in Lagna

Cosmology — Parashara's Account of Creation

The Starting Point

The Parama Purusha, vyakta and avyakta:

• The Supreme Being has an expressed (vyakta) part and a part still unexpressed (avyakta).
• Parashara names the shaktis but not the Supreme Being. Call him Narayana, Sadashiva or Maharudra according to your inclination, or simply Parama Purusha.
• He is joined with three shaktis:

• Before expression there were no gunas. The unexpressed part stays untouched by the gunas; the expressed part is endowed with all three. So three states of existence came into being — sattva, rajas, tamas.

The Four

• All of them contain all the shaktis. Each has its own in a higher quantity: Pradyumna more rajas, Aniruddha more sattva, Sankarshana more tamas.
• Other Puranas speak of Brahma–Saraswati, Vishnu–Lakshmi, Shiva–Parvati. Parashara uses a different terminology for the same thing: how the three gunas manifest. "You can also look at them as Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva if you want."
• Parashara does not define sattva or rajas here. PVNR: stay with what you currently understand by them.

The Chain of Manifestation

From Sankarshana (tamas): Mahān.

• Literally "the great one". Santhanam renders it mahat-tattva. PVNR, reading without the translation: "Exactly what it means, I am not sure."

From Pradyumna (rajas): Ahaṅkāra.

• The I-ness: the sense "I am" in the supreme cosmic being.
• Rajas differentiates; it is the passion to do things. That differentiation, personified, is Pradyumna.
• With ahaṅkāra came every distinction: "I am Vishnu, I am Brahma". Brahma said, I want to create; Vishnu said, I want to sustain.
• Rajas is the first step. Once it came, the gunas and the highest devatas became distinct.

"Rajas is the cause for I-ness. Even within you, forget the Parama Purusha, even within you, rajas is the reason for a separate I-ness."

From Aniruddha (sattva): Brahma.

• Brahma is ahaṅkāra-mūrti, the great personification of ahaṅkāra. His job is to create the world.
• Parashara mentions only Brahma's birth here; PVNR: you can conclude Vishnu and Shiva are born likewise.

Ahaṅkāra is threefold — sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa. From it, each with its own shakti, are born the devas, the indriyas (senses), and the bhūtas. "Khādīni" = kha (ether, space) and the rest — the pañca bhūtas.

The Three Functions

The Philosophical Core

Verse: sarveṣu caiva jīveṣu paramātmā virājate — and all of this is stationed in the Paramātmā.

"In all the jīvas, the Paramātmā, the Supreme Soul is there. It shines in all the jīvas."

"In reality, everything is within the Paramatma and Paramatma is within everything."

• The seeming distinction between "you" and "I" comes from the ahaṅkāra that arose in the supreme cosmic being. Without it there would be none.

Jīvāṁśa and Paramātmāṁśa:

• Aṁśa = part. Every being has two: the jīvāṁśa, the living part, and the paramātmāṁśa, the supreme-soul part.
• PVNR points out the wording: Parashara says jīva-aṁśa, not jīvātma-aṁśa. He does not speak of a separate jīvātmā standing beside the Paramātmā.
• In the grahas (Sun, Moon and the rest) and the devatas (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and the rest), the paramātmāṁśa is higher and the jīvāṁśa smaller. It is highest in Lakshmi and the other devatas, with their own shaktis.
• In other beings — "people like you and me" — the jīvāṁśa is higher.
• "That is the difference between gods and non-gods." All is the same Paramātmā; what differs is the level of ahaṅkāra. "The ahaṅkāra in Vishnu is different from you."
• Paramātmāṁśa does not mean sattva. It can be sattva, rajas or tamas.
• A student sums up: beings differ by how much of each they carry. PVNR:

"So, you have to increase the Paramatma within you through practice."

Different Puranas, Different Accounts

"This is basically one point of view." Other texts tell it differently.

• Devī Rahasyam in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Mahalakshmi-centric. First there was nothing, meaning only the unexpressed Parama Purusha. Then there was Mahalakshmi, holding all three gunas. She divided herself into Mahalakshmi, Mahakali and Mahasaraswati, personifying the three gunas. Each created one pair: Vishnu and Kali; Brahma and Lakshmi; Shiva and Saraswati. A male from one and a female from another were then joined as a couple and given charge of one guna and one responsibility.
• Parashara's account — the one above.

"Let us not get caught with one account. This is Parashara's account. It's not that this is wrong, the other one is right, or this is right and the other one is wrong. All of them are different ways to look at the same thing."

Why the Answer Is Cryptic

• "We have not really come to any astrology so far." That comes in the next class, with the next chapter.
• Ask how creation came into being and how it ends, and you get a cryptic answer — in any Upanishad, any Vedānta text.
• PVNR's comparison: you can say exactly how a small thing was made — "I cut this paper in half, cut each half again, wrote Om on one and Swastika on another, and thus this book was born." Creation is too big for that; we understand only a very small aspect of it.
• A maharshi has to teach it, so he says something, but only one who is capable will understand. "So don't worry if you don't understand it."

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Q&A: A9 in Lagna

A student asks without a chart: if A9 (the ārūḍha of the 9th house) is in lagna, does fortune increase with time, as the person gets older?

Answer: No.

• The 9th house is overall fortune. A9 is the manifested fortune.
• In lagna it is in a quadrant (kendra) — good.
• It also acts on lagna directly: the very essence of the person.
• It shows a very lucky person.
• Timing: it can hold through life from birth itself, or come when the corresponding dashas trigger it.

"It is not like he is fortunate but he cannot enjoy the fortune. The fortune affects the entire core of the person, the very essence of the person."

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