Virāṭ Purusha

Virāṭ Purusha, “the cosmic person”

The Virāṭ Purusha is the universal form of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa: the whole universe understood as his body. Virāṭ means “vast” or “all-pervading”, and Purusha means “the Person”. The worlds, the sun and moon, the rivers and mountains are all seen as the limbs and parts of this one divine Person.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa this teaching does two jobs. It explains how the brahmāṇḍa (the “egg of Brahmā“, the universe) is brought to life by Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s presence. And it is a practice of meditation, leading the sādhaka (spiritual practitioner) step by step through the body of the universe until he arrives at the four-armed Vishṇu in the heart. It joins the visible world and Bhagavān Vishṇu beyond it, and shows them to be one unbroken reality.

The Bhāgavata returns to this form again and again, from the first skandha to the last. Sūta tells the ṛshis that at the beginning Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa took the Purusha form of sixteen kalās, reclining in the causal waters, and that his virāṭ form is pure sattva, with endless feet, arms, heads and eyes, seen by the yogīs with the eye of knowledge. Śuka teaches Parīkshit to hold the mind on it loka by loka and limb by limb. Brahmā tells Nārada how the Virāṭ Purusha broke out of the brahmāṇḍa, how everything in creation came forth from his limbs, and how Brahmā gathered the materials of the first yajña from those very limbs. Maitreya tells Vidura, and Kapila tells Devahūti, how the devatās entered their seats in the Virāṭ, and how he rose from the waters only when the Kshetrajña entered him. Bali and his whole assembly saw the form when Vāmana grew into Trivikrama. Dhruva, Prahlāda, Brahmā, Akrūra and Bhagavān Śiva praise it in their stutis; Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that he as Kāla envelops the Virāṭ at pralaya; and in the twelfth skandha Sūta gives the meaning of each limb, weapon and ornament of Śrī Hari, with the promise that one who recites it at dawn realises the Parabrahman as the Self.

The Vāmana Purāṇa praises the same universal form as the Virāja Purusha, from whose limbs the four varṇas, Sūrya, Candra, the directions and the devas arose, in a stotra spoken by Bhagavān Śiva himself. It shows the form in its fullness when Vāmana, receiving the water of Bali‘s gift, became the Viśvarūpa made of the whole world, with the devas, the Vedas, the oceans and the stars dwelling in his limbs, crossed the earth with one step and broke the shell of the brahmāṇḍa with the second, so that the Vishṇupadī flowed down from his foot. Afterwards he showed the same Viśvarūpa, made of all the devas, to Brahmā in a smaller measure of ten thousand yojanas.

The Agni Purāṇa names the Virāṭ in pūjā and in jñāna alike. In the dhyāna of a mantra, the Virāṭ form is the gross form, the liṅga-form the subtle, and the form of Īśvara beyond thought. The Kuśāpāmārjana stotra bows to Trivikrama, who took the Virāṭ form and strode over the earth. When a temple is consecrated, its kalaśa is contemplated as the Virāṭ-rūpa and the whole temple as the Purusha. In the teaching of Brahma-vijñāna, the compounded elements and all that comes from them are named Virāṭ, the form of the waking state and of the letter A, and the knower of Brahman says, “I am the Brahman of light, different from Virāṭ.” By tapas one reaches the Virāṭ-pada, the state of Virāṭ.

The Purusha form at the beginning

Sūta tells the ṛshis that in the beginning Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, wishing to create, took the Purusha form, joined with the mahat-tattva (the great principle), ahaṃkāra and the five tanmātras (subtle elements). That form has sixteen kalās (parts): the five jñānendriyas (organs of knowing), the five karmendriyas (organs of action), the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner organ) and the five bhūtas (elements). From the lake of the navel of Parameśvara, who reclines in the kāraṇa-jala (the causal waters) in a sleep that is samādhi, Brahmā, the lord of the prajāpatis, arose.

This world is spread out only as the limbs of that Parameśvara. His virāṭ form is the manifestation of supreme sattva, untouched by rajas and tamas. It shines wonderfully with endless feet, thighs, arms, heads, ears, eyes and noses, with crowns, garments and earrings, and the yogīs see it with the great eye of knowledge. All the avatāras arise from this Ādi-Nārāyaṇa form, and when the purpose of an avatāra is fulfilled, it merges back into it. Brahmā is an aṃśa (portion) of this form, and through his aṃśas, the maharshis Marīci and the others, all beings are created.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3

The Universal Body and Its Lokas (Skandha 2, Chapter 1)

Parīkshit asked how dhāraṇā (holding the mind) is made firm, and on what it should be done. Śuka answered that the seeker must by practice conquer the āsana, conquer the breath by prāṇāyāma, conquer attachment and master the senses, and then, with the deciding buddhi, fix the mind on the gross (sthūla) form of Bhagavān Vishṇu. This brahmāṇḍa that we see with our eyes, the support of all moving and unmoving beings in past, present and future, is the body of Parameśvara, greater than all that is great. It is enclosed by seven āvaraṇas (coverings): earth, water, fire, air and space, with ahaṃkāra and the mahat-tattva. The conscious principle that identifies with this virāṭ body is Hiraṇyagarbha, and the seeker meditates on Bhagavān Vishṇu in that form.

Śuka Maharshi teaches King Parīkshit that for a beginner in meditation, the easiest way in is Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s saguṇa form (form with qualities), the Virāṭ Purusha. The whole brahmāṇḍa is Bhagavān Vishṇu’s body, and the worlds and planes of existence are its limbs. Śuka gives an exact map:

Indra and the other devas are the arms. The directions are his outer ears, and śabda, the subtle element of sound, is his sense of hearing. The Aśvinī devatās are his nostrils, and the gandha-tanmātra (subtle smell) is his sense of smell. The blazing Agni is his organ of speech. Dyuloka, the realm of light, is his two eyes, and Sūrya is his sense of sight. Vāyu of infinite strength is his breath, and Candra, the support of the juices in the healing herbs, is his mind. The rivers are the veins, the mountains are the bones, and the trees and plants are the hair of the body.

Śuka goes on through the rest of the form, in this order:

• Night and day are his eyelids; the seat of four-faced Brahmā is the play of his eyebrows; water is his palate, and the rasa-tanmātra (subtle taste) is his tongue.
• The Vedas are his brahmarandhra (the crown of the head). Yama is his teeth, and the drops of natural love that all beings feel for their children are also named his teeth.
• The māyā-śakti that deludes people is his smile, and this boundless creation is only the side-glance of that māyā-śakti.
• Lajjā (modesty) is his upper lip and lobha (greed) his lower lip. Dharma is his breast, and the path of adharma is his back.
• Prajāpati is his organ of generation, and Mitra and Varuṇa are his testes. The oceans are his belly, and the mountains are the mass of his bones.
• Kāla (time) is his movement, and the unbroken succession of the creation of all beings, which is the flow of sattva, rajas and tamas, is his work.
• The clouds are the hair of his head, and Sandhyā, the twilight, is his garment.
• The mahat-tattva is his jñāna-śakti (power of knowing), and Rudra is his ahaṃkāra.
• The horse, the mule, the camel and the elephant are his nails. The deer and all wild animals, the cow and all domestic animals are his hip-region.
• The birds are his wondrous craftsmanship. When he remembered the svaras (musical notes) beginning with shaḍja, those memories took shape as the gandharvas, vidyādharas, cāraṇas and apsarases.
• Svāyambhuva Manu is his buddhi, man is his dwelling-place, and his valour became manifest as the hosts of rākshasas.
• The brāhmaṇa is his face, the kshatriya his arms, the vaiśya his thighs and the śūdras his feet. He is the form of the whole world, with the hosts of devatās named the Vasus, the Rudras and the rest.
• The vast performance of yajña, done with havis (oblations), is his karma.

In this teaching Śuka names the form Śrī Mahāvishṇu, Ananta and Jagannātha, whose form is Parabrahman, and Hiraṇyagarbha, the Ādi-purusha who created the world. He closes: “Thus I have told you the arrangement of the limbs of the Virāṭ body of Īśvara. Seekers, through their buddhi, hold the mind on this gross body of Parameśvara. There is nothing in this world other than this Virāṭ form.” Parameśvara, dwelling in all beings as their ātmā, sees and experiences the whole world through the minds of those beings. As a man in a dream sees only himself in the form of many people and things, so this world is not other than Parameśvara, the Parabrahman without a second. The seeker should serve that Parameśvara, a mass of bliss, and keep no intense attachment to other things, for such attachment makes a man fall.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1

Dhāraṇā on the Virāṭ Rūpa (Skandha 2, Chapter 1)

Śuka names the steps. The senses roam among their objects; the body is the chariot, the buddhi the charioteer, the mind the rein and the senses the horses. Turning the senses back from enjoyments is pratyāhāra. Fixing the scattered mind firmly on the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the home of all that is auspicious, is dhāraṇā. Meditating on each limb of that form one by one, without the mind slipping from the whole, is dhyāna. Remembering nothing other than that form is samādhi. When rajas scatters the mind or tamas dulls it, the seeker takes courage and meditates on the form again, and the stain of rajas and tamas is removed. If he keeps his mind well fixed on the auspicious form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, bhakti quickly sprouts in his heart, and by its power he attains Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The practical aim of this teaching is meditation. The sādhaka is told to begin at the feet (pātāla) and slowly draw the mind upward through each loka-limb. At each level he stays until the mind is steady; this steady holding is called dhāraṇā. The path goes from the gross to the subtle: feet, thighs, belly, chest, neck, face, forehead, crown. As the mind climbs through the universal body, it is also climbing through finer and finer planes of reality.

The goal of this dhāraṇā is not Satyaloka but the lotus of the heart. Having passed through the body of the Virāṭ, the meditator is turned inward, to the four-armed Bhagavān Vishṇu seated in the heart-lotus. He shines, holding the padma (lotus), cakra (discus), śaṅkha (conch) and gadā (mace) in his four arms, and Śrī Lakshmī shines on his chest in the form of a line. This inner form of Bhagavān Vishṇu is the last and truest dwelling. The Virāṭ rūpa is the staircase; the four-armed form in the heart is where it leads.

In the next chapter Śuka describes that inner form. The full Parameśvara, though his body is the brahmāṇḍa with the three worlds, dwells in the space of the heart in the middle of man’s body, a space one span long. His face is serene, his eyes are wide like lotuses, and his garments are yellow like the filaments of the kadamba flower. He wears armlets, a kirīṭa (crown) and earrings set with great shining jewels, the Kaustubha jewel at his neck and a vanamālā (garland of forest flowers) whose beauty never fades, with a golden waist-string, rings, anklets and bracelets. A beautiful smile plays on his face, framed by thick, black, curling hair, and through the movements of his eyebrows he pours a great rain of grace on his devotees. The best of yogīs contemplate his tender feet in the middle of the heart-lotus. The mūrti of Śrī Hari, the bearer of the gadā, is meditated on limb by limb, from the feet up to the smile; when the mind rests steadily on one place, that place is “conquered”, and the mind moves to the place above it. Until the mind is fixed on Śrī Hari and bhakti, which is supreme love, becomes firm, the seeker should, after finishing the work of daily life, meditate regularly on his gross Virāṭ form.

Śuka tells that at the beginning of creation Brahmā had no memory of the form of the world. He held Parameśvara in his mind by this dhāraṇā; Parameśvara was pleased, Brahmā’s memory came back with unfailing knowledge, and he created the world just as it was in the former kalpa. Of the yogī’s path out of the body, Śuka says that the Śiśumāra-cakra of Śrī Hari, the circle of lights above Agniloka, is like the navel of the Virāṭ Purusha; the yogī passes beyond it to Maharloka.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 1–2

How the Virāṭ Purusha Came Forth in the Brahmāṇḍa (Skandha 2, Chapter 5)

In Brahmā‘s account to Nārada, the coming forth of the Virāṭ Purusha is told as part of creation. Before the Virāṭ appeared, the brahmāṇḍa lay still and lifeless in the waters of the universe for twelve years (dvādaśa varsha). The tattvas (basic principles of creation) were all present: mahat-tattva (the great principle), ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”) in its three forms, the five tanmātras (subtle elements), the five indriyas (senses), the five bhūtas (gross elements) and manas (mind). But they did not work together. They were like a body without prāṇa (life-breath).

Then, by Nārāyaṇa’s supreme will, the Virāṭ Purusha arose from within the brahmāṇḍa and brought it to life. At that moment the universal form became conscious, the fourteen lokas were set in order as described above, and the universe began to work with purpose.

Brahmā tells it in order. The five elements, the senses and the mind, born of prakṛti, did not combine with one another, and so they could not build the samashṭi (collective) body or the vyashṭi (individual) bodies. Impelled by the śakti of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, they combined, one element chief and the others present in smaller measure, as cause and effect, and made the samashṭi, the brahmāṇḍa body of the Virāṭ Purusha, and the vyashṭi, the bodies of the jīvas. The brahmāṇḍa lay lifeless in the waters; after twelve years Parameśvara, taking up kāla, karma and svabhāva, gave it life. Then that same Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, in the form of the Virāṭ Purusha, broke open the brahmāṇḍa and came out, with endless thighs, feet, mouths and heads.

The learned meditate on him thus. The seven lower lokas are his limbs from the waist down, and the seven upper lokas his limbs from the belly up. Bhūloka is in his feet, Antariksha in his navel, Svargaloka in his heart, Maharloka in his chest, Janaloka in his throat, Tapoloka in his two breasts, and Satyaloka, the eternal dwelling of Hiraṇyagarbha, in his head. Atala is in his waist, Vitala in his thighs, Sutala, made holy as the dwelling of Bali, in his knees, Talātala in his calves, Mahātala in his ankles, Rasātala in the front of his feet and Pātāla in his soles. So the Virāṭ Purusha has the lokas themselves as his body. He may also be meditated on in another way: his feet are Bhūloka, his navel Bhuvarloka and his head Svargaloka. The brāhmaṇa who studies the Veda is his mouth, the kshatriyas who protect the people are his arms, the vaiśyas are his thighs and the śūdras his feet.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 5

Creation from the Limbs of the Virāṭ (Skandha 2, Chapters 6 and 10)

Brahmā‘s teaching goes on to tell how the parts of the universe and the devas arise from the body of the Virāṭ Purusha himself. This is not creation from outside, but Bhagavān Vishṇu showing himself:

When the Virāṭ Purusha wished to speak, the organ of speech arose in his mouth, with Agni as its ruling devatā (adhishṭhāna-devatā). When he wished to smell, the nostrils opened and prāṇa-vāyu appeared. When he wished to see, his eyes opened and the sun appeared as their devatā. Each sense arose in answer to Bhagavān Vishṇu’s wish. It was not mechanical; it was his will taking form in the universe.

The intestines are guarded by the nadī-devatās (devīs of the rivers), and the network of nāḍīs by the devatā of the ocean. The navel is the point from which the Virāṭ sought to enter other bodies, which is why apāna and the devatā of death arose there.

Śuka also says that the gross body of the Virāṭ is wrapped in eight outer layers: earth, water, fire, air, space, ahaṃkāra, mahat-tattva and prakṛti (primal nature). These are the kośas, the sheaths, of the universe itself.

The body that holds all things

Brahmā tells Nārada that the body of the Virāṭ Purusha is the treasury of the essences of all things and of all beauty. From his sense of smell came the Aśvins, the oshadhis (healing herbs) and every fragrance; from his sense of sight, forms and tejas (radiance); from his sense of hearing, ākāśa and śabda; and from his sense of touch, touch, Vāyu and all the yajñas. The trees that came from his body-hair help in performing yajña. The placing of his feet protects the wealth of the bhaktas and saves them from fear, and the feet of Śrīhari in the form of the Virāṭ Purusha fulfil every desire. His heart is the source of the subtle bodies of all beings. Dharma, Brahmā himself, Nārada, Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, Śaṅkara, vijñāna (knowledge) and the antaḥkaraṇa of beings all rest in the citta (mind) of that Hiraṇyagarbha.

All that is, Brahmā says, is only that Virāṭ Purusha: Brahmā, Nārada and Śaṅkara; Sanaka, Sanandana and the other maharshis, Nārada’s elder brothers; devas, asuras and humans; birds, wild animals and creeping beings; gandharvas, apsarases, yakshas, rākshasas, bhūtas, pretas, serpents, domestic animals, pitṛdevatās, siddhas, vidyādharas and cāraṇas; the trees and the many beings of water, land and sky; the planets, stars, comets and constellations, the lightnings and the thundering clouds. Parameśvara pervades all that was, is and will be, yet the whole world rests in him only to the measure of ten aṅgulas (finger-breadths). As Sūrya lights his own orb and what is outside it, so Śrīhari, the self-luminous Parama Purusha, lights the Virāṭ body within and without. All the lokas together are only one pāda (quarter) of Parameśvara. The brahmāṇḍa and the Virāṭ Purusha, its abhimānī (the one who identifies with it), came forth from Parameśvara alone, and he pervades beyond both.

Brahmā’s yajña with the limbs of the Purusha

When Brahmā came forth from the navel-lotus of Śrīhari, the antaryāmī (indweller) of the Virāṭ Purusha, he could see no materials for yajña except the limbs of that Purusha. From those limbs alone he gathered every sambhāra (material), in this order:

1. the paśus, the yūpa posts, the samidhs (fuel sticks) and darbha grass;
2. the yajña-bhūmi, Āryāvarta, and the yajña-kāla, with the seasons beginning with vasanta (spring);
3. the yajña vessels, grains beginning with wheat, oily substances beginning with ghee, foods of tastes beginning with sweet, metals beginning with gold, clay for the kapālas (pot-shards), and water;
4. the mantras of the Ṛk, the mantras in prose (yajus) and the mantras that are sung (sāman);
5. the four kinds of ṛtvik work, hotra, audgātra, ādhvaryava and brāhma;
6. the names of the rites beginning with Agnishṭoma, the āhuti-mantras beginning with svāhā, the dakshiṇās beginning with cows, and the vratas beginning with Payovrata;
7. the names of the devatās recited in order, the kalpa-sūtras that teach the method, the saṅkalpa “I am beginning the yajña”, and the manner of performing the rite;
8. the Vishṇukramas, the steps walked between the fires, the meditations beginning with the udgītha-upāsana, the prāyaścittas (expiations), and the offering of the rite to Parameśvara.

With that yajña Brahmā worshipped Parameśvara in the form of the Yajña Purusha. After him the nine Prajāpatis beginning with Marīci, Nārada‘s brothers, worshipped Śrīhari with yajñas, and in their own times the Manus, the maharshis, the pitṛdevatās, the devas, the rākshasas and humans worshipped Jagannātha with kratus (yajñas).

In every kalpa

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, unborn, the cause of all causes, takes the form of the Virāṭ Purusha in every kalpa. Without any change in his own nature he reveals himself as the world, sustains it, and withdraws it at the end of the kalpa. Hiraṇyagarbha is the very first avatāra of Parabrahma; and kāla, māyā, cause and effect, the mahat-tattva, ahaṃkāra, the five elements, the three guṇas, the indriyas, the brahmāṇḍa body, its abhimānī and all moving and unmoving beings are forms of Parabrahma.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 6, 10

The Gross and Subtle Forms (Skandha 2, Chapter 10)

Parīkshit had asked Śuka whether the lokas and their guardians were formed from the limbs of the Virāṭ Purusha or are themselves his limbs, and Brahmā, before creating, had prayed to Śrī Hari to know truly the gross and subtle forms that came to him, the formless one, through māyā. Śuka promised to answer fully how the world arose from the Virāṭ Purusha.

Śuka teaches Parīkshit that the sthūla rūpa (gross form) of the Virāṭ Purusha is the brahmāṇḍa, with all its lokas and limbs as described. But Bhagavān Vishṇu also has a sūkshma rūpa (subtle form). It is the cause of the gross form and higher than it. The subtle form is indriya-agocara, beyond the reach of the senses. It has no marks to tell it apart, no beginning, middle or end. It is beyond time. Speech cannot describe it and the mind cannot picture it.

Both the gross and subtle forms are made by Bhagavān Vishṇu’s māyā. The jñānīs (knowers of truth) do not accept either one as the final tattva (truth). Bhagavān Vishṇu’s paramārtha svarūpa, his true nature in the highest sense, is the nishkriya Parabrahman: without action, always the witness, beyond every name and label.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 8–10

The Three Levels of Experience (Skandha 2, Chapter 10)

Śuka‘s teaching looks at the three levels on which any experience takes place:

• Ādhyātmika: the side of the one who experiences, the jīva (individual soul) using a particular sense
• Ādhidaivika: the universal side, the devatā who is the ruling power of that sense
• Ādhibhautika: the side of the object, the physical body and the outer thing that is perceived

None of the three can work without the other two. But behind all three stands the sākshi-caitanya, the witness-consciousness that shines by itself. This is the Paramātman, the true Āśraya, the final support (the tenth of the ten subjects of the Bhāgavata). The Virāṭ Purusha is the ādhibhautika side of this teaching drawn on the largest scale.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10

Nārāyaṇa in the Waters (Skandha 2, Chapter 10)

Having come forth from the brahmāṇḍa, the Virāṭ Purusha broke through it and entered the waters of the universe. Because he is śuddha (pure), he created pure waters. He lived in those waters for one thousand years. The waters came from the Purusha, so they are called nārāḥ (from nara, the Purusha). Since the nārāḥ are his ayana (dwelling place), he is called Nārāyaṇa, the one whose home is the waters born from the Purusha.

The tattvas live only by the grace of Nārāyaṇa, who gives them existence and light: the elements from mahat to earth, the material cause of the world; the store of the jīvas’ karma, its instrumental cause; kāla, which stirs the balance of the guṇas; svabhāva, which transforms prakṛti; and the jīva, the enjoyer. Apart from him they have no existence of their own.

After this thousand years, Nārāyaṇa rose from yoga-nidrā (the sleep of yoga). Through his threefold power of creation (sṛjana-śakti), working as ādhyātma, adhibhūta and adhidaiva, he began to unfold creation further.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10

Prāṇa and the organs of the Virāṭ

From the space within the body of the Virāṭ Purusha arose three powers: deha-śakti (the power of the body), indriya-śakti (the power of the senses) and manaś-śakti (the power of the mind). From them the devatā Prāṇa became manifest, the collective power of action, called Sūtra. This Sūtrātmā works as the power of action in all beings: as Prāṇa moves in their bodies, the senses follow it like attendants following a great king, and when Prāṇa stops, they stop too.

Śuka then tells how each organ of the Virāṭ arose from his wish, with its devatā and its work:

1. As prāṇa moved in his belly, hunger and thirst arose; wishing to drink and eat, he opened his mouth. In it the palate arose, in the palate the tongue, and then the six tastes the tongue grasps.
2. As soon as he resolved to speak, the organ of speech arose in the mouth, with its devatā Agni and speaking. After that the Purusha remained in the waters for a long time.
3. As prāṇa moved strongly, the nostrils appeared; wishing to smell, he had the organ of smell and the devatā Vāyu, who carries scent.
4. At first there was no light in his body. Wishing to see himself, he had eyes, the organ of sight and its devatā Sūrya, and knowledge of form arose.
5. Wishing to hear the Vedas describe him, he had two ears, the organ of hearing, its devatā the Dig-devatā, and the grasping of sound.
6. Wishing to know softness and hardness, lightness and heaviness, warmth and coolness, he had skin, with vāyu within and without it, hair upon it like the trees on the earth, and the organ of touch spread through the whole skin.
7. Wishing to do many works, his hands sprouted, with strength, its adhidevatā Indra, and the work of grasping and lifting.
8. Wishing to walk, his feet sprouted; their devatā is Vishṇu himself. With their feet humans gather what is needed for yajña.
9. Desiring offspring, the pleasure of the body and the joys of svarga, he had the place and the organ of generation.
10. Wishing to pervade all other bodies, as he was about to come out, the opening at the navel appeared, with apāna in it and its devatā Mṛtyu. Death, the parting of prāṇa and apāna, depends on both.
11. Wishing to take food and drink, he had the intestines and the network of nāḍīs. The nadī-devatās preside over the intestines and the samudra-devatā over the nāḍīs; the filling of the stomach and the nourishment of the body depend on them.
12. Wishing to reflect on his own māyā, he had the lotus of the heart, the mind within it, its devatā Candra, and thinking and desiring.

The seven dhātus of his body, outer skin, inner skin, flesh, blood, fat, marrow and bone, were made of earth, water and fire, and prāṇa of ākāśa, water and vāyu. The senses grasp their objects, which are born of ahaṃkāra; the mind is the birthplace of kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, śoka and the rest; and the buddhi gives knowledge of all things.

Then Īśvara creates the beings, in the text’s order: the Prajāpatis, the Manus, the devatās, the ṛshis, the many gaṇas of the Pitṛ-devatās, the Siddhas, Cāraṇas, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras, apsarās, Nāgas, serpents, Kiṃpurushas, snakes, Mātṛkās, rākshasas, piśācas, pretas, bhūtas, Vināyakas (a class of beings), Kūshmāṇḍas, Unmādas, Vetālas, Yātudhānas and grahas, and the birds, beasts and other animals, the trees, the mountains and the creeping things. Beings are moving or unmoving, and they come by four kinds of birth: some from the mother’s womb, some from eggs, some from sweat and other impurities, and some from the earth. All these wombs are the fruit of the karma of the jīvas: the higher wombs of puṇya, the lower of pāpa, and human birth of karma mixed of puṇya and pāpa. Where sattva prevails a deva-body is gained, where rajas a human body, and where tamas a body of naraka; and in each of these three gatis, as one guṇa is overcome by the other two, there are again three divisions.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10

The devatās in the seats of the Virāṭ

Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura the same creation, in the chapter named the Virāṭ-śarīra, “the body of the Virāṭ”. The mahat-tattva and the other powers of Bhagavān Vishṇu did not combine, and so could not fashion the brahmāṇḍa. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu took up his divine power named Kāla and entered at one stroke the whole assembly of the twenty-three tattvas: the mahat-tattva, ahaṃkāra, the five subtle elements, the five gross elements, the five jñānendriyas, the five karmendriyas and manas. He awakened the power of action asleep in them, united them, and turned the stored karma of the jīvas merged in him towards its fruit. Impelled by Īśvara, the twenty-three tattvas, each with its own portion, brought forth the Virāṭ Purusha, the support of all moving and unmoving beings.

That radiant Virāṭ Purusha, also called Hiraṇyagarbha, dwelt with all the jīvas for a thousand years in the waters, within the egg-shaped shelter. He is a portion of Parameśvara, his very first avatāra, the first jīva and the ātmā of all beings; in him the whole moving and unmoving world shines. Through the jñāna-śakti and kriyā-śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s māyā he divided himself as one, as three and as ten. As three, he is the indriyas in all beings (adhyātma), the devatās in the sphere of the Sun and the other spheres (adhidaiva), and the objects such as sound in the elements (adhibhūta). As ten, he is the ten movements of prāṇa: prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna, nāga, kūrma, kṛkara, devadatta and dhanañjaya. As one, he is the hṛdaya, the heart.

Sarveśvara Śrī Mahāvishṇu remembered the prayer the tattvas had made to him and, to give them the power to do their work, lit up the Virāṭ Purusha with his cit-śakti, the power of consciousness. When the Virāṭ received that light, the seats of the devatās appeared in him, and each devatā entered its seat with its own portion:

From the head of the Virāṭ Purusha came Svargaloka, from his navel Antariksha, and from his feet the earth. The devatās, rich in sattva, received Svargaloka; humans and the beings that live with them, such as the cows, in whom rajas is strong, received the earth; and the bhūtagaṇas, the followers of Rudra, in whom tamas is strong, dwell in Antariksha, the navel of Bhagavān Vishṇu, between the two. From the mouth of the Virāṭ the brāhmaṇa was born with the Veda, and so he is the chief and guru of the varṇas. From his arms came the ruling work and the kshatriya who protects the people. From his thighs came the vaiśya, who carries on farming and the protection of cows and earns the people’s livelihood. From the feet of Bhagavān Virāṭ came sevā-dharma, the dharma of service, dear to Śrī Hari, in which the śūdra was born. These varṇas, born from Śrī Hari with their work, worship him, their guru, by doing their own dharma with śraddhā, and gain purity of heart.

Maitreya ends: Bhagavān Vishṇu, with Kāla, the karma of the jīvas and his own power, appeared as this Virāṭ form by his Yogamāyā; who could describe it completely? Even Brahmā, after a thousand years of yoga, could not know the full greatness of Śrī Hari, and speech and mind both fail before it. “Namaskāra to that Bhagavān Śrī Hari.”

Vidura repeats the teaching back: Bhagavān Vishṇu created the mahat-tattva and the rest, made the Virāṭ Purusha appear from their portions, and entered him as existence and awareness. The Virāṭ Purusha is the Ādi Purusha, with endless feet, thighs and arms, and all the worlds and their beings are held in him without being cramped. In him are the senses and their objects, the ten prāṇas with their devatās and the prāṇa-śakti of icchā (will), jñāna (knowing) and kriyā (action), and from him the varṇas were born; all beings, with their children and families, exist only in him. Vidura asks Maitreya to tell his vibhūtis (glories), and the Prajāpatis, creations and Manus he brought forth. Later Svāyambhuva Manu tells Kardama that the Virāṭ Purusha, who has endless feet, created the kshatriyas from his endless arms to protect the brāhmaṇas, and that the maharshis call the brāhmaṇa his heart and the kshatriya his arm.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 6–7, 22

The Virāṭ Purusha in Kapila’s Teaching (Skandha 3, Chapter 26)

Bhagavān Kapila‘s teaching to his mother Devahūti in Skandha 3 looks at the rise of the Virāṭ Purusha from another angle, that of Sāṃkhya philosophy. First he describes how the twenty-four tattvas unfold: from Mahat come the three forms of ahaṃkāra; from these, manas and the ten indriyas; then the five tanmātras; then the five mahābhūtas (great elements). Then he explains how the Virāṭ comes into being.

The seven tattvas, Mahat, ahaṃkāra and the five bhūtas, stayed apart and did not mix. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu, the cause of the world, entered them together with kāla (time), the karma of the jīvas and the three guṇas; they were stirred and joined, and the brahmāṇḍa (the universal egg) was formed, without life. Inside the aṇḍa (egg), all the layers of creation are present as seeds, not yet separated. The egg itself lies still.

This egg is named viśesha. Around it is water ten times its size; around that, tejas ten times; then vāyu ten times; then ākāśa ten times; and around that, the covering of Prakṛti. Within it is the expanse of the lokas, and that expanse is the very form of Śrī Hari. From this egg the Virāṭ Purusha became manifest, the abhimānī of the whole brahmāṇḍa-body. He rose from the radiant egg lying in the water, entered it again, and broke open many openings in it.

Then the kshetrajña, the “knower of the field”, the ātman on a universal scale, enters the egg. At the moment the Kshetrajña enters with citta, the Virāṭ Purusha rises from the water. The body that had only been assembled from the tattvas now becomes conscious, and each of its functions in the universe begins to work:

Kapila tells the openings in the order they arose: first the mouth, then the nostrils, the eyes, the ears and the skin with its hair, moustache and beard; then the organs of generation and excretion, the hands and the feet; then the nāḍīs, filled with blood, and the belly; then hunger and thirst, and the heart with the mind, the buddhi, ahaṃkāra and citta. But the devatās who had appeared could not raise the Virāṭ Purusha, so they entered their own places to raise him. Agni entered the mouth with speech, and he did not rise. Vāyu entered the nostrils with smell, Āditya the eyes with sight, the Dig-devatā the ears with hearing, the Oshadhi-devatās the skin with the body-hair, the Āpo-devatā the organ of generation with retas, Mṛtyu the organ of excretion with apāna, Indra the hands with strength, Vishṇu the feet with movement, the Nadī-devatās the nāḍīs with blood, and the Samudra-devatā the belly with hunger and thirst; Candra with the mind, Brahmā with buddhi and Rudra with ahaṃkāra entered the heart. Still the Virāṭ Purusha did not rise. Only when the Kshetrajña, the witness of the kshetra (the body), entered with citta, did the Virāṭ Purusha rise from the water. In the same way, Kapila says, without the Kshetrajña, prāṇa, the senses, the mind and the buddhi cannot by their own strength wake a sleeping man. So a person should give bhakti to Parameśvara, gain the discernment of Prakṛti and Purusha, turn away from saṃsāra, and with a buddhi made one-pointed by yoga see Parameśvara in this very body as the pratyag-ātmā, the inner self.

This account adds to the version in Skandha 2 by giving the Sāṃkhya reasoning. The waking of the Virāṭ is not random. It happens because the Purusha (the kshetrajña) meets the fully assembled Prakṛti (the twenty-four tattvas gathered together). The universal body comes alive because the Purusha enters it, just as a single body comes alive because the individual ātman is joined with it.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 26

The gross form in dhāraṇā and in the stutis

Dhruva

Maitreya tells Vidura that when Śrī Hari came on Garuḍa to Madhuvana and granted darśana to the boy Dhruva, Dhruva praised him: “O Parameśvara, you have no birth. This gross virāṭ-rūpa of yours is filled with beings: cattle, trees, birds, snakes, devatās, rākshasas, men and others. In it the gross elements and the subtle elements are seen, and all the causal tattvas beginning with the mahat-tattva are held in it. I know only this virāṭ-rūpa; I do not know the nirguṇa Parabrahma-tattva beyond it.” Long afterwards, at Badarikāśrama, Dhruva bathed in the sacred waters, sat firm in his āsana, did prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra, and held his mind in dhāraṇā on the gross Virāṭ-rūpa of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Meditating on it single-pointedly he reached nirvikalpa samādhi, where meditator and object are no longer two, and then let go even of that form.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 9, 12

The earth as the gross form

Parīkshit asked Śuka to describe the earth and its seven khaṇḍas in full, because a mind made one-pointed on the gross virāṭ-rūpa of Bhagavān Vishṇu, made of the three guṇas, can then be fixed on the most subtle nirguṇa Parabrahma form of the same Bhagavān Vishṇu, the self-luminous Vāsudeva who shines in all beings as their consciousness. When Śuka has described the earth, its dvīpas, rivers and mountains, the sky, Pātāla, the narakas and the circles of the lights, he says that the brahmāṇḍa, fashioned as fourteen bhuvanas, is directly the gross form of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, Purushottama, the transformation of the three guṇas of his māyā-śakti, while the Upanishads describe his form that is beyond the senses. The striving sādhaka should hear of both forms, make the mind one-pointed on the gross form, and slowly, with the buddhi, dissolve the mind into the subtle svarūpa, the ātmā. “This jagat, the refuge of all beings, is the wondrous gross form of Īśvara.”

Phalaśruti. The sādhaka who reads this description of the gross form with reverence, or hears it, and makes others hear it, gains śraddhā and bhakti; his antaḥkaraṇa is purified, and Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, who is the ātmā, becomes directly manifest to him.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapters 16, 26

Brahmā’s darśana, in Prahlāda’s stuti

Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira the stuti Prahlāda offered to Bhagavān Narasiṃha. In it Prahlāda tells how the world, which is Bhagavān Narasiṃha’s body, lay dissolved in him as he lay in the waters of pralaya; how, impelled by his power of Kāla, the guṇas were stirred, and he rose from his bed, Ananta; how a great lotus rose from his navel as a banyan rises from a tiny seed, and Brahmā appeared in it. Brahmā searched the waters for a hundred years and did not find him, then took refuge in the lotus and did intense tapas until his inner being was pure, and found him within himself, pervading all as existence. Then, when the Parabrahma became manifest by his own māyā-śakti as the great Virāṭ Purusha, Brahmā saw that great form and was filled with bliss. That Purusha was rich with endless faces, feet, heads, arms, thighs, noses, mouths, ears, eyes, ornaments and weapons, and the lokas of the manifest world were the marks of his limbs.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 9

The vānaprastha’s dissolution

Nārada teaches Yudhishṭhira that the vānaprastha, in his meditation, gives each power back to the devatā that blesses it: speech into Agni, the hands into Indra, the feet into Vishṇu who is Kāla, the organ of generation into Prajāpati, the organ of excretion into Mṛtyu; the ear into the directions, touch into Vāyu, sight into Sūrya, the tongue with Varuṇa into the waters, smell into the earth; the mind into Candra, the buddhi into Brahmā, ahaṃkāra into Rudra, and the citta into the kshetrajña.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 12

Brahmā’s stuti of the Virāṭ Purusha (Skandha 8, Chapter 5)

Śuka tells Parīkshit that when the devas had lost their radiance and the rākshasas shone with fortune, Indra, Vāyu and the devas went to Brahmā‘s sabhā on the peak of Meru. Brahmā remembered Purushottama with a one-pointed mind and said to them: “I, Rudra, you, the rākshasas, humans, beasts and birds, trees and plants, and the beings born from sweat were all created by a tiny aṃśa of the Virāṭ Purusha, who is an avatāra of Parabrahma. Let us take refuge in that imperishable Parabrahma.” He went with them to the dhāma of Śrī Hari, the unconquered, and when they could not see his form, Brahmā praised him with Vedic words. In the first verses he praises Īśvara as undivided sat-cit, the witness in the heart, the axle of the wheel of saṃsāra, reached by bhakti-yoga and beyond even the devas’ knowing. Then he praises the Virāṭ Purusha limb by limb, each verse ending with the prayer that the Virāṭ Purusha be gracious:

1. The earth, shining with the four kinds of beings, born from the womb, from the egg, from moisture, and from the soil, is the feet of Īśvara.
2. Water, by which the beings of the three worlds and all the lokapālas are born, live and grow, is the retas (seed) of the Parabrahma in Virāṭ form.
3. Candra, the strength, food and life of the devas and the lord of the trees and plants, is the mind of the Virāṭ Purusha.
4. Agni, born for the Vedic rites, all-knowing, who consumes the waters in the ocean as the Baḍabāgni and digests food in the bellies of beings, is his mouth.
5. Sūrya, whose form is the Veda, who presides over the holy path of the uttarāyaṇa, grants mukti to those who worship Parabrahma in his orb, and as Kāla brings all beings to their end, is his eye.
6. Vāyu, from whom come the prāṇa, strength and keen senses of all beings, and whom the devas follow like attendants following an emperor, arose from the prāṇa-śakti of the Virāṭ Purusha.
7. From his ear arose the directions, from his heart the senses, and from his navel ākāśa, the support of the senses, the antaḥkaraṇa, the prāṇas and the bodies.
8. From his strength arose Indra; from his graciousness the devatās; from his kopa, Rudra; from his buddhi, Brahmā; from his senses, the Vedas and the maharshis; from his organ of generation, Prajāpati.
9. From his chest arose Mahālakshmī; from his shadow, the Pitṛ-devatās; from his breast, dharma; from his back, adharma; from his head, the dyuloka; from his vihāra (play), the apsarases.
10. From his mouth arose the brāhmaṇa, knower of the Veda, and the secret Veda; from his arms, the kshatriya and strength; from his thighs, the vaiśya and skill; from his feet, the śūdra and conduct contrary to the Veda.
11. From his lower lip arose lobha (greed); from his upper lip, prīti (affection); from his nose, kānti (radiance); from his touch, kāma; from his eyebrows, Yama; and from his eyelids, Kāla.
12. The elements, time, the fruit of karma, the guṇas and the viśeshas have the māyā-śakti of the Virāṭ Purusha as their material cause; the discerning know the Paramātmā, their substratum, alone to be real.

Brahmā then bows to Īśvara, who moves through his līlās as the wind moves untouched, and prays: “We long to see your lotus-like face with its gentle smile; grant us darśana in a form our senses can perceive.” Śrī Hari appeared before them, and Brahmā said: “Āhā! In this Viśvarūpa of yours I see ourselves and the three worlds at one time.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapters 5–6

The Viśvarūpa of Trivikrama (Skandha 8, Chapter 20)

Śuka tells Parīkshit that when Śukrācārya warned Bali Cakravarti against Vāmana, Bali answered that even if the brahmacārī should bind him unrighteously by showing his Viśvarūpa, he would not harm him, and he gave the three steps. Bali’s wife Vindhyāvalī brought a golden kalaśa of water; Bali washed the radiant feet of Vāmana and bore on his head the water that purifies the world, while the devas, gandharvas, vidyādharas, siddhas and cāraṇas showered flowers and praised his truthfulness.

Then the small form of Śrī Hari, in whom the world of the three guṇas lies, grew wondrously. The earth, the sky, the directions, svarga, Pātāla and the other lokas, the oceans, beasts and birds, humans, devas and maharshis were all held in it. Bali, with the ṛtvijas, Śukrācārya and the whole assembly, saw that body of infinite power, and in it the five great elements, the senses, their objects, the antaḥkaraṇa and the jīvas. In that Viśvamūrti he saw:

• Rasātala in the soles of his feet, the earth in his two feet, the mountains in his shanks, the birds in his knees, and the Maruts in his thighs;
• Sandhyā in his garment; the rākshasas, with Bali himself at their head, in his private parts; the Prajāpatis beginning with Marīci in his hips; the sky in his navel; the seven oceans in the parts of his belly; and the rows of stars on his chest;
• dharma in his heart; truthful speech and samadarśana (seeing Īśvara everywhere) in his two breasts; the moon in his mind; Lakshmī Devī, holding a lotus, on his chest; and the Sāmans and all sounds in his throat;
• the devas, with Indra at their head, in his arms; the directions in his ears; Svargaloka on his head; the clouds in his hair; Vāyu in his nose; Sūrya in his eyes; and Agni in his mouth;
• the Vedas in his speech; Varuṇa, lord of the waters, in his tongue; the śāstras of injunction and prohibition in his eyebrows; day and night in his eyelids; kopa (wrath) in his forehead; and lobha in his lower lip;
• Manmatha in his sense of touch; the waters in his retas; adharma in his back; yajña in his taking of steps; Mṛtyu in his moving shadow; māyā-śakti in his smile; and the trees and plants in the hairs of his body;
• the rivers in his nāḍīs, the rocks in his nails, Brahmā the Svayambhū in his buddhi, the hosts of devas and maharshis in his senses, and all moving and unmoving beings in his body.

Seeing the whole world in Śrī Hari, all the rākshasas were seized with fear. Around Sarveśvara, the master of all, stood his weapons and attendants, each in his place: the Sudarśana cakra of unbearable tejas; the Śārṅga bow, whose twang is like the thunderbolt; the conch Pāñcajanya, whose sound is like the roar of clouds; the swift mace Kaumodakī; the sword Nandaka with its shield of a hundred moons; the quivers of inexhaustible arrows; the lokapālas; and Sunanda, Nanda and the other foremost pārshadas of Vishṇu. On Śrī Hari shone the crown, the armlets, the fish-shaped earrings, the Śrīvatsa, the Kaustubha gem, the girdle and the garment, and a row of bees around his vanamālā. With one foot he covered Bhūloka, which Bali ruled, with his body the sky and with his arms the directions. With the second step svarga came under him, and that great step passed beyond Maharloka, Janaloka and Tapoloka and reached Satyaloka; for the third step nothing of Bali’s remained. The chapter’s colophon names this the account of Vāmana becoming Trivikrama.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 20

In the stutis of Akrūra and Bhagavān Śiva

Under the waters of the Yamunā, Akrūra praised Śrī Kṛshṇa, whom he saw as Śrī Mahāvishṇu on Ādiśesha: “The mahātmās meditate on you thus: Agni is your mouth, the earth your feet, Sūrya your eye, space your navel, the directions your ears, dyuloka your head, the four lokapālas your four arms, the oceans your belly, and Vāyu your breath and strength. Trees and plants are your body-hairs, clouds your hair, mountains your bones and nails, day and night the blinking of your eyes, Brahmā (Daksha) your organ of generation, and rain your seed.” When the mind is his upādhi these worlds, with their beings and lokapālas, move in him like creatures in water or insects in a fig, yet his own svarūpa is unchanging.

When Śrī Kṛshṇa was cutting the arms of Bāṇa with the cakra, Śrī Rudra, Bhagavān Śiva, came near and praised him: the sky is your navel, Agni your mouth, water your seed, dyuloka your head, the directions your ear, the earth your foot, the moon your mind, the sun your sight; “I am your ahaṃkāra”; the ocean is your belly, Indra your arm, the plants and shrubs your body-hair, the clouds your hair, Brahmā your buddhi, Prajāpati your organ of generation, and dharma your heart. “In this way you are certainly the Virāṭ Purusha conceived by the worlds.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 40, 63

The Virāṭ in Śrī Kṛshṇa’s teaching (Skandha 11)

One of the nine yogīśvaras, the sons of Ṛshabhadeva, tells King Nimi that Nārāyaṇa created the five bhūtas for līlā, fashioned from them his brahmāṇḍa-body, and entered it by his aṃśa as the antaryāmin; that is why he is named Purusha, “the one who dwells in the virāṭ-pura (the city of the Virāṭ)”. The three worlds are held within his virāṭ body; the senses of all beings work within his collective power of the senses, their intelligence within his consciousness, and their strength and movement by his breathing.

Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Virāṭ Purusha came, in order, the brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras, whose śīla (conduct) is the mark of their varṇa, and that from his own heart came brahmacarya, from his waist gārhasthya, from his chest vānaprastha and from his head sannyāsa. Of pralaya he says: “I, who am Kāla, envelop the Virāṭ Purusha, who displays within himself the manifold lokas. Then he, together with the lokas, separates into the five bhūtas and becomes fit to dissolve.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 4, 17, 24

The Form of Bhagavān Vishṇu in Upāsanā (Skandha 12, Chapter 11)

In Skandha 12, Chapter 11, the Bhāgavata carries the teaching of the Virāṭ Purusha from the account of creation into devoted upāsanā (worship and meditation). It links each feature, ornament and weapon of Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s divine form to a principle of the universe or of the spirit. This is the Tantric side of the Virāṭ. It is not only that the universe is Bhagavān Vishṇu’s body; Bhagavān Vishṇu’s own form, as worshipped in the heart, holds within it the whole structure of creation.

Śaunaka asked Sūta with what tattvas those who worship Śrī Hari by the method of the tantras meditate on his limbs beginning with the feet, his attendants beginning with Garuḍa, his weapons beginning with the Sudarśana and his ornaments beginning with the Kaustubha, for by this kriyā-yoga a mortal gains amṛtatva. Sūta, bowing to his gurus, repeats what Brahmā, Nārada and the other ācāryas told in the Vedas and tantras, beginning with the virāṭ form. The Virāṭ is made of nine tattvas: māyā-śakti, the mahat-tattva, the sūtrātmā, ahaṃkāra and the five tanmātras. Sixteen vikāras (modifications) are present in it: the five karmendriyas, the five jñānendriyas, the mind and the five gross elements, and in it the three worlds are seen. The earth is his feet, the loka above is his head, the sky his navel, Sūrya his eyes, Vāyu his nostrils and the directions his ears. Prajāpati is his organ of generation, Mṛtyu his organ of excretion, the lokapālas his arms, Candra his mind and Yama his eyebrows. Lajjā is his upper lip, lobha his lower lip, moonlight his teeth, the deluding māyā-śakti his smile, the trees the hairs of his body and the clouds the hair of his head. As a man has his measure by the arrangement of his limbs, so the Virāṭ Purusha has his limbs by the placing of the worlds.

The main links given are:

Sūta adds that the vanamālā is the māyā-śakti made of sattva, rajas and tamas, and that the gadā is the mukhya-prāṇa tattva, the chief vital force, with strength of mind, skill of the senses and the powers of the body. The place of his pūjā is the orb of the Sun, purity of the heart is the mantra-dīkshā, and the destruction of one’s own pāpas is the pūjā of Īśvara.

Through these links, the sādhaka who meditates on Bhagavān Vishṇu’s four-armed form, fully aware of what each feature stands for, is at the same time meditating on the whole structure of the universe: from the gross elements, through the guṇas, prāṇa, mind and Vedic knowledge, to the supreme Self. The outer universal form (the Virāṭ) and the inner form of devotion (the four-armed Vishṇu in the heart) are shown to be the same reality, reached from two directions.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 11

The Catur-Vyūha and the Four States of Consciousness (Skandha 12, Chapter 11)

Skandha 12 also links Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s four vyūha forms (the Catur-vyūha) with the four states of consciousness the jīva goes through. The great ones say that the Paramātmā himself is worshipped in four mūrtis: Vāsudeva, Saṃkarshaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. In the four states Śrī Hari is known by four names:

With his limbs, attendants, weapons and ornaments, Śrī Hari in his four mūrtis upholds these four, Viśva and the rest, and is the antaryāmin of all.

A single jīva passes through all four states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep and the witnessing turīya) and never stops being the same ātman. In the same way, Bhagavān Vishṇu as the Virāṭ Purusha fills all four states of universal and individual consciousness at once. The Virāṭ is not just the waking body of the universe. It is the whole ground under every kind of experience, from gross perception to deep absorption in what lies beyond. So to meditate on the Catur-vyūha is to meditate on Bhagavān Vishṇu as the witness and the base of every state.

Self-luminous Śrī Hari, the root of the Veda, creates and withdraws the world through names and forms such as Brahmā, which never cover his conscious nature; those whose only goal is he reach him within themselves as the Self. Sūta then turns to Śrī Kṛshṇa, the friend of Arjuna, whose fame the gopikās sing, and prays him to protect his bhaktas.

Phalaśruti. Whoever rises early in the morning, becomes pure, fixes the mind on Bhagavān Vishṇu and recites this description of the limbs of the Virāṭ Purusha realises the Parabrahman shining as the Self in the cave of the intellect. In the summary of the whole Purāṇa that follows, Sūta names among its subjects the brahmāṇḍa arising from the vikṛtis with the Virāṭ Purusha dwelling in it, and, in the twelfth skandha, the form of the limbs and sub-limbs of the Virāṭ Purusha.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapters 11–12

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Purāṇa, told by Pulastya Maharshi to Nārada, speaks of the universal form of Bhagavān Vishṇu as the Virāja Purusha, the Virāṭ Purusha and the Viśvarūpa. It praises this form in a stotra spoken by Bhagavān Śiva, shows it in its fullness when Vāmana takes the three worlds from Bali, shows it again in a smaller measure to Brahmā, and names it among the forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu at the holy places of the earth.

The Virāja Purusha in the Sarva-pāpa-mocana stava

Chapter 60 gives a stotra to Bhagavān Vishṇu spoken by Tripurāntaka, Bhagavān Śiva himself, which he made known in the kshetra of Vārāṇasī. Pulastya calls it the supreme Sarva-pāpa-mocana stava, “the praise that frees from every pāpa”. In it Bhagavān Vishṇu is praised as Sahasraśīrsha, thousand-headed, Sahasranetra, thousand-eyed, Candra-sūrya-agni-netra, whose eyes are the moon, the sun and fire, and Sahasrapāda, thousand-footed; as Viśvedeva, Viśvātmā, Viśvasambhava and Viśvarūpa, from whom alone this universe arose.

The stotra praises him in the form of the great nyagrodha (banyan), resplendent with great branches and worshipped with flowers at its roots: “Your root is the brāhmaṇas; your trunks are the kshatriyas; the vaiśyas are your branches; your leaves are the śūdras. O Vanaspati, Prabhu Vishṇu, namaskāras to you.”

Then it gives the form of the Virāṭ Purusha, limb by limb:

• His mouth is the vipras (brāhmaṇas) who keep the sacred fire always; his arms are the armed kshatriyas; his sides are the vaiśyas; the śūdras are his feet. From those limbs they arose.
• From his eyes arose Sūrya; from his feet, the earth; from his ears, the directions; from his navel, the antariksha (the mid-region); from his mind, Candra; from his prāṇas (life-breaths), the winds; from his kāma, Brahmā.
• From his krodha arose the three-eyed Rudra; from his head, divi, the bright sky above; from his mouth, Indra and Agni; from his mala, the cattle; from his hairs, the oshadhis (healing herbs).

“Praṇāmas to you, who are the Virāja Purusha,” the stotra says. It goes on to praise him as Oṃkāra and Vashaṭkāra, as the lokas Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Svaḥ, as every part of the yajña, and as the form of the kāla-cakra, the wheel of time with twelve spokes. Pulastya adds that Rudra bathed in the Sitodaka tīrtha, went before Keśava, and became free of pāpa.

Phalaśruti. This stotra, spoken by Tripurāntaka and devoted to Vishṇu, is sacred. The one who reads it with śraddhā (faith) is freed from pāpa, attains śānti (peace), and becomes one to be worshipped even by the renowned devas.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 60

The Viśvarūpa at Bali’s yajña

At Kurukshetra, in the yajñaśālā of Bali, Bhagavān Vishṇu as the young brahmacārī Vāmana asked for three steps of ground, and the great daitya took up the water vessel and gave them as dāna (a gift). As soon as the water of the gift fell on his hand, Vāmana, to occupy the three worlds, took a many-formed form made of the whole world (jaganmaya bahurūpa). The Purāṇa tells what that form covered and what dwelt in each of its parts, in this order:

• With his feet and calves he covered the sky; with his knees, the Satya and Tapo lokas; with his thighs, Mount Meru and Mount Mandara. He is bowed to by the three worlds.
• In his waist were the Viśvedevas; in his vasti (lower belly) and head, the Maruts; in his liṅga, Manmatha; in his testicles, the Prajāpatis.
• In his kukshi (upper belly) were the seven oceans; in his jaṭhara (lower belly), the yajñas, the bhuvanas, ishṭa and pūrta (the yajñas and works of public good such as wells and tanks) and all the Vedic rites; in the three folds of his belly, the rivers.
• On his back were the Vasus; in his shoulders, the Rudras; in his arms, the ten directions; in his hands, the eight Vasus.
• In his heart was Brahmā; in the bones of his heart, the Vajra weapon, Lakshmī and the oceans; in his mind, Candra.
• In his neck was Aditi, the mother of the devas; in the three folds of his throat, the vidyās (the branches of sacred knowledge).
• In his mouth were the vipras with their sacred fires; in his lips, the saṃskāras (sacred rites of life); on his forehead, together with Lakshmī, the śāstras of dharma, artha, kāma, moksha and śauca (purity).
• In his ears were the Aśvins; in his ūrus, Mātariśvan (Vāyu); in all his joints, the Maruts; in his teeth, all the sūktas of the Veda; on his tongue, Sarasvatī.
• In his eyes were Candra and Sūrya; in his eyelids, the nakshatras beginning with Kṛttikā.
• On the śikhā (topknot) of that Deva of devas sat Dhruva; in the pores of his skin were the stars; in his hairs, the maharshis.

That Bhagavān Vishṇu, made of all guṇas and of all beings, occupied with one step the whole earth with its moving and unmoving beings. The right breast of the Viśvarūpa became Candra and the left breast Sūrya, and as he grew upward, Sūrya and Candra stood at the left and right of his navel. With the first half of the second step he covered the Svarga, Mahar, Jana and Tapo lokas; with the remaining half, Vairāja; with the middle part, the sky. Filling the endless space between, the Virāṭ Purusha broke the upper shell of the brahmāṇḍa and stretched his second foot into the lightless world beyond, and stood there.

From the top of the brahmāṇḍa, broken by the toes of that second foot, a great stream of water poured down along the foot with a rushing sound. Because it flowed with a crooked course, it became Kuṭilā, “the crooked one”, and the same river became famed as Vishṇupadī, born from the foot of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The tāpasas serve those holy waters with bhakti as the Suranadī, the river of the devas.

When no room was left for the third step, Bali’s son Bāṇa said to Bhagavān Vishṇu: “Jagannātha, with your Virāṭ form you have made small this sphere of the earth and the other six bhuvanas. Taking the Viśvarūpa, worshipped by the three worlds, did you not take the three worlds in place of three steps? Is all this not only your līlā (divine play)?”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 65

The Viśvarūpa shown to Brahmā

When Bali had been bound and Indra‘s kingdom given back, Vāmana gave up his dwarf form and, in his own form, mounted on Garuḍa, went to the abode of Brahmā. Brahmā rose, went forward to meet him, embraced him, brought him in and worshipped him according to rule. When Bhagavān Vishṇu told him that he had bound Bali so that the devas would again receive their shares of the yajña, Brahmā prayed to see how he had done it. Then Garuḍadhvaja showed Brahmā that Viśvarūpa, made of all the devas, in a small measure. Even so, that Puṇḍarīkāksha stood spread over ten thousand yojanas in length, breadth and height. Seeing him, Vidhātā bowed down with bhakti and lay prostrate for a long time; then, crying “Āhā! Āhāhā!”, the lotus-born Brahmā rose, joined his palms and praised him with a long stotra, in which he calls him Viśvātmaka, whose self is the universe, and Viśvarūpa, whose form is the universe.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 66

The Viśvarūpa in the stotras and the holy places

When Bhagavān Vishṇu was born to Aditi as Vāmana, Brahmā and the brahmarshis praised the newborn as Śāśvata, the eternal, and Viśvarūpa. The second pāpa-śamana stotra (“the stotra that quiets pāpa”) of Chapter 61 bows, among its names, to Gopāla, Vaikuṇṭha, Aparājita, Viśvarūpa, Saugandhi and Sadāśiva. In Chapter 63, when Vāmana tells Bharadvāja Maharshi the places where his forms abide, he says that at Kaveru deśa his forms are Deveśvara, Viśvarūpa and Tapodhana. Of all these places he says that by darśana (seeing), touching, praising and remembering their devatās, devas, humans and sādhyas attain all four purushārthas.

On his tīrtha-yātrā (journey to holy places), Prahlāda came from the Pāriyātra mountain to Kaśeru deśa, where he had darśana of Viśvarūpa. In that very place Śaṅkara, the adored deity of the gaṇas, the knower of yoga, displayed his viśvarūpa (universal form).

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 57, 61–63

Per Agni Purāṇa

The Virāṭ form in the dhyāna of a mantra

Nārada, teaching the rite of the Bhadra maṇḍala, tells the dhyāna by which the fruit of a mantra is gained. The gross (sthūla) form of a mantra is its sound, its outer form; the subtle (sūkshma) form is made of light, its inner form, made only of contemplation; beyond contemplation is its supreme (para) form. For the mantras of Varāha, Narasiṃha and Śakti the gross form is chief, and the form of Vāsudeva is beyond thought. In the same way, the form of the Virāṭ is gross, the liṅga-form is subtle, and the form of Īśvara is beyond thought. The bīja mantra dwells in the heart-lotus, imperishable, made of consciousness, of the nature of light.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

Trivikrama in the Kuśāpāmārjana stotra

The Kuśāpāmārjana (the wiping away with kuśa grass) is the rite of protection that Agni Deva teaches for oneself and for others, by which sorrows go and happiness comes. Among its namaskāras to the forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu, after the salutation to Vāmana, the son of Kaśyapa, of very small body, adorned with the Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma Vedas, it says: “Namaskāra to Trivikrama, who then took the Virāṭ form and strode over the earth.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 31

The temple kalaśa as the Virāṭ-rūpa

In the consecration of a temple, which Bhagavān Hayagrīva teaches to Brahmā, a kalaśa of gold or silver is set up on the head of the garbhagṛha where the śukanāsā ends. Eight kinds of ratnas, herbs, minerals, seeds and gold are placed in it, it is filled with water, given adhivāsa (the overnight consecration) on a maṇḍala, homa is done with the Nṛsiṃha mantra, and prāṇa-nyāsa is done with the Nārāyaṇa-tattva. Then Bhagavān Hayagrīva says: “Sureśvara! The prāsāda-kalaśa is to be contemplated as the Virāṭ-rūpa. The whole prāsāda is to be contemplated as the Purusha.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 61

Virāṭ in Brahma-vijñāna

Agni Deva teaches that at the start of samādhi the yogī contemplates creation and its dissolution: from Brahman came ākāśa, from it vāyu, from it agni, from agni water, from water earth, and from these the subtle body; from the elements not yet compounded (apañcīkṛta) were born the compounded (pañcīkṛta) gross elements. The compounded elements and their effects together are named Virāṭ. This gross body is imagined through the ajñāna (ignorance) of the ātmā. Knowing through the senses is the waking state (jāgrat), and the ātmā that identifies with the waking state is named Viśva. These three, Virāṭ, the waking state and Viśva, are the form of the letter A. In the same way the subtle body, Hiraṇyagarbha, the dream state and Taijasa are the letter U, and deep sleep and Prājña are the letter M; together they are the praṇava.

The ātmā that is the true meaning of the word “I” is the witness of waking, dream and sleep, and the contemplation that follows passes beyond each of them. Among its lines the knower says: “I am the Brahman of the form of light, different from Virāṭ. I am the Brahman of the form of light, empty of the waking state. I am the Brahman of the form of light, different from Viśva. I am the Brahman of the form of light, free of the letter A.” It ends: “I am the Parabrahman, which is the form of samādhi and the state of moksha.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 377–378

The Virāṭ-pada among the five gatis

Agni Deva tells five gatis (goals): by yajñas one reaches the devaloka; by tapas, the Virāṭ-pada, the state of Virāṭ; by giving up the fruit of action (karma-sannyāsa), the Brahma-pada, the state of Brahmā; by vairāgya (dispassion), merging into Prakṛti; and by jñāna, moksha.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3; Skandha 2, Chapters 1–2, 5–6, 8–10; Skandha 3, Chapters 6–7, 22, 26; Skandha 4, Chapters 9, 12; Skandha 5, Chapters 16, 26; Skandha 7, Chapters 9, 12; Skandha 8, Chapters 5–6, 20; Skandha 10, Chapters 40, 63; Skandha 11, Chapters 4, 17, 24; Skandha 12, Chapters 11–12
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 57, 60–63, 65–66
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 30–31, 61, 377–379