Vāsudeva (Vyūha)
Vāsudeva · vāsu-deva, “the deva in whom all dwell”
Vasudeva has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vasudeva.
Vāsudeva is the first of the four vyūhas, the four forms in which the truth of Bhagavān Vishṇu abides. The Brahma Purāṇa describes it as white, made of garlands of flame, beyond the guṇas, without any imagined form or colour, and seen only by yogīs and jñānīs who are free of the sense of “mine”. It is not Vasudeva, the father of Śrī Kṛshṇa.
The four vyūhas
Answering the munis’ question about the avatāra of Balarāma and Kṛshṇa, the teller first bows to Vishṇu, the Purāṇa-purusha, “whose form is the four vyūhas, beyond the guṇas and also of the guṇas”, and to Vāsudeva, “the dwelling of all the devas”. He tells the truth of Bhagavān Vishṇu as Brahmā told it before: that truth is fourfold.
- The first mūrti is white (śukla), made of garlands of flame (jvālā-mālā). Only yogīs and jñānīs see it. It is both far and near, and beyond the guṇas. It abides under the name Vāsudeva, and it is seen only in the state without mamakāra (mine-ness). It has none of the imagined features of form or colour: it is pure form alone, a most steady reality.
- The second vyūha, under the name Śesha, bears the earth. It is a mūrti of tamo-guṇa and has taken an animal state.
- The third vyūha is a mūrti in which sattva is chief. It establishes dharma and protects beings. It took the forms of Varāha, Narasiṃha, Vāmana, the son of Jamadagni, Dattātreya and Rāma, and it has descended in Mathurā.
- The fourth vyūha lies on the bed of Śesha in the middle of the ocean. It is of the form of rajo-guṇa and is the cause of creation; from its navel rose the lotus that is the birthplace of Brahmā.
The sāttvika mūrti that descends for the world’s sustenance takes at one time the nature of a deva, at another that of a human, at another that of animals and birds; and under the name Vāsudeva it is worshipped and grants what is desired.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 180