Does Devi Have an Origin?

Then the king asked,

राजोवाच: .... वर

'Who is this Mahamaya whom you are talking about? What about her origin? What all does she do? What are her powers? What does she look like? I want to know all these. Please tell me.'

ऋषिरुवाच: abhidheeyate

'She is nitya—she doesn’t have a beginning or an end. She is ever-present.

This whole universe is her own form, one of her own, that is why she is called Jaganmurti.

Sarvamidam taya tatam—tatam means vistaritam.

What we see around us as mountains, trees, rivers, stars, planets, and living beings—she alone brought these forth from the uniform, homogeneous material that existed after pralaya, which again is her own form in its nirguna state.

From that, she alone expanded all that we see around us.

Someone who doesn’t have an adi (beginning) or anta (end), who is ever-present—how can we talk about her origin?

How can she have an origin?

She can’t have any origin. Origin means she has to come out of something or come into existence at some point in time. That is not her case.

But still, she has taken various specific forms for the benefit of the Devas, to help the Devas.

Devanam karyasiddhyartham—to achieve something for the Devas.

Then people say that she has taken birth or she has come into existence.

I can tell you about these—whenever she has taken a particular form for a certain purpose. These, I can tell you about.'

yoganidram ............prabhu

Sumedha Rishi is going to tell about the tamasik form of Mahamaya.

Kalpante—at the end of kalpa. One kalpa is Brahma’s daytime—4.32 billion human years. At the end of that, pralaya happens. The whole universe becomes one uniform matter, like a single ocean. This state is compared to an ocean.

Where it is only this water all around.

Jagatyekarnaveekrite—the universe has been transformed into this state of a single ocean.

When you visualize this, make sure that you are not seeing it as a sea with the sky above and the horizon. There is no sky. There are no two things—sea and sky. It is only that water everywhere. Also, it is not water that is H₂O, the water we drink. Water here means something that is fluid. It is also called Brahmadrava. That is the more appropriate term.

It is some liquid that is comparable to water but not exactly water. That water has filled the whole space. That water is all around. Everywhere that you look, it is this Brahmadrava that you see.

And in that water, on a bed that is the great serpent Adi Shesha, Lord Vishnu has gone into Yoga Nidra.

And this Lord Vishnu is supposed to be completely independent, supposed to be not under anybody’s command or control.

This is how he is known to us.

Kartum akartum anyatha kartum cha samarthaha—

He can do whatever he wants. If he doesn’t want to do something, he has the freedom not to do it. He is not under any compulsion. And if he wants to alter the way something is to be done, he can also do that.

This is how we know Mahavishnu to be.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi