12.300
Yājñavalkya said.
Hear from me, in order, about the number of principles, the number of creations, and likewise the number of cycles of time, as well as the dissolution.
Just as he withdraws and creates creatures again and again, Brahmā, who is without beginning or end, is eternal and truly imperishable.
Then, realizing the end of the day, at night, the Lord, the unmanifest, impelled the ego-possessed man through a dream.
Then the Sun, possessing a hundred thousand rays, impelled by the unmanifest, having divided himself into twelve forms, shone like blazing fire.
O king, the network of living beings of four kinds—those born from placenta, egg, sweat, and sprouting—is quickly consumed by brilliance.
By this mere opening, all stationary and moving things are destroyed. Then, the earth becomes level like the back of a tortoise on all sides.
After burning the world, the one of immeasurable strength quickly filled the earth on all sides with water.
Then, O king, when the water is consumed by the fire of time, the great fire blazes forth.
That immeasurable, exceedingly powerful, blazing fire, the heat of all beings, having seven flames, then directly (thus).
The mighty wind, possessing eight forms and boundless strength, moved everywhere—across, above, and below—devouring all.
The terrible darkness, with its opposing force, swallows the sky by itself. Even the sky, the mind, roaring greatly, devours the wandering.
The mind is consumed by the all-pervading self; this is the ego, Prajapati. The great self, who knows the past, present, and future, is the ego.
He too is the incomparable self, the universe, Śambhu, the lord of creatures, possessing the powers of minuteness, lightness, attainment, the supreme lord, the imperishable light.
He stands pervading all in the world, possessing hands, feet, eyes, heads, mouths, and hearing everywhere.
The heart of all beings, located at the joint, is the size of a thumb; the great soul, the Lord of the universe, is indeed pervading and infinite.
Then, all at once, the imperishable, unchanging, unwounded, past and future, the sinless creator of men, thus came into being.
O King, this too has been explained to you as it is. Now, listen to the explanation of adhyātma (pertaining to the self), adhibhūta (pertaining to beings), and adhidaiva (pertaining to the divine).
