From the navel of the Supreme Being, in the midst of the primal waters when the world was covered by a single, boundless ocean, there blossomed forth a pure, unsoiled lotus—this became the ancestral abode, the seat of creation. In ages past, when the Daityas rose up in the fierce battle of Tārakāmaya, it was He who, assuming a wondrous form composed of all the gods and brandishing every kind of weapon, vanquished those mighty foes. Mounted upon Garuḍa, the great bird, He struck down Kālanemi on the northern shore of the immortal ocean of milk, drenching the demon and laying him low. There, amidst the profound darkness, He entered into eternal meditation, lying in stillness and peace. Long ago, Aditi bore Him in her womb, radiant with the power of her austerities. Even as an unborn child, He humbled mighty Indra, who was beset by the hosts of Daityas, demonstrating His greatness from the very beginning. When the wind swept away the abodes of the worlds and cast the Daityas into the waters, the primeval God restored order, creating the gods of heaven anew and establishing Puruhūta—Indra—as their lord. He brought forth the sacred fire for the householder, the gārhapatya, as prescribed by the rites, along with the anvāhārya and āhavanīya fires, and the sacrificial altar known as Kuśaśrava. He fashioned the sprinkling vessel, the ladle, and instituted the avabhṛtha bath, performing the threefold offering of oblations within the sacrifice. To each He assigned their due: oblations to the gods, offerings to the ancestors, all for the sake of enjoyment and according to the sacred rites. Indeed, He Himself is the very essence of the sacrifice. He created the sacrificial posts, the kindling sticks, the ladle, Soma—the purifier—enclosing sticks, sacrificial materials, and the sacred fires. With supreme creative power, He manifested the officiating priests, the sacrificers, and the excellent sacrifices, such as the Aśvamedha. According to the needs of each age, He created the three worlds in their proper order, and established the divisions of time: moments, twinklings, kāṣṭhās, kalās, and the threefold measure of time. He ordained muhūrtas, lunar days, months, days, years, seasons, conjunctions of time, and the threefold measure. Lifespan, fields, growth, marks, beauty of form, intelligence, wealth, valor, and mastery of scripture—all these He established. He created the three castes, the three worlds, the triple knowledge, the three sacred fires, the three times, the three acts, the three māyās, and the three qualities. By His supreme act, the worlds and the gods came into being, and all the hosts of living beings—He is the very soul within all. He delights in men through the yoga of the senses, leading the coming and going of all beings, the lord of all diversity in creation. He is the path for the righteous, and for those who act with evil, the absence of a path. He is the origin and protector of the fourfold order. He is the knower of the four Vedas, the refuge for those in the four stages of life, and the lord of the directions, the sky, the earth, the waters, the wind, and the fire. He is the two great lights—the moon and the sun—the lord of the ages, the wanderer of the night, known as the supreme god and as the highest austerity. He is the foremost of ascetics, supreme and self-possessed, the deity beginning with the Adityas and the mighty destroyer of the Daityas. At the end of the ages, He is the ender, the destroyer of the destroyers of worlds, the bridge among the bridges of the worlds, the purest among those who act with purity. He is the one to be known by the knowers of the Veda, the lord of those with creative power; He becomes Soma among beings, and fire among those radiant with fire. Among men He is the mind, among ascetics austerity, among the disciplined humility, and among the brilliant, brilliance itself. He is the form among forms, the goal even of those who have goals, the wind born of space, the vital breath, and the fire of oblations. By day, the fire of oblations is the vital breath; the vital breath of fire is Madhusudana. Sap becomes blood, and from blood, flesh arises. From flesh comes fat, from fat bone, from bone marrow, and from marrow, semen. From semen, by the action rooted in sap, the embryo is produced, and first among these is water, known as the lunar mass. The embryo is said to arise from heat as the second mass; semen is of lunar nature, menstrual blood of fiery nature. These two states follow sap, potent as the moon and fire; in the phlegmatic group, semen arises, and in the bilious group, blood. The heart is the seat of phlegm, the navel the seat of bile; the heart, in the center of the body, is remembered as the seat of the mind. In the inner region of the navel dwells the god of fire; the mind is Prajapati, and phlegm is understood as Soma. Bile is fire; these two, fire and Soma, are the essence of the world. Thus the embryo grows, resembling a mass of water. The wind, united with the supreme self, enters and exists in the body in fivefold form, causing further growth. These are prāṇa, apāna, samāna, udāna, and vyāna. Prāṇa, increasing the supreme self, moves within; apāna moves in the lower body, udāna rises upward, vyāna pervades everywhere, and samāna is present in all the joints. From these arise the perception of the elements, accessible to the senses: earth, air, space, water, and fire. All the senses are established here, each performing its own function. This is the earthly body, and the vital self is the wind. Openings are born from space, and the flow of fluids is set in motion. Fire becomes sight, its brilliance is called light, and from its power arise the senses and their domains. Thus, the eternal Person creates all these worlds. But in this mortal world, how did Viṣṇu, the all-pervading Lord, take on human form? This is our doubt, O wise one, and truly a great wonder: how did He, who moves among all movers, come to possess a human body?