In some of their treatises, God is the same as time, works, and nature; whilst, according to others, these are regarded as the instruments of his majesty.
In other treatises, the Almighty is held to be light, surpassingly great and splendid, of exceeding brilliancy and radiance, corporeal, invested with members.
Other descriptions represent him as pure light, abstract being, simple existence, unconfined by place, exempt from transmigration, free of matter, without parts, uncompounded, divested of the attributes of accidents, and the creator of the world, and all therein contained. According to other dissertations, God is the producer of beginning and end, exhibiting himself in the mirror of pure space, containing the higher and lower, the heavenly and terrestrial bodies.
It is stated in the first part of the Bhagavat, that the truly-existing is an abstract being, one without equal or opposite, who in the various languages amongst the human race has denominations suited to the belief of his worshippers, and that the mode of attaining union with him depends on eradicating wrath, extirpating bodily gratifications, and banishing the influence of the senses. This holy essence is called Naráyan,[29] whose heads, hands, and feet exceed all number.
At the period when this world and all it contains were buried under the waters, Tot, or “intellect” lay reclined in the sleep of unity, on the head of Adsesh,[30] the supporter of the earth. From the navel of this exalted being appeared the lotus flower, called by the Hindoos Kawal;[31] out of which arose Brahma, from the members of whose mighty existence all created beings hastened into the area of visibility.
It is recorded in other treatises of this sect, that they give the name of Naráyan, or “the majesty without color,”[32] that is, “without the qualities of accidents,” to the absolute essence and abstract being of God, who is in pure space. They say, moreover, that his essence, which is devoid of all forms, made a personage called Brahma, who was constituted the medium of creation, so that he brought all other existences from behind the curtain of nonentity into the luminous area of being. In like manner that sublime essence manifested itself in the soul of Vishnu, so that he became an Avatár, and to him is confided the preservation of whatever Brahma created. That glorious essence next called up Mahadeo, for the purpose of destroying Brahma’s creation, whenever infinite wisdom requires the transformation of the visible into the invisible world; from which three agents arises the arrangement of all things in the universe.[33] They say that Brahma is an aged man with four heads; Naráyan, or Vishnu, holds in his hand the Chakra, or Disk, “a sort of weapon;” he always assumes the Avatárs, or “incarnations;” of which ten are greatly celebrated. Avatár[34] means appearance or manifestation; Karan[35] signifies cause; Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahadeo are called Trikaran, or the three causes.
In the Satya-Jog there was a Rakshas[36], named Sámak Asur, who performed such great religious austerities, that he became enabled to work miracles; he having taken the Anant-Ved[37] which was in Brahma’s possession, and from which are derived the four Vedas given to mankind, fled into the water; on this, Vishnu, on the fifth day of the fifth month, Chét,[38] “March-April,”[39] in the Kishn Bichah, having assumed the Matsyávátar, or “the form of a fish,” plunged into the water, slew the Rakshas, and recovered the Veda: this was the first Avatar.
The second was the Kurmávátar, or “that of the tortoise.” Anant Ved signifies “the numberless Vedas;” Matsya, “a fish;” Avatár, “descent,” or “manifestation;” Chét, “the fifth solar month;” Kishn Bicheh, “that portion of the month which is without moonlight and when the nights are dark.”
On the twelfth of Chét, in the Kishn Bicheh, he assumed the Kurmávátár, or “that of the tortoise.” They say that the Angels and Deeves (Asurs), taking the serpent Vásukir,[40] formed with him a cord, and fastening this to a lofty mountain called Mandára,[41] made with it a churn-staff, which they moved about in the mighty ocean, whilst Naráyan remained under the mountain to prevent it from falling; and by this agitation they procured the water of life. In the kingdom of Kalinga, they have formed the image of a tortoise, and among the wonderful sights of that region is the following miraculous event: if they cast the bones of a Brahman or a cow into the adjacent reservoir, in the course of a year one half of it becomes stone, and the other half remains unchanged. It is worthy of remark, that some Persian astronomers represent the constellation Cancer by a tortoise, nay call it by that name, instead of Kharchang, or “crab.” Ferdúsi, the sage, thus expresses himself:
“The lunar lord beheld the ascendancy of the tortoise.”