Kurma Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 1
Tāmasa Sarga, the Androgynous Division of Brahmā, and the Lineages of Dharma and Adharma
इति श्रीकूर्मपुराणे षट्साहस्त्र्यां संहितायां पूर्वविभागे सप्तमो ऽध्यायः श्रीकूर्म उवाच एवं भूतानि सृष्टानि स्थावराणि चराणि च / यदा चास्य प्रजाः सृष्टा न व्यवर्धन्त धीमतः
iti śrīkūrmapurāṇe ṣaṭsāhastryāṃ saṃhitāyāṃ pūrvavibhāge saptamo 'dhyāyaḥ śrīkūrma uvāca evaṃ bhūtāni sṛṣṭāni sthāvarāṇi carāṇi ca / yadā cāsya prajāḥ sṛṣṭā na vyavardhanta dhīmataḥ
Thus, in the Śrī Kūrma Purāṇa, in the Ṣaṭsāhasrī Saṃhitā, in the Pūrvabhāga, the seventh chapter concludes. Śrī Kūrma said: “In this manner beings were created—both the immobile and the mobile. Yet when his creatures had been brought forth, they did not multiply, though he was wise.”
Lord Kurma (Vishnu)
Primary Rasa: adbhuta
Secondary Rasa: karuna
FAQs
Indirectly: it distinguishes created categories (mobile/immobile) from the wise creative principle behind them, implying a higher governing intelligence beyond the produced beings—an idea later aligned with Īśvara-centered teaching in the Purāṇa.
No explicit yoga practice is taught in this verse; it sets a cosmological problem—creation exists but does not proliferate—whose resolution in the broader Purāṇic arc is tied to right order (dharma) and Īśvara-oriented discipline, themes developed more fully in later instructional sections (including the Purāṇa’s yoga-oriented teachings).
The verse itself is primarily cosmological with Lord Kūrma speaking; within the Kurma Purāṇa’s overall synthesis, such creation discourse is compatible with a unified Īśvara framework where sectarian functions (creation, maintenance, dissolution) are harmonized rather than opposed.