Adhyaya 70: आदिसर्गः—महत्-अहङ्कार-तन्मात्रा-भूतसृष्टिः, ब्रह्माण्डावरणम्, प्रजासर्गः, त्रिमूर्ति-शैवाधिष्ठानम्
ततो महात्मा भगवान् दिव्यरूपम् अचिन्तयत् सलिलेनाप्लुतां भूमिं दृष्ट्वा स तु समन्ततः
tato mahātmā bhagavān divyarūpam acintayat salilenāplutāṃ bhūmiṃ dṛṣṭvā sa tu samantataḥ
Alors le Seigneur au grand Soi, voyant la Terre submergée d’eau de toutes parts, contempla une forme divine—afin que, comme Pati, il guide les paśu (les âmes liées) à travers ce déluge semblable à la dissolution et rétablisse l’ordre cosmique.
Suta Goswami (narrating the Purana account to the sages of Naimisharanya)
It frames Shiva as the transcendent Pati who freely assumes a divine form to restore dharma; Linga worship mirrors this by anchoring the devotee in an unshaken symbol of Shiva even amid pralaya-like instability.
Shiva-tattva is shown as sovereign and compassionate: seeing the inundated world, He does not become bound by it, but consciously wills a divya-rūpa—revealing mastery over māyā and the power to re-order creation for the sake of paśus.
The key practice is contemplative dhyāna (acintayat) on Shiva’s divya-rūpa—aligned with Pāśupata orientation where inner steadiness and remembrance of Pati loosen pāśa (bondage).