Varaha Purana 25.4: Adhyaya 25, Shloka 4
The Birth of Ahaṅkāra as Guha/Skanda and His Appointment as Divine Commander
Pūrva Bhāga · Theological Nomenclature and Devī-Devata Correspondences
पुरुषो विष्णुरित्युक्तः शिवो वा नामतः स्मृतः । अव्यक्तं तु उमा देवी श्रीर्वा पद्मनिभेक्षणा ॥ २५.४ ॥
puruṣo viṣṇur ity uktaḥ śivo vā nāmataḥ smṛtaḥ | avyaktaṃ tu umā devī śrīr vā padmanibhekṣaṇā || 25.4 ||
puruSho viShNurityuktaH shivo vA nAmataH smRRitaH | avyaktaM tu umA devI shrIrvA padmanibhekShaNA || 25.4 ||
पुरुष को विष्णु कहते हैं, और शिव भी। अव्यक्त जो है, वो देवी उमा है। या फिर लक्ष्मी, जिनकी आँखें कमल जैसी हैं।
Sandhi Notes
- पुरुषो = पुरुषः
- विष्णुरित्युक्तः = विष्णुः + इति + उक्तः
- श्रीर्वा = श्रीः + वा
- पद्मनिभेक्षणा = पद्म-निभ-ईक्षणा (समास/स्वर-सन्धि)
Varāha
Curious; attentive to theological equivalences
How should ‘Puruṣa’ and ‘Avyakta’ be understood theologically—are they identifiable with major deities and goddesses?
Puruṣa is identified with Viṣṇu (also remembered as Śiva by name); Avyakta is identified with the Goddess as Umā or Śrī.
When studying tattvas, hold both analytic and devotional lenses: treat Puruṣa as the Lord and Avyakta as divine śakti; reduce sectarian conflict by recognizing shared referents behind different names.
The verse performs Purāṇic ‘theological translation’ of Sāṃkhya terms: Puruṣa is equated with Viṣṇu (and also remembered as Śiva by name), while Avyakta is mapped onto the Goddess (Umā/Śrī). This signals a non-sectarian or integrative register where cosmic principles are personified as divine powers, and where the unmanifest matrix is explicitly śakti.
Suggests a theistic non-dual/qualified-nondual reading: the same supreme reality is spoken of as Viṣṇu/Śiva (names), while prakṛti/avyakta is śakti (Umā/Śrī). Encourages seeing philosophical categories as modes of the divine rather than independent substances.
Varāha Purāṇa passages where Varāha teaches Bhu-devī using Sāṃkhya terms and then re-personifies them as deities (nearby verses in the same teaching sequence)
FAQs
It documents a Purāṇic strategy of correlating key metaphysical terms (e.g., Puruṣa, Avyakta) with major deity-names, reflecting a period of doctrinal synthesis and shared theological vocabulary across Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva milieus.
No geographic location is named in this verse; it is primarily a doctrinal and lexical identification of cosmological principles with deity epithets.
Rather than a direct moral injunction, the verse offers a philosophical instruction: to understand multiple traditional names (Viṣṇu/Śiva; Umā/Śrī) as designations for underlying cosmic principles (Puruṣa/Avyakta), encouraging conceptual clarity and interpretive breadth.
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