Shloka 15
Puṣkara-dvīpa, Lokāloka, and the Measure of the Brahmāṇḍa
Cosmic Egg
एतै सप्त महालोकाः पातालाः सप्तकीर्तिताः / ब्रह्माण्डस्यैष विस्तारः संक्षेपेण मयोदितः
etai sapta mahālokāḥ pātālāḥ saptakīrtitāḥ / brahmāṇḍasyaiṣa vistāraḥ saṃkṣepeṇa mayoditaḥ
एतैः सप्त महालोकाः पातालाः सप्त कीर्तिताः । ब्रह्माण्डस्यैष विस्तारः संक्षेपेण मयोदितः ॥
Sūta (narrator) summarizing the cosmographic teaching in the Kurma Purana frame-narrative
Primary Rasa: shanta
Secondary Rasa: adbhuta
FAQs
This verse is primarily cosmographic: it summarizes the universe (Brahmāṇḍa) as a structured field of experience—seven higher lokas and seven pātālas—within which embodied beings live out karma; it does not directly define Ātman, but frames the domain in which liberation-oriented teachings (elsewhere in the Purāṇa) operate.
No specific yoga practice is taught in this verse; it functions as a concluding summary of cosmology. In the Kurma Purana, such mapping supports dharma and sādhana by situating human life within a graded cosmos, while yoga instructions are treated more explicitly in other sections (notably the Upari-bhāga’s Ishvara Gītā discourse).
This verse does not explicitly mention Śiva or Viṣṇu; it presents a shared Purāṇic cosmology. In the Kurma Purana’s broader Shaiva–Vaishnava synthesis, such cosmological order is ultimately upheld by the one Supreme Lord understood through both Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava theological lenses.