Varaha Purana 9.5: Adhyaya 9, Shloka 5
The Sequence of Creation, the Emergence of the Praṇava, and the Fish Incarnation’s Retrieval of the Vedas
ॐ इत्येकाक्षरीभूता ससर्जेमां महीं तदा । भूः ससर्ज भुवं सोऽपि स्वः ससर्ज ततो महः ॥ ९.५ ॥
om ity ekākṣarībhūtā sasarjemāṃ mahīṃ tadā | bhūḥ sasarja bhuvaṃ so 'pi svaḥ sasarja tato mahaḥ || 9.5 ||
सा तदा ‘ॐ’ इत्येकाक्षरीभूता इमां महीं ससर्ज। ‘भूः’ ससर्ज, ‘भुवः’ अपि ससर्ज; ततः ‘स्वः’ ससर्ज, अनन्तरं ‘महः’।
Varāha (default narrator/instructor voice for this fragment)
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic cosmogonic formula linking creation to the praṇava (“Om”) and enumerating the early strata of the traditional world-system (Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ, Mahaḥ), a scheme also widely attested in Vedic and post-Vedic literature.
No specific terrestrial location is named here; the verse uses cosmological ‘world’ designations (Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ, Mahaḥ) rather than a place identifiable on historical geography.
The verse primarily conveys a philosophical instruction rather than a direct moral rule: it frames the cosmos as originating in ordered stages and associates creative power with disciplined, meaningful speech (the single-syllable “Om”).
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