7:1 The three hypostases of Vishńu. Hirańyagarbha is a name of Brahmá; he who was born from the golden egg. Hari is Vishńu, and Śankara Siva. The Vishńu who is the subject of our text is the supreme being in all these three divinities or hypostases, in his different characters of creator, preserver and destroyer. Thus in the Márkańd́eya: 'Accordingly, as the primal all-pervading spirit is distinguished by attributes in creation and the rest, so he obtains the denomination of Brahmá, Vishńu, and Śiva. In the capacity of Brahmá he creates the worlds; in that of Rudra he destroys them; in that of Vishńu he is quiescent. These are the three Avasthás (ht. hypostases) of the self-born. Brahmá is the quality of activity; Rudra that of darkness; Vishńu, the lord of the world, is goodness: so, therefore, the three gods are the three qualities. They are ever combined with, and dependent upon one another; and they are never for an instant separate; they never quit each other.' The notion is one common to all antiquity, although less philosophically conceived, or perhaps less distinctly expressed, in the passages which have come down to us. The τρεῖς ἀρχικὰς ὑποστάσεις of Plato are said by Cudworth (I. 111), upon the authority of Plotinus, to be an ancient doctrine, παλαιὰ δόξα: and he also observes, "Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato have all of them asserted a trinity of divine hypostases; and as they unquestionably derived much of their doctrine from the Egyptians, it may reasonably be suspected that the Egyptians did the like before them." As however the Grecian accounts, and those of the Egyptians, are much more perplexed and unsatisfactory than those of the Hindus, it is most probable that we find amongst them the doctrine in its most original as well as most methodical and significant form.

8:2 This address to Vishńu pursues the notion that he, as the supreme being, is one, whilst he is all: he is Avikára, not subject to change; Sadaikarúpa, one invariable nature: he is the liberator (tára), or he who bears mortals across the ocean of existence: he is both single and manifold (ekánekarúpa): and he is the indiscrete (avyakta) cause of the world, as well as the discrete (vyakta) effect; or the invisible cause, and visible creation.

8:3 Jaganmaya, made up, or consisting substantially of the world. Maya is an affix denoting 'made' or 'consisting of,' as Kásht́ha maya, 'made of wood.' The world is therefore not regarded by the Pauranics as an emanation or an illusion, but as consubstantial with its first cause.

8:4 Ańíyánsam ańíyasám, 'the most atomic of the atomic;' alluding to the atomic theory of the Nyáya or logical school.