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OF THE HINDUS.
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worlds, and has, at five hundred millions of Yojanas below it, the separate Lokas of Visuľu and Siva, Vaikuitha, and Kailus. This region is indestructible, whilst all else is subject to annihilation, and in the centre of it abides KŘISHNA, of the colour of a dark cloud, in the bloom of youth, clad in yellow raiment, splendidly adorned with celestial gems, and holding a Aute. He is exempt from Máyú, or delusion, and all qualities, eternal, alone, and the Paramátmá, or supreme soul of the world.
KRISHŇA being alone in the Goloka, and meditating on the waste of creation, gave origin to a being of a female form endowed with the three Guías, and thence the primary agent in creation. This was Prakriti, or Máyá, and the system so far corresponds with that of the other Vaishnavas, and of the Puranas generally speaking. They having adopted, in fact, the Sankhya system, interweaving with it their peculiar sectarial notions.
Crude matter, and the five elements, are also made to issue from KRISHŃA, and then all the divine beings. NÁRÁYAŇA, or VISIŃU, proceeds from his right side, MAHADEVA from his left, Branná from his hand, DHARMA from his breath, SARASWATÍ from his mouth, Lakshmi from his mind, Durgá from his understanding, Rádná from his left side. Three hundred millions of Gopís, or female companions of RÁDIÁ, exude from the pores of her skin, and a like number of Gopas, or companions of KRISHNA , from the pores of his skin: the very cows and their calves, properly the tenants
