benefiting the worlds, not springing from work (karman) is this action
of the unfathomable one; all-pervading, irresistible' (Vi. Pu. VI, 7, 69-
71); 'Him who is of this kind, stainless, eternal, all-pervading,
imperishable, free from all evil, named Vishnu, the highest abode' (Vi.
Pu. I, 22,53); 'He who is the highest of the high, the Person, the
highest Self, founded on himself; who is devoid of all the
distinguishing characteristics of colour, caste and the like; who is
exempt from birth, change, increase, decay and death; of whom it can
only be said that he ever is. He is everywhere and in him everything
abides; hence he is called Vasudeva by those who know. He is Brahman,
eternal, supreme, imperishable, undecaying; of one essential nature and
ever pure, as free from all defects. This whole world is Brahman,
comprising within its nature the Evolved and the Unevolved; and also
existing in the form of the Person and in that of time' (Vi. Pu. I, 2,
10-14); 'The Prakriti about which I told and which is Evolved as well as
Unevolved, and the Person--both these are merged in the highest Self.
The highest Self is the support of all, the highest Lord; as Vishnu he
is praised in the Vedas and the Vedanta-texts' (Vi. Pu. VI, 4, 38, 39).
'Two forms are there of that Brahman, one material, the other immaterial.
These two forms, perishable and imperishable, are within all things: the
imperishable one is the highest Brahman, the perishable one this whole
world. As the light of a fire burning in one place spreads all around,
so the energy of the highest Brahman constitutes this entire world' (Vi.
Pu. I, 23,53-55). 'The energy of Vishnu is the highest, that which is
called the embodied soul is inferior; and there is another third energy
called karman or Nescience, actuated by which the omnipresent energy of
the embodied soul perpetually undergoes the afflictions of worldly
existence. Obscured by Nescience the energy of the embodied soul is
characterised in the different beings by different degrees of
perfection' (Vi. Pu. VI, 7, 61-63).