Creation of the Universe

The 5th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam’s Second Canto gives a fascinating, intriguing description of how the All-Attractive creates the primordial universe. Here is a footnote from the manuscript I am currently working on:

Text [2.5.]21 explains that the All-Attractive desires to be many, because its inherent nature is bliss – which is enjoyed in the form of love, which requires relationships, which requires multiple independent beings. The All-Attractive causes many beings to manifest from itself as a result of its own “magic” or mystical power (māyā) using three tools, time, destiny, and psychology.

Text 22 elaborates on this. It states the All-Attractive becomes the Puruṣa (a.k.a. Viṣṇu) to use these tools upon our “material world.” He uses time (kāla) as a catalyst to activate (vyatikara) the three qualities (guṇa). He then uses psychology (svabhāva) to stimulate evolutions (pariṇāma) within those qualities. “Psychology” refers to the various unique predilections and preferences of the various unique living entities who will populate the world. Then, the destiny (karma) that arises from the living entities psychological interaction with the three qualities causes the world to evolve out of the abstract realm and become the primeval form of the tangible universe (mahāt-tattva).