(RV
1.22.17)
idam vişhņur-vichakrame
tredhā nidadhe padam, samūļlam-asya
pāmsure.
Thrice Vishņu paced and set his step up-lifted out of the primal
dust.
Vishņu is the Godhead who is first manifest in
tiny form in the first stages of material creation. Slowly he
grows and spreads himself, pervades the whole of the physical
Earth; he soars and occupies the Life-world in the mid-region and
then possesses the world of Mind in Heaven. In his triple
self-extension he pervades all the three worlds and by his
presence sustains them.
Vishņu,
Rudra and Brahmanaspati are the Vedic originals of the later
Puranic triad of Vishņu-Shiva Brahma. Brahma is the creator of the
Word and develops all the formations in the human being and
cosmos. Rudra and Indra provide the force for the upper movement
of all the formations of Brahma. Their force battles the forces of
evil and smites the sinner and enemy.
For the actions of the Rudra's forces, Vishņu
supplies the necessary static elements - space, the ordered
movements of the worlds, the ascending levels, the highest goal.
He has taken three strides and in the space created by the three
strides has established all the worlds. In these worlds, he, the
all-pervading, dwells and gives less or greater room to the action
and movement of the Gods.
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