There are several views in the पुराणस् regarding the origin of लोक or the world (Universe).

In the beginning of the universe महाविष्णु alone stood as the Eternal, unseen, unheard, unknown entity. Then there was neither sky nor day nor night. When the time of creation came प्रकृति entered विष्णु as पुरुष creating emotion. From emotion arose महत् or the Great Principle and from महत् arose cosmic egoism ( अहङ्कार ). अहङ्कार divided itself into वैकारिक , तैजस and तामस . From अहङ्कार arose आकाश with the quality of sound and from आकाश came the air having the quality of touch and from air came fire having the quality of colour and from fire came water having the quality of taste and from water came earth with the quality of smell. All these were born of तामसिच् egoism. From तैजसिच् egoism came into being the organs of sense. From the वैकारिक egoism came the ten वैकारिक devas and the eleventh organ of sense, the mind. After that महाविष्णु discharged his virility into water and that virility is life. (Chapter 17, Agni Purāṇa)

महाविष्णु with a view to creating many different kinds of living things created water first and threw his whole energy into it. That energy grew into a golden mass of an egg and ब्रह्मा was born from that egg. महाविष्णु broke that egg into two, making one half heaven and the other earth. Between the two halves he created the sky. The earth was floating on the waters and he fixed it by anchoring it at ten sides. Then he created प्रजापति , काल , मनस् , वाक् , काम , क्रोध and रति . Then he created thunder, lightning, clouds, rainbows and birds. Then for यज्ञसिद्धि he created from his face ऋग्वेद , यजुर्वेद and सामवेद . He did sacrifices with them. From his hands he created the different भूतग्रामस् and सनत्कुमारस् . He created रुद्र out of क्रोध . From his mind were born मरीचि , अत्रि , अङ्गिरस् , पुलस्त्य , पुलह , क्रतु and वसिष्ठ . He made these seven ब्रह्मर्षिस् . These seven ब्रह्मर्षिस् and रुद्र began to create the प्रजास् . Then प्रजापति divided his body into two. One half of it became man and the other woman. ब्रह्मा started creation through that woman. (Chapter 18 • Agni Purāṇa)

In the beginning महाविष्णु in the form of a child lay on a leaf of the बन्यन् tree. Lying there the Lord began to think like this, "Who am I? Who created me? Why was I created? What should I do here?" At once from the sky came a voice which said:--

(All these am I. There is nothing eternal except me). The Lord was surprised by the voice and there appeared before him महादेवी with four hands bearing the शङ्ख , चक्र , गदा and पद्म one in each hand. She wore divine garments and ornaments and was accompanied by Prosperity as her maid. She was surrounded by such forces as रति भूति , बुद्धि , मति , कीर्ति , स्मृति , धृति , श्रद्धा , मेधा , स्वधा , स्वाहा , क्षुधा , निद्रा , दया , गति , तुष्टि , पुष्टि , क्षमा , लज्जा , जृम्भा and तन्द्री . Devī then addressed महाविष्णु thus: "Why wonder? You have always come into being whenever creation was started by the greatness of great powers. The Supreme Being is without quality of any kind. We are all with quality. You have predominance of सत्त्वगुण . From your navel will arise ब्रह्मा who will be dominated by रजोगुण and from the centre of the forehead of ब्रह्मा will be born रुद्र with तमोगुण predominant in him. ब्रह्मा by the power of his penance will acquire the energy to create and he will then create the world. You will be the protector of this world which will in the end be destroyed by रुद्र . I am the सात्त्विच् power to help you in your work and I am always at your service."

Accordingly ब्रह्मा and रुद्र were born and ब्रह्मा started his creation. (1st Skandha, Devī Bhāgavata) .

In times of old during the great deluge everything in this universe became extinct. It went on like that for some time and then the five elements and ब्रह्मा were born. ब्रह्मा was born in a lotus. ब्रह्मा decided there should be mud beneath the lotus. He went down through the stem of the lotus and travelled for a thousand years and yet did not find the earth. He came back and sitting inside the lotus started doing penance. After a thousand years मधु-कैटभस् rushed to attack ब्रह्मा (See under Kaiṭabha) .

Fearing them ब्रह्मा went under water again. As he went deep down he saw a great man sleeping there. It was महाविष्णु and then only he knew he was sitting on the lotus originating from the navel of महाविष्णु . महाविष्णु killed मधु कैटभस् and gave permission to start creation and ब्रह्मा started his work of creation.

Before the origin of the Universe the shapeless qualityless पराशक्ति permeated everything. From it there were born three powers: ज्ञानशक्ति , क्रियाशक्ति and अर्थशक्ति . The power of सत्त्वगुण was ज्ञानशक्ति , the power of रजोगुण was क्रियाशक्ति and the power of तमोगुण was अर्थशक्ति . From the divine power of तामस came the five basic things, sound, colour, touch, taste and smell. The quality of the sky was sound, the quality of air was touch, the quality of fire was colour, the quality of water was taste and the quality of earth was smell.

रजोगुण was born of क्रियाशक्ति . The five organs of senses, ear, eye, nose, tongue and skin and the five organs of work, hand, leg, speech, organ of excretion and the organ of sex and the five breaths, प्राण , अपान , व्यान , समान and उदान are the offsprings of राजस . These are the forms of क्रियाशक्ति . These are controlled by the favourable activity of चिच्छक्ति . The five gods controlling the sense-organs like वायु , सूर्य , पाशी and अश्विनीदेवस् and the four gods controlling intelligence, conscience etc. like चन्द्र , ब्रह्मा , रुद्र , and क्षेत्रज्ञ and the mind are ten तत्त्वस् (Principles) born of सात्त्विक empowered with ज्ञानशक्ति .

All the तत्त्वस् were made into five basic elements through the process of पञ्चीकरण and the ब्रह्माण्ड originated from it.

The constitution of ब्रह्माण्ड

The ब्रह्माण्ड is made up of seven कोशस् (coverings). The one in the extreme interior is very small. The second कोश originates from the centre of the first कोश . The third कोश also has its origin from the first one. Each of them envelops the one before it. The seventh कोश thus originating from the first कोश and bursting forth through the other six कोशस् spreads out for millions of miles around. If you cut the ब्रह्माण्ड longitudinally the one in the extreme interior is the earth. Then come भुवर्लोक , स्वर्लोक , महर्लोक , जनलोक , तपोलोक , and सत्यलोक in succession. The worlds in the lower half are called पाताल , रसातल , महातल , तलातल सुतल , वितल and अतल . From सत्यलोक to अतल there are fourteen लोकस् . The ब्रह्माण्ड consists of the सूर्य , चन्द्र , Stars, शुक्र , बुध , अङ्गारक , बृहस्पति , शनि , सप्तर्षिस् , ध्रुव , शिंशुमार and राहु , called the ज्योतिश्चक्र . Besides these there are twentyeight hells also. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Aṃsa 1) .

राहु is ten thousand योजनस् below सूर्य . Ten thousand योजनस् below राहु is the लोक of सिद्धविद्याधरस् . Below that up to the path of the clouds is the लोक of the demons, genū and manes. Hundred योजनस् below this is the भूलोक (earth). Ten thousand योजनस् below the earth and as many योजनस् below the world above each are अतल, वितल सुतल, तलातल, महातल रसातल and पाताल . (5th Skandha, Bhāgavata) .

Origin of life

ब्रह्मा originated from the navel of महाविष्णु . ब्रह्मा started creation after obtaining permission from विष्णु . In the beginning ब्रह्मा created from the mind मरीचि , अङ्गिरस् , अत्रि , वसिष्ठ , पुलह , क्रतु , and पुलस्त्य . They are therefore called the Mānasaputras of ब्रह्मा . (Manas = mind, Putra, = son) . From his wrath came रुद्र , from his lap came नारद , from his right thumb दक्ष , from his mind सनक and others and from his left thumb, वीरणी . दक्ष married वीरणी .

दक्ष got five thousand sons of वीरणी . They also got sons. When the population began to increase thus नारद intervened and questioned the advisability of increasing the population before knowing the capacity of the earth. The sons of दक्ष realised the sense in it and started to have a survey of the earth. दक्ष was disappointed that the children left him without showing any interest in the work of creation. So he produced another five thousand sons and asked them to start the work of creation. But they were also sent away as before by नारद . दक्ष became angry and he created sixty daughters.

He gave thirteen daughters to कश्यप , ten to धर्म , twentyseven to चन्द्र , two to भृगु , four to अरिष्टनेमि , two to कृताश्व , and two to अङ्गिरस् . Of these most of the living things in the world were born to कश्यप . (7th Skandha, Devī Bhāgavata) .

कश्यप was the last of the प्रजापतिस् . कश्यप married the daughters of दक्ष named अदिति , दिति , दनु , कालिका , ताम्रा , क्रोधवशा , मनु , and अनला . अदिति got thirtythree sons and their family consists of the thirtythree crores of देवस् . From दिति were born the दैत्यस् or असुरस् . From दनु was born the दानव हयग्रीव . कालिका got two sons, नरक and कालक . ताम्रा got five daughters, क्रौञ्ची , भासी , श्येनी , धृतराष्ट्री and शुकी . क्रौञ्ची gave birth to owls, भासी to भासस् and श्येनि to श्येनस् (Vultures, Kites etc.). धृतराष्ट्री gave birth to हंसस् , कलहंसस् and कोकस् . शुकी gave birth to नता and नात in turn to विनता . क्रोधवशा gave birth to ten daughters; मृगी , मृगमन्दा , हरी , भद्रमदा , मातङ्गी , शार्दूली , श्वेता , सुरभि , सुरसा and कद्रू . Of these मृगी gave birth to beasts, मृगमन्दा to trees and plants. Lions and monkeys are the children of हरी , भद्रमदा got a daughter named इरावती . ऐरावत was the son of इरावती . From मातङ्गी were born the elephants and from शार्दूली the tigers. The अष्टदिग्गजस् are the sons of श्वेता . सुरभि got two daughters named रोहिणी and गन्धर्वी . Cows are the children of रोहिणी and horses are the children of गन्धर्वी . Serpents are the sons of सुरसा and कद्रू gave birth to snakes. From मनु were born men. Trees are the sons of अनला . विनता got two sons named अरुण and गरुड . To अरुण were born two sons, जटायु and सम्पाति .

The end of the World

--There are different views in the पुराणस् regarding the end of the world. The different पुराणस् give different views. For knowing the views of अग्नि पुराण on the subject see under the heading 'Pralaya'. The eleventh स्कन्ध of भागवत gives the following theory regarding the end of the world.

All the material objects of the world will become illusory. Fire will increase. There will be no rains for hundred years together. The World will be burnt by the heat. The heat will go down to the head of अनन्त who holds this world on his head. The सप्तमेघस् (Seven Clouds) will rise up in the sunshine infested with the poisonous breath of अनन्त . Then rains will start pouring down in streams as thick as the trunk of an elephant. Everything will be drowned in that water. विष्णु alone will be left above the vast expanse of water. (See under Manvantara) .