Alston:
We are not here concerned with the intricacies of the early history of the conceptions associated with the names Brahmā, Hiraṇyagarbha, Sūtra, Antaryāmin, Mahat, Buddhi, Satya, Prajāpati, Vāc, Virāṭ, Ka, Prāṇa, Vāyu and other names used by Śaṅkara in connection with the chief deity presiding over the evolution and withdrawal of the universe.
Name and form, imagined through nescience, unmanifest before the beginning of the world-period and gradually brought into manifestation in accordance with the deeds of living beings as the world-process unfolds, are what constitute the stuff of the world for Śaṅkara.
They and their transformations form the external adjuncts of the supreme unchanging principle of Consciousness, and when the latter is viewed in association with the universe it assumes the appearance of a deity.
Various names were used for this deity in the ancient texts, of which the most important, for Śaṅkara, have been listed above. The deity can be conceived either as the universe (Virāṭ), or as the Cosmic Intellect (Buddhi, Mahat, Hiraṇyagarbha) in which all individual intellects are contained and in which the impressions of the previous thoughts and deeds of all creatures lie, or as the Vital Energy (Prāṇa, Vāyu) by which the whole process is sustained.
All lesser deities that preside over natural phenomena governed by law (e.g. Āditya, the sun-god) can be represented as modifications of the one great deity called variously Brahmā, Hiraṇyagarbha, Prajāpati or by other names. The exception is Viṣṇu (alternatively called Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa and Bhagavān), who is often identified with the Absolute.
As for the creator-deity, he is but the instrument of the Absolute, non-conscious in himself and requiring to be sustained and illumined by the light of the Absolute before he can unfold its powers of knowledge and action.
Extracts on this topic are arranged in three groups. Group A gives texts affirming that the Absolute stands supreme, untouched by any of its adjuncts, and yet that, from the standpoint of nescience, we have to accept the traditions of the Veda and Smṛti which represent the Absolute as if it were unfolding the universe through the knowledge and activity of a great creator-deity, the first-born to emerge at the beginning of the world-period, called by any of the names listed above and functioning as the ‘body’ and all-vivifying ‘soul’ of the universe.
Group B concentrates on texts where this deity is specifically revered under the name Hiraṇyagarbha. The name ‘Hiraṇyagarbha’ means ‘Golden Germ’ or ‘Golden Embryo’, and referred, at an early stage of its history, to the first nucleus of manifest being that formed in the infinite waters of unmanifest being before creation, and from which all manifest being was to unfold.
In Śaṅkara’s texts, the term Hiraṇyagarbha tends to stand for the mental aspect of the world-soul. He speaks of it as the collective mind embracing all individual minds, as the repository of all mental impressions and as the material for the ‘seventeen-fold subtle body’.
Texts in Group C discuss the minor deities exercising lesser power into which the Cosmic Vital Energy (prāṇa) breaks up. Such gods have certain supernormal powers, especially that of being present at many different sacrifices at different places at the same time, while themselves remaining only one. But they are mortal and powerless on their own, receiving all their strength from the Lord. Moreover, considered as individuals, even their existence and authority is temporary: they are office-bearers, and only the office is important.
~excerpted and radically edited from 'Sankara on the Creation' pp191-3
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