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Vishnu Purana : is one of the eighteen Mahā Purāṇas. It was the one he went through carefully, Sri Aurobindo said in an evening talk with disciples, for it describes most perfectly all the aspects of the Puranic scriptures. The Vishnu Purana opens as a conversation between sage Maitreya & his guru, Rishi Parāshara (q.v.), with the sage asking, “What is the nature of this universe & everything that is in it?” More than any other major Purana, it presents its contents in the Panchalakshana format: Sarga, cosmogony, Pratisarga, cosmology, Manvantara, cosmic cycles, Vamsha, deals with gods & sages, & Vamshānu-charitam with chief human vamshas, dynasties or rather lines of human development. The first Amsha (book) of this Purana deals with the creation, maintenance & destruction of the universe from which came the evolutionary theories of Sāṅkhya. It describes Vishnu as all that is & all that is not. It mentions all his epithets: Hari, Janārdana, Mādhava, Achyuta, Hrishikesha & others. The second book deals with the creation of our earth, its seven continents & seven oceans, mounts Meru, Mandāra & other major mountains, & Bhāratavarsha along with its numerous rivers & diverse people. The seven continents are named Jambu, Plaksha, Salmala, Kusha, Krauncha, Saka & Pūshkara, each surrounded by different types of liquids – salt water, fresh water, wine, sugarcane juice, clarified butter, liquid yoghurt, & milk. The third book describes the manvantaras; Manu’s ages or evolutionary cycles in which every Yuga (era, age) starts, matures & then dissolves. Six manvantaras, states the text, have already passed, & the current age belong to the seventh. In each Yuga (see Yugas), asserts the text, the Vedas are arranged into four, & it is challenged – this has happened twenty eight times already. In each manvantara, a Veda Vyāsa appears & he diligently organizes the eternal knowledge, with the aid of his students. Be diligent in the service of the gods, sages & guru, asserts the Purana, seek the welfare of all creatures, one’s own children & of one’s own soul. Anyone, regardless of his varṇa or stage of life, who lives a life according to the above duties, is the best worshipper of Vishnu. The fifth, the longest with 38 chapters, is dedicated to the life & works of Sri Krishna & its narration similar to that in Bhāgavata Purāṇa, of the Harivamsha in Mahābhārata, & several other Puranas. The sixth & last, the shortest with eight chapters, asserts that Kali Yuga is vicious, cruel & filled with evilness that create suffering, yet it is excellent because one can refuse to join the evil, devote oneself to Vishnu & thus achieve salvation. For the Jīva has a nature of its own: pure, composed of happiness & wisdom; the elements of ignorance, impurity & pain belong to Prakriti. The five Yamas, five Niyamas, Pranayama & Pratyahāra, compassion, truth, honesty, disinterestedness, self-restraint, yoga, meditation, contemplative devotion on Vishnu brings liberation, absorption in Vishnu, union with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality. Other chapters, esp. in 5th & 6th books, gave rise to various forms of Vedanta.