P 93 94 The All-Pervasive Essence

The one Paramātmā alone is the abode or bedrock (adhiṣṭhāna) of the whole universe, encompassing all that is moveable and immovable (or ‘animate and inanimate’, or ‘sentient and insentient’). That alone is the Supreme Essence (Parama Tattva).

From this alone has Māyā, or the cosmic illusion of the nature of three fundamental attributes or guṇas (triguṇātmikā), and from this alone has the Mahat- Tattva and the like, been created.

There is no need to specifically study and contemplate inextricable interpretations of creation and its sequence propounded by various schools of thought. Their purport is only to grasp the essential point that all the visible and invisible worlds have their footing in their adhiṣṭhāna, the undifferentiated causal factor, the all-pervasive (vyāpaka) Paramātmā, in the same manner as a gob of ice has its existence in water. As water condenses and solidifies, thereafter appearing in the form of ice, yet in reality, every little part and portion of it is rife or pervaded with its adhiṣṭhāna, which is water, in the same way, it is the Parabrahma Paramātmā alone, the primordial ground of the whole universe, that pervades the entire world, covering all that is moveable and immovable, and to that alone does the whole world owe its existence to.

It is the one Supreme Self (Paramātma Tattva), which, living in all the material elements, governs the attributes and sustenance of those various elements. That one Supreme Essence (Parama Tattva) alone is present in all the elements in the form of their guṇas or qualities. It is that one Parama Tattva that exists or manifests as the quality of heat or burning in Fire, as the quality of drying in Air, and as coolness in Water.
For this, the Ved-śāstra is certainly a pramāṇa (proof, testimony, valid source of knowledge), but we can also get perceptible evidence (pratyakṣa pramāṇa). That fire could not burn Prahlāda is itself an irrefutable testimony to the fact that for the one who has an intimate connection with the Parama Tattva — the one abode or substratum of everything (sarvādhiṣṭhāna), complete and whole (nikhila), supporting all the worlds (jagadādhāra) — the material elements — Fire, Air etc. — begin to behave in accordance with his/her wishes.

The very flames of Fire that were possessed of the quality of inflammability in the case of Holikā, at the same time, proved to be utterly devoid or bereft of inflammability for Prahlāda.

Material sciences cannot explain the reason for this. The reason for this is only that Prahlāda had an intimate experiential connection (devoid of any difference or separation) with the Paramātmā, — the Supreme Essence, the basis of everything (sarvādhiṣṭhāna), — that exists as the quality of inflammability in the Fire element, and therefore the quality of inflammability became his own – Prahlāda himself became a true embodiment of the Fire element. Then how can fire itself get burnt by fire?