Madhvaon Brahma Sūtra 2.3.13

“ Through the gracious will of the Lord whose grace is obtained by devoting the mind to Him and constantly contemplating Him in the true light, the mundane bond- age which has no beginning completely melts away at the end ” (Sv. 1-10). From this text which discloses the indicatory mark, that the Lord's grace is the cause of the slackening of the mundane bondage, it distinctly appears that He is the cause of final release. Then it naturally follows that He is the cause of the dissolution of the world that has a beginning. From this single character- istic only of the Lord, (that He is the cause of the final release referred to in the text quoted above), the destroyer of all, it becomes clear, is Vishnu only. Then what more need be said, when a number of Srutis speak to the same effect ? The Srutis are : “ That Hari, to whom the world returns in the deluge and after release, may accept the offering of clarified butter for the prolongation of our life.” “ He who destroys all this (creation) is Hari, the absolutely different, Paramatman),” etc. This is the force of the particle of emphasis * Eva ’ used in the aphorism. The Skânda Purana also says, “ The creator, pro- tector and destroyer is the one Hari, the Lord of Lords. Creation, etc., are attributed to other gods like unto dolls (wooden images) and that too, only as partial agents but not as absolute agents. On the other hand, creation, etc., wholly proceed from Vishnu, the Supreme Being.” “ In the matter of creating and destroying the world, Hiranya- garbha and Rudra are but nominal instruments of Thee, the Almighty Lord, working under the name and form of time.” (Bhagavata). A.nd the Mahopanishad says: “ He creates through the instrumentality of Brahma, brings about destruction through that of Rudra, and He is Hari who alone is without beginning or end, who is perfect and is of perfect bliss.” “ From the same Lord indeed this world is produced in (perfect) order and is withdrawn in (perfect) order ; but He neither rises nor sets.” From this Bhâllaveya text, the withdrawal (dissolution) of the world seems to take place in (the same) order. But the Chaturveda Sikha shows that it takes place in the reverse order thus “ Only from the Supreme Lord, the imperishable, all (this) is produced in order and into the same Supreme Lord everything is withdrawn in the reverse order ” To recon- cile this contradiction, the Sutrakara says :