Is mahad-brahman prakṛti? That mahad and the goddess (śrī) are distinct. Śrī, Bhūr, Durgā and so on are different. The umā, sarasvatī etc., with their portions (aṃśa) are other jīvas. Thus the Kāśmīrí tradition says: Śrī, Bhūr, Durgā — great is māyā, the cause of the world’s bondage; the umā-vagādīs are other jīvas whose portions are verily the Self in the Vedas and the Gitā, called ‘my womb’ (mama yonir) meaning womb for gestation (garbhādhāna), not ‘mother’ — this from the remainder of the sentence. Likewise in the Sāmaveda traditions of Śārkārākṣa: Vishṇu’s yonī is for the lodging of the fetus; the great māyā removes all sufferings. Even though she appears with Vishnu to manifest the self for delusion and suffering, things like Sītā’s suffering are only apparent. In the Kūrma Purāṇa: if not, then earth...; and in the Saukarāyaṇa recital: other earth is the shadow of that greater earth — that indeed is the single womb of beings. The Anabhīmla tradition states that the world is given up willingly by the Lord for the sake of the worlds. The Matsya Purāṇa likewise says it is by volition. The term mahad-brahma denotes prakṛti itself — prakṛti is great; and in Brahmaṇī (Brahmāṇī) there are two prakṛtis and the great Lord (maheśvara) — thus explained there.