Hiranyâksha is Tâmasic. He represents the original inertia of matter, its primary resistance to the onward process of evolution. There was existence after Pralâyic sleep But it was homogeneous existence, with little or no phenomenal change. Varâha got over this homogeneal tenacity by the killing of Hiranyâksha, and he set going the process of planetary and individual life. Hiranyakasipu came next. He was the favoured son of Brahmâ. He helped the evolution of individual life. Minerals became vegetables. Vegetables became animals, and animals became men. The intellectual power of men rapidly increased, and there was material and moral progress. The limit of moral progress was reached by Prahlâda. But the ideal of Prahlâda was based upon the conception of differences and of individualities. It is for this reason that Varna and Ashrama Dharma, or the separate duties of life for separate classes of men, is dealt with in the discourses with Prahlâda. But though Prahlâda was a son of Hiranyakasipu, he was an exception to the general run of material evolution which was fostered by Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu hated the development of Sâtvic virtues, he hated Hari, the embodiment of Satva. Nrisinha killed the great Daitya, and Satva made its appearance in men. Hiranya means gold. Hiranyâksha is gold-eyed. Hiranyakasipu is gold bedded. II. _Râvana and Kumbhakarna._ Hiranyakasipu represented the gradual development of material and intellectual evolution, till the highest point was reached. Then there was a period of intellectual abuse. The Intellect of man tried to get a supremacy over the established order of things: Râvana sought to make Nature subservient to his own purposes. The universe existed for man, and not man for nature. This was the perverse idea that guided the people of the Atlantean Continent. The intellectual giants, maddened by this material grandeur, did not look for any world beyond the one they lived in. They cared not for Svarga, nor for the sacrifices that led to Svarga. The flow of evolution, the breath of Íshvara seemed to stand still for a time as it were. The human will tried to override the divine will. There was chaos and disorder, which tended to cause dissolution in the universe. Hence Râvana was a Râkshasa. The Tâmasic Kumbhakarna with his six-monthly sleep was the back ground of Râvana. The spiritual forces that were called forth to put an end to this state of things were equal to the occasion. The great Atlantean Continent was washed away by the sea. The sacred Gangâ came rushing forward from the heights of the Himalayas, and eventually Râma appeared to give a finishing stroke to the evolutionary work of the time. Vishvâmitra and others had paved the way for the great work undertaken by Râma. They propounded the Karma Kânda of the Vedas.