In the _Vishnu Purâna_, which is certainly the earliest of all the scriptures of that name, we find, as in all the others, Brahmâ, as the male God, assuming, for purposes of creation, “_four_ Bodies invested by _three_ qualities.”(127) It is said: In this manner, Maitreya, Jyotsnâ (dawn), Râtri (night), Ahan (day), and Sandhyâ (evening [twilight]) are the four bodies of Brahmâ.(128) As Parâshara explains it, when Brahmâ wishes to create the world anew and construct progeny _through his will_, in the fourfold condition, or the four Orders of Beings, termed Gods (Dhyân Chohans), Demons(129) (_i.e._, more material Devas), Progenitors (Pitris) and Men, “he collects [Yoga‐ like] his mind into itself” (Yûyuge). Strange to say, he begins by creating Demons, who thus take precedence over the Angels or Gods. This is no incongruity, nor is it due to inconsistency, but has, like all the rest, a profound Esoteric meaning, quite clear to one free from Christian theological prejudice. He who bears in mind that the principle Mahat, or Intellect, the “Universal Mind” (literally the “Great”), which Esoteric Philosophy explains as the “Manifested Omniscience”—the “first product” of Pradhâna, Primordial Matter, as the _Vishnu Purâna_ says, but the first Cosmic Aspect of Parabrahman or the Esoteric Sat, the Universal Soul,(130) as Occultism teaches—is at the root of SELF‐Consciousness, will understand the reason why. The so‐called Demons—who are Esoterically the Self‐asserting and intellectually active Principle—are the _positive pole of creation_, so to say; hence, the first produced. This is in brief the process as narrated allegorically in the _Purânas_. Having concentrated his mind into itself and the Quality of Darkness pervading Brahmâ’s assumed body, the Asuras, issuing from his Thigh, were first produced; after which, abandoning this body, it was transformed into Night.