The core text on cosmogony from the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā is preceded in two purāṇas by a passage whose terminology closely matches that of a secret commentary on the Book of Dzyan quoted by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine. The purāṇas known today are regarded as having descended from a lost original Purāṇa-saṃhitā. Either the Dzyan commentary and the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā come from the same source, or Blavatsky made up the Dzyan commentary on the basis of the Viṣṇu-purāṇa passage. Here is the Dzyan commentary:

The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, pp. 46-47, quoting a Commentary on the Book of Dzyan, verse 1.4:

After the changeless (avikāra) immutable nature (Essence, sadaikarūpa) had awakened and changed (differentiated) into (a state of) causality (avyakta), and from cause (Kāraṇa) had become its own discrete effect (vyakta), from invisible it became visible. The smallest of the small (the most atomic of atoms, or aṇīyāmsam aṇīyasām) became one and the many (ekānekarūpa); and producing the Universe produced also the Fourth Loka (our Earth) in the garland of the seven lotuses. The Achyuta then became the Chyuta.*

* Achyuta is an almost untranslatable term. It means that which is not subject to fall or change for the worse: the Unfalling; and it is the reverse of chyuta, “the Fallen.”

Compare: The Vishnu Purana, trans. H. H. Wilson, ed. Fitzedward Hall, Vol. 1, 1864, pp. 14-15, notes on book 1, chapter 2, verses 1-7, followed by the text they go with:

1. This address to Vishnu pursues the notion that he, as the supreme being, is one, whilst he is all. He is Avikāra, not subject to change: Sadaikarūpa, one invariable nature: he is the liberator (Tāra), or he who bears mortals across the ocean of existence: he is both single and manifold (Ekānekarūpa): and he is the indiscrete (Avyakta) cause of the world, as well as the discrete (Vyakta) effect; or the invisible cause and visible creation.

2. Anīyāmsam anīyasām, ‘the most atomic of the atomic’; alluding to the atomic theory of the Nyāya or logical school.

3. Or Achyuta; a common name of Vishnu, from a privative, and Chyuta, fallen: according to our comment, ‘hewho does not perish with created things’.

Glory to the unchangeable, holy, eternal, supreme Vishnu, of one universal nature, the mighty over all: to him who is Hiranyagarbha, Hari, and Śankara, the creator, the preserver, and destroyer of the world: to Vasudeva, the liberator of his worshippers:* to him whose essence is both single and manifold; who is both subtile and corporeal, indiscrete and discrete: to Vishnu, the cause of final emancipation.¹ Glory to the supreme Vishnu, the cause of the creation, existence, and end of this world; who is the root of the world, and who consists of the world. Having glorified him who is the support of all things; who is the smallest of the small;² who is in all created things; the unchanged,** imperishable³ Purushottama; who is one with true wisdom, as truly known; eternal and incorrupt; and who is known, through false appearances, by the nature of visible objects: having bowed to Vishnu, the destroyer, and lord of creation and preservation; the ruler of the world; unborn, imperishable, undecaying: . . .

* The words “of his worshippers” are supplied from the commentary.

** In the original there is no term to which this corresponds.

            The original Purāṇa-saṃhitā was written about here in “Creation Stories: The Cosmogony Account from the Purāṇas” in three parts, and a follow-up:

Part 1. On the Original Purāṇa-saṃhitā (posted Aug. 14, 2012)

Part 2. “In the Beginning” as Derived from the Original Purāṇa-saṃhitā (posted Sep. 1, 2012)

Part 3. Tracing the Cosmogony Account from the Original Purāṇa-saṃhitā (posted Dec. 26, 2012)

“The One Form of Existence”: prabhavāpyaya in the Original Purāṇa-saṃhitā (posted Jan. 15, 2013)

            Part 1 gives what is known about the lost original Purāṇa-saṃhitā, which is regarded as the source of all the purāṇas known today, however much these latter have been expanded. Part 2 gives the core verses on cosmogony from the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā as preserved in the oldest purāṇas known today, the Vāyu-purāṇa and its twin the Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa. Part 3 traces these verses as they appear and were modified in the other purāṇas known today, including the Viṣṇu-purāṇa and the Brahma-purāna. The passage quoted above is found only in the Viṣṇu-purāṇa and twice in the Brahma-purāna. It is not found in the oldest purāṇas known today, the Vāyu-purāṇa and its twin the Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa.

            According to the researches of F. E. Pargiter and S. P. L. Narasimhaswami summarized in Part 1, the Viṣṇu-purāṇa was cognizant of the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā, but usually re-wrote its verses in updated Sanskrit and often condensed the accounts. Theirs and the additional researches of R. C. Hazra, summarized in “Critical Editions of the Purāṇas” (posted Aug. 31, 2014), indicate that the Brahma-purāṇa is among the majority of the purāṇas now known that have become so expanded with extraneous material as to no longer represent the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā. Nonetheless, Willibald Kirfel found that the cosmogony account in the Brahma-purāṇa matched that of Harivaṃśa, a purāṇa-like text in which Narasimhaswami found hundreds of verses from the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā. However, the passage quoted above is not found in the Harivaṃśa.

            All this presents us with a few possibilities. The passage quoted above, despite being found only in the Viṣṇu-purāṇa and the Brahma-purāna, could have come from the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā and been expanded by adding praises to Vishnu. Then the Dzyan commentary would show its original form, having the descriptive terminology, but minus the praises to Vishnu. Another possibility is that the Viṣṇu-purāṇa and the Brahma-purāna added this whole passage as part of their expansion, having no basis in the original Purāṇa-saṃhitā. This would lead us to the possibility that Blavatsky simply made up this Dzyan commentary passage on the basis of the Viṣṇu-purāṇa passage, which she clearly had access to, since she often quoted from the 1864-1870 Wilson translation. As for which of the possibilities is the more plausible, that would depend largely on how any individual reader regards Blavatsky’s trustworthiness, based on the rest of the content of The Secret Doctrine. In the absence of an original language source, other criteria must be employed to determine the authenticity of the Book of Dzyan and its commentary passages given by her.

The Sanskrit texts:

Viṣṇu-purāṇa, from The Critical Edition of the Viṣṇūpurāṇam, ed. M. M. Pathak, 1997, book 1, chapter 2, verses 1-7:

avikārāya śuddhāya nityāya paramātmane |
sadaikarūpa-rūpāya viṣṇave sarva-jiṣṇave || ViP_1,2.1 ||
namo hiraṇyagarbhāya haraye śaṃkarāya ca |
vāsudevāya tārāya sarga-sthity-anta-kāriṇe || ViP_1,2.2 ||
ekāneka-svarūpāya sthūla-sūkṣmātmane namaḥ |
avyakta-vyakta-rūpāya viṣṇave mukti-hetave || ViP_1,2.3 ||
sarga-sthiti-vināśānāṃ jagato yo jaganmayaḥ |
mūla-bhūto namas tasmai viṣṇave paramātmane || ViP_1,2.4 ||
ādhāra-bhūtaṃ viśvasyāpy aṇīyāṃsam aṇīyasām |
praṇamya sarva-bhūta-stham acyutaṃ puruṣottamam || ViP_1,2.5 ||
jñāna-svarūpam atyanta-nirmalaṃ paramārthataḥ |
tam evārtha-svarūpeṇa bhrānti-darśanataḥ sthitam || ViP_1,2.6 ||
viṣṇuṃ grasiṣṇuṃ viśvasya sthiti-sarge tathā prabhum |
praṇamya jagatām īśam ajam akṣayam avyayam || ViP_1,2.7 ||

Brahma-purāṇa, from the1895 Ānandāśrama edition, chapter 1, verses 21-27, with variant readings from the 1906 Veṅkaṭeśvara edition, chapter 1, verses 22-28, as established in the 1987 composite edition by Peter Schreiner and Renate Söhnen:

avikārāya śuddhāya nityāya paramātmane |
sadaikarūpa-rūpāya viṣṇave sarvajiṣṇave || BrP_1.21 ||

V. guhyāya

namo hiraṇyagarbhāya haraye śaṅkarāya ca |
vāsudevāya tārāya sarga-sthity-anta-karmaṇe || BrP_1.22 ||
ekāneka-svarūpāya sthūla-sūkṣmātmane namaḥ |
avyakta-vyakta-bhūtāya viṣṇave mukti-hetave || BrP_1.23 ||
sarga-sthiti-vināśāya  jagato yo ‘jarāmaraḥ |
mūla-bhūto namas tasmai viṣṇave paramātmane || BrP_1.24 ||

V. vināśānāṃ ; jaganmayaḥ

ādhāra-bhūtaṃ viśvasyāpy aṇīyāṃsam aṇīyasām |
praṇamya sarva-bhūta-stham acyutaṃ puruṣottamam || BrP_1.25 ||

V. viśvasya mahataś cāpy aṇīyasaḥ

jñāna-svarūpam atyantaṃ nirmalaṃ paramārthataḥ |
tam evārtha-svarūpeṇa bhrānti-darśanataḥ sthitam || BrP_1.26 ||
viṣṇuṃ grasiṣṇuṃ viśvasya sthitau sarge tathā prabhum |
sarvajñaṃ jagatām īśam ajam akṣayam avyayam || BrP_1.27 ||

Brahma-purāṇa, second version, from the 1895 Ānandāśrama edition, chapter 180, verses 6-12, with variant readings from the 1906 Veṅkaṭeśvara edition, chapter 71, verses 6-12, as established in the 1987 composite edition by Peter Schreiner and Renate Söhnen:

avikārāya śuddhāya nityāya paramātmane |
sadaikarūpa-rūpāya jiṣṇave viṣṇave namaḥ || BrP_180.6 ||

V. viṣṇave sarva-jiṣṇave

namo hiraṇyagarbhāya haraye śaṃkarāya ca |
vāsudevāya tārāya  sarga-sthity-anta-kāriṇe || BrP_180.7 ||

V. sārāya

ekāneka-svarūpāya sthūla-sūkṣmātmane namaḥ |
avyakta-vyakta-bhūtāya  viṣṇave mukti-hetave || BrP_180.8 ||

V. rūpāya

sarga-sthiti-vināśānāṃ jagato yo jaganmayaḥ |
mūla-bhūto namas tasmai viṣṇave paramātmane || BrP_180.9 ||
ādhāra-bhūtaṃ viśvasyāpy aṇīyāṃsam aṇīyasām |
praṇamya sarva-bhūta-stham acyutaṃ puruṣottamam || BrP_180.10 ||
jñāna-svarūpam atyantaṃ nirmalaṃ paramārthataḥ |
tam evārtha-svarūpeṇa bhrānti-darśanataḥ sthitam || BrP_180.11 ||
viṣṇuṃ grasiṣṇuṃ viśvasya sthiti-sarge tathā prabhum |
anādiṃ jagatām īśam ajam akṣayam avyayam || BrP_180.12 ||