The “Book of Dzyan,” stanza 3, verse 3, as found in The Secret Doctrine, vol. 1, p. 64, describes how the world-egg comes into manifestation:

3. “Darkness” radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the waters, into the mother deep. The ray shoots through the virgin-egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal (periodical) germ, which condenses into the world egg.

In her commentary on this verse, H. P. Blavatsky gave a reference to the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, describing the world-egg. However, this reference was misunderstood by her. She wrote, pp. 65-66:

“The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), “four ready, three secret.” It may be found stated in Vishnu Purâna, where elements are translated “Envelopes” and a secret one is added: “Aham-kâra ” (see Wilson’s Vishnu Purâna, Book I., p. 40). The original text has no “Aham-kâra;” it mentions seven Elements without specifying the last three (see Part II. on “The Mundane Egg”).”

In fact, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa does specify the last three envelopes, Sanskrit āvaraṇa. Moreover, it does not add a secret one, ahaṃkāra. This latter misunderstanding was based on a note by the editor, Fitzedward Hall, to Horace Hayman Willson’s translation here, vol. 1, p. 40: “† The word ahaṁkára is supplied to the original by the translator. The commentary is silent.” The sentence that this note refers to is: “And this egg was externally invested by seven natural envelopes; or by water, air, fire, ether, and Ahaṁkára,† the origin of the elements, each tenfold the extent of that which it invested; next came the principle of Intelligence; and, finally, the whole was surrounded by the indiscrete Principle: resembling, thus, the cocoa-nut, filled interiorly with pulp, and exteriorly covered by husk and rind.”

The note by Hall means only that the word ahaṃkāra was supplied by Willson to show what “the origin of the elements” refers to. The phrase, “the origin of the elements,” Sanskrit bhūtādi, is a standard term used in Sanskrit writings for ahaṃkāra. This is because in the Sāṃkhya philosophy the subtle elements, tanmātra, come from ahaṃkāra, and the great elements, mahā-bhūta, come from the subtle elements. So ahaṃkāra is the origin of the elements. Thus, no secret envelope was added called ahaṃkāra.

We can now see that the last three envelopes are indeed specified in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, namely, “the origin of the elements” known as ahaṃkāra, “the principle of Intelligence,” Sanskrit buddhi, and “the indiscrete Principle,” Sanskrit avyakta, a synonym of pradhāna. This is clear in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, at 1.2.58-59, and parallel passages in other purāṇas leave no possible doubt about these last three envelopes. For example, Vāyu Purāṇa 1.1.44-45, 4.75-77; Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa 1.1.3.32-34; Kūrma Purāṇa 1.4.42-44; Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa 45.67-69; etc.

We may wonder what led Blavatsky to misunderstand the text that she referred to. The first sentence of the quote from her given above may explain this. She wrote: “The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), “four ready, three secret.”” The phrase, “four ready, three secret,” apparently relates to what is given later in the “Book of Dzyan,” in stanza 6, verse 3: “Of the Seven — first one manifested, six concealed, two manifested, five concealed; three manifested, four concealed; four produced, three hidden; four and one tsan revealed, two and one half concealed; six to be manifested, one laid aside. Lastly, seven small wheels revolving; one giving birth to the other.” It is possible that Blavatsky understood the “Book of Dzyan” here in stanza 3, verse 3, to teach that only four elements were manifested at this stage of evolution, and three remained secret. This could have led her to misunderstand the Viṣṇu Purāṇa reference to mean the same.

Of the whole process of the manifestation of the cosmos described in the “Book of Dzyan,” this verse, stanza 3, verse 3, describes the actual moment that manifestation begins: “Darkness radiates light.” This verse goes on to briefly describe how the world-egg comes into manifestation: “. . . the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg.” The next verse, stanza 3, verse 4, brings in reference to the number seven:

4. Then the three fall into the four. The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside. The luminous egg, which in itself is three, curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of mother, the root that grows in the depths of the ocean of life.

Regarding “the three fall into the four,” Blavatsky describes the role of the triangle, “the three,” at great length in the meetings that were published as Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, and more fully as The Secret Doctrine Commentaries, and again as The Secret Doctrine Dialogues. The number seven is not here specifically applied to the world-egg, but apparently does apply to it. In the section of The Secret Doctrine that Blavatsky referred readers to in her commentary quoted above, “The Mundane Egg,” she wrote, vol. 1, p. 365: “. . . the Egg gives birth to the four elements within the fifth, Ether, and is covered with seven coverings, which become later on the seven upper and the seven lower worlds.” In answer to a question about this verse, “Why is the radiant essence here spoken of as seven inside and seven outside?” she replied, “Because it has seven principles on the plane of manifestation and seven principles on the plane of non-manifestation.” (The Secret Doctrine Commentaries, p. 222).

Among known texts, our most detailed source on the world-egg is the account given in the various purāṇas. They are consistent in describing the egg, apparently corresponding to the earth element, as enveloped by seven coverings: water, fire, air, ākāśa (ether or space), bhūtādi (the origin of the elements) or ahaṃkāra (the principle of self-consciousness), mahat (the “great” principle) or buddhi (the principle of intelligence), and avyakta (the unmanifest) or pradhāna (primary substance). If we wish to consider the world-egg as consisting of seven principles, it would be possible to count the earth element as the first principle, and not count the last listed envelope or covering. This is because the unmanifest, avyakta, also known as primary substance, pradhāna, is all-pervasive. That is, the other ones are all included in it. So it is not really an envelope or covering. If we wish to apply Blavatsky’s statement, “four ready, three secret,” it would be possible to regard the last three as what she calls “blinds,” substitutes for the real ones that cannot be given.