Adi Shankara, the great Hindu philosopher saint, opens his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita with a beautiful verse:

Narayanaha paro 'avyaktAt andam avyakta sambhavam |
Andasyantas tvame loka sapta-dvipa ca medini ||

Translation -

"Narayana is beyond the Unmanifest (avyakta), the Egg (aNDam) is born out
of the Unmanifest. All the worlds are contained within the Egg, as also
the earth, with its seven islands."

Shankara has aptly used the word 'Narayana' as signifying a force that is beyond the perception of humans ('Nara') to characterize that primordial universal unmanifest consciousness which is the source of all creation. The universe according to Shankara is encased into an egg like bubble that is spawned from such a primordial force, and we are part of the material manifestation encased within this bubble, unaware of that, which lies beyond ...

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