Scholars generally approach the Bhagavata Purana’s cosmology as a mythic–theological vision rather than a literal scientific map of the universe. The elaborate descriptions of multiple worlds, cycles of creation and dissolution, and vast spans of time are read as a religious cosmogram that places all realms within the sovereignty of Vishnu, especially in the form of Krishna. The text integrates earlier Vedic and Purāṇic motifs—such as the cosmic egg, the fourteen lokas, and the great cycles of time—into a mature bhakti framework. In this way, cosmology becomes a stage on which the supremacy and all-pervasiveness of Krishna are displayed, rather than a detached exercise in speculative physics.

Creation itself is typically interpreted as a process unfolding within and from the divine, not as an absolute beginning from nothing. The Bhagavata Purana portrays Vishnu as the ultimate source from whom universes emanate, with Brahmā functioning as the agent of “secondary” creation. Scholars highlight how this account reworks Sāṅkhya categories—prakṛti and puruṣa, the evolution of tattvas, and the play of the guṇas—within a theistic frame in which Vishnu is both transcendent and immanent cause. The distinction between primary creation (sarga), secondary creation (visarga), and ongoing maintenance is seen as a careful systematization of cyclical cosmology, emphasizing the contingency of all worlds before the divine.

At the same time, many interpreters stress the symbolic and allegorical dimensions of these narratives. The cosmic body of Vishnu, the layered worlds, and the unfolding of elements and mental faculties can be read as maps of inner consciousness as much as of outer space. In such readings, the stages of creation mirror the emergence of ego, mind, and senses from an undifferentiated ground of being, pointing toward the soul’s entanglement and potential liberation. The cosmology thus speaks simultaneously about the structure of reality and about the structure of human experience.

Finally, scholars consistently note that the ultimate function of these cosmological passages is devotional. By portraying a universe that arises from, rests in, and returns to Krishna, the text directs attention away from mere curiosity about cosmic architecture and toward bhakti as the proper response to such a vision. The grandeur of cyclical time, the hierarchy of worlds, and the intricate metaphysical schema all serve to deepen reverence, trust, and loving surrender to the divine person who stands at their center.