ds that gather in the sky on
the occasion are terrible to behold and wreathed with lightnings, roar
frightfully. And those vapoury masses, charged with rain, soon cover the
entire welkin. And, O king, those masses of vapour then flood with water
the whole earth with her mountains and forests and mines. And, O bull
among men, urged by the Supreme Lord those clouds roaring frightfully,
soon flood over the entire surface of the earth. And pouring in a great
quantity of water and filling the whole earth, they quench that terrible
inauspicious fire (of which I have already spoken to thee). And urged by
the illustrious Lord those clouds filling the earth with their downpour
shower incessantly for twelve years. And then, O Bharata, the Ocean
oversteps his continents, the mountains sunder in fragments, and the
Earth sinks under the increasing flood. And then moved on a sudden by
the impetus of the wind, those clouds wander along the entire expanse of
the firmament and disappear from the view. And then, O ruler of men, the
Self-create Lord--the first Cause of everything--having his abode in the
lotus, drinketh those terrible winds and goeth to sleep, O Bharata!

"'And then when the universe become one dead expanse of water, when all
mobile and immobile creatures have been destroyed, when the _gods_ and
the _Asuras_ cease to be, when the _Yakshas_ and the _Rakshasas_ are no
more, when man is not, when trees and beasts of prey have disappeared,
when the firmament itself has ceased to exist, I alone, O lord of the
earth, wander in affliction. And, O best of kings, wandering over that
dreadful expanse of water, my heart becometh afflicted in consequence of
my not beholding any creature! And, O king, wandering without cessation,
through that flood, I become fatigued, but I obtain no resting place!
And some time after I behold in that expanse of accumulated waters a
vast and wide-extending banian tree, O lord of earth! And I then behold,
O Bharata, seated on a conch, O king, overlaid with a celestial bed and
attached to a far-extended bough of that banian, a boy, O great king, of
face fair as the lotus or the moon, and of eyes, O ruler of men, large
as petals of a full blown lotus! And at this sight, O lord of earth,
wonder filled my heart. And I asked myself, "How doth this boy alone sit
here when the world itself hath been destroyed?" And, O king, although I
have full knowledge of the Past, the Present, and the Future, still I
failed