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
to learn anything of this by means of even ascetic meditation. Endued
with the lustre of the Atasi flower, and decked with the mark of
Sreevatsa, he seemed to me to be like the abode of Lakshmi, herself. And
that boy, of eyes like the petals of the lotus, having the mark of
Sreevatsa, and possessed of blazing effulgence, then addressed me in
words highly pleasant to the ear, saying, 'O sire, I know thee to be
fatigued and desirous of rest. O Markandeya of Bhrigu's race, rest thou
here as long as thou wishest. O best of Munis, entering within my body,
rest thou there. That hath been the abode assigned to thee by me. I have
been pleased with thee.' Thus addressed by that boy, a sense of total
disregard possessed me in respect both of my long life and state of
manhood. Then that boy suddenly opened his mouth, and as fate would have
it, I entered his mouth deprived of the power of motion. But O king,
having suddenly entered into the stomach of that boy, I behold there the
whole earth teeming with cities and kingdoms. And, O best of men, while
wandering through the stomach of that illustrious one, I