s thousand hoods,
and shining with the splendour of ten thousand suns, and white as the
Kunda flower or the moon or a string of pearls, or the white lotus, or
milk, or the fibres of a lotus stalk, served for his conch. And that
adorable and omnipotent God thus slept on the bosom of the deep,
enveloping all space with nocturnal gloom. And when his creative faculty
was excited, he awoke and found the Universe denuded of everything. In
this connection, the following sloka is recited respecting the meaning of
Narayana. "Water was created by (the Rishi) Nara, and it formed his
corpus; therefore do we hear it styled as Nara. And because it formed his
Ayana (resting-place) therefore is he known as Narayana." As soon as that
everlasting Being was engaged in meditation for the re-creation of the
Universe, a lotus flower instantaneously came into existence from his
navel, and the four-faced Brahma came out of that navel-lotus. And then
the Grandsire of all creatures, seating himself on that flower and
finding that the whole Universe was a blank, created in his own likeness,
and from his will, the (nine) great Rishis, Marichi and others. And these
in their turn observing the same thing, completed the creation, by
creating Yakshas, Rakshas, Pisachas, reptiles, men, and all mobile and
immobile creatures. The Supreme Spirit hath three conditions. In the form
of Brahma, he is the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the
Preserver, and in his form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe!
O king of Sindhu, hast thou not heard of the wonderful achievements of
Vishnu, described to thee by the Munis and the Brahmanas learned in the
Vedas? When the world was thus reduced to one vast sea of water, with
only the heavens above, the Lord, like a fire-fly at night-time during
the rainy season, moved about hither and thither in search of stable
ground, with the view of rehabilitating his creation, and became desirous
of raising the Earth submerged in water. What shape shall I take to
rescue the Earth from this flood?--So thinking and contemplating with
divine insight, he bethought himself of the shape of a wild boar fond of
sporting in water. And assuming the shape of a sacrificial boar shining
with effulgence and instinct with the Vedas and ten Yojanas in length,
with pointed tusks and a complexion like dark clouds, and with a body
huge as a mountain, and roaring like a conglomeration of clouds, the Lord
plunged into the waters, and lift