Mahabharata 12.337.55

12.337.55

tadetatkathitaṃ janma mayā pūrvakamātmanaḥ |
nārāyaṇaprasādena tathā nārāyaṇāṃśajam || 55 ||

I have thus told you, my dear disciples, the circumstances, of my own former birth which was due to the grace of Narayana in so much that I was a very portion of Narayana himself. Ye foremost of intelligent persons, I underwent, in days of yore, the austerest penances, with the aid of the highest abstraction of the mind. Ye sons, moved by my great affection for yourselves that are devoted to me with reverence, I have told you everything relating to what you wished to know from me, viz., my first birth in days of remote antiquity and that other birth subsequent to it (viz., the present one)!"