Garudapurana 1.231

The glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa — 231 / Sūta said: / Now I shall declare the praise of Nārasiṃha spoken by Śiva, O Śaunaka. / Formerly, all the Mother-goddesses addressed a speech to Śaṅkara:

"O Lord, by your grace we shall devour the entire universe / together with gods, asuras, and humans. You ought to grant us permission."

Śaṅkara said: / "All creatures must be protected by you; there is no doubt. / Therefore, turn your mind away quickly from this extremely dreadful intent."

Disregarding that utterance spoken thus by Śaṅkara, / they unhesitatingly began to devour the three worlds with their moving and unmoving beings.

Then, as the three worlds were being devoured by the group of Mother-goddesses, / the lord Śiva intensely meditated upon the Lord who has the form of a man-lion.

[He meditated upon] the god without beginning or end, the source of origin of all beings, / with a lightning tongue, large fangs, and a garland of radiant manes,

adorned with jeweled armlets, wearing a diadem, embellished with golden manes, / resplendent with a great girdle made of gold,

dark like the petal of a blue lotus, decorated with jeweled anklets, / pervading the pavilion of the interior of the entire universe with his splendour,

endowed with bodily hairs shaped like whirlpools, / and wearing a great garland composed of all flowers.

Merely upon being meditated on, the Lord granted him a vision. / In whatever form he was meditated upon with devotion by Rudra,

in that very form, difficult to be beheld by the gods, [he appeared]. / Having prostrated before the Lord of Gods, Śaṅkara then praised him:

Śaṅkara said: / "Salutations to you, O Lord of the Universe, who bear the form of a man-lion! / You who are adorned with oyster-shell-like claws that slaughtered the chief of daitya rulers!

You whose golden-yellow body was torn by the circles of claws! / Salutations to the lotus-navelled one, the auspicious one, the Teacher of the World! / O you who have the roar of a cloud at the end of an aeon, whose splendour equals ten million suns!

You who strike terror into a thousand Yamas, who possess the prowess of a thousand Indras, / who are rich as a thousand Kuberas, whose self consists of a thousand feet!

O you who resemble a thousand moons, who stride like a thousand-rayed sun, / whose splendour equals a thousand Rudras, who are praised by a thousand Brahmās!

You upon whom a thousand Rudras whisper prayers, whose gaze is that of a thousand eyes, / crusher of a thousand births, deliverer from a thousand bondages!

You who have the speed of a thousand winds and eyes, who bestow mercy on thousands of fools!" / Having praised Hari of man-lion form thus, the Lord of gods, / Śiva, bowed down with humility, made a request once more:

"The Mother-goddesses who were created by me for the destruction of Andhaka / are devouring wonderful creatures, completely disregarding my word.

Though undefeated, having created them I am not able to destroy them. / Having created them previously, how could I desire their destruction?"

Addressed thus by Rudra, Hari of man-lion form, / Hari, the Lord of Speech, then [produced] a thousand goddesses from the tip of his tongue.

Likewise, the all-pervading Hari, having restrained all those terrible groups of Mother-goddesses / and the hosts of gods, made peace for the universe and vanished.

Whoever, with restrained senses, recites this hymn to Nārasiṃha, / it grants his desires just as it did for Rudra; of this there is no doubt.

One should meditate upon the man-lion whose eyes are the newly risen sun, whose lotus face is white, whose mouth is blazing fire, / without beginning, middle, or end, unborn, ancient, ruler of the higher and lower, receptacle of the worlds.

Whoever recites this abandons the perpetual web of misery, as the sun leaves the fog. / Whenever he creates the image of the host of Mother-goddesses, he stays near him.

In order to perform the worship of the lord of gods, even of the form of Nṛsiṃha, the Destroyer of Tripura, / having propitiated that best of gods and obtained [his favour], protected [the world] from the host of the world-mothers.

Thus ends the two hundred and thirty-first chapter, entitled 'Praise of Nṛsiṃha', in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.