Markandeyapurana 81.52.p1

81.52.p1

brahmovāca

Brahmā spoke:
Thou art Svāhā, thou art Svadhā; thou indeed art Vaṣaṭkāra, thou hast sound for thy soul;[10] thou art the nectar of the gods, the two eternal letters,[11] thou existest having the three-fold mātrās for thy soul;[12] thou existest half a mātrā in duration yet eternal; thou indeed canst not be uttered specifically; thou art[13] the Sāvitrī,[14] thou art the divine mother[15] sublime. By thee indeed everything is maintained, by thee this world is created, by thee[16] it is protected, O goddess! and thou dost always consume it at the end. At its emanation thou didst take the form of creation, and in protecting it thou hast the form of permanence, and at the end of this world thou wilt have the form of contraction, O thou who containest the world! Thou art the Great Knowledge, the Great Illusion, the Great Vigour, the Great Memory, and the Great Delusion,[17] the Lady, the Great Goddess, the Great Demon.[18] And thou art the original source[19] of the universe, the exciting cause of the three qualities; thou art the Night of the world’s destruction, the Great Night, and the Night of delusion, terrible! Thou art Good Fortune, thou art Queen, thou art Modesty; thou art Intelligence characterized by perception; thou art Shame, Nourishment, and Contentment, Tranquillity and Patience also. Thou art terrible, armed with sword, with spear, with club, and with discus, with conch, with bow, and having as weapons arrows, slings[20] and an iron mace. Thou art gentle, yea more than gentle, exceedingly beautiful to those who are wholly gentle; thou art indeed beyond the highest and the lowest, Queen supreme! And whatever or wherever a thing is, whether good or bad, thou art the energy which all that possesses, O thou who art the soul of everything. Can I extol thee more than this?[21] By thee, who art such, he indeed, who created the world, who protects the world,[22] who consumes the world, is brought under the dominion of sleep. Who is able here to extol thee? Since Viṣṇu, I and Śiva have been made by thee to assume bodies, who then may be powerful enough to extol thee? Being such, do thou, O goddess, lauded thus, bewitch these two unassailable Asuras, Madhu and Kaiṭabha, with thy exalted powers, and let the imperishable master of the world be lightly brought back to consciousness, and let him rouse up his intelligence to slay these two great Asuras!

The ṛṣi spoke:
She exists eternally, embodied as the world. By her this universe was stretched forth. Nevertheless her origin is in many ways; hear it from me. When she reveals herself in order to accomplish the purposes of the gods, it is then said in the world that she is born; she is also named the Eternal One.[7] While the adorable lord Viṣṇu, stretching Śeṣa out, wooed the sleep of contemplation at the end of the kalpa, when the universe was converted into absolute ocean, then two terrible Asuras named Madhu and Kaiṭabha,[8] springing from the root of Viṣṇu’s ear, sought to slay Brahmā. Brahmā the Prajāpati stood on the lotus that grew from Viṣṇu’s navel; and seeing those two fierce Asuras and sleeping Janārdana, and standing with heart solely thereon intent, in order to awaken Hari, extolled that Sleep of contemplation which had made its dwelling in Hari’s eyes— the lord of splendour extolled Viṣṇu’s Sleep, which is Queen of the universe, the supporter of the world, the cause of permanence and dissolution, full of reverence, incomparable.[9]