Skandapurana 6.3.7

English (machine translation) 6.3.7

Language: English

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Once again, in the dreadful single cosmic ocean, when all mobile and immobile beings had vanished, / when the world was inundated with water, devoid of light, and enveloped in darkness,

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Brahmā alone, wandering there in that ocean enveloped in darkness / for a thousand divine years, possessed of form like a firefly,

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saw [the Lord] lying over a thousand yojanas, immeasurable, unsurpassable, / resembling twelve suns, having a thousand feet and eyes,

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fast asleep in the dreadful ocean in the form of a tortoise. / Seeing him, filled with astonishment, Brahmā gently awakened him

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with auspicious praises arising from the Vedas and their auxiliary limbs: / 'O Lord of speech, awaken, O great being, obeisance to you!

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The entire universe resides in your belly, O supreme lord. / Release that, O being of great power, which was previously withdrawn by you.

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The night of Brahmā has passed; the day now follows. / Look forth, O Lord of all worlds, by whom the universe comes into being.'

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Hearing his words, that supreme lord arose, / vomiting forth the three worlds swallowed at the end of the kalpa.

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The gods, Dānavas, and Gandharvas, together with Yakṣas, serpents, and Rākṣasas, / along with the moon, sun, and planets, all came forth from his body.

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Then, having divided that entire single cosmic ocean, the supreme lord / saw the earth, with its expansive rock and torrents of water, magnified by rivers and lakes,

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the god [saw] the earth with its trees, medicinal herbs, and pools; / the Himavat, the best of mountains; Śveta, the supreme mountain;

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the great mountain Śṛṅgavat, and whatever other principal mountain ranges [there be]; / Jambudvīpa, Kuśadvīpa, Krauñcadvīpa, along with Gomedadvīpa and Śālmaladvīpa;

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and the islands ending with Puṣkara, as well as the seven great oceans; / the great mountain Lokāloka—he saw all standing before him,

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the universe of mobile and immobile beings, endowed with the four kinds of creation. / That Maheśvara saw it emerged at the close of the yuga.

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The Lord saw the earth, its masses of rocks scattered abroad, / the goddess resting upon the back of the tortoise, situated in the great ocean.

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In that [ocean], where the peaks of mountains were shattered, devoid of rivers and lakes, / its waters broken by manifold waves, crowded with whirlpools and surges,

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blazing with diverse medicinal plants, with rocky beds covered by manifold lotuses, / resounded by various birds, teeming with fish and tortoises,

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the Lord of the gods saw a river, the goddess fashioned of divine māyā, / resembling an excellent rain-cloud, her reservoir of water beyond compare.

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In her midst [he saw her], dark as a rain-cloud, with swelling thighs, hips, and breasts, / adorned with incomparable, divine garments and diverse ornaments,

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resounding wildly with the sound of anklets, decorated with necklaces and armlets— / he saw such a goddess Narmadā, directly assuming the form of a woman,

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adorned with her own wondrous ornaments fashioned of yogamāyā, / with unmanifest limbs, the highly fortunate Narmadā.

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A maiden with half-raised arms, her eyes wide as lotus petals, / praising the god of gods, having arisen from the water.

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Beholding that auspicious one, my heart filled with wonder, / having bathed in her auspicious water, I then prepared to praise her.

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Full of joy, I worshipped her with mantras born from the Vedas and their auxiliary limbs. / 'May I see that which was created of old, O king, with all that moves and is still,

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with gods, asuras, and Gandharvas, with serpents and great snakes!' / I see that this highly fortunate one never went to destruction in the past,

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and by the grace of Mahādeva, she was born from his body. / Seen again and again by me, she has been described to you, O best of kings.

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Those best of twice-born who study this manifestation relating to the tortoise, / and the wise who hear it, they too are freed from sins.

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Thus ends the seventh chapter, named "Origin of the Tortoise Kalpa," in the Māhātmya of the Narmadā, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the Mahāpurāṇa of Skanda containing eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit