Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 19
English (machine translation) 19
- Language
- English
Contents
- 19.61 — 2 parts
19.1
Glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then indeed in that single ocean, wishing to die, afflicted, / breathing piteously, swimming through the water with my arms, O best of kings,
19.2
standing in the midst of the ocean, in the motionless silence, I then / heard an incomparable sound of water resounding through the ten directions.
19.3
Resembling a swan, jasmine, and the moon, pale as a pearl necklace or cow's milk, / her body decorated with various gems, with golden horns, delightful,
19.4
adorned with hooves made of coral, beautified by a tail like a banner, / with a hanging dewlap, lowing, wading into the ocean with her hooves,
19.5
I, anxious, saw a cow standing facing me, / covered with rows of tinkling bells, pearls, and golden bells.
19.6
By the striking of her feet, all the water of the single ocean, / with streams of tossed foam-masses, seemed then to dance all around.
19.7
Agitating the great ocean with splashes of water, it roared; / she said to me, O highly fortunate one, in a smooth and deep voice:
19.8
'Do not fear, my child, my child! There is no death for you; / by the grace of Mahādeva, there is no death for you, nor for me.
19.9
Take hold of my tail; I will carry you across / from this dreadful peril, O twice-born, as long as the world is flooded.
19.10
Drink my two udders to ward off hunger and thirst; / having drunk that divine milk which holds nectar, become peaceful!'
19.11
Having heard her words, her udder was drunk by me with joy; / as soon as the udder was drunk, neither hunger nor thirst remained for me then.
19.12
A divine vital strength arose, capable of swimming the ocean. / Then [I] said this in reply to her: 'Who are you who roam
19.13
in this that has been turned into a single ocean? Speak truly! A great wonder is in my heart. / To me who was wandering here afflicted, wishing to die, stricken down,
19.14
you have indeed become a refuge through the remnant of my good fortune, O virtuous lady!'
19.15
The Cow said: / 'Have I been forgotten by you—I, the universal-formed Maheśvarī, / the Narmadā, the giver of righteousness to mortals, who grants heaven, bliss, and strength?
19.16
Seeing you sinking, I was sent by Rudra: / "Noble lady, rescue that twice-born! Let him not abandon his life in the water."
19.17
In the form of a cow, by the word of the Lord, I have come here to your presence, / and swiftly too, lest Śambhu's word should prove false.'
19.18
Thus addressed by her, knowing the auspicious, imperishable tail, / which resembled a rainbow, I held onto it with both arms.
19.19
Then I crossed that ocean, clinging to the tail-flag; / she spoke to me, saying: “This god is Mahādeva.”
19.20
Then I wandered with her for the duration of a thousand yugas, / in the darkness, completely surrounded by water on all sides.
19.21
Wandering then in that great ocean, clinging to the cow’s tail, / where there was no wind, in darkness, devoid of light, devoid of sickness,
19.22
Suddenly in that water [I saw him], resembling a flax flower, / like refined collyrium, stainless like the sky,
19.23
Dark as the petal of a blue lotus, dressed in yellow garments, imperishable, / with a diadem the colour of the sun, radiating like lightning,
19.24
With a radiant head, having an infinite form like space, / his cheeks rubbed by earrings, his chest illumined by a necklace,
19.25
Adorned with divine ornaments made of Jāmbūnada gold, / lying upon a couch with a serpent for a pillow, having the splendour of a thousand suns,
19.26
Bearing many arms and thighs, having many faces, delightful, / the hero sleeping in the single ocean, possessing a thousand eyes and necks,
19.27
With a great mass of matted hair, whose radiance was like flickering lightning, / the god abiding after having pervaded the single ocean and the entire world.
19.28
Śaṅkara, having swallowed everything along with gods, asuras, and humans— / I beheld the lord Īśāna sleeping in the single ocean,
19.29
All-pervading, unmanifest, infinite, facing in all directions; / and near his feet [I saw] her adorned with golden armlets,
19.30
Omniform, highly fortunate, bearing the cosmic illusion, / made of fortune, made of modesty, the goddess, made of intellect, made of speech, auspicious,
19.31
Success, renown, pleasure, Brāhmī, the night of time, not born from a womb; / her alone I then saw abiding perpetually near Īśvara,
19.32
Moon-faced, resolve, sovereign of all, Umā.
19.33
Calm, asleep, of the colour of fresh gold, the lord God accompanied by Umā, / covered in darkness, most holy, best among heroes—having circumambulated him, I bow.
19.34
Then, asleep, the best of gods was suddenly awakened by his inherent nature at the end of the night, / agitating the waters of the ocean with his arms, reflecting upon the world destroyed in the water.
19.35
Thinking, 'What should be done?', he assumed the form of a boar with wonderful limbs,
having a radiance equal to a great dark raincloud, wearing a dangling garland, garments, and a necklace of gold coins.
19.36
Holding a conch, discus, and sword, crowned, consisting of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, the great-souled one
is the creator of the three worlds, ancient, assuming the form of the triad of deities for His task.
19.37
He alone is Rudra who destroyed the universe; for the sake of creation the Lord became the Grandfather;
for the protection of the universe he alone is Hari, bearing the auspicious discus, sword, mace, and lotus in his hands.
19.38
Indeed, no division can be made among these great-souled ones who share a single body.
Whoever, being ignorant, makes a division among them through arguments based on Mīmāṃsā reasons and meanings,
19.39
that wicked-minded one, making divisions with a mind full of malice, goes gradually to a dreadful hell.
Whatever devotion anyone has, by that very [devotion] indeed, abandoning his body, he attains immortality.
19.40
Deluding the world here by His forms, that God is creator, preserver, and destroyer.
Therefore one should not succumb to malice born of delusion, nor make distinctions among His forms.
19.41
Then, assuming the form of a boar, this best of lords, the creator of the universe,
the inner soul, when the three worlds were lost and immersed in ocean waters, searched through that expanse of waters.
19.42
Splitting the ocean water, he then instantly entered within into the realm of the underworld.
He touched the entire earth immersed in the water, her eyes like lotus petals.
19.43
That earth, whose mountain rocks, peaks, and summits were shattered, dissolved at the time of dissolution,
the god Viṣṇu of incomparable daring lifted up himself with a single tusk.
19.44
With her limbs suspended on the tip of his tusk, she shone like moonlight on the peak of Mount Kailāsa,
and having an incomparable form, like lightning clinging to the crescent of the moon.
19.45
He raised her up, submerged in ocean waters, like a bull elephant forcibly [raising] a submerged female elephant,
like a broken boat from the midst of the water, he of elevated strength and unequaled power.
19.46
Having rescued her from the great flood of water, the noble one divided the entire ocean;
he directed the waters of the great oceans back into the great oceans and again into the rivers.
19.47
He restored the shattered mountains, all the continents, and likewise the oceans;
those masses of rock that were heaped all around with boulders, he made them anew in the kalpa.
19.48
Dividing his body into manifold forms, he produced all the hosts of the lord of gods:
from his mouth came fire, from his mind the moon, and from his eye the sun arose suddenly.
19.49
Then from that lord of yogic form, as he meditated, the host of the chiefs of gods was born,
as well as the Vedas and sacrifices, and likewise the social classes, and indeed all herbs and flavors.
19.50
The entire universe arose from his mind, whatever is stationary or egg-born here,
womb-born, sweat-born, or sprouting from seeds, whatever exists down to worms and ants.
19.51
Then from his mind, in an instant, the great lords of manifold forms suddenly arose,
which the imperishable soul created, having again entered there with eight forms.
19.52
Then, rich in splendor, he engaged in sport; hence right here before my very eyes, O Brahmins,
I had the vision of all of them within a muhūrta, O king.
19.53
Having accomplished everything through mere sport, that God of gods, the creator of the worlds,
the all-seeing, omnipresent God, the primordial creator, vanished from sight.
19.54
Whatever name and form existed from that moment, just so do I see the universe:
surrounded by continents and oceans, crowded with aerial chariots of constellations, stars, and the like,
19.55
variegated with the sky, clouds, and planetary cycles, and filled with various kinds of living beings.
Yet I truly did not see that glorious one who assumed the form of a cow, the queen of all gods.
19.56
Thinking, 'Where is she now?', O king, my mind became confused at that moment:
'Without her, who forms the limbs of the Lord, how can I again behold the regions and directions?'
19.57
Here again I saw her, radiant, dark as a great cloud, with pure and clear water,
her limbs adorned with numerous trees, and surrounded by elephants, horses, and birds.
19.58
Just as before, having approached the bank of the goddess, I was staying at Amarakaṇṭaka,
just so, sitting comfortably, undisturbed and having attained happiness, I saw myself.
19.59
Seeing once more at the end of the kalpa the holy [river] flowing with pure water,
compassionate like a noble mother, whose waters are inexhaustible, free of affliction, [I became] free from sorrow.
19.60
The best of the twice-born who read or listen to this great, most auspicious kalpa
of the great boar, the great Lord, become pure day by day.
19.61
Shaking off hundreds of thousands of misfortunes, they reach heaven, visited by immortals and endowed with Siddhas and Gandharvas;
they attain the happiness of heaven along with all the Apsarases resembling the spotless moon, enjoying various pleasures.
19.61.p1
|| Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Event of the Boar Kalpa', in the glorification of the holy Narmadā, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses, the glorious Skandapurāṇa.
19.61.p2
RKV Chapter 20
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit