PART V.SECTION I.Maitreya said:—You have described to me at length the origin and spread of the families of kings. I wish to hear in particular, O venerable saint, why Vishnu incarnated a portion of himself in the family of Yadus. Tell me, O Muni, what actions did the illustrious and excellent Purusha perform in his descent upon the earth.Parāçara said:—I shall relate to you, O Maitreya, what you have requested me to do—the birth, of a portion of Vishnu and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world. O great Muni, Vasudeva espoused the illustrious god-like Devaki, the daughter of Devaka. After their marriage, Kansa, the increaser of the race of Bhoja, drove their car as charioteer. A voice was heard in the sky, loud and deep as thunder, which addressing Kansa, said—"O foolish, the eighth child of this damsel, whom thou art carrying in the car, along with her husband, shall destroy thy life".Hearing this the highly powerful Kansa uplifted his sword and was about to slay Devaki when Vasudeva said—"O thou having long arms, Devaki should not be slain by thee; I shall hand over to thee every child that she shall bring forth".O foremost of twice-born ones, saying 'so be it' Kansa obeyed Vasudeva's request and out of respect for him did not slay Devaki.In the meantime, Earth, oppressed by her heavy load, repaired to an assembly of celestials on Mount Meru and addressing them, with Brahmā, at their head, described in piteous accents all her distresses. "Agni" said Earth "is the progenitor of gold; Surja, the rays of light; the Supreme Nārāyana, is my guide and the guide of all spheres; He is Brahmā, the lord of the lord of patriarchs, the eldest of the eldest born, one identical with minutes and hours and time having form though indiscrete. O celestials, you are all but a portion of Him. The Sun, the winds, the saints, the Rudras, the Vasus, the Aswins, fire, patriarchs of whom Attri is the first, are all but the forms of the mighty and inscrutable Vishnu. The Yakshas, the Rākshasas, the Daityas, Pisachas, Uragas, Dānavas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras are all but the forms of the glorious Vishnu. The sky painted with stars, fire, water, wind, myself, and this manifest universe are all identical with Vishnu. Still the diverse forms of that manifold being encounter and succeed one another night and day like the waves of the sea. Amongst them Kālanemi and other Dānavas have occupied the regions under the earth and been distressing the subjects continually. The mighty Vishnu destroyed the Daitya Kālanemi and he has now been born as Kansa, the son of Ugrasena. The Asuras, Aristha, Dhenuka, Keshi, Pralamba, Naraka, Sunda, Atyugravana, and the son of Bali and other highly powerful ones born in various royal families, cannot be counted. O celestials, many Akshauhini hosts of powerful Daityas—the chiefs of their race, assuming beautiful shapes, are now treading upon me. I am unable, being oppressed by this load, to support myself; I have therefore come to you for help, O celestial chiefs, O illustrious deities, it becomes you to relieve me of this burden, lest helpless I sink into the nethermost abyss".Parāçara said Hearing these words of Earth, Brahmā at their request, explained to them how her burden might be lightened. "Deities" said Brahmā "all that earth has said is true. Myself, Siva and you all are but a portion of Nārāyana; the impersonations of his power are for ever mutually fluctuating; and excess or diminution is indicated by the predominance of the strong and the depression of the weak. Come, therefore, let us go to the northern shore of the milky sea and having glorified Hari, report to him what we have heard. He, who is the soul of all and at one with the universe, descends, for the preservation of Earth in a small portion of his essence, to establish righteousness below". Accordingly Brahmā, accompanied by the celestials went to the milky ocean and with minds devoted to him, praised him, whose emblem is Garuda. Brahmā said "O lord, thou art distinct from the Vedas, thy double nature is two-fold wisdom, superior and inferior, and thou art the essential end of both. Thou, alike possessed and devoid of form, art the two-fold Brahmā; smallest of the least and largest of the large; all and knowing all things; that spirit which is language, that spirit which is Supreme; that which is Brahmā and of which Brahmā is composed. Thou art the Rich, the Yajush, the Sāman and the Atharvan Vedas. Thou art accentuation, ritual, signification, metre and astronomy; history, tradition, grammar, theology, logic and law and art inscrutable. Thou art the doctrine that seeks to find out the distinctions between soul and life and body and matter endowed with qualifications and that doctrine is nothing else but thy nature inherent in and presiding over it."Thou art imperceptible, indescribable, inconceivable,—without name, or colour, or hands or feet, pure, eternal and infinite. Thou hearest without ears and seest without eyes. Thou art one and manifold. Thou movest without feet and holdest without hands. Thou knowest all but art not by all to be known. He who observes thee as the most subtile of atoms, not substantially existent, puts an end to ignorance and the final liberation is the meed of that wise man whose understanding cherishes nothing but thee in the form of supreme delight. Thou art the common centre of all, the protector of the universe and all beings exist in thee. Thou art all that has been or will be. Thou art the atom of atoms; thou art spirit, thou only art separate from primeval nature. Thou, as the lord of fire, in four manifestations, givest light and fertility to Earth. Thou art the eye of all and assumer of many shapes and without any hinderance travellest the three regions of the universe. As fire, though one, is variously lighted and though unchangeable in its essence, is modified in many ways, so thou, lord, who art omnipresent, takest upon thee all modifications, that exist. Thou art one supreme; thou art that supreme and eternal state which the wise behold with the eye of knowledge. There is nothing else but thou, O lord, nothing else has been or will be. Thou art both discrete and indiscrete, universal and individual, omniscient, all-seeing, omnipotent, possessed of all wisdom and strength and power. Thou art subject, neither to increase nor decrease. Thou art independent and without beginning. Thou art the subjugator of all. Thou art not subject to weariness, sloth, fear, anger or desire. Thou art free from sin, supreme, merciful, uniform, undecaying, lord over all, the support of all, the fountain of light, and imperishable. Salutation unto thee, uninvested by material envelopes, unexposed to sensible imaginings, aggregate of elemental substance, spirit supreme. Thou assumest a shape, O pervader of the universe, not as the consequence of virtue or vice nor from any mixture of the two, but for the sole object of upholding righteousness in the universe".Parāçara said:—Having heard these eulogiums, the unborn universal Hari, pleased, said to Brahmā—"Tell me, Brahmā, what your and the celestials desire—and consider that already gratified".Beholding that divine and universal form of Hari, Brahmā again prostrated himself and began to chant his glories—"Salutation unto thee, again and again, O thou having a thousand forms, having a thousand arms, many faces and many feet. Salutation unto thee, the illimitable author of creation, destruction and preservation and the inscrutable. Be propitiated with us, O god, O great soul, most subtile of the subtile, most vast of the great; O thou, who art nature, intellect and consciousness and who art other spirit even than the spiritual root of those principles. O lord, this earth, oppressed by powerful Asuras and shaken to her very foundation, comes to thee, the upholder of the universe, to be relieved of her burden. Myself, Indra, the Aswins, Varuna, Yama, the Rudras the Vasus, the sun, the winds, fire and all other deities are prepared to do whatever thou shalt and desire us to do. Do thou, who art perfect, O king of the celestials, give thy orders to thy servants, we are ready".When Brahmā had said this, the supreme deity plucked off two hairs, one white and one black and said to the celestials—"These my hairs shall go down upon earth and shall relieve her of the burden of her distress. Let all the deities, in their own portions, descend upon earth and fight with the proud Asuras who are there assembled and every one of them shall be slain. Doubt not this—they shall be destroyed by the withering glance of my eyes. This, my black hair, shall be impersonated in the eighth conception of the goddess-like Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva and shall destroy Kansa, who is the demon Kālanemi". Having said this, Hari disappeared and the celestials, bowing to him, though invisible, went back to the summit of the mount Meru from where they came down on earth.Thereupon the illustrious Muni Nārada said that, the supporter of the earth, Vishnu, would be the eighth child of Devaki, Hearing this from Nārada, Kansa greatly excited with wrath, kept Vasudeva and Devaki in secret confinement.According to his promise Vasudeva delivered to Kansa each infant as soon as it was born. It is said these, to the number of six, were the children of the demon Hiranya-Kasipu, introduced into the womb of Devaki by Yogonidra, at the behest of Vishnu, who was his illusory energy and by whom the whole world is beguiled, and who is known as utter ignorance. The great god said to her—"Go, Nidrā, to the nether regions and by my command introduce there six princes to the womb of Devaki. When these shall be destroyed by Kansa, the seventh conception shall be a portion of Sesha, who is a portion of me. There is another wife of Vasudeva in Gokula named Rohini and this you shall transfer to her, before the time of birth. The rumour shall be that Devaki miscarries through the anxiety of imprisonment and dread of the king of Bhojas. And on account of his being extracted from his mother's womb, the child shall be designated Sankarshana and he shall be like the peak of the white mountain in bulk and complexion. I shall myself then descend in the eighth auspicious conception of Devaki and you shall immediately enter into the womb of Yasoda. In the night of the eighth lunation of the dark half of the month of Nabhas in the season of the rains, I shall be born. You will be born on the ninth. Being aided by my energy Vasudeva shall carry me to the bed of Yasoda and you to that of Devaki. When Kansa shall dash you against a stone, O worshipful dame, you shall attain to the sky and then the thousand-eyed Indra, out of reverence for me, shall bow unto you and shall accept you as his sister. Having destroyed Sumbha and Nisumbha and thousands of other Daityas you shall sanctify the earth in many places. You are wealth, progeny, fame, patience, heaven and earth, fortitude, modesty, nutrition, dawn and every other female (form or virtue). Those, who shall reverentially invoke you, morning and evening, and praise and call you Aryā, Durgā, Vedagarbhā, Ambica, Bhadrā, Bhadrakālikā, Kshemi, or Kshemankari, shall receive, by my grace, whatever they desire. And pleased with their offerings of wine and flesh and various other kinds you shall gratify the prayers of mankind. By my favour all men shall have perpetual faith in you. Assured of this, go, goddess, and satisfy my orders!"
PART V.SECTION I.Maitreya said:—You have described to me at length the origin and spread of the families of kings. I wish to hear in particular, O venerable saint, why Vishnu incarnated a portion of himself in the family of Yadus. Tell me, O Muni, what actions did the illustrious and excellent Purusha perform in his descent upon the earth.Parāçara said:—I shall relate to you, O Maitreya, what you have requested me to do—the birth, of a portion of Vishnu and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world. O great Muni, Vasudeva espoused the illustrious god-like Devaki, the daughter of Devaka. After their marriage, Kansa, the increaser of the race of Bhoja, drove their car as charioteer. A voice was heard in the sky, loud and deep as thunder, which addressing Kansa, said—"O foolish, the eighth child of this damsel, whom thou art carrying in the car, along with her husband, shall destroy thy life".Hearing this the highly powerful Kansa uplifted his sword and was about to slay Devaki when Vasudeva said—"O thou having long arms, Devaki should not be slain by thee; I shall hand over to thee every child that she shall bring forth".O foremost of twice-born ones, saying 'so be it' Kansa obeyed Vasudeva's request and out of respect for him did not slay Devaki.In the meantime, Earth, oppressed by her heavy load, repaired to an assembly of celestials on Mount Meru and addressing them, with Brahmā, at their head, described in piteous accents all her distresses. "Agni" said Earth "is the progenitor of gold; Surja, the rays of light; the Supreme Nārāyana, is my guide and the guide of all spheres; He is Brahmā, the lord of the lord of patriarchs, the eldest of the eldest born, one identical with minutes and hours and time having form though indiscrete. O celestials, you are all but a portion of Him. The Sun, the winds, the saints, the Rudras, the Vasus, the Aswins, fire, patriarchs of whom Attri is the first, are all but the forms of the mighty and inscrutable Vishnu. The Yakshas, the Rākshasas, the Daityas, Pisachas, Uragas, Dānavas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras are all but the forms of the glorious Vishnu. The sky painted with stars, fire, water, wind, myself, and this manifest universe are all identical with Vishnu. Still the diverse forms of that manifold being encounter and succeed one another night and day like the waves of the sea. Amongst them Kālanemi and other Dānavas have occupied the regions under the earth and been distressing the subjects continually. The mighty Vishnu destroyed the Daitya Kālanemi and he has now been born as Kansa, the son of Ugrasena. The Asuras, Aristha, Dhenuka, Keshi, Pralamba, Naraka, Sunda, Atyugravana, and the son of Bali and other highly powerful ones born in various royal families, cannot be counted. O celestials, many Akshauhini hosts of powerful Daityas—the chiefs of their race, assuming beautiful shapes, are now treading upon me. I am unable, being oppressed by this load, to support myself; I have therefore come to you for help, O celestial chiefs, O illustrious deities, it becomes you to relieve me of this burden, lest helpless I sink into the nethermost abyss".Parāçara said Hearing these words of Earth, Brahmā at their request, explained to them how her burden might be lightened. "Deities" said Brahmā "all that earth has said is true. Myself, Siva and you all are but a portion of Nārāyana; the impersonations of his power are for ever mutually fluctuating; and excess or diminution is indicated by the predominance of the strong and the depression of the weak. Come, therefore, let us go to the northern shore of the milky sea and having glorified Hari, report to him what we have heard. He, who is the soul of all and at one with the universe, descends, for the preservation of Earth in a small portion of his essence, to establish righteousness below". Accordingly Brahmā, accompanied by the celestials went to the milky ocean and with minds devoted to him, praised him, whose emblem is Garuda. Brahmā said "O lord, thou art distinct from the Vedas, thy double nature is two-fold wisdom, superior and inferior, and thou art the essential end of both. Thou, alike possessed and devoid of form, art the two-fold Brahmā; smallest of the least and largest of the large; all and knowing all things; that spirit which is language, that spirit which is Supreme; that which is Brahmā and of which Brahmā is composed. Thou art the Rich, the Yajush, the Sāman and the Atharvan Vedas. Thou art accentuation, ritual, signification, metre and astronomy; history, tradition, grammar, theology, logic and law and art inscrutable. Thou art the doctrine that seeks to find out the distinctions between soul and life and body and matter endowed with qualifications and that doctrine is nothing else but thy nature inherent in and presiding over it."Thou art imperceptible, indescribable, inconceivable,—without name, or colour, or hands or feet, pure, eternal and infinite. Thou hearest without ears and seest without eyes. Thou art one and manifold. Thou movest without feet and holdest without hands. Thou knowest all but art not by all to be known. He who observes thee as the most subtile of atoms, not substantially existent, puts an end to ignorance and the final liberation is the meed of that wise man whose understanding cherishes nothing but thee in the form of supreme delight. Thou art the common centre of all, the protector of the universe and all beings exist in thee. Thou art all that has been or will be. Thou art the atom of atoms; thou art spirit, thou only art separate from primeval nature. Thou, as the lord of fire, in four manifestations, givest light and fertility to Earth. Thou art the eye of all and assumer of many shapes and without any hinderance travellest the three regions of the universe. As fire, though one, is variously lighted and though unchangeable in its essence, is modified in many ways, so thou, lord, who art omnipresent, takest upon thee all modifications, that exist. Thou art one supreme; thou art that supreme and eternal state which the wise behold with the eye of knowledge. There is nothing else but thou, O lord, nothing else has been or will be. Thou art both discrete and indiscrete, universal and individual, omniscient, all-seeing, omnipotent, possessed of all wisdom and strength and power. Thou art subject, neither to increase nor decrease. Thou art independent and without beginning. Thou art the subjugator of all. Thou art not subject to weariness, sloth, fear, anger or desire. Thou art free from sin, supreme, merciful, uniform, undecaying, lord over all, the support of all, the fountain of light, and imperishable. Salutation unto thee, uninvested by material envelopes, unexposed to sensible imaginings, aggregate of elemental substance, spirit supreme. Thou assumest a shape, O pervader of the universe, not as the consequence of virtue or vice nor from any mixture of the two, but for the sole object of upholding righteousness in the universe".Parāçara said:—Having heard these eulogiums, the unborn universal Hari, pleased, said to Brahmā—"Tell me, Brahmā, what your and the celestials desire—and consider that already gratified".Beholding that divine and universal form of Hari, Brahmā again prostrated himself and began to chant his glories—"Salutation unto thee, again and again, O thou having a thousand forms, having a thousand arms, many faces and many feet. Salutation unto thee, the illimitable author of creation, destruction and preservation and the inscrutable. Be propitiated with us, O god, O great soul, most subtile of the subtile, most vast of the great; O thou, who art nature, intellect and consciousness and who art other spirit even than the spiritual root of those principles. O lord, this earth, oppressed by powerful Asuras and shaken to her very foundation, comes to thee, the upholder of the universe, to be relieved of her burden. Myself, Indra, the Aswins, Varuna, Yama, the Rudras the Vasus, the sun, the winds, fire and all other deities are prepared to do whatever thou shalt and desire us to do. Do thou, who art perfect, O king of the celestials, give thy orders to thy servants, we are ready".When Brahmā had said this, the supreme deity plucked off two hairs, one white and one black and said to the celestials—"These my hairs shall go down upon earth and shall relieve her of the burden of her distress. Let all the deities, in their own portions, descend upon earth and fight with the proud Asuras who are there assembled and every one of them shall be slain. Doubt not this—they shall be destroyed by the withering glance of my eyes. This, my black hair, shall be impersonated in the eighth conception of the goddess-like Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva and shall destroy Kansa, who is the demon Kālanemi". Having said this, Hari disappeared and the celestials, bowing to him, though invisible, went back to the summit of the mount Meru from where they came down on earth.Thereupon the illustrious Muni Nārada said that, the supporter of the earth, Vishnu, would be the eighth child of Devaki, Hearing this from Nārada, Kansa greatly excited with wrath, kept Vasudeva and Devaki in secret confinement.According to his promise Vasudeva delivered to Kansa each infant as soon as it was born. It is said these, to the number of six, were the children of the demon Hiranya-Kasipu, introduced into the womb of Devaki by Yogonidra, at the behest of Vishnu, who was his illusory energy and by whom the whole world is beguiled, and who is known as utter ignorance. The great god said to her—"Go, Nidrā, to the nether regions and by my command introduce there six princes to the womb of Devaki. When these shall be destroyed by Kansa, the seventh conception shall be a portion of Sesha, who is a portion of me. There is another wife of Vasudeva in Gokula named Rohini and this you shall transfer to her, before the time of birth. The rumour shall be that Devaki miscarries through the anxiety of imprisonment and dread of the king of Bhojas. And on account of his being extracted from his mother's womb, the child shall be designated Sankarshana and he shall be like the peak of the white mountain in bulk and complexion. I shall myself then descend in the eighth auspicious conception of Devaki and you shall immediately enter into the womb of Yasoda. In the night of the eighth lunation of the dark half of the month of Nabhas in the season of the rains, I shall be born. You will be born on the ninth. Being aided by my energy Vasudeva shall carry me to the bed of Yasoda and you to that of Devaki. When Kansa shall dash you against a stone, O worshipful dame, you shall attain to the sky and then the thousand-eyed Indra, out of reverence for me, shall bow unto you and shall accept you as his sister. Having destroyed Sumbha and Nisumbha and thousands of other Daityas you shall sanctify the earth in many places. You are wealth, progeny, fame, patience, heaven and earth, fortitude, modesty, nutrition, dawn and every other female (form or virtue). Those, who shall reverentially invoke you, morning and evening, and praise and call you Aryā, Durgā, Vedagarbhā, Ambica, Bhadrā, Bhadrakālikā, Kshemi, or Kshemankari, shall receive, by my grace, whatever they desire. And pleased with their offerings of wine and flesh and various other kinds you shall gratify the prayers of mankind. By my favour all men shall have perpetual faith in you. Assured of this, go, goddess, and satisfy my orders!"
SECTION I.Maitreya said:—You have described to me at length the origin and spread of the families of kings. I wish to hear in particular, O venerable saint, why Vishnu incarnated a portion of himself in the family of Yadus. Tell me, O Muni, what actions did the illustrious and excellent Purusha perform in his descent upon the earth.Parāçara said:—I shall relate to you, O Maitreya, what you have requested me to do—the birth, of a portion of Vishnu and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world. O great Muni, Vasudeva espoused the illustrious god-like Devaki, the daughter of Devaka. After their marriage, Kansa, the increaser of the race of Bhoja, drove their car as charioteer. A voice was heard in the sky, loud and deep as thunder, which addressing Kansa, said—"O foolish, the eighth child of this damsel, whom thou art carrying in the car, along with her husband, shall destroy thy life".Hearing this the highly powerful Kansa uplifted his sword and was about to slay Devaki when Vasudeva said—"O thou having long arms, Devaki should not be slain by thee; I shall hand over to thee every child that she shall bring forth".O foremost of twice-born ones, saying 'so be it' Kansa obeyed Vasudeva's request and out of respect for him did not slay Devaki.In the meantime, Earth, oppressed by her heavy load, repaired to an assembly of celestials on Mount Meru and addressing them, with Brahmā, at their head, described in piteous accents all her distresses. "Agni" said Earth "is the progenitor of gold; Surja, the rays of light; the Supreme Nārāyana, is my guide and the guide of all spheres; He is Brahmā, the lord of the lord of patriarchs, the eldest of the eldest born, one identical with minutes and hours and time having form though indiscrete. O celestials, you are all but a portion of Him. The Sun, the winds, the saints, the Rudras, the Vasus, the Aswins, fire, patriarchs of whom Attri is the first, are all but the forms of the mighty and inscrutable Vishnu. The Yakshas, the Rākshasas, the Daityas, Pisachas, Uragas, Dānavas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras are all but the forms of the glorious Vishnu. The sky painted with stars, fire, water, wind, myself, and this manifest universe are all identical with Vishnu. Still the diverse forms of that manifold being encounter and succeed one another night and day like the waves of the sea. Amongst them Kālanemi and other Dānavas have occupied the regions under the earth and been distressing the subjects continually. The mighty Vishnu destroyed the Daitya Kālanemi and he has now been born as Kansa, the son of Ugrasena. The Asuras, Aristha, Dhenuka, Keshi, Pralamba, Naraka, Sunda, Atyugravana, and the son of Bali and other highly powerful ones born in various royal families, cannot be counted. O celestials, many Akshauhini hosts of powerful Daityas—the chiefs of their race, assuming beautiful shapes, are now treading upon me. I am unable, being oppressed by this load, to support myself; I have therefore come to you for help, O celestial chiefs, O illustrious deities, it becomes you to relieve me of this burden, lest helpless I sink into the nethermost abyss".Parāçara said Hearing these words of Earth, Brahmā at their request, explained to them how her burden might be lightened. "Deities" said Brahmā "all that earth has said is true. Myself, Siva and you all are but a portion of Nārāyana; the impersonations of his power are for ever mutually fluctuating; and excess or diminution is indicated by the predominance of the strong and the depression of the weak. Come, therefore, let us go to the northern shore of the milky sea and having glorified Hari, report to him what we have heard. He, who is the soul of all and at one with the universe, descends, for the preservation of Earth in a small portion of his essence, to establish righteousness below". Accordingly Brahmā, accompanied by the celestials went to the milky ocean and with minds devoted to him, praised him, whose emblem is Garuda. Brahmā said "O lord, thou art distinct from the Vedas, thy double nature is two-fold wisdom, superior and inferior, and thou art the essential end of both. Thou, alike possessed and devoid of form, art the two-fold Brahmā; smallest of the least and largest of the large; all and knowing all things; that spirit which is language, that spirit which is Supreme; that which is Brahmā and of which Brahmā is composed. Thou art the Rich, the Yajush, the Sāman and the Atharvan Vedas. Thou art accentuation, ritual, signification, metre and astronomy; history, tradition, grammar, theology, logic and law and art inscrutable. Thou art the doctrine that seeks to find out the distinctions between soul and life and body and matter endowed with qualifications and that doctrine is nothing else but thy nature inherent in and presiding over it."Thou art imperceptible, indescribable, inconceivable,—without name, or colour, or hands or feet, pure, eternal and infinite. Thou hearest without ears and seest without eyes. Thou art one and manifold. Thou movest without feet and holdest without hands. Thou knowest all but art not by all to be known. He who observes thee as the most subtile of atoms, not substantially existent, puts an end to ignorance and the final liberation is the meed of that wise man whose understanding cherishes nothing but thee in the form of supreme delight. Thou art the common centre of all, the protector of the universe and all beings exist in thee. Thou art all that has been or will be. Thou art the atom of atoms; thou art spirit, thou only art separate from primeval nature. Thou, as the lord of fire, in four manifestations, givest light and fertility to Earth. Thou art the eye of all and assumer of many shapes and without any hinderance travellest the three regions of the universe. As fire, though one, is variously lighted and though unchangeable in its essence, is modified in many ways, so thou, lord, who art omnipresent, takest upon thee all modifications, that exist. Thou art one supreme; thou art that supreme and eternal state which the wise behold with the eye of knowledge. There is nothing else but thou, O lord, nothing else has been or will be. Thou art both discrete and indiscrete, universal and individual, omniscient, all-seeing, omnipotent, possessed of all wisdom and strength and power. Thou art subject, neither to increase nor decrease. Thou art independent and without beginning. Thou art the subjugator of all. Thou art not subject to weariness, sloth, fear, anger or desire. Thou art free from sin, supreme, merciful, uniform, undecaying, lord over all, the support of all, the fountain of light, and imperishable. Salutation unto thee, uninvested by material envelopes, unexposed to sensible imaginings, aggregate of elemental substance, spirit supreme. Thou assumest a shape, O pervader of the universe, not as the consequence of virtue or vice nor from any mixture of the two, but for the sole object of upholding righteousness in the universe".Parāçara said:—Having heard these eulogiums, the unborn universal Hari, pleased, said to Brahmā—"Tell me, Brahmā, what your and the celestials desire—and consider that already gratified".Beholding that divine and universal form of Hari, Brahmā again prostrated himself and began to chant his glories—"Salutation unto thee, again and again, O thou having a thousand forms, having a thousand arms, many faces and many feet. Salutation unto thee, the illimitable author of creation, destruction and preservation and the inscrutable. Be propitiated with us, O god, O great soul, most subtile of the subtile, most vast of the great; O thou, who art nature, intellect and consciousness and who art other spirit even than the spiritual root of those principles. O lord, this earth, oppressed by powerful Asuras and shaken to her very foundation, comes to thee, the upholder of the universe, to be relieved of her burden. Myself, Indra, the Aswins, Varuna, Yama, the Rudras the Vasus, the sun, the winds, fire and all other deities are prepared to do whatever thou shalt and desire us to do. Do thou, who art perfect, O king of the celestials, give thy orders to thy servants, we are ready".When Brahmā had said this, the supreme deity plucked off two hairs, one white and one black and said to the celestials—"These my hairs shall go down upon earth and shall relieve her of the burden of her distress. Let all the deities, in their own portions, descend upon earth and fight with the proud Asuras who are there assembled and every one of them shall be slain. Doubt not this—they shall be destroyed by the withering glance of my eyes. This, my black hair, shall be impersonated in the eighth conception of the goddess-like Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva and shall destroy Kansa, who is the demon Kālanemi". Having said this, Hari disappeared and the celestials, bowing to him, though invisible, went back to the summit of the mount Meru from where they came down on earth.Thereupon the illustrious Muni Nārada said that, the supporter of the earth, Vishnu, would be the eighth child of Devaki, Hearing this from Nārada, Kansa greatly excited with wrath, kept Vasudeva and Devaki in secret confinement.According to his promise Vasudeva delivered to Kansa each infant as soon as it was born. It is said these, to the number of six, were the children of the demon Hiranya-Kasipu, introduced into the womb of Devaki by Yogonidra, at the behest of Vishnu, who was his illusory energy and by whom the whole world is beguiled, and who is known as utter ignorance. The great god said to her—"Go, Nidrā, to the nether regions and by my command introduce there six princes to the womb of Devaki. When these shall be destroyed by Kansa, the seventh conception shall be a portion of Sesha, who is a portion of me. There is another wife of Vasudeva in Gokula named Rohini and this you shall transfer to her, before the time of birth. The rumour shall be that Devaki miscarries through the anxiety of imprisonment and dread of the king of Bhojas. And on account of his being extracted from his mother's womb, the child shall be designated Sankarshana and he shall be like the peak of the white mountain in bulk and complexion. I shall myself then descend in the eighth auspicious conception of Devaki and you shall immediately enter into the womb of Yasoda. In the night of the eighth lunation of the dark half of the month of Nabhas in the season of the rains, I shall be born. You will be born on the ninth. Being aided by my energy Vasudeva shall carry me to the bed of Yasoda and you to that of Devaki. When Kansa shall dash you against a stone, O worshipful dame, you shall attain to the sky and then the thousand-eyed Indra, out of reverence for me, shall bow unto you and shall accept you as his sister. Having destroyed Sumbha and Nisumbha and thousands of other Daityas you shall sanctify the earth in many places. You are wealth, progeny, fame, patience, heaven and earth, fortitude, modesty, nutrition, dawn and every other female (form or virtue). Those, who shall reverentially invoke you, morning and evening, and praise and call you Aryā, Durgā, Vedagarbhā, Ambica, Bhadrā, Bhadrakālikā, Kshemi, or Kshemankari, shall receive, by my grace, whatever they desire. And pleased with their offerings of wine and flesh and various other kinds you shall gratify the prayers of mankind. By my favour all men shall have perpetual faith in you. Assured of this, go, goddess, and satisfy my orders!"
Maitreya said:—You have described to me at length the origin and spread of the families of kings. I wish to hear in particular, O venerable saint, why Vishnu incarnated a portion of himself in the family of Yadus. Tell me, O Muni, what actions did the illustrious and excellent Purusha perform in his descent upon the earth.
Parāçara said:—I shall relate to you, O Maitreya, what you have requested me to do—the birth, of a portion of Vishnu and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world. O great Muni, Vasudeva espoused the illustrious god-like Devaki, the daughter of Devaka. After their marriage, Kansa, the increaser of the race of Bhoja, drove their car as charioteer. A voice was heard in the sky, loud and deep as thunder, which addressing Kansa, said—"O foolish, the eighth child of this damsel, whom thou art carrying in the car, along with her husband, shall destroy thy life".
Hearing this the highly powerful Kansa uplifted his sword and was about to slay Devaki when Vasudeva said—"O thou having long arms, Devaki should not be slain by thee; I shall hand over to thee every child that she shall bring forth".
O foremost of twice-born ones, saying 'so be it' Kansa obeyed Vasudeva's request and out of respect for him did not slay Devaki.
In the meantime, Earth, oppressed by her heavy load, repaired to an assembly of celestials on Mount Meru and addressing them, with Brahmā, at their head, described in piteous accents all her distresses. "Agni" said Earth "is the progenitor of gold; Surja, the rays of light; the Supreme Nārāyana, is my guide and the guide of all spheres; He is Brahmā, the lord of the lord of patriarchs, the eldest of the eldest born, one identical with minutes and hours and time having form though indiscrete. O celestials, you are all but a portion of Him. The Sun, the winds, the saints, the Rudras, the Vasus, the Aswins, fire, patriarchs of whom Attri is the first, are all but the forms of the mighty and inscrutable Vishnu. The Yakshas, the Rākshasas, the Daityas, Pisachas, Uragas, Dānavas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras are all but the forms of the glorious Vishnu. The sky painted with stars, fire, water, wind, myself, and this manifest universe are all identical with Vishnu. Still the diverse forms of that manifold being encounter and succeed one another night and day like the waves of the sea. Amongst them Kālanemi and other Dānavas have occupied the regions under the earth and been distressing the subjects continually. The mighty Vishnu destroyed the Daitya Kālanemi and he has now been born as Kansa, the son of Ugrasena. The Asuras, Aristha, Dhenuka, Keshi, Pralamba, Naraka, Sunda, Atyugravana, and the son of Bali and other highly powerful ones born in various royal families, cannot be counted. O celestials, many Akshauhini hosts of powerful Daityas—the chiefs of their race, assuming beautiful shapes, are now treading upon me. I am unable, being oppressed by this load, to support myself; I have therefore come to you for help, O celestial chiefs, O illustrious deities, it becomes you to relieve me of this burden, lest helpless I sink into the nethermost abyss".
Parāçara said Hearing these words of Earth, Brahmā at their request, explained to them how her burden might be lightened. "Deities" said Brahmā "all that earth has said is true. Myself, Siva and you all are but a portion of Nārāyana; the impersonations of his power are for ever mutually fluctuating; and excess or diminution is indicated by the predominance of the strong and the depression of the weak. Come, therefore, let us go to the northern shore of the milky sea and having glorified Hari, report to him what we have heard. He, who is the soul of all and at one with the universe, descends, for the preservation of Earth in a small portion of his essence, to establish righteousness below". Accordingly Brahmā, accompanied by the celestials went to the milky ocean and with minds devoted to him, praised him, whose emblem is Garuda. Brahmā said "O lord, thou art distinct from the Vedas, thy double nature is two-fold wisdom, superior and inferior, and thou art the essential end of both. Thou, alike possessed and devoid of form, art the two-fold Brahmā; smallest of the least and largest of the large; all and knowing all things; that spirit which is language, that spirit which is Supreme; that which is Brahmā and of which Brahmā is composed. Thou art the Rich, the Yajush, the Sāman and the Atharvan Vedas. Thou art accentuation, ritual, signification, metre and astronomy; history, tradition, grammar, theology, logic and law and art inscrutable. Thou art the doctrine that seeks to find out the distinctions between soul and life and body and matter endowed with qualifications and that doctrine is nothing else but thy nature inherent in and presiding over it.
"Thou art imperceptible, indescribable, inconceivable,—without name, or colour, or hands or feet, pure, eternal and infinite. Thou hearest without ears and seest without eyes. Thou art one and manifold. Thou movest without feet and holdest without hands. Thou knowest all but art not by all to be known. He who observes thee as the most subtile of atoms, not substantially existent, puts an end to ignorance and the final liberation is the meed of that wise man whose understanding cherishes nothing but thee in the form of supreme delight. Thou art the common centre of all, the protector of the universe and all beings exist in thee. Thou art all that has been or will be. Thou art the atom of atoms; thou art spirit, thou only art separate from primeval nature. Thou, as the lord of fire, in four manifestations, givest light and fertility to Earth. Thou art the eye of all and assumer of many shapes and without any hinderance travellest the three regions of the universe. As fire, though one, is variously lighted and though unchangeable in its essence, is modified in many ways, so thou, lord, who art omnipresent, takest upon thee all modifications, that exist. Thou art one supreme; thou art that supreme and eternal state which the wise behold with the eye of knowledge. There is nothing else but thou, O lord, nothing else has been or will be. Thou art both discrete and indiscrete, universal and individual, omniscient, all-seeing, omnipotent, possessed of all wisdom and strength and power. Thou art subject, neither to increase nor decrease. Thou art independent and without beginning. Thou art the subjugator of all. Thou art not subject to weariness, sloth, fear, anger or desire. Thou art free from sin, supreme, merciful, uniform, undecaying, lord over all, the support of all, the fountain of light, and imperishable. Salutation unto thee, uninvested by material envelopes, unexposed to sensible imaginings, aggregate of elemental substance, spirit supreme. Thou assumest a shape, O pervader of the universe, not as the consequence of virtue or vice nor from any mixture of the two, but for the sole object of upholding righteousness in the universe".
Parāçara said:—Having heard these eulogiums, the unborn universal Hari, pleased, said to Brahmā—"Tell me, Brahmā, what your and the celestials desire—and consider that already gratified".
Beholding that divine and universal form of Hari, Brahmā again prostrated himself and began to chant his glories—"Salutation unto thee, again and again, O thou having a thousand forms, having a thousand arms, many faces and many feet. Salutation unto thee, the illimitable author of creation, destruction and preservation and the inscrutable. Be propitiated with us, O god, O great soul, most subtile of the subtile, most vast of the great; O thou, who art nature, intellect and consciousness and who art other spirit even than the spiritual root of those principles. O lord, this earth, oppressed by powerful Asuras and shaken to her very foundation, comes to thee, the upholder of the universe, to be relieved of her burden. Myself, Indra, the Aswins, Varuna, Yama, the Rudras the Vasus, the sun, the winds, fire and all other deities are prepared to do whatever thou shalt and desire us to do. Do thou, who art perfect, O king of the celestials, give thy orders to thy servants, we are ready".
When Brahmā had said this, the supreme deity plucked off two hairs, one white and one black and said to the celestials—"These my hairs shall go down upon earth and shall relieve her of the burden of her distress. Let all the deities, in their own portions, descend upon earth and fight with the proud Asuras who are there assembled and every one of them shall be slain. Doubt not this—they shall be destroyed by the withering glance of my eyes. This, my black hair, shall be impersonated in the eighth conception of the goddess-like Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva and shall destroy Kansa, who is the demon Kālanemi". Having said this, Hari disappeared and the celestials, bowing to him, though invisible, went back to the summit of the mount Meru from where they came down on earth.
Thereupon the illustrious Muni Nārada said that, the supporter of the earth, Vishnu, would be the eighth child of Devaki, Hearing this from Nārada, Kansa greatly excited with wrath, kept Vasudeva and Devaki in secret confinement.
According to his promise Vasudeva delivered to Kansa each infant as soon as it was born. It is said these, to the number of six, were the children of the demon Hiranya-Kasipu, introduced into the womb of Devaki by Yogonidra, at the behest of Vishnu, who was his illusory energy and by whom the whole world is beguiled, and who is known as utter ignorance. The great god said to her—"Go, Nidrā, to the nether regions and by my command introduce there six princes to the womb of Devaki. When these shall be destroyed by Kansa, the seventh conception shall be a portion of Sesha, who is a portion of me. There is another wife of Vasudeva in Gokula named Rohini and this you shall transfer to her, before the time of birth. The rumour shall be that Devaki miscarries through the anxiety of imprisonment and dread of the king of Bhojas. And on account of his being extracted from his mother's womb, the child shall be designated Sankarshana and he shall be like the peak of the white mountain in bulk and complexion. I shall myself then descend in the eighth auspicious conception of Devaki and you shall immediately enter into the womb of Yasoda. In the night of the eighth lunation of the dark half of the month of Nabhas in the season of the rains, I shall be born. You will be born on the ninth. Being aided by my energy Vasudeva shall carry me to the bed of Yasoda and you to that of Devaki. When Kansa shall dash you against a stone, O worshipful dame, you shall attain to the sky and then the thousand-eyed Indra, out of reverence for me, shall bow unto you and shall accept you as his sister. Having destroyed Sumbha and Nisumbha and thousands of other Daityas you shall sanctify the earth in many places. You are wealth, progeny, fame, patience, heaven and earth, fortitude, modesty, nutrition, dawn and every other female (form or virtue). Those, who shall reverentially invoke you, morning and evening, and praise and call you Aryā, Durgā, Vedagarbhā, Ambica, Bhadrā, Bhadrakālikā, Kshemi, or Kshemankari, shall receive, by my grace, whatever they desire. And pleased with their offerings of wine and flesh and various other kinds you shall gratify the prayers of mankind. By my favour all men shall have perpetual faith in you. Assured of this, go, goddess, and satisfy my orders!"