The Vishnu Purana: Book I: Chapter IV | Internet Sacred Text Archive

CHAP. IV.

Náráyańa's appearance, in the beginning of the Kalpa, as the Varsha or boar: Prithiví (Earth) addresses him: he raises the world from beneath the waters: hymned by Sanandana and the Yogis. The earth floats on the ocean: divided into seven zones. The lower spheres of the universe restored. Creation renewed.

MAITREYA.--Tell me, mighty sage, how, in the commencement of the (present) Kalpa, Náráyańa, who is named Brahmá, created all existent things 1.

PARÁŚARA.--In what manner the divine Brahmá, who is one with Náráyańa, created progeny, and is thence named the lord of progeny (Prajápati), the lord god, you shall hear.

At the close of the past (or Pádma) Kalpa, the divine Brahmá, endowed with the quality of goodness, awoke from his night of sleep, and beheld the universe void. He, the supreme Náráyańa, the incomprehensible, the sovereign of all creatures, invested with the form of Brahmá, the god without beginning, the creator of all things; of whom, with respect to his name Náráyańa, the god who has the form of Brahmá, the imperishable origin of the world, this verse is repeated, "The waters are called Nárá, because they were the offspring of Nara (the supreme spirit); and as in them his first (Ayana) progress (in the character of Brahmá) took place, he is thence named Náráyańa (he whose place of moving was the waters) 2." He, the lord, concluding that within the waters lay the

earth, and being desirous to raise it up, created another form for that purpose; and as in preceding Kalpas he had assumed the shape of a fish or a tortoise, so in this he took the figure of a boar. Having adopted a form composed of the sacrifices of the Vedas 3, for the preservation of the whole earth, the eternal, supreme, and universal soul, the great progenitor of created beings, eulogized by Sanaka and the other

saints who dwell in the sphere of holy men (Janaloka); he, the supporter of spiritual and material being, plunged into the ocean. The goddess Earth, beholding him thus descending to the subterrene regions, bowed in devout adoration, and thus glorified the god:--