Kashyapa Receives the Earth as Stipend
At a sacrifice performed by Vishvakarma, the Self-created One gives the entire earth to the sage Kashyapa. The earth, furious at being handed to a mortal, threatens to descend into the underworld — and only Kashyapa's austerities can bring her back.
Lomasha told Yudhishthira to be quiet. The sound he heard — the distant chanting of hermits — came from three hundred thousand yojanas away. And the beautiful forest before them, Lomasha said, belonged to the one who created himself.
Here, Vishvakarma — the divine architect — had once performed a sacrifice. At that sacrifice, the Self-created One gave the earth itself, with all its mountains, forests, and regions, as a stipend to the great-souled Kashyapa.
As soon as she was given away, the earth became dejected. In anger, she spoke to the illustrious lord of the worlds: "You should not have given me away to a mere mortal. Your giving me away will be unsuccessful. I will go to rasatala (the underworld)."
Seeing the earth dejected, the illustrious rishi Kashyapa pacified her. He did not argue or command. He drew on his austerities — the immense spiritual energy accumulated through years of discipline — and satisfied her. She was calmed. She emerged from the water once again, establishing herself as an altar.
Lomasha pointed to it: "You can see it there, with all the signs of an altar. Ascend it, and you will be extremely valorous. As soon as it is touched by a mortal, this altar immerses itself in the ocean again."
He gave Yudhishthira the verse to recite: "Agni, Mitra, the womb, the water, the goddess, Vishnu's seed, the navel of amrita (the nectar of immortality)."
"Having recited these truthful words," Lomasha said, "swiftly climb up onto the altar." Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 411