Narayana Reveals His Cosmic Nature to Markandeya

Markandeya had been swallowed. He had wandered inside the body of Narayana for what felt like an age, through darkness and flood, until he saw the child on the banyan leaf — the same child who had swallowed him. And then the child had drawn him out through his mouth, and Markandeya stood before him, bewildered, in the vast emptiness of the single ocean. The god spoke. "O brahmana! It is certain that the gods do not know me as I really am. But I am pleased with you and I will tell you how I create." He explained his name. "The waters are known as nara and I consciously gave them that name. Because the waters are always my abode, I am known by the name of Narayana." Then he began to unfold himself. "I am the creator and the destroyer of all beings. I am Vishnu. I am Brahma. I am Shakra, the lord of the gods. I am king Vaishravana. I am Yama, the lord of the dead. I am Shiva. I am Soma. I am Kashyapa Prajapati. I am the creator and the special creator. I am the sacrifice." He described his cosmic body: "The fire is my mouth. The earth is my feet. The sun and the moon are my eyes. The directions and the sky are my body. The wind is established in my mind." He had performed hundreds of sacrifices. He was the sacrifices performed by those learned in the Vedas. On earth, kshatriya kings and vaishyas alike sacrificed to him, desiring heaven. "I become Shesha and hold up this earth full of riches, bounded by the four seas and adorned by Meru and Mandara. In earlier times, in the form of a boar, I used my valour to raise up the earth, when it was immersed in the water. As the vadava fire (the submarine mare-fire), I drink up the turbulent waters and disgorge them again." From his body the four varnas had emerged: brahmanas from his mouth, kshatriyas from his arms, vaishyas from his thighs, shudras from his feet. The four Vedas — Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva — issued from him and returned to him. He described those who sought him: ascetics who desired supreme tranquility, who controlled their souls, who were free from desire, anger, and hatred, without attachment, pure, without pride, learned about matters concerning the soul. These brahmanas meditated on him and worshipped him. "I am the light of destruction. I am Yama, the destroyer. I am the sun of destruction. I am the wind of destruction." The stars in the sky, the oceans, the four directions — all were manifestations of him. "Desire, anger, happiness, fear and delusion — know them to be different forms of me." Then he spoke of the cycle of the yugas (ages). "My complexion is white in krita yuga, yellow in treta yuga and red now in dvapara. It is black in kali yuga. At that time, adharma accounts for three-fourths." He told Markandeya when and why he incarnated: "Whenever dharma goes into a decline and adharma raises its head, then I create myself. Whenever daityas, addicted to violence and incapable of being killed by the supreme among the gods, and terrible rakshasas are created in this world, then I am born in the houses of those who perform good deeds. I assume a human form and pacify everything." He described the great sleep: "Throughout the cycle of one thousand yugas, I, the soul of the universe and the grandfather of all the worlds, sleep. Throughout that period, I am established here, not a child but in the form of a child, until Brahma wakes up." And he told Markandeya why he had shown him all this: "On seeing everything, mobile and immobile, flooded in a single ocean, you were afflicted. Knowing this, I showed you the universe when you entered my body. On seeing all the worlds there, you were astounded and did not understand. Therefore, I brought you out through my mouth and told you everything about myself, incomprehensible to gods and demons." He gave the sage his instruction: "Until the immensely ascetic and illustrious Brahma awakes, comfortably rest and roam here. When the grandfather of all the worlds awakes, as if they are but one, I will create from my body the sky, the earth, light, wind and water and whatever else exists in the world, mobile and immobile."