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power. So come, we will shew you the lord Hari in Śvetadvípa; we will carry you through the air, friend, if you approve." When those sons of gods said this, Naraváhanadatta consented, and leaving Gomukha and the others in that place, where they could obtain water, fruits and so on, he went with them to Śvetadvípa through the air, for Devasiddhi, one of the four brothers, carried him in his lap. There he descended from heaven, and beheld Vishnu, and approached him from a distance, introduced by those four sons of gods. The god was reclining upon the snake Śesha, in front of him sat Garuda, at his side was the daughter of the sea,*[1] at his feet was the Earth, he was waited upon by the discus, the conch, the club, and the lotus, incarnate in bodily form, and the Gandharvas, with Nárada at their head, were piously chanting hymns in his honour, and the gods, Siddhas, and Vidyádharas were bowing before him. To whom is not association with the good a cause of exaltation?
Then, after that Lord had been honoured by those sons of gods, and praised by Kaśyapa and others, Naraváhanadatta thus praised him with folded hands, " All hail to thee, venerable one, the wishing-tree of thy worshippers, whose body is encircled with the wish-granting creeper of Lakshmi, who art the granter of all desires; hail to thee, the divine swan, dwelling in the Mánasa-lake of the minds of the good, †[2] ever soaring and singing in the highest ether. Hail to thee, who dost transcend all, and dwell within all, who hast a form transcending qualities, and whose shape is the full aggregate of the six kingly measures; ‡[3] Bráhma is the bee on the lotus of thy navel, O Lord, humming with the soft sound of Veda-murmur, though from him spring many verses; §[4]thy foot is the earth, the heaven is thy head, the cardinal points are thy ears, the sun and moon are thy eyes; thy belly is the egg of Brahmá, the globe of the world; thou art hymned by the wise as the infinite soul. From thee, the home of brightness, spring all these creatures, O Lord, as the host of sparks from the blazing fire, and when the time of destruction comes, they again enter thy essence, as at the end of the day a flock of birds enters the great tree in which they dwell. Thou flashest forth, and Greatest these lords of the world, who are parts of thee, as the ocean, disturbed with a continual flow, creates waves. Though the world is thy form, thou art formless; though the world is thy handiwork, thou art free from the bondage of
- ↑ * i. e. Lakshmí or Śrí.
- ↑ † Hansa— means swan and also supreme soul, i. e., Vishnu.
- ↑ ‡ War, peace, marching, encamping, dividing one's forces, seeking the alliance of a more powerful king.
- ↑ § Or sects. The word used for "bee" means literally the six-footed. The whole passage is full of double meanings, charana meaning foot, line, i.e., the fourth part of a stansa, and also sect.
