DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL OCEAN.
Argument:—Rain waters running as rivers, and these meeting
together and making an universal ocean.
Vasishtha continued:—The rain storm and falling hails and snows,
shattered the surface of the earth to parts and parcels; and the
violence of the waters was increasing, like the oppression of kings in
Kali or last days of the world.
2. The rain water falling upon the stream of the etherial Ganges, make
it run in a thousand streamlets, flowing with huge torrents, higher than
the mountains of Meru and Mandara.
3. Here the waves rose to the path of the sun, and there the waters sank
down and lay dull in the mountain caves; and then the dull element made
the universal ocean, as when a fool is made the soveran lord of earth.
4. The great mountains were hurled down as straws, in the deep and broad
whirlpools of water; and the tops of the huge surges, reached to the far
distant sphere of the sun.
5. The great mountains of Meru and Mandara of Vindhya, Sahya and
Kailása, dived and moved in as fishes and sea monsters; the melted earth
set as its soil, and large snakes floated thereon like stalks of plant
with their lotus like hoods.
6. The half burnt woods and floating plants, were as its moss and
bushes, and the wet ashes of the burnt world, were as the dirty mud
underneath the waters.
7. The twelve suns shone forth, as so many fullblown lotuses, in the
large lake of the sky; and the huge and heavy cloud of Puskara, with its
dark showers of rain, seemed as the blue lotus bed, filled with the
sable leaves.
8. The raging clouds roared aloud from the sides of mountains, like the
foaming waves of the ocean; and the sun and moon rolled like two pieces
of sapphires over cities and towns (being darkened by the clouds).
9. The gods and giants and people at large, were blown up and borne into
the air; till at last they flew up from their lightness and fell into
the disc of the sun. (_i.e._ From their want of gravity on earth, they
were attracted to the sun—the centre of gravity of the solar system).
10. The clouds rained in torrents with loud clattering noise, and their
currents carried down the floating rocks, as if they were mere bubbles
of water, into the distant sea.
11. The deluging clouds were rolling in the air, after pouring their
water in floods on earth; as if they were in search after other clouds,
with their open mouths and eyes (as if to see whether there remained any
raining cloud still).
12. The rushing tornado filled the air with uproar, and with one gust of
wind, blasted the boundary mountain from its bottom into the air. (So
were the mountainous clouds, flung by the hands of Titans to the skies).
13. The furious winds collected the waters of the deep to the height of
mountains; which ran with a great gurgling noise all about, in order to
deluge the earth under them.
14. The world was torn to pieces by the clashing of bodies, driven
together by the tempestuous winds; which scattered and drove millions of
beings pell-mell, and over against one another.
15. The hills floated on the waves as straws, and dashing against the
disc of the sun, broke it into pieces as by the pelting of stones.
16. The great void of the universe, spread as it were, the great net of
waters in its ample space, and caught in them the great hills,
resembling the big eels caught in fishing nets.
17. The big animal bodies that were rising or plunging in the deep,
either as living or dead described the eddies made by whirlpools and
whales on the surface of the waters (_i.e._ the one sinking downwards,
and the other rising upward).
18. Those that have been yet alive, were floating about the tops of the
sinking mountains, which resembled the floating froths of the sea; while
the gods were fluttering as gnats and flies over them.
19. The spacious firmament on high, filled with innumerable rain drops,
shining as bubbles of water in the air; appeared as the thousand eyes of
Indra, looking on the rains below.
20. Indra the god of heaven, with his body of the autumnal sky, and his
eyes of the bubbling raindrops; was looking on the floating clouds in
the midway skies, flowing as the currents of rivers on high.
21. The Pushkara and Avartaka clouds with their world overflowing
floods; met and joined together in mutual embrace, as two winged
mountains flying in air, and clashing against one another.
22. These clouds being at last satisfied with their devouring the world,
under their all swallowing waters; were now roaring loudly and flying
lightly in the air, as if they were dancing with their uplifted hilly
arms.
23. The clouds were pouring forth their floods of water above, and the
mountain tops were flaming in the midway sky; and the huge snakes that
had supported the earth, were now diving deep into the mud of the
infernal regions (owing to the destruction of the earth).
24. The incessant showers filled the three regions, like the triple
stream of Ganges running in three directions; they drowned the highest
mountains, whose tops floated as froths in the universal ocean.
25. The floating mountains struck against the sphere of heaven, and
broke it into fragments; when the fairies of heaven, floated as pretty
lotuses on the surface of waters.
26. The universe was reduced to an universal ocean, which roared with a
tremendous noise; and the three worlds being split to pieces, were borne
away into the waters of the endless deep.
27. There remained no one to save another, nor any one that was not
swept away by the flood; for who is there that can save us, when the all
devouring time grasps us in his clutches.
28. There remained neither the sky nor the horizon, there was no upside
nor downward in the infinite space; there was no creation nor a creature
any where, but all were submerged under one infinite sheet of water.