The sages of Naimisharanya had a question for Suta. He had said in passing that Vishnu once fought two demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, in the great ocean for five thousand years, and they wanted to know how two beings so mighty that even the gods could never overcome them were born in the water of a single sea, and why they were born, and why Vishnu killed them. So Suta told it. It was the hour of dissolution, when the three worlds had melted into one great mass of water. No earth remained, no sky, no direction left to name; only a fathomless ocean swayed on in silence. On that sea, on the coiled bed of Shesha the serpent, Janardana, the god of gods, lay asleep. His eyes were closed, his limbs lay without a tremor, and the sleep that held him was Yoganidra, who is the Devi herself: the Adya Shakti by whose will this universe is made, kept and gathered back into her, and the sleeper she held so still was her doing too.
In that hushed water a strange thing came to pass. From the dirt in the ears of the sleeping Vishnu two daityas took birth, Madhu and Kaitabha, and those mighty ones grew in the great ocean. They roamed it at play, here and there, and one day, in the middle of their play, a thought stopped the two huge-bodied brothers. No effect comes without a cause; that is the rule everywhere. A thing that is supported cannot exist without a support, and so the idea of support and supported kept returning to their minds. On what support did this vast and pleasant water rest? Who had made it? How had it come to be, and how did the two of them come to be sunk in it? How were they born, who had produced them, who were their mother and father? Of all this they knew nothing. They turned it over and reached no conclusion, and then Kaitabha said to Madhu, who was beside him in the water, “Brother Madhu, I believe that what keeps us in this water is some unmoving Shakti of great might. This whole water of the ocean is pervaded by her, and on her support it rests, and that same supreme Devi, beyond the beyond, is the cause of our existence too.”
Austerity and the boon of death at will
They were still thinking in many ways, and had grown attentive, when they heard in the sky a most charming sound: speech in the form of a single seed-syllable, the vagbija, aim. They took it to heart and began to practice it firmly. Then they saw a beautiful lightning flash across the sky, and they said to each other that without doubt this was the mantra, and this the saguna dhyana, the form to meditate on, made visible in the sky. The two daityas gave up food, controlled their senses, fixed their minds on that lightning-light, and sank into japa and meditation as into samadhi. For a thousand years they did this severe tapas, and the supreme Shakti was pleased with them. She saw the two of them firm in their resolve and utterly spent, and out of grace a voice came from the sky. “I am very pleased with your hard austerity. Ask the boon you desire, and I will surely give it.” The daityas said, “May our death be at our own wish. Give us this boon.” And the voice said, “By my grace you shall die only by your own wish. Neither danavas nor gods will be able to defeat you two brothers; of this there is no doubt.”
Holding that boon from Bhagavati, Madhu and Kaitabha grew drunk with pride and sported with the water creatures in the great ocean. After some time they happened to see Brahma, creator of the world, seated on his lotus. The sight made the two mighty ones eager for battle, and they said to him, “Fight with us. Otherwise leave this lotus seat at once and go wherever you like. If you are weak, what right have you to sit on this auspicious seat? Only a hero may enjoy it. You are a coward, so leave it quickly.” Prajapati Brahma fell into worry. He looked at the two strong heroes and thought, what can an ascetic like me do against them?
Brahma’s cry and the hymn to Yoganidra
Brahma knew every shastra, and he weighed the policies, sama, dana, bheda and the rest, against these two. He had no knowledge of their real strength, and by policy it is never proper to fight one whose strength is unknown. If he flattered these maddened, wicked demons, he would be displaying his own weakness, and once weakness was shown, either of them alone could kill him. Gifts and division did not fit them either. So the proper course was to wake the four-armed, mighty Vishnu who slept on Shesha; he would surely remove the danger. Resting on the lotus stalk that rose from Vishnu’s own navel and carried his seat at its head, the lotus-born took refuge in his mind with Vishnu, the destroyer of sorrow, and began to praise the lord of the world with auspicious names, to wake him from the stillness of Yoganidra. He called him Dinanatha, lord of the helpless, and Hari, Vamana, Madhava, Hrishikesha, Vasudeva, the inner controller, the bearer of discus and mace, the all-knowing lord of every world, and he begged him to rise, rise now and protect him. “These two maddened danavas want to kill me. I am in danger now; do you not know it? I am deeply pained and I have come to your refuge. If you neglect me now, your rule of protecting the world becomes meaningless.”
Vishnu, absorbed in Yoganidra, did not wake. Brahma thought: Vishnu has surely fallen under the power of Shakti, in the grip of Yoganidra, and that is why this righteous one does not wake. The two demons drunk with pride have come here to kill me; where shall I go, and who will give me refuge? He went on reflecting until he reached a conclusion. As a dead creature in this world perceives no sound and none of the other qualities, so Vishnu, his eyes closed in sleep, could know nothing. He had been praised in many ways and he did not leave his sleep, so sleep was not under his control; he had been mastered by sleep. Whoever comes under another’s control becomes that other’s servant, and so this Yoganidra had become the mistress of Vishnu, the lord of Lakshmi. The Shakti that had subdued even Vishnu, who is himself subject to Lakshmi, the daughter of the ocean, had surely brought the whole world under her control. Brahma himself, Vishnu, Shankara, Savitri, Lakshmi and Parvati, all of them stood under her; of this there was no doubt. And if Vishnu lay helpless under her, sleeping like an ordinary creature, what was to be said of anyone else? So he would praise Yoganidra herself, by whose grace Janardana, the eternal Vasudeva, would be freed from sleep and make ready for battle. Only that Mahashakti, who had made even Vishnu senseless and motionless, could protect him. Seated on the lotus stalk, single-minded, Brahma began to praise the Yoganidra who pervaded every limb of Vishnu’s body.
“You alone are the cause of this world; I have learned this from the words of the Veda. Even Purushottama Vishnu, who by your power gives discernment to the whole universe, has today come under Yoganidra. Who can know your play, which deludes all the world? By it I am bewildered and this Vishnu lies helpless. You dwell in the minds of all beings; which wise one among crores of gods can know the secret of you, who are without qualities? The scholars of Sankhya hold that the world arises from Purusha and Prakriti, and they call Prakriti, the producer of the world, insentient. Are you that? If you were inert, how could you now make Vishnu, the support of the world, senseless? Taking saguna form, Mahamaya, you play many plays, and who can fully know your secret works? The munis, imagining your qualities under the name Sandhya, meditate on you alone at the three junctures of the day. As buddhi you give knowledge to the whole world; as Lakshmi you give the gods their happiness; in all beings you exist as kirti and mati, dhriti and kanti, shraddha and priti: as fame, understanding, steadiness, radiance, faith and love. Seeing Vishnu under deep sleep, I have my proof: you are the mother of the whole world, and there is no need of a hundred arguments. Even the Vedas do not know you fully, for you are the cause of the Vedas too. If the priests did not utter your name, Svaha, at the oblation, the gods could not get their share; so it is you who nourish even the gods. As you protected us before, time after time, from the fears the daityas caused, protect us now; I am in your refuge, and seeing this terrible Kaitabha with Madhu I am overcome with fear. Only the dull, who do not know your special greatness, worship Vishnu and Shankara and the rest. Even Lakshmi, the daughter of the ocean, cannot wake her husband under your power; I think you have made Lakshmi sleep too. Blessed are those who have devotion to your feet, who give up the worship of other gods, who are absorbed in meditation on you and worship you as the Kamadhenu that fills every wish, and as the mother of all the world. You are the one Shakti of the world, and all you create is your play; as an actor acts in a drama he himself made, so you play many plays in the net of delusion you yourself made. At the beginning of the yuga you first created Vishnu and gave him pure power to protect all, and so protected the world; that very Vishnu you have now overpowered with sleep. You do whatever seems right to you. If, having created me, you do not wish to destroy me, give up this silence and have mercy on me. Why did you produce these two demons, who are like Death itself? Was it to mock me? Having made the world you sport in it at will and withdraw it again into yourself, so if you wish to destroy me, that is nothing strange. Then kill me. I have no worry at all about the pain of dying; only, you will surely bear this great stain, that the one you first made creator was killed by a daitya. Rise now, and take your wonderful form. You who play like a child, do as you wish: kill me, or kill these two daityas, or wake Vishnu so that he kills them. You alone are able to do all this.”
Praised so by Brahma, the tamasi Devi came out of Vishnu’s body and stood near him. She left him by his eyes and his mouth, by his nose, his arms, his heart and his chest, and that excellent tamasi Shakti rose and stood in the sky. The moment Janardana was free of her, his body had its consciousness again, and Brahma, seeing it, was supremely glad. Vishnu rose, yawning again and again, and saw Brahma trembling with fear, and asked him, in a voice deep as a cloud, how he had left his tapas and come here, and why he was so anxious and afraid. Brahma said, “From the dirt of your ears two great demons are born, most terrible and mighty, named Madhu and Kaitabha. From fear of them I have come to you. Protect me; I am frightened, and I do not know what to do.” Vishnu said, “Be fearless now. Their death is near; that is why they will come here to fight, and I will kill those two daityas.”
The sages’ doubt: who rules even Vishnu
Here Suta’s hearers stopped him. These were the sages of Naimisharanya who had asked for this story as the highest kind of hearing; they had told him themselves that hearing is of three kinds, sattvic, rajasic and tamasic, and that of all hearing the Puranas stand first, for they sharpen the mind and burn away sin. Such hearers do not let a doubt pass. The Vedas, the shastras, the Puranas and the wise, they said, have always held Brahma, Vishnu and Shambhu to be the three chief gods, and none greater: Brahma creates by rajas, Vishnu preserves by sattva, Shankara destroys at the dissolution by tamas, and the three are one murti in three forms. And of the three, Hari, Madhava, Purushottama, is the best; no one is more capable than Vishnu. “How did Yogamaya overpower that lord of the world and put him to sleep? Where did his consciousness go, where did his life’s activity vanish? Which is this Shakti you spoke of, that overcame even Vishnu? Where did she arise, how is she so powerful, what is her form?” They pressed him. “Suta, you are Vyasa’s disciple. Cut this doubt with the sword of knowledge.”
Suta granted the weight of it. “Who in this world can resolve this, when even Brahma’s sons, Sanaka and the rest, and Narada and Kapila and others are bewildered here? What shall I say?” Then he gave them what he had. Among the gods Vishnu is named the all-pervading protector of beings, and the gods bow to him as Narayana, Hrishikesha, Vasudeva, Janardana. Others worship the same Supreme as Mahadeva, Shankara, Shashishekhara, Shulapani, Vrishabhadhvaja; the Vedas praise him as Tryambaka and Kapardi, who bears Gauri as half his body and destroyed Daksha’s sacrifice. The scholars of the Veda worship him as Surya at the three sandhyas, and as Agni, Indra and Varuna. As the Ganga flows in many streams, so the sages say Vishnu is present in all the gods. The pramanas, the means of knowing, are three for some, perception, inference and the word; four in Nyaya, five in Mimamsa, seven among the Pauranikas; and what even these seven can hardly reach is Parabrahma. So one infers it by intellect, shastra and firm reasoning, and reflects on it through examples.
The example was the gods themselves. Nearly every Purana says that in Brahma lies the power of creating, in Vishnu the power of preserving, in Shiva the power of destroying, in Surya the power of lighting, in Shesha and the tortoise the power of bearing the earth. One Adya Shakti, taking a different form in each, pervades them all; she is the burning in fire and the motion in wind. Take her away and what is left? “Without the Kundalini shakti even Shiva becomes shava, a corpse.” From Brahma down to a blade of grass, a thing without shakti is worth nothing; a man without shakti cannot defeat an enemy, cannot walk, cannot even eat. In Vishnu she is the sattviki shakti, and without her he is inert; in Brahma she is the rajasi, and without her he cannot create; in Shiva she is the tamasi, and by her power he destroys. She makes the cosmos, keeps it, and unmakes it when she wills; without her neither Vishnu nor Shiva, Indra, Brahma, Agni, Surya nor Varuna can do his own work. The Shakti the sages had asked about was this one. She has two aspects, saguna and nirguna: those still bound by attachment serve her with qualities, those free of it serve her without. She is the mistress of dharma, artha, kama and moksha, and worshiped as she should be she grants every wish.
Why do people miss her? The ignorant, covered by maya, do not know her; some learned men know her and still mislead others; some dull pandits, driven by Kali, make a living of hypocrisy. In this Kali age many sects outside the Veda spring up, which happens in no other yuga. And the gods answer the question by their own conduct. Vishnu himself performs severe tapas for years on end, and so do Brahma and Shiva. “These three surely meditate on someone.” They perform sacrifice after sacrifice, and the one they meditate on, always, is that para Shakti who is called Brahma, whom they hold eternal. “So every shastra arrives at this: the Adishakti alone is always to be served.” Then he named his line. “This secret I heard from Krishna Dvaipayana; he heard it from Narada, Narada from his father Brahma, and Brahma from Vishnu’s own mouth.” The god the sages had called the best of the three was himself the first teacher of the doctrine that sets the Shakti above him. So the wise man lets no one’s talk turn him and worships Shakti with a settled mind; anyone can see how helpless a creature is once its shakti has gone, and so he strives to know the Adishakti, Bhagavati, the mother of the world. With that Suta went back to the ocean, where Vishnu was still giving Brahma his word that the two daityas would die.
The war of five thousand years
Even as Vishnu was saying it, the two maddened daityas arrived, still searching for Brahma. They stood in the water of that great ocean with nothing beneath them, unconcerned, and the proud demons said to Brahma, “Why did you run to him? Now fight. We will kill you while he looks on, and then we will kill this man who sleeps on the serpent bed. So either fight us two brothers, or say, I am your servant.” Vishnu answered them. “Fight with me as you please. I will smash the pride of you two daityas to pieces. If you wish to fight, and think yourselves great warriors, come.” Their eyes went red with anger, and the two terrible danavas, with no footing in the water, made ready. Madhu rushed at Vishnu first, and Kaitabha stood where he was. Between Madhu and Vishnu began the arm-fight, bahuyuddha, like two maddened heroes grappling, and when Madhu tired, Kaitabha fought; so, by turns, the two daityas, angry and blind with pride, fought the glorious Vishnu arm to arm. The witnesses of that battle were Brahma, and the Adishakti standing in the sky. Many days of fighting did not tire the daityas, and Vishnu began to feel weariness. When five thousand years had passed in fighting, he began to think of some means for their death. “I have fought with them five thousand years,” he thought, “and these terrible danavas are not tired and I am. This is a great wonder. Where have my valor and strength gone? They are well while they fight me. What is the cause? I must think carefully now.” The two daityas saw him worried and were delighted, and they spoke in voices deep as a cloud. “Vishnu, if you have no strength left, or are tired of fighting, fold your hands on your head and say, I am the servant of you two. Or if you have the power, come and fight us. Today we will kill you, and then this four-faced one as well.” Vishnu answered them sweetly, by the policy of sama. “It is the sanatana dharma that heroes do not strike one who is tired, or frightened, or has laid down his weapons, or has fallen, or is a child. I have fought here five thousand years. I am alone, and you two brothers are heroes of equal strength who rest by turns in between. Now let me also rest a little, and then I will fight again, no doubt of it. You two rest a while as well, mighty and maddened as you are, and then, rested, I will fight you by just dharma.” The two danavas, still wishing to fight, went some distance off and rested. Seeing them seated far away, four-armed Vasudeva began to think of the means of their death, and considering it in a state of dhyana he knew: these two hold from the Devi the boon of death at their own wish, and that is why they do not tire.
The knowledge settled on him heavily. He had fought in vain, and all his labor was wasted. Knowing the boon, how could he fight now? And if he did not fight, how would these daityas leave this place? If they were not destroyed, the two invincible boon-holders would keep giving pain to all. The boon the Devi had given them was a very hard one: even a creature deeply miserable, sick and wretched never wishes to die of its own will, so why would these maddened daityas ever wish it? So he set aside every worry and turned to the refuge of the Adishakti, Bhagavati Vidya-devi, who fulfills all desires; without her being pleased no desire is fulfilled. The moment he thought it he saw her in the sky, Yoganidra, Bhagavati Shiva, of most beautiful form, and Ananta Vishnu, the lord of yoga, folded his hands and praised the boon-giving Bhagavati Bhuvaneshvari for the destruction of the two daityas. “Mahamaya, maker of creation and destruction, without beginning or end, Chandi, Shiva who gives bhukti and mukti, enjoyment and liberation both, salutation to you. I do not know your saguna form or your nirguna form; how could I know your countless wonderful deeds? I have learned your most irresistible power today, when I lay senseless, merged in the Yoganidra you sent. Brahma woke me again and again with great effort, and I could not wake, because my six senses were contracted. When you withdrew that power I woke and fought these danavas in many ways, and in that fight I tired and they did not, for they had your boon. When they ran to kill Brahma I challenged them again to the duel, and I fought them fiercely in the great ocean. Afterwards I learned that you gave them the wonderful boon of death at their own wish. Knowing this I have come today to your refuge, you who give refuge. So help me now, Mother, for I am very weary from fighting. By your boon the two danavas are maddened with pride, and those two sinful daityas want to kill me. What shall I do? Where shall I go?” When Vasudeva, the eternal lord of the world, had bowed and said this, the Devi smiled and said to him, “Hari, fight them again. These two heroes can be killed only after they are deluded by deceit. I will delude them with my sidelong glance. Narayana, when I have deluded them by my maya, kill them quickly.”
The goddess’s glance and the birth of Medini
Hearing the Devi’s words, so full of affection, Vishnu came to the battlefield in that ocean and stood, and the two mighty daityas, eager to fight, came and took their positions. They were very pleased to see him. “Stay, Vishnu, stay. Hold that victory and defeat depend on destiny, and fight with us now. The strong win, and sometimes the weak also win. A great person like you should never feel joy or grief in victory or defeat. As the enemy of the danavas you have defeated many daityas before, and now, fighting the two of us, you have been defeated.” They made ready, and the moment Vishnu of wonderful deeds struck them with his fist, the two strength-maddened daityas struck Vishnu with theirs, and a most terrible fight went on among them. In the middle of it Narayana Shri Hari turned toward Bhagavati with a pitiful gaze. Seeing him in that state, the red-eyed Bhagavati looked at the two daityas and laughed, and struck them with her sidelong glances, soft-smiling and full of love, like a second set of Kama’s arrows. The glance left the sinful Madhu and Kaitabha utterly deluded. Blinded with lust, taking it for Bhagavati’s special favor to them, pierced by Kama’s arrow, they stood still where they were, gazing at the Bhagavati of matchless beauty. Vishnu understood the Devi’s work. Knowing the two lustful danavas to be deluded by her maya, intent on his purpose, he spoke to them in deep, sweet, cloud-like words. “Ask whatever boon you wish. I am very pleased by your fighting, so I will give you the boon you desire. I have seen many danavas fight, and I have seen or heard of none like you two brothers; your matchless strength has satisfied me, and I will fulfill the wishes of you both.” The two lotus-eyed, lovesick daityas, still gazing at Mahamaya, who delights the world, answered him proudly. “Vishnu, we are givers. We have never asked anyone for anything, so why do you want to give to us? If you wish to receive, ask what you want, and we can give it. Ask your boon. We are very pleased with you for your wonderful fight.” Vishnu replied, “If you two are pleased with me, give me this boon: that you two brothers now be slain by my hands.”
The brothers were astonished, and knowing themselves cheated by him they grew anxious with grief. After a while, thinking it over, and seeing the whole earth without dry land, water everywhere, they said to Vishnu, “If you are truthful, first grant the boon you offered us before. Then kill us on a wide expanse of ground without water. Only there can we be killed by you, and nowhere else. So, Madhava, be truthful now.” Vishnu remembered his Sudarshana chakra and laughed. “As you say. I will kill you two today on ground that is waterless and wide.” And he, whom the gods worship, widened his two thighs and showed dry land on the water itself. “Look, here is no water. It is earth. So place your heads here. Only by doing so will we and you both be proved truthful today.” The two daityas heard his factual words and thought about them, and then they enlarged their bodies to thousands of yojanas in length and in breadth. Vishnu enlarged his two thighs to double that. The daityas were astonished at it, and to prove their word true they laid their heads on that most wonderful thigh, and in that moment glorious Vishnu, with the Sudarshana chakra, swiftly severed their huge heads, lying on his thigh, from their trunks.
When Madhu and Kaitabha died, the whole ocean was covered with their meda, their fat, and from then the earth got the name Medini, and for this reason clay came to be held unfit to eat. “I have answered exactly the question you asked,” Suta told the munis. The wise should always worship Mahamaya Mahavidya, for that Parashakti is to be worshiped by all the gods and all the danavas, and there is no other deity greater than she in the three worlds. This is ever true, and it is the conclusion of the Vedas and the shastras: that Parashakti should always be worshiped, in her saguna form or in her nirguna form.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)