“Vyasa said, ’O highly significant is this matter that thou enquirest of me from surprise.  I will tell thee everything; listen attentively.  He that is called Narayana is older than the oldest ones.  For accomplishing some purpose, that creator of the universe took his birth as the son of Dharma.  On the mountain of Himavat he underwent the severest ascetic austerities.  Endued with mighty energy, and resembling fire or the sun (in splendour), he stood there with arms upraised.  Possessed of eyes like:  lotus-petals, he emaciated himself there for sixty-six thousand years, subsisting all the while upon air alone.  Once more undergoing severe austerities of another kind for twice that period, he filled the space between earth and heaven with his energy.  When by those austerities, O sire, he became:  like Brahma[269] he then beheld the Master, Origin, and Guardian of the Universe, the Lord of all the gods, the Supreme Deity, who is exceedingly difficult of being gazed at, who is minuter than the minutest and larger than, the largest, who is called Rudra,[270] who is the lord of all the superior ones, who is called Hara and Sambhu, who has matted locks on his head, who is the infuser of life into every form, who is the First cause of all immobile:  and mobile things, who is irresistible and of frightful aspect, who is of fierce wrath and great Soul, who is the All-destroyer, and of large heart; who beareth the celestial bow and a couple of quivers, who is cased in golden armour, and whose energy is infinite, who holdeth Pinaka, who is; armed with thunderbolt, a blazing trident, battle axe, mace, and a large sword; whose eye-brows are fair, whose locks are matted, who wieldeth the heavy short club, who hath the moon on his forehead, who is clad in tiger-skin, and who is armed with the bludgeon; who is decked with beautiful angadas, who hath snakes for his sacred thread, and who is surrounded by diverse creatures of the universe and by numerous ghosts and spirits, who is the One, who is the abode of ascetic austerities, and who is highly adored by persons of venerable age; who is Water, Heaven, Sky, Earth, Sun, Moon, Wind and Fire, and who is the measure of the duration of the universe.  Persons of wicked behaviour can never obtain a sight of that unborn one, that slayer of all haters of Brahmanas, that giver of emancipation.[271] Only Brahmanas of righteous conduct, when cleansed of their sins and freed from the control of grief, behold him with their mind’s eye.  In consequence of his ascetic austerities, Narayana obtained a sight of that unfading one, that embodiment of righteousness, that adorable one, that Being having the universe for his form.  Beholding that supreme Abode of all kinds of splendour, that God with a garland of Akshas round his neck, Vasudeva, with gratified soul, became filled with delight which he sought to express by words, heart, understanding, and body.  Then Narayana worshipped that Divine Lord, that First cause of the universe, that giver of boons, that puissant