Being of immeasurable splendour who was beheld by you all with Uma, that divine lord, had assumed the form of a child for Uma’s sake.  Let us all go unto him.  That divine and illustrious one is the Supreme Lord of the world.  Ye gods, ye could not recognise that master of the universe.’  Then all the gods with the Grandsire repaired to that child, endued with the effulgence of the morning sun.  Beholding Maheswara, and knowing that he was the Supreme Being, the Grandsire Brahma thus adored him:  Thou art Sacrifice, O lord, thou art the stay and refuge of the universe.  Thou art Bhava, thou art Mahadeva, thou art the abode (of all things), and thou art the highest refuge.  This whole universe with its mobile and immobile creatures, is pervaded by thee.  O holy one, O lord of the past and the future, O lord of the world, O protector of the universe, let Sakra, afflicted with thy wrath, have thy grace.’

“Vyasa continued, ’Hearing these words of the lotus-born Brahma, Maheswara became gratified.  Desirous of extending his grace, he laughed aloud.  The celestials then gratified (with praise) both Uma and Rudra.  The arm of the thunder-wielding Sakra re-got its natural state.  That foremost one of all the gods, that destroyer of Daksha’s sacrifice, that divine lord having the bull for his sign, became gratified with the gods.  He is Rudra he is Siva, he is Agni, he is everything, and he hath knowledge of everything.  He is Indra, he is the Wind, he is the twin Aswins, and he is the lighting.  He is Bhava, he is Parjanya, he is Mahadeva, he is sinless.  He is the Moon, he is Isana, he is Surya, he is Varuna.  He is Kala, he is Antaka, he is Mrityu, he is Yama.[274] He is the day, and he is the night.  He is the fortnight, he is the month, he is the seasons.  He is the morning and evening-twilights, he is the year.  He is Dhatri, he is Vidhatri, he is the Soul of the universe, and he is the doer of all acts in the universe.  Though himself without body, it is he who is the embodied celestial.  Endued with great splendour he is adored and praised by all the gods.  He is One, he is Many, he is hundred and thousand.  Brahmanas versed in the Vedas say that he hath two forms.  These are the terrible and the auspicious.  These two forms, again, are multifarious.  His auspicious forms are water, light, and the moon.  Whatever is highly mysterious in the several branches of the Vedas, in the Upanishads, in the Puranas, and in those sciences that deal with the soul, is that God, viz., Maheswara, Mahadeva is even such.  That God is, again, without birth.  All the attributes of that God are not capable of being enumerated by me even if, O son of Pandu, I were to recite them continually for a thousand years.  Even unto those that are afflicted by all the evil planets, even unto those that are stained with every sin, that great protector, if they seek him, becomes gratified with them and granteth them salvation.  He granteth, and taketh away life and health and prosperity