“Daksha said, ’If the great god has been gratified with me,—­’if indeed, I have become an object of favour with him,—­if I have deserved his kindness,—­if the great Lord of all creatures is disposed to grant me boons,—­then let all these articles of mine that have been burnt, eaten, drunk, swallowed, destroyed, broken, and polluted,—­let all these articles, collected in course of these articles be of use to me.  Even this is the boon I crave.’  Unto him the many long years, and with great care and effort, go not for nothing.  Let illustrious Hara, the tearer of Bhaga’s eyes, said, ‘Let it be as thou sayest!’ Even these were the words of that illustrious progenitor of all creatures, that god of three eyes, that protector of righteousness.[1406] Having obtained that boon from Bhava, Daksha knelt down to him and adored that deity having the bull for his mark, by uttering his thousand and eight names.’

SECTION CCLXXXV

“Yudhishthira said, ’It behoveth thee, O sire, to tell me those names by which Daksha, that progenitor of creatures, adored the great deity.  O sinless one, a reverent curiosity impels me to hear them.’

“Bhishma said, ’Hear, O Bharata, what the names, both secret and proclaimed, are of that god of gods, that deity of extraordinary feats, that ascetic of secret vows.’

“Daksha said, ’I bow to thee, O lord of all the gods to the destroyer of the forces of the Asuras.  Thou art the paralyser of the strength of the celestial chief himself.  Thou art adored by both gods and Danavas.  Thou art thousand-eyed, thou art fierce-eyed, and thou art three-eyed.  Thou art the friend of the ruler of the Yakshas.  Thy hands and feet extend in all directions to all places.  Thy eyes also and head and mouth are turned on all sides.  Thy ears too are everywhere in the universe, and thou art thyself everywhere, O Lord!  Thou art shaft-eared, thou art large-eared, and thou art pot-eared.  Thou art the receptacle of the Ocean.  Thy ears are like those of the elephant, or of the bull, or like extended palms.  Salutations to thee!  Thou hast a hundred stomachs, a hundred revolutions, and a hundred tongues.  I bow to thee!  The utterers of the Gayatri sing thy praises in uttering the Gayatri, and the worshippers of the Sun adore thee in adoring the Sun.  The Rishis regard thee as Brahmana, as Indra, and as the (illimitable) firmament above.  O thou of mighty form, the Ocean and the Sky are thy two forms.  All the deities dwell in thy form even as kine dwell within the fold.  In thy body I behold Soma, and Agni, and the lord of the Waters, and Aditya, and Vishnu, and Brahmana, and Vrihaspati.  Thou, O illustrious one, art Cause and Effect and Action and Instrument of everything unreal and real, and thou art Creation and Destruction.  I bow unto thee that art called Bhava and Sarva and Rudra.  I bow unto thee that art the giver of boons.  I bow always unto thee that art the Lord