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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 78 - Description of the Universal Ocean
Vasistha 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.
The rain water falling upon the stream of the ethereal Ganges, make it run in a thousand steam-lets, flowing with huge torrents, higher than the mountains of Meru and Mandāra.
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 sovereign lord of earth.
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.
The great mountains of Meru and Mandāra of Vindhya, sahya and Kailāsa, dived and moved in as fishes and sea monsters; the melted earth set as its soil, and large snakes floated there on like stalks of plant with their lotus like hoods.
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.
The twelve suns shone forth, as so many full-blown 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.
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 1.
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. 2
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.
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: 3.
The rushing tornado filled the air with uproar, and with one gust of wind, blasted the boundary mountain from its bottom into the air. 4
The furious winds collected the waters of the deep to the height of mountains; which ran with a great gurgling noise all about, inorder to deluge the earth under them.
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.
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.
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 eel caught in fishing nets.
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: 5.
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.
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.
Indra the god of heaven, with his body of the autumnal sky, and his eyes of the bubbling rain drops; was looking on the floating clouds in the midway skies, flowing as the currents of rivers on high.
The Puskara 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.
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.
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: 6.
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.
The floating mountains struck against the sphere of heaven, and broke in into fragments; when the fairies of heaven, floated as pretty lotuses on the surface of waters.
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.
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 up in his clutches.
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.
Footnotes
1. being darkened by the clouds
2. From their want of gravity on earth, they were attracted to the sun-the centre of gravity of the solar system
3. as if to see whether there remained any raining cloud still
4. So were the mountainous clouds, flung by the hands of Titans to the skies
5. the one sinking downwards, and the other rising upward
6. owing to the destruction of the earth
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