The Slaying of Madhu and Kaiṭabha from the Devi Mahātmya
At the end of the cosmic day, when the universe dissolved into the primordial ocean, the blessed lord Viṣṇu stretched out on the serpent Śeṣa and entered into meditative sleep. Then two fearsome asuras, the notorious Madhu and Kaiṭabha, issued forth from the wax in Viṣṇu’s ears, intent on slaying Brahmā, who was seated on the lotus that grew from Viṣṇu’s navel. When he saw the raging asuras and the sleeping Viṣṇu, Brahmā could think of nothing but to awaken him, and to that end he extolled Yoganidrā, who had settled over Viṣṇu’s eyes as his blessed sleep. The resplendent lord Brahmā extolled Her who rules the universe, who sustains and dissolves it. He extolled her who is incomparable. Brahmā said:
‘You are the mantras of consecration to the gods and the ancestors. At your bidding they are uttered, and they are your very embodiment. You are the nectar of immortality, O imperishable, eternal one. Truly, you abide as the transcendent being, yet in every moment you abide, inseparable and inexpressible, as the eternal source of all becoming. Indeed you are that.
You are Sāvitrī, the source of all purity and protection; you are the supreme mother of the gods.
By you is this universe supported, of you is this world born, by you is it protected, O Devī, and you always consume it at the end. You are the creative force at the world’s birth and its sustenance for as long as it endures. So even at the end of this world, you appear as its dissolution, you who encompass it all.
You are the great knowledge and the great illusion, the great intelligence, the great memory and the great delusion, the great goddess and the great demoness.
You are primordial matter, differentiating into the threefold qualities of everything. You are the dark night of periodic dissolution, the great night of final dissolution, and the terrifying night of delusion.
You are radiant splendor; you reign supreme yet are unassuming; you are the light of understanding. Modesty are you, and prosperity, contentment, tranquillity and forbearance.
Armed with sword and spear, and with club and discus, waging war with conch, bow and arrows, sling and iron mace, you inspire dread. Yet, you are pleasing, more pleasing than all else that is pleasing, and exceedingly beautiful. Transcending both highest and lowest, you are indeed the supreme sovereign.
Whatever exists, true or untrue, O soul of everything, you are the power of all that. By you, even he who creates, protects, and devours the world is subdued with sleep.
You have caused even Viṣṇu, Śiva, and I to assume our embodied forms. Who then can truly praise you?
Thus extolled, O Devī, may you with your exalted powers confound those unassailable asuras, Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
Let Viṣṇu, the lord of the world, be quickly awakened from his slumber and be roused to slay the two great asuras.’
Praised thus by the creator to rouse Viṣṇu into slaying Madhu and Kaiṭabha, then and there the dark goddess emerged from his eyes, mouth, nostrils, arms, heart, and chest, and appeared before Brahmā, who is born from the unmanifest.
And released by her, Viṣṇu, the lord of the world, arose from his serpent couch on the undifferentiated ocean and beheld the evil-natured Madhu and Kaiṭabha, exceedingly strong and courageous, seeing red with anger and determined to devour Brahmā.
Then the blessed, all-pervading Viṣṇu rose up and fought with them in hand-to-hand combat for five thousand years.
And they, mad with the arrogance of power and confounded by Mahāmāyā, exclaimed to him, ‘Ask a boon from us! ’
The blessed lord Viṣṇu said: ‘Since you are pleased with me, so be it. I will surely slay both of you now. What other boon is there to ask?”’
Thus deceived, and beholding that the world consisted entirely of water, they addressed the lotus-eyed Viṣṇu, saying: ‘Slay us where water does not flood the earth.’”
“‘So be it,’ said Viṣṇu, the wielder of conch, discus, and mace. Taking the two of them onto his lap, he cut off their heads with his discus.
Thus did the Devī herself appear when praised by Brahmā. Hear still more of her glory, which I will tell you.”
episode taken from: In Praise of the Goddess: The Devīmāhātmya and Its Meaning by Devadatta Kālī
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