MATSYAVATARA

 

MATSYAVATARA

At a time when naimittika pralayam happened at the end of a Brahmakalpam, all the worlds were at the verge of getting immersed. The four vEdas emerged out of BrahmA who woke up from his sleep. The demon named hayagreeva abducted all the vEdas.

In order to retrieve the vEdas, Lord Vishnu took to a small fish form and got himself caught into the hands of a rajarishi named Satyavrata. He in turn left it in the water. Immediately the fish pleaded the rishi, not to leave him like that as he might be consumed by bigger fish. So he took the fish and slid it into the kamanDala waters, where the fish outgrew it overnight and pleaded again to be rescued. The rishi at once transferred it to a bigger vessel, later to a pond, then to a river and so on as it kept growing. Finally the rishi left the fish in the sea and curiously wanted to know from the fish who he was. By then the fish had grown 100 yojana long and correspondingly huge. As the Rishi questioned, the fish replied that within seven days from then all the 3 worlds would be submerged. An enormous boat will sail on the water with the saptarishis and instructed the rishi to join them along with all creatures.

As they would be happily meandering on the waters suddenly a fierce hurricane will tremble the boat. With the help of a lengthy snake the boat will have to be tied to the horn on the fish's face. The fish later said, "I will take care of the boat until everything calms down. You will realise my value at that  time. Saying so, the fish disappeared.

Stunned by hearing this, Satyavrata waited patiently until that period and everything happened as said. Taking the Matsya form, the Lord jumped and played in the water, at the same time safeguarding the boat and retrieved all the vEdas abducted by the demon too.