Assuming the shape of a fish, I have saved you from
this cataclysm. Manu will create (again) all beings--gods, _Asuras_ and
men, all those divisions of creation which have the power of locomotion
and which have it not. By practicing severe austerities he will acquire
this power, and with my blessing, illusion will have no power over him."
"'So saying the fish vanished instantly. And Vaivaswata Manu himself
became desirous of creating the world. In this work of creation illusion
overtook him and he, therefore, practised great asceticism. And endowed
with ascetic merit, Manu, O ornament of Bharata's race, again set about
his work of creating all beings in proper and exact order. This story
which I have narrated to thee and the hearing of which destroyeth all
sin, is celebrated as the Legend of the Fish. And the man who listeneth
every day to this primeval history of Manu, attaineth happiness and all
other objects of desire and goeth to heaven.'"
SECTION CLXXXVII
"Then the virtuous king Yudhishthira in all humility again enquired of
the illustrious Markandeya, saying, 'O great _Muni_, thou hast seen many
thousands of ages pass away. In this world there is none so longlived as
thou! O best of those that have attained the knowledge of Supreme
Spirit, there is none equal to thee in years except the great-minded
_Brahma_ living in the most exalted place. Thou, O Brahmana, worshippest
_Brahma_ at the time of the great dissolution of the universe, when this
world is without sky and without the gods and _Danavas_.
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