Mārkaṇḍeya Māyā Vision

The eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of the twelfth Skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tell of Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi. He did tapas (austerity) for ten crore years. Indra tried to disturb him and failed. Nara-Nārāyaṇa visited him. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu showed him his Māyā (the power by which the world appears), as a pralaya flood, a divine child on a leaf, and the whole universe inside the child’s body. At the end Bhagavān Śiva and Pārvatī appeared to him and gave him varas (boons).

Mārkaṇḍeya’s tapas

Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi was a famous Bhārgava ṛshi (seer) of the line of Mṛkaṇḍu. He did tapas for a time beyond thought: ten crore years (daśa-koṭi varshāṇi). All this time he stayed in samādhi (deep absorption). His mind, body and senses were joined as one and still. The Bhāgavata compares him to a calm ocean when the wind has stopped, clear and undisturbed to the depths. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 8)

Indra’s failed attempt

Indra saw Mārkaṇḍeya’s yogic power growing. He feared what it would mean for the order of the worlds. So he sent Manmatha (Kāma), the deva of desire, with the apsarasas led by Puñjikasthalī and other beings of the devas, to disturb the tapas.

They came down to his āśrama (hermitage) with every kind of distraction: music, dance, sweet scent, beauty and enchantment. But none of them could break into his samādhi. His mind was so steady that all this beauty of the devas passed before him like reflections on still water. It was seen, but it did not touch the depths. Manmatha and the apsarasas went back, having failed completely. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 8)

The visit of Nara-Nārāyaṇa

Nara-Nārāyaṇa are the twin ṛshi forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu. They live at Badarikāśrama. They came to visit Mārkaṇḍeya’s āśrama. The ṛshi was so deep inside his samādhi that he did not see them even when the two supreme ṛshis stood before him. He knew nothing of himself, of the world, or of his guests.

At last Mārkaṇḍeya came out of samādhi and saw Nara-Nārāyaṇa standing in front of him. His heart filled with reverence. He rose and bowed low. He honoured them with the offerings of pūjā (worship): āvāhana (invitation), āsana (a seat), pādya (water for the feet), arghya (water of welcome), gandha (sandal paste), pushpa (flowers), dhūpa (incense) and dīpa (lamp).

Then he sang a stotra (hymn of praise). In it he called the two the supreme ṛshis in whom the whole universe rests. He praised them as the twin forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu, who hold creation and moksha (liberation) in their two natures.

Nara-Nārāyaṇa were pleased with his devotion. They offered to show him the Māyā-śakti (power of Māyā) of Bhagavān Vishṇu. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapters 8–9)

The pralaya vision

Then Bhagavān Vishṇu showed his Māyā-śakti to Mārkaṇḍeya directly. All at once the whole world the ṛshi had known was under water: the āśrama, the forests, the earth and the sky. A pralaya flood (the flood of dissolution) covered everything. In every direction he saw only endless water that reached the horizons without a shore. There was no sun, no moon and no stars. There was only water, darkness, and the sound of wind and waves.

Mārkaṇḍeya floated helpless on this boundless ocean. The cosmic winds and waves threw him about. His body was worn out and his mind was overcome by what he saw. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 9)

The divine child on the leaf

In the middle of the pralaya ocean Mārkaṇḍeya saw a pippala tree (a sacred fig tree) floating on the first waters. On one of its branches lay a divine infant, perfectly still. The child shone with great light. His skin was dark and his beauty had no equal. He rested on a large banyan leaf. His body gave off a light that lit the darkness of the pralaya.

This child was Bāla-Vishṇu. He is Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of an infant who keeps himself alive on the first leaf when all the worlds dissolve, with all creation drawn into his body. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 9)

Inside the child’s body

Mārkaṇḍeya looked at the divine child in wonder. The child breathed in and drew the ṛshi into his body with his breath. Mārkaṇḍeya suddenly found himself inside the child’s cosmic form.

Inside, he saw the whole universe. He saw all the lokas (worlds), from Bhūloka to Satyaloka, with all their mountains, rivers, oceans, forests and living beings. He saw all the devas, ṛshis, gandharvas and humans busy with their work. He saw the whole of creation in all its detail. The universe that seemed to have dissolved in the pralaya was there, whole and unbroken, in the body of this one infant. Mārkaṇḍeya walked through it for many years and never stopped marvelling. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 9)

Coming out and looking for the child

Then the child breathed out. Mārkaṇḍeya was thrown out of the body, back into the pralaya ocean. He saw the infant again on the pippala leaf and ran towards him, full of wonder and longing. But as he reached out, the vision dissolved. The pippala tree, the leaf, the infant and the pralaya ocean all vanished. He found himself back in his own āśrama on the bank of the river Pushpabhadrā. Everything was as usual, as if nothing had happened.

Sūta Maharshi is telling this to Śaunaka and the ṛshis gathered with him. He says that some call the vision real, as if Mārkaṇḍeya had truly lived through many kalpas and watched the pralaya. But in truth it was the Māyā of Bhagavān Vishṇu working in the span of a moment. It showed in a flash what would normally take ages of the cosmos to see. The flood of birth, death and rebirth that all living beings pass through is nothing but the Māyā of Paramātmā. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 9)

Śiva and Pārvatī appear

After the Māyā vision Mārkaṇḍeya went back to his samādhi. Bhagavān Śiva (Rudra) was crossing the sky with Pārvatī and his gaṇas (attendants). He looked down and saw the Maharshi sunk in meditation. Śiva did not appear only from outside. He rose suddenly inside the ṛshi’s own awareness, in the inner ākāśa (space) of the cave of his citta (mind), called citta-guhā.

Mārkaṇḍeya came out of samādhi and saw before him a shining figure with ten arms. He had jaṭās (matted hair) of lightning green and wore a tiger skin. He held a śūla (trident), gadā (mace), ḍhāl (shield), japamālā (prayer beads), ḍamaru (small drum), kapāla (skull-bowl), khaḍga (sword) and dhanus (bow). Mārkaṇḍeya offered pūjā to Śiva, Pārvatī and the gaṇas. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 10)

Śiva’s praise of the brahma-jñānī

Before giving any vara, Bhagavān Śiva spoke to Mārkaṇḍeya with great honour. He said that brahma-jñānīs (those who have realised the supreme reality) are worshipped by Śiva himself, by Bhagavān Vishṇu and by Brahmā. The reason is this. Tīrthas (holy places and sacred waters) make a person pure only after a long time of staying near them. But the darśana (sight) of a brahma-jñānī makes a person pure at once. The speech, the sight and the touch of such a person purify even those who carry great pāpa (sin).

“Sacred waters alone are not tīrthas; lifeless stones alone are not devas. These purify only after long time. But you, by darśana alone, purify.”

Śiva added that brahma-jñānīs see no difference between Śiva, Vishṇu, Brahmā and themselves. They see no difference between themselves and other beings either. For this reason the devas themselves bow to them. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 10)

The varas

Bhagavān Śiva asked Mārkaṇḍeya to ask for any vara. The ṛshi saw that Śiva’s darśana was itself the highest vara. He said: “What can I ask of you? Your darśana alone fulfils all desires and makes every saṅkalpa (resolve) come true.” Still, he asked for one vara: firm bhakti (devotion) to Śrī Hari, to Śiva, and to their pure devotees.

Śiva gave him this and also gave him these:

Tri-kāla jñāna: knowledge of the past, the present and the future.
Aparokshānubhava: direct experience of the ātman (the self), not knowledge from reasoning or from scripture, but immediate realisation.
Vairāgya: perfect freedom from attachment.
Purāṇa-ācāryatva: the place and work of a teacher of the Purāṇas to the world.
Freedom from old age and death for the whole of the present kalpa, and a fame that never dies and makes pure all who hear it.

Pārvatī also honoured and blessed the ṛshi. Then Śiva went on his way. As he travelled he told Pārvatī the story of Mārkaṇḍeya’s tapas and of his Māyā vision. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 10)

The fruit of hearing this account

Sūta Maharshi ends with this. Whoever tells or hears this account of Mārkaṇḍeya’s Māyā vision faithfully, which shows the highest Māyā-śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu and praises it, will be freed from saṃsāra (the round of birth and death) that comes from the vāsanās (habits) of karma. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 10)

Sources

Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 8 (the tapas, Indra’s attempt, the visit of Nara-Nārāyaṇa)
Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 9 (the pralaya vision, the child on the leaf, inside the child’s body, the return)
Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 10 (Śiva and Pārvatī, the varas, the fruit of hearing)