Shloka 100
दुर्वासाशापः, क्षीरसागरमन्थनम्, श्रीः (लक्ष्मी) उद्भवः तथा श्रीस्तुतिः
विश्वावसुमुखास् तस्या गन्धर्वाः पुरतो जगुः घृताचीप्रमुखा ब्रह्मन् ननृतुश् चाप्सरोगणाः
viśvāvasumukhās tasyā gandharvāḥ purato jaguḥ ghṛtācīpramukhā brahman nanṛtuś cāpsarogaṇāḥ
The Gandharvas—led by Viśvāvasu—sang sweetly before her; and, O Brahman, the hosts of Apsarases, headed by Ghṛtācī, danced in accompaniment.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Śrī-Lakṣmī’s manifestation and her choosing of Hari (Śrī-samudra-manthana context)
Teaching: Cosmological
Quality: authoritative
Vishnu Form: Narayana
Bhakti Type: shanta
Lakshmi Presence: Sri
FAQs
They function as celestial witnesses and celebrants—music and dance marking events as divinely acknowledged within the moral order (dharma) that sustains kingship and society.
In Parāśara’s narration, such beings appear when an event carries cosmic or moral weight; their song and dance signal that the episode is aligned with the wider, divinely governed order.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Purāṇic frame treats orderly sovereignty and auspicious rites as operating under Vishnu’s supreme governance, with celestial beings reflecting that higher, sustaining reality.