Shloka 9
शिशुमार-रूपं, ध्रुवबन्धनम्, वृष्टिचक्र-पालनम्, नारायणाधारत्वम्
विवस्वान् अंशुभिस् तीक्ष्णैर् आदाय जगतो जलम् सोमे मुञ्चत्य् अथेन्दुश् च वायुनाडीमयैर् दिवि नालैर् विक्षिपते ऽभ्रेषु धूमाग्न्यनिलमूर्तिषु
vivasvān aṃśubhis tīkṣṇair ādāya jagato jalam some muñcaty athenduś ca vāyunāḍīmayair divi nālair vikṣipate 'bhreṣu dhūmāgnyanilamūrtiṣu
Vivasvān, the Sun, with his piercing rays draws up the waters of the world and releases them into Soma, the Moon. Thereafter Indu, the Moon, through heavenly channels formed of wind-currents, disperses that water into the clouds—taking forms of smoke, fire, and moving air—so it may be spread above.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Mechanism of evaporation and rain: Sun-to-Moon transfer and dispersal into clouds via wind-conduits.
Teaching: Cosmological
Quality: revealing
Concept: Waters are drawn up by the Sun, deposited into the Moon, and then distributed through wind-channel conduits into clouds, manifesting as smoke, fire, and moving air forms.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: See science and sacred order as complementary; practice mindful reverence for air-water cycles and the interdependence of elements.
Vishishtadvaita: Elemental processes are real and ordered, functioning as the Lord’s embodied cosmos (acit) under His immanent governance.
Vishnu Form: Narayana
Antaryamin: Yes
FAQs
This verse presents the Sun as drawing up terrestrial waters and the Moon as redistributing them into clouds, portraying celestial bodies as instruments of cosmic regulation.
He describes wind-made “channels” in the sky through which the Moon disperses the collected water into clouds, expressing a Purāṇic mechanism for atmospheric circulation.
Even when not named in the verse, the Vishnu Purana frames such orderly natural operations as part of Vishnu’s sustaining sovereignty—cosmic processes functioning through divinely governed order.