Varaha Purana 3.16: Adhyaya 3, Shloka 16
Nārada’s Account of a Former Birth and a Hymn to Nārāyaṇa
सहस्रमूर्धानमनन्तपादम् अनेकबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम् । क्षराक्षरं क्षीरसमुद्रनिद्रं नारायणं स्तौम्यमृतं परेशम् ॥ ३.१६ ॥
sahasramūrdhānam anantapādam anekabāhuṁ śaśisūryanetram | kṣarākṣaraṁ kṣīrasamudranidraṁ nārāyaṇaṁ staumyamṛtaṁ pareśam || 3.16 ||
मैं नारायण को प्रणाम करता हूँ। उनके हज़ारों सिर हैं, पैर ख़त्म नहीं होते। हाथ भी बहुत हैं। उनकी आँखें चाँद और सूरज जैसी हैं। वो मरने वाली चीज़ भी हैं और जो कभी ख़त्म नहीं होती वो भी वोही हैं। वो दूध के समुंदर पर सोते हैं। वो कभी मरने वाले नहीं हैं और सबसे बड़े भगवान हैं।
Varāha (default, speaker not explicit in excerpt)
FAQs
It exemplifies a common Purāṇic archival feature: an opening or embedded stuti (hymn) that frames the narrative with cosmological identifiers (e.g., solar-lunar imagery, cosmic body motifs) and links the text to wider Vaiṣṇava literary conventions.
No terrestrial sacred site is named in this verse; the primary locus is cosmological—kṣīrasamudra (the Ocean of Milk), a mythic-cosmographic feature used across Purāṇic literature.
Rather than a direct moral injunction, the verse conveys a philosophical principle: the supreme reality is described as encompassing both change (kṣara) and permanence (akṣara), encouraging a contemplative, integrative view of existence within the Purāṇic worldview.
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