Varaha Purana 69.36: Adhyaya 69, Shloka 36
Agastya’s Vision of Varuṇa as Nārāyaṇa in Ilāvṛta
Pūrva Bhāga · Nārāyaṇa-tattva / Cosmological Self-identification
तापस उवाच । अहं नारायणो देवो जलरूपी सनातनः । येन व्याप्तमिदं विश्वं त्रैलोक्यं सचराचरम् ॥ ६९.३६ ॥
tāpasa uvāca | ahaṃ nārāyaṇo devo jalarūpī sanātanaḥ | yena vyāptam idaṃ viśvaṃ trailokyaṃ sacarācaram || 69.36 ||
tApasa uvAcha | ahaM nArAyaNo devo jalarUpI sanAtanaH | yena vyAptamidaM vishvaM trailokyaM sacharAcharam || 69.36 ||
Asceta rzekł: "Jam jest Nārāyaṇa, istota boska, wieczny, o postaci wody, przez którego przeniknięte jest to całe wszechświat, trzy światy wraz ze wszystkim, co się porusza i co nieruchome."
Sandhi Notes
- sacarācaram = sa + cara + acaram
- trailokyaṃ is dvigu (tri+loka)
Tāpasa (Ascetic)
The divine is both the material-like support (water imagery) and the all-pervading presence across all realms and beings.
Contemplate the sacred in all entities (cara-acara) to reduce divisive perception; practice reverence toward nature and life as pervaded by Nārāyaṇa.
Nārāyaṇa as the all-pervading ground (vyāpti) identified with the cosmic waters (āpaḥ), from which manifestation and dissolution are conceived; ‘water-form’ signals both ritual purity and ontic substratum.
Implicit āpaḥ motif: the deity as primordial waters that carry the cosmos; pervasion of ‘moving and unmoving’ parallels yajña’s reach to all beings (sacarācara).
Nirguṇa/para-brahman framed through saguṇa epithet: immanence (antaryāmitva) and transcendence (sanātanatva) held together; echoes of Nārāyaṇa as the inner-pervader of the three worlds.
Varāha Purāṇa: cosmological passages describing pralaya-waters and Nārāyaṇa’s immanence
FAQs
It reflects a common Purāṇic literary device in which a speaker self-identifies with an all-pervading cosmic principle, integrating cosmology (trailokya) with metaphysical language (vyāpti, pervasion) characteristic of early medieval Sanskrit religious literature.
No specific geographic location is named in this verse; the reference is cosmographic (“the three worlds”), a standard Purāṇic model rather than a local toponym.
The verse primarily conveys a philosophical instruction: the cosmos—including living and non-living entities—is presented as pervaded by a single enduring principle, a framing often used to support ideals of restraint, reverence toward life, and responsible conduct toward the natural world.
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