INVOCATIONS TO VISHNU AND SIVA 253
( These lie mentions by name, and thinks of them as all
'
lighted by the sun.) May my heart and my will be drawn
to the path of virtue; may my desires be fulfilled in this life and in the next. To you, Brahma, who have created
water, light, amritam, & c, to you I offer adoration.'
This prayer finished, he breathes heavily through his left nostril, and thereby puts to flight all the sins contained in his body. Then, closing the left nostril with either the thumb or the middle finger of the right hand, he thinks of
:
Vishnu, whom he addresses in these terms
'
Come, Vishnu, come to my chest, and stay there, stay there, stay there a long time.'
He then fancies Vishnu seated on his chest. This god is brown in colour, he has four arms, he carries a shell in one hand, the weapon called sankha in another, in the third a cholera, and in the fourth a lotus. He rides on the bird of prey garuda, The Brahmin thinks of him as omnipresent in the fourteen worlds and upholding everything by his power. Then he says:
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Glory to the lesser worlds l '
!( These he mentions by their names.)
'
I think of them, of water, and of amritam.'
By virtue of this prayer all his sins are blotted out.
He then thinks of Siva, whom he invokes as follows
:
'
Come, Siva, come to my forehead!
Stay, stay, stay there a long time.'
He imagines Siva seated on his forehead. This god is
white; he carries the trisula or trident in one hand, and a small drum in the other; on his forehead is a new moon.
He has five faces, and each face has three eyes; he rides on an ox. He is represented further as the god self-creating and self-sufficient, as the universal destroyer. Then the
Brahmin says:
' '
Glory to all the lesser worlds!( These he mentions by name.)
'
Then he adds, speaking to Siva: Destroyer of everyi thing in the fourteen worlds, destroy my sins also.'
paradise of Brahma. They always add the word loka, which means a place( locus).— Ed.
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There are seven lesser worlds, the names of which are Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Rasatala, Talatala, Mahatala, Patala. The last is the infernal regions, the lowest of all. Ed.