English
The Matsya Avatar and Manu
Source: Srimad Bhagavata Purana, Book 8, Chapter 24 (also in the Matsya Purana)
Long ago there lived a righteous king named Satyavrata, lord of the Dravida land. He had given himself to austerity and lived on nothing but water.
One day, standing in the Kritamala river, he was offering water to his ancestors. As he lifted the water in his cupped palms, a tiny fish appeared in it.
He was about to let it slip back into the river when the fish spoke: “O king, you are kind to the helpless. The big creatures of this river will eat me. Please do not leave me here.”
The king's heart melted. He placed the little fish in his water pot, his kamandalu, and carried it back to his hermitage.
But in a single night the fish grew so large that the pot could no longer hold it. “Give me a bigger place,” it said. He put it in a large jar, and it outgrew that too. He put it in a pond, and in a moment it filled the pond. One lake after another became too small for it.
At last the king carried it to the ocean. Again the fish pleaded, “Brave one, there are huge crocodiles here. Do not leave me in the sea.”
The king stopped short. A fish that fills whole lakes in a day could be no ordinary creature. Folding his hands, he asked, “Who are you, who bewilder us in the form of a fish?”
Then the king answered his own question: “Such a play can only be Lord Narayana's. Lord, why have you taken this form?” And Sri Hari, in the form of the fish, replied:
“On the seventh day from today, the three worlds will sink into the ocean of dissolution. At that time a great boat sent by me will come to you. Gather all the healing herbs and all the seeds, small and large, and board it with the seven sages and every kind of living being. When the boat is tossed about by fierce winds, I will appear. Tie the boat to my horn with the great serpent Vasuki.”
Saying this, the Lord vanished. Satyavrata spread kusha grass, sat facing the east, and waited for that day with his mind fixed on the Lord.
The seventh day came. Dark clouds massed in the sky, rain poured down, and the ocean broke its bounds and began to drown the earth. Just then the boat arrived. The king climbed aboard with the herbs, the seeds and the sages.
The sages said, “O king, meditate on Lord Keshava. He alone will carry us through.” As he meditated, a vast golden fish with a single horn, a hundred thousand yojanas long, rose from the boundless waters. Just as he had been told, the king tied the boat to that horn with Vasuki.
Through that long night of dissolution, the Lord as Matsya drew the boat across the waters. The king sang his praise, and the Lord taught him the divine knowledge of the Self and the Supreme, which has come down to us as the Matsya Purana.
The Bhagavata also tells that at the end of the previous kalpa, when Brahma fell asleep, the Vedas slipped from his mouth and a demon named Hayagriva stole them. Lord Matsya slew the demon and, when Brahma awoke, returned the Vedas to him.
That same King Satyavrata became, in this kalpa, Vaivasvata Manu, son of the Sun god, from whom the human race descends.
What this story teaches
Whoever shows mercy even to a tiny creature's cry finds the Lord himself steering his boat. True compassion becomes our refuge in the greatest storm.
Matsya Jayanti is observed on Chaitra Shukla Tritiya. The same story appears in the Mahabharata (Vana Parva) and the Shatapatha Brahmana; there the king is called Manu himself, and the boat is finally tied to a peak of the Himalaya.
You have read the story — now see your own chart
A free kundali with your dashas and planetary positions from your birth date, time and place. Your first 10 questions to the AI astrologer are free — no card needed.
Make my free kundali