He is the one who rises and ascends, the upholder of virtue, possessed of immense austerity and the power of great yoga. He is the yoke that binds, the maker of ages, and the remover of obstacles. He takes the very form of time itself, vast and profound, a steadfast mountain, embodiment of justice, extinguisher of suffering, footless yet unshakable, learned, and comparable to the unmoving. Adorned with many garlands, radiant and beautiful-eyed, he is vast as the ocean, deep as a well, flower-bodied, and the very source of all fruits. He is the bull among beings, the mighty and unyielding, the breaker of barriers, his matted locks adorned with jewels, shining like the moon. He is the essence of emission, beautiful-faced and heroic, armed with all weapons, and enduring through all challenges. He is the recipient of offerings, born of nectar, the gate to heaven, wielder of a great bow, dweller in the mountains, and the knower of all marks and characteristics. Adorned with fragrant garlands, he is the blessed one—endless, possessing all auspicious marks, the progenitor, abundant, strong-armed, complete, and the purifier of all. He holds a hand-bowl, bearing a skull, with joined upper teeth, youthful, renowned for his mastery of devices, the very world itself, refuge of all, and gentle in nature. He is shaven-headed, sometimes deformed or monstrous, bearing a staff, wearing earrings, ever-changing, water-eyed, the very quarters themselves, wielder of the thunderbolt, blazing in brilliance, and thousand-footed. He is thousand-headed, lord of the gods, composed of all divinities, the supreme teacher, thousand-armed, of all limbs, the refuge and creator of all worlds. Pure and threefold in the sweet mantra, the youngest, dark-tawny, creator of Brahma’s staff, destroyer of hundreds, and bearer of a hundred nooses. He is Kala, kashtha, lava, matra, muhurta, day, night, and kshana—the very giver of the field of the universe, the seed, the primal linga, without faces. He is existence and non-existence, manifest and unmanifest, father, mother, and grandfather; the gate to heaven, to liberation, to creation, and the threefold heaven. He is liberation, the heart, the world of Brahma, the supreme path; the creator and ultimate refuge of gods and asuras. Teacher and beloved of gods and asuras, worshipped and revered by them, the great minister and overseer, leader of their hosts, god of gods, divine seer, bestower of boons. He is the lord of gods and asuras, Vishnu, the great lord, composed of all gods, inconceivable, the very soul of divinities, self-born. Risen up, three-stepped, physician, bestower of boons, younger, sky-clad, worshipped, elephant, tiger, lion of the gods, and great bull. Foremost among the wise, best of gods, supreme among the gods of heaven, united, splendid, speaker, origin of the directions, imperishable. Teacher, beloved, his own creation, pure, bearer of all, horned, fond of horns, tawny, king of kings, and free from disease. Charming and excellent refuge, free from affliction, the means of all, with an eye in his forehead, body of the universe, deer, and possessing the radiance of Brahma. Lord of the immovable, controller of the senses, accomplished, purpose of all beings, inconceivable, true, of pure vows. He is the lord of vows, the supreme Brahman, the highest goal of the liberated, free, with loosened hair, glorious, increaser of prosperity, the very world itself. Thus, according to the principal order, the Blessed One has been praised with devotion; with devotion foremost, the Lord of sacrifice, the all-pervading, has been extolled. Having received permission and thus praised, the goal of the devoted—he who recites or hears this hymn, or causes Brahmins to hear it, attains the fruit of a thousand horse sacrifices. Even those burdened by the gravest sins—slayers of Brahmins, drinkers of liquor, thieves, violators of the teacher’s bed, killers of those who have sought refuge, betrayers of trust, killers of mother, father, hero, or embryo—by reciting this for a year at the three junctions of the day in Shankara’s hermitage, and by worshipping the god, are freed from all sins. Now, by the grace of the Lord of gods, Tridhanvan, through great effort, attained the fruit equal to a thousand horse sacrifices. Firm in devotion to Ganesha and honored by all the gods, Tridhanvan, the learned king of the Trayyaruna lineage, was thus blessed. He had a son named Satyavrata, mighty in strength, who, by slaying the exceedingly powerful king of Vidarbha, took his wife. Before the marriage rites were completed with the proper mantras, the king Trayyaruna, deeming this act unrighteous, abandoned his son. Abandoned, Satyavrata asked his father, “Where shall I go?” His father replied, “Live among the outcastes.” Thus instructed, Satyavrata, wise and resolute, departed from the city and dwelt near the settlement of the outcastes. There, abandoned by his father, the heroic Satyavrata lived, while his father went to the forest. In time, Satyavrata became renowned in all worlds as the valiant Trishanku. Once, due to the anger of the sage Vasistha, and through the great sage Vishvamitra’s boon, Trishanku was consecrated as king in his ancestral kingdom by the sage Kaushika, in the presence of the gods and Vasistha, and a great sacrifice was performed for him. Then, that illustrious one, by the power of Vishvamitra, was raised bodily to heaven. Satyavrata’s wife, of the Kaikeya lineage, was named Satyavrata as well. She bore him a sinless son, Harishchandra, and Harishchandra’s son was the valiant Rohita.