Before dawn ignited across the unformed sea, He rested on milky waters in ancient harmony, Ten thousand starry hoods spread a canopy above, To cradle cosmic dreaming in uncorrupted love, The silver scales of silence beneath eternity. A star sapphire glows through the twilight deep, A beacon in the tide while the galaxies sleep. Now the tempo quickens and the sky takes flight, The great serpent breathes through the velvet of night, A thousand diamond crowns catch the morning ray, As he rolls back the void to begin the first day! He caught the newborn planets upon a single brow, Supporting every mountain with an unbroken vow, And when the continents shudder, when granite fissures break, He turns his gentle hood to absorb the sudden quake, A living bedrock pillar that mortal hands forsake. Beneath the crushing stone his devotion remains, Bearing all our weight through the tectonic strains. Let the dholak pound, let the brass ignite, He descends from the stars to the mortal fight! No shadow can stand where his armored coils sweep, A sovereign of scales waking out of the deep! He walked among the mortals, an ivory-armored king, Beside the solar prince where the battle-cries ring, His striking lightning venom broke the demon army's pride, An undefeated brother standing firmly by his side, With a warrior's iron plowshare turning back the tide. The poison turns to nectar in the hero’s hand, A sacred golden line drawn across the sand. Now the heavens collapse in a tempest of red, The fire of the end strikes the living and dead! The burning constellations fall into the black, Yet the king of the serpents refuses the back! When universal fire consumed the planetary sphere, And time dissolved to vapor without a trace of fear, He stood alone, the Remainder, unburnt by flame or spark, Ananta, the Unending, who anchored through the dark, The living foundation that outlasts every mark. The milk ocean calms beneath his brow. All worlds dissolve. Ananta remains.
