The Demons Born of Sleep

The sages told the Pandavas of the very dawn of a cycle of creation, and of the two primordial demons whom the Lord slew at the beginning of the world to make creation possible - the deed from which he won one of his great names, Madhusudana, the slayer of Madhu.

At the start of a great cycle, when the previous creation had been dissolved and there was nothing in all the universe but the boundless cosmic ocean, the Lord Vishnu lay upon the coils of the cosmic serpent Shesha, floating upon those endless waters in his yogic sleep, the deep slumber from which all creation would spring. And from his navel there grew a lotus, and upon that lotus was born Brahma, the creator, whose task it would be to bring forth the new creation. So all was set for the world to begin: the Lord asleep upon the waters, and the creator seated upon the lotus, ready to make the worlds.