The Vishnu Purana

Om! Salutation unto Vāsudeva! O Pundarikāsha, victory unto thee! I bow unto thee, O origin of the universe! O Hrishikesha, O great Purusha, O thou the first born! That Vishnu, who is eternal, indecayable one, who is Brahmā, the Isvara and the Purusha,—who causeth the creation, the sustentation and the dissolution (of the world) consequent on the qualities being agitated,—and from whom hath sprung the cosmos with Pradhāna, Buddhi, etc.;—may he confer on us excellent understanding wealth and emancipation! Bowing down unto Vishnu, lord of the universe, and saluting Brahmā and the rest, and paying reverence unto my preceptor, I will rehearse the Purāna that is equal to the Vedas. Saluting and paying homage unto that best of ascetics, Parāçara—son unto Vasistha’s son—versed in annals and the Purānas, accomplished in the Vedas and the branches thereof, and learned in the mysteries of the scriptures,—who had finished his first daily devotions.—Maitreya asked him, saying,—“O preceptor, I have one by one studied near thee all the scriptures as well as the Vedas and their branches. It is owing to thy grace that, O foremost of ascetics, almost all of those that are even our enemies, confess that I have studied all the branches of knowledge. O thou cognisant of righteousness, I am desirous of hearing from thee how this universe came into being, and how, O virtuous one, it shall be in the future; in what, O Brāhmana, the cosmos consists; wherefrom sprang this system of mobile and immobile objects; where it lay at first and where it shall dissolve itself; as to the objects that have manifested themselves; the genesis of the gods; the establishment of seas and mountains and the earth, and that of the sun, etc. and the dimensions thereof; the genealogies of the deities,—all about the Manus, and the Manwantaras, and Kalpas and Vikalpas of Kalpas composed of the fourfold division into Yugas; the character of the close of Kalpas; and the entire tendencies of the Yugas; and, O mighty ascetic, the history of Devarshis and monarchs; the proper division by Vyāsa of the Vedas into different parts; and the morality concerning Brāhmanas and others, as well as that of householders. O son of Vasishtha, I wish to hear all this related by thee. O Brahmana, incline thy mind favourably unto me, so that, O mighty anchoret, I may know all this through thy grace”.