When at the end of the four thousand Yugas the earth was over flooded with water like one vast ocean and all mobile and immobile creatures were silenced to death, the sun, moon and the winds were all destroyed and the universe was shorn of planets and stars, the supreme being, Narayana, who is beyond the perception of senses and is adorned with a thousand heads eyes and ears, longed for rest. The dreadful serpent Shesha, having thousand heads and the lustre of ten thousand suns and white as the Kunda flower or the moon or a string of pearls or the white lotus or milk, of fibres of lotus, became His conch. There the Divine Lord slept on the bosom of the deep enveloping all quarters with nocturnal darkness.
एकार्णवे तदा तस्मिन्नुपशान्तचराचरे। नष्टचन्द्रार्कपवने ग्रहनक्षत्रवर्जिते॥ चतुर्युगसहस्रान्ते सलिलेनाप्लुता मही। ततो नारायणाख्यस्तु सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात्॥ सहस्रशीर्षाः पुरुषः स्वप्तुकामस्त्वतीन्द्रियः। फटासहस्रविकटं शेषं पर्यङ्कभाजनम्॥ सहस्रमिव तिग्मांशुसंघातममितद्युतिम्। कुन्देन्दुहारगोक्षीरमृणालकुमुदप्रभम्॥ तत्रासौ भगवान् देवः स्वपञ्जलनिधौ तदा। नैशेन तमसा व्याप्तां स्वां रात्रिं कुरुते विभुः॥