Verse 1

¹Revered one, I want to hear the first of the accounts of the descents of Hari, whose deeds are wonderful: the fish of maya and the shape he made himself into. ²For what did he take on the shape of a fish, which the world holds low, whose nature is darkness and hard to bear, the Lord doing it as though he were caught inside his own works? ³All of this, revered one, you should tell us as it was: the doing of him whose renown is highest, which brings happiness to every world. ⁴Spoken to in this way by the one whom Visnu gave, the revered son of Badarayana told what Visnu did in the shape of a fish. ⁵The Lord, wanting to guard cows and brahmins and gods and good people, and the metres too, and dharma and wealth, takes on bodies.

⁶Moving among beings high and low like the wind, the Lord does not take on their highness or their lowness, since he is beyond the strands that belong to the mind.