Verse 18

¹³There the brahmin saw the lord of the Satvatas, and the lady of the house fanning him with a yak-tail whisk on a golden handle, attended at every hour by a thousand serving women her match in quality, beauty, age and dress. ¹⁴Seeing him, the Bhagavan, first among all who carry dharma, rose at once from that splendid couch, bowed his crowned head to Narada's two feet, and with folded hands seated him on his own seat. ¹⁵He washed the sage's feet and carried that water on his own head, though he is the highest teacher of the world and lord of the good. The name they give him for that quality, god who honours the brahmins, is a fitting one; and it is his own foot-washing that is every holy ford.

¹⁶So the ancient sage Narayana, friend of Nara, having honoured the best of the sages of the gods as the rule directs, spoke to him in measured words, sweet as nectar: Master, what may we do for the revered one? ¹⁷It is no wonder in you, mighty one, lord of every world, that there is friendship toward all people and a curb upon the wicked. You who are widely sung, we know well that your descent, freely taken, is for the highest good, by the world's upholding and its guarding. ¹⁸I have seen your two feet, which are release for the people, which Brahma and others of unfathomable knowledge hold in the heart, the handhold by which those fallen into the well of the round of birth climb out. I go about meditating on them. Be gracious, so that I may remember.