The Thousand Names

Agastya, who knew the Vedas and their limbs and the heart of every teaching, and whose own nature was the bliss of Brahman, wandered the earth from one holy place to another, to the mountains and the forests and the great rivers and all the countries of men. Everywhere he went he saw living beings wrapped in the darkness of ignorance, living only for their bellies and their pleasures, and as he walked he thought about them.

Thinking of them, he came to Kāñcī, the great holy city, and worshipped Śiva who dwells there under the mango tree as Ekāmranātha, and the goddess Kāmākṣī, who takes away the sins of the Kali age, the age of strife. His heart was wet with compassion for the world, and he thought about it again and again, and he practised austerity for a long time. At last Viṣṇu was pleased with him and appeared before him in the form of Hayagrīva, horse-necked, the very form of pure consciousness, holding the conch, the discus, a rosary and a book, filling the whole world with the light of his body.

Agastya was filled with joy. He bowed to him again and again, and praised the lord of the world with humility. Viṣṇu said, I am pleased with your austerity. Choose a boon. Agastya said, If you are pleased, lord, tell me this: by what means can these poor creatures be freed?

Viṣṇu told him that this was the very question Śiva had once asked him, and Brahmā after Śiva, and Durvāsa after Brahmā, and now Agastya. He told him that those who worship the supreme Śakti, the Goddess, with the rites or even without them, are no longer bound to the round of birth, and that without the worship of Tripurā, as the Goddess is also called, no one finds the world's enjoyment and freedom together. And he said, Through great souls like you, who are teachers of all beings, let my teaching be known in the worlds. This is my boon.

Agastya bowed and asked him what that form of the Goddess was, how she plays and what her power is. Then Viṣṇu said, This Hayagrīva is a part of me. He will tell you all you wish to hear. And Hari vanished. Agastya, his hair standing on end with wonder, went back to his hermitage with Hayagrīva, and there, at his request, Hayagrīva told him the whole story of the Goddess, who is called Lalitā, how she appeared, and her forms and her deeds, and in time he taught him her thousand secret names.