Which of You Did I Call?

When the three appeared together, the sage's mind was lit up. Standing on his one foot, he saw them. Brahmā sat on his swan, Viṣṇu on Garuḍa, his great bird, and Śiva on his bull, and each bore his own marks. He fell to the ground before them like a staff, and rose and stood before them with folded hands. They looked on him with kindness and smiled, and the light of them was so great that he closed his eyes. With his mind turned to them and his hands still folded, he praised them in gentle, well-made words.

You take bodies, age after age, he said, by the strands of māyā, the Lord's power that makes the world, for the making and keeping and ending of all things, as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, the lord of the mountain. I bow to you. Which of you is it that I called? I held one Lord in my thought, so that I might have a child. How is it that all of you have come, you who are beyond the reach even of the minds of embodied beings? Tell me, and be gracious to me. My wonder is great.

The three laughed and answered him gently. As you resolved, brahmin, so it must be, and not otherwise. Your resolve comes true, for we three are the one you meditated on. Sons will be born to you who are portions of us, and they will be known through the world and spread your name. May it go well with you.

When the lords of the gods had given him the boon he wished for, Atri and his wife honoured them, and the two of them watched as the gods went back to their worlds. Then Anasūyā bore him three sons. Soma was born from Brahmā's portion, Datta, the master of yoga, from Viṣṇu's, and Durvāsa from Śiva's.