Week 5 Story: Vishnu's Off Day

In the home of a lovely family, a small but distinct plop! disturbed the waters of a bowl that sat on the living room table. A small creature had appeared inside of it; as it opened its eyes, it sent up a great stream of disgruntled bubbling and muttered,

"Uh oh."

Lord Vishnu, the great preserver and protector of the universe, found himself trapped inside a goldfish bowl. 

Moments before, Lord Vishnu had been gazing down from the heavens and caught sight of the evil asura Hayagriva stealing the wisdom of the Vedas. The sacred words were casually slipping out of the corner of Brahma's mouth (along with a thin line of drool) as he reclined for his midday nap.

"How careless that Brahma is sometimes," thought Vishnu. "Create one universe and suddenly you think you can do whatever you please."

Lord Vishnu, who was actually paying attention to what was happening in the universe, realized that the end of the current world was imminent, and that it would soon be destroyed and reborn. Not wanting the vedas to be lost during the process of restoring creation, Vishnu devised a plan to incarnate on earth and retrieve them from the asura. He spied a sage providing offerings in a nearby river, and decided to take the form of a fish. He would then go to the sage, who would be able to help him fulfill his purpose.

There was just one problem: Vishnu committed a miscalculation of epic proportions.

As he looked around at his small watery enclosure, Vishnu the goldfish attempted to process the situation. 

"How could something like this happen! I guess I haven't been meditating enough lately," he thought to himself.

As he bubbled his way around the edge of the bowl, pausing to munch on what must have been a leftover fish flake, he saw a small boy come into view in the living room. Although he felt a bit dizzy with the strange lens of the fish eye view, Vishnu was suddenly struck by an idea. 

"I will make myself grow too large for this fish bowl, and then surely this little boy will take me to a nearby river! Then I can swim back to the sage and get on with preserving the knowledge of the universe."

Goldfish Vishnu poured his concentration into each of the scales that covered his body. After a time, they began to glow softly, and suddenly the little fish could feel his body begin to expand. 

And expand, and expand, and expand... 

And expand some more, until...

CRACK!

The fish bowl shattered, and the oversized goldfish plopped onto the soggy carpet under the coffee table. 

"It seems I might have overdone it a tad," he thought to himself.

 His concentration was suddenly wrenched away by the fact that he could not breathe. 

"Blast! I always forget that fish they can't breathe without water. I'll have to discuss the whole gill situation with Brahma when I get home; perhaps these creatures are due for an update in the next world."

Regardless of his plans, the fact remained that Vishnu the goldfish lay flopping about, well, like a fish out of water.

The little boy heard the loud noise made by the fishbowl breaking, and ran back into the living room. He could not decide which was more astonishing: the broken bowl, or the fact that the creature inside had been the one to break it - the goldfish had grown to a hundred times its original size. 

Laughing, the little boy said, "silly fish, you can't breathe without water! Why go and spill it all?"

Goldfish Vishnu rolled his eyes (which turned out to be a terrible idea, given how distorted his vision already was). 

"You try controlling the power of the universe sometime, buddy."

The little boy scooped up the fish, and as he walked to the door of the house he reassured the twitching mass of scales in his arms.

 "Come on, let's get you to the river. You won't find one flowing past the coffee table anytime soon."

And with that, the little boy carried Goldfish Vishnu to the river that cascaded through the nearby woods. He placed the fish gently in the water, and just in time: the lack of oxygen had the fish's head swimming, and as his fins touched the cool blue stream, at long last his body could too. The little boy's kind heart moved Goldfish Vishnu, and he vowed to make sure that the sage found the boy and his family to carry them over into the new world that would soon be created. 

With a heart full of hope and gills full of water, Goldfish Vishnu set out along the river to find the sage. Happily burbling along, he noted how the water shone in the daylight and how joyous it was to once again be under the sun. Just as he was turning around the first bend, however, he felt a snare of knotty rope envelop his body. As he was lifted out of the river he heard the voices of men on the shore, congratulating one another on a marvelous catch.

Sighing and sending up another stream of bubbles, Goldfish Vishnu muttered to himself, "this is going to be a long week."

You never know what might be lurking in your fish bowl. Source: Flickr

Author's Note: This story is based on the story of the Matsya Avatar, the first of ten incarnations that Lord Vishnu takes on earth. I set my own story up based on the premise of the original: Vishnu must retrieve the vedas from an asura, and decides to enlist the help of a sage by taking the form of a fish. In the original, however, Vishnu succeeds in incarnating in the lake with the sage, and enlists his help to carry the divine knowledge of the vedas into the next version of the world. My story takes a very different turn, as Vishnu's powers wobble and he finds himself in an unexpected predicament. After all, even the Gods sometimes have an off day.

~~~

Bibliography

Katha, Amar C. “The Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu.” Dasha Avatar. Vol. 10002.