118 Avotar (Incarnation)
One day king Satyabrata was taking his bath in a pond. Then a 'Punti'
fish came to the king and begged for its life. He took the fish in his
bowl and brought it home.The fish grew up hugely day by day. It could not be contained in the
pond, the lake or the river wherever it was kept.Everybody got scared to see it growing so large. Then the king began
to praise the fish taking it as God. At this the frontal part of the fish
turned into Narayana. The Narayana in the figure of fish said,
"Satyabrata, the time of universal dissolution will appear within seven
days. At that time a golden boat will come to your wharf. You would
get into the boat with all types of creatures in couples, food grains and
seeds. I will appear then as a horned fish. You would fasten the boat
with my horn."The dissolution began. The king followed the direction of Narayana
in the guise of fish. The boat was saved from destruction. When the
dissolution was over the king came down with everything. Every thing
was created again in a gradual manner. Thus the creations and the
Vedas were saved by the Matsya Avotar.2) Kurma Avotar:
Once the demons living under the earth defeated the gods and occupied
the kingdom of heaven. The distress of the gods knew no bound. Then
Brahma and Indra went to Shrihari and discribed their distress in
details.
Shrihari suggested the gods to churn the sea along with the demons. He
said that nectar would come out of the sea as a result of churning. By
drinking that nectar the gods will get back their strength to defeat the demons