Vishnu and the Demons Madhu and Kaitabha

This is the first of the three battles of the Durga Saptashati, told by the sage Medhas to [King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi](/learn/all/king-suratha-and-the-merchant-samadhi). It is the shortest and the strangest, because the Goddess in it never lifts a weapon. It is honoured as the episode of Mahakali.

The end of an age

At the end of a cosmic age, the worlds had dissolved into one endless ocean. [Vishnu](/gods/vishnu) lay asleep on the coils of the serpent Shesha, floating on the waters. From his navel grew a lotus, and on the lotus sat [Brahma](/gods/brahma), waiting for the next creation to begin.

From the wax of Vishnu's ears, two demons were born: Madhu and Kaitabha. They were enormous and fearsome, and the first thing they saw was Brahma on his lotus. They went to kill him.

The goddess who was Vishnu's sleep

Brahma looked at Vishnu, and Vishnu did not wake. Brahma understood why: Vishnu was being held asleep by the Goddess herself, as Yoganidra — the sleep of yoga, the sleep of the Lord. Nothing in creation could wake Vishnu while she held him.

So Brahma did not call to Vishnu. He praised her. The hymn he sings is one of the great hymns of the Saptashati. You are svaha, you are svadha, you are the syllable that is the essence of all sound. You hold this universe; you create it; you protect it; and you devour it at the end. You are the great knowledge and the great illusion, the great intellect and the great memory, the great delusion. He called her the night of time, the great night, the night of delusion — [Kalaratri](/learn/all/navaratri-night-7-kalaratri).

And he asked her to let go.

The Goddess came out of Vishnu — from his eyes, his mouth, his nose, his arms, his heart, his chest — and stood before Brahma. Vishnu woke.

Five thousand years

Vishnu rose and fought the two demons with nothing but his arms, for five thousand years. They were his equals, and neither side could win.

Then the Goddess, as Mahamaya, clouded the demons' minds. Swollen with pride, they told Vishnu that they were pleased with his fighting, and would give him a boon.

"Then let both of you be killed by me," said Vishnu. "That is my boon."

The demons saw that they had been trapped. They looked around: there was nothing but water in every direction. "Then kill us," they said, "where the earth is not covered with water."

Vishnu laid them across his thigh — the only dry ground anywhere — and cut off their heads with his discus.

What the story is saying

On the surface this is a Vishnu story. The Saptashati tells it to make a different point: even Vishnu sleeps and wakes by the Goddess's will, and even demons are undone by the Mahamaya the king and merchant were asking about. She is the sleep that holds the world, and she is the waking that saves it.

To carry from this story: Brahma's problem was not solved by shouting at the one who could help. It was solved by turning to the power that was really holding things in place.