The Earth, a lotus, was navigating the waters. The "flower", pushkara, is
also "rock": so say the gods, "who love secrets"  and therefore play with
meanings. And it is also the "nest of the waters". 

Life: an intermittent fever amidst long periods of rest, during which the
leaf wandered the liquid surface.  That leaf was a bed. Whom did it host? 
The sleeping god who had perhaps just finished creation, or vanquished his
enemy, or descended into the worlds as some avatar. The leaves of grass
could become the coils of a snake, intertwined like the weave of a basket. 

Vishnu reclined gently on this bed.

The beginning: something that is not given in nature. The first
distinguishable image is that of Vishnu navigating the waters, his head
rested on Sesha. Sesha is the "residue": the new is an oldest lump
unwilling to dissolve. Not only the world is resting upon the residue, but
is the first of all residues. 
 
Even in this image that precedes every other, Vishnu was resting
on the past. The first world is always at least second, always
hiding a precedent.
 
Vishnu's belly was uncovered, dark. From his navel a lotus stem arose,
connecting his body up to the flower. Everything else around was a
consequence: something incongruent, so disconnected, like all the
consequences, like all the worlds, forgetful of their origin. 
 
A sudden excess of sattva, of "being" -like a blow, a wave, a sigh - woke
up the young god navigating adrift in the silence.  Enough for Vishnu to
realize that the world was empty. Surprised Vishnu noticed that in the
void a stem had grown. From where?  He lowered his eyes and saw the stem
grew from his navel.  His eye followed it up, to the point where the
blossoming lotus flower was open to the sky. Sitting there atop the petals
was Brahma with his four heads. Thoughtful. He was also looking around
acknowledging the fact that the world was empty but for the presence of
that body, reclined over the waters, from which his soft suspended
residence was rising. 
 
Vishnu and Brahma ignored each other. Each convinced to be wholeness.




(from Roberto Calasso's "Ka". The book "Ka" is published in Italian 
by Adelphi)