According to the
Mahabharata, Shesha was born to the sage
Kashyapa and his wife
Kadru. Kadru gave birth to a thousand snakes, of which Shesha was the eldest. After Shesha,
Vasuki,
Iravati and
Takshaka were born, in that order. A lot of Shesha's brothers were cruel and were bent upon inflicting harm on others. They were even unkind to
Garuda, who was Kashyapa's son through
Vinata, sister of Kadru. (Kadru and Vinata were daughters of Daksha). Shesha, disgusted by the cruel acts of his brothers, left his mother and kin, and took on austere penances. He lived on air and meditated in places including Gandhamadhana, Badrikashrama, Gokarna, Pushkara, and the
Himalayas. His penances were so severe that his flesh, skin, and muscles dried up and merged with his frame.
Brahma, convinced of Shesha's will, asked Shesha to request a boon. Shesha asked that he be able to keep his mind under control so that he could continue to perform ascetic penances. Brahma gladly accepted the request. Brahma then asked a favour of Shesha: to go beneath the precarious earth and stabilise it. Shesha agreed and went to the netherworld and stabilised
Bhumi with his hood. He is believed to support her even today, thus making
Patala his perennial residence.
Vishnu and Shesha Shesha is usually depicted as floating in the ocean of the changing world, forming the bed of a primordial form of Vishnu, i.e.
Narayana,
Vāsudeva or in later Puranic Vaishnavism,
Mahavishnu. In the
Bhagavata Purana, Shesha is named Sankarshana, the
tamasic energy of Narayana himself, and is said to live deep within the inner layers of
Patala, where there are many serpents with gems on their heads and where he reigns as its ruler. He is said to have existed before the creation of the universe. When the universe is towards its end, he creates the 11
Rudras from his face to destroy the universe for a new one to be created. Sankarshana is also one of the four
vyuhas, or primitive forms of Vishnu, the other three being
Vasudeva,
Pradyumna, and
Aniruddha. In
Gaudiya accounts, Sankarshana expands himself as Garbhodakshayi-Vishnu in the beginning of the universe to create
Brahma. In other words, Sankarshana is believed to be Narayana himself. In the first few chapters of the
Puranas, it is also said that Sankarshana preached the
Bhagavata to the
Four Kumaras, who in turn passed on this message. At some point, the message was passed to sage
Maitreya, who in turn preached it to
Vidura.
Marriage According to legends, Shesha is married to
Nagalakshmi. As per the
Garga Samhita, she is considered to be the personification of the divine ocean called the
Kshira Sagara. ==Avatars ==