I awoke once during the night. I pushed the canopy asideand looked out. The moon was a sharply defined crescent andthe sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce,contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.
The sea lay quietly, bathed in a shy, light-footed light, adancing play of black and silver that extended without limits allabout me. The volume of things was confounding – the volumeof air above me, the volume of water around and beneath me.
I was half-moved, half-terrified. I felt like the sage Markandeya,who fell out of Vishnu's mouth while Vishnu was sleeping andso beheld the entire universe, everything that there is. Beforethe sage could die of fright, Vishnu awoke and took him backint............