Bad Omens

Brahma said

Virabhadra advanced thus with the ganas, and Daksha and the gods saw bad omens. As Virabhadra and the ganas marched there were various evil portents of the three kinds, signs that the sacrifice of the gods and rishis would be destroyed. Daksha's left eye, arm and thigh twitched. Many such inauspicious signs foretold hardships of many kinds. The earth shook where Daksha's sacrifice was being held. At midday Daksha saw strange stars. The directions grew dirty and the sun looked speckled. A thousand terrifying signs besieged the surroundings. Stars blazing like lightning and fire fell; some moved sideways and others descended head first. Thousands of vultures came and touched Daksha's head, and the shadows of their wings darkened the sacrificial pavilion. Jackals howled over the top of the sacrificial ground. Netraka rained meteors, and white scorpions were born from them. Harsh winds blew and showers of dust fell. Insects rose and were whirled about, trembling in the wind. The new pavilion built for Daksha's sacrifice by the gods and Daksha was flung upward by a gust. Daksha and the others vomited blood, lumps of flesh and stakes again and again, an extraordinary thing. The lamps flickered as if struck by wind. Everyone was miserable as if struck by showers of weapons. The eyes of Daksha and the others, like forest lotuses, seemed battered by monsoon rain or hail, and suddenly looked like lotuses at night or at early dawn. The gods seemed to rain blood and the directions were wrapped in darkness; in particular the directions blazed and terrified everyone. So the gods and others saw various evil portents.

Vishnu and the others were very afraid. Some shrieked "Alas, we are killed!" and fell senseless on the ground, like riverbank trees struck by the current, or lay still like killed snakes. Like balls they fell and rose again. Tormented and scorched they wept like female ospreys, their words and weeping mingling. All of them, Vishnu included, were anxious and their power was blocked. Anxious, they clung to each other's necks and seemed to move like tortoises. Then a bodiless voice spoke, heard by all the gods there and particularly by Daksha: "Daksha and the other utterly foolish ones, wicked in intelligence, great miseries that cannot be countered will descend on you, born from Hara. The foolish gods and others here will cry out in lament; they will certainly meet great miseries." Hearing the voice and seeing the evil portents, Daksha was filled with fear, and so were the other gods. Daksha trembled and his mind went numb. He went and took refuge with Vishnu, his own lord, destroyer of enemies, and overwhelmed by fear and insensible he bowed and praised him. He spoke to Vishnu, lord of gods, who is affectionate to his own.