One day, I was taking a stroll along the forests of my heavenly kingdom, Vaikunta, and I got this weird feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. Something told me that there was going to be a horrible natural disaster that would wipe out all the people in the whole world. I knew I had to tell someone soon before it was too late! I had always wondered what it was like to be free so I decided to incarnate myself into a fish. I turned myself into a regular little fish, nothing too fancy, just a little guppy. I got into the river and transformed myself. While I was swimming, I saw the king washing himself and decided to tell him the news.
Matsya. Web source : Avatars
"Oh, king, I have such a bad feeling. There is going to be a horrible flood, and everyone on this planet will die unless you help me!" I said to the king.
The king at first did not believe me and he ignored me, but then the king remembered that he had had a terrible dream about the world suddenly coming to an end the night before. The king told me about his dream."Oh, little fish, I had a terrible dream last night about everyone on this earth suddenly vanishing. In my dream, I woke up to see that the skies were dark and the winds were strong. It all seemed so real and there was no one left alive but me."
I replied by telling the king that it was a sign from the gods telling the king that he must take action now! Then, the king put me into a jar of water.
As the days went by, I grew bigger and bigger and soon I was too big for the jar. The king had to throw me into a river but then I got too big for the river so he threw me into the ocean. Then, the king realized who I actually was. I came out of my fish form and revealed myself as Vishnu.
"You must build the biggest boat ever and take it to the mountain of Himavan before the flood arrives. The flood will be arriving in seven days! You must take the seven sages, seeds of all plants, and one animal of each type on that boat and I will be there to propel it for you to the mountain," I said.
The king asked, " Why did you choose to come to me?"
So I replied, "Because you are the most powerful person here! You are the king! Everyone will listen to you without any questions!"
The king obeyed and in seven days he showed up with a huge boat. I, once again, transformed myself back into a fish. The king used a serpent and tied the boat to my giant-fish body so that I could propel them towards the mountain. When we got there, everyone stayed there on top of the mountain until the flood was clear and it was okay to go back."
When Vishnu was finished talking, he looked around the room and saw the the faces of the children in the room were all glowing. They were all so amazed at the ability that Vishnu had to propel a huge boat! One kid even thought that Vishnu must be Hercule's father!
Author's Note: The original version of the Matsya story that I used came from a website for children. I thought it would be perfect to retell it in a way that would be fun for children. The story that I read told about the king and how he was performing severe penance for thousands of years. Then, one day when he was washing himself in the river, a small fish approached the king, asking to save his life. Instead of the fish asking the king to save his life, I made the story sound more dramatic by saying that the world would come to an end. In the original story, the king threw the fish into the river and then the Ganges and then the ocean. I just skipped from the river to the ocean. The original story also mentioned the different eras, or Yugas, but I decided not to mention the eras because it would be confusing for kids to understand that. Also, at the end of the original, the king starts procreation for the new era. Everything else I wrote was about the same. I have provided a link to the original story below with all the rest of the links so that readers can make a comparison of my story and the one that I used to create my own version.