THE NAVEL OF VISHNU，for Piano and Chamber Orchestra（2010）

One of the famous Hindu mythological pictures depicting the creation of universe is the picture of Vishnu dozing off on a many-headed giant snake at sea. The water of the sea is perfume flowing from the navel of Vishnu and it comes to a chaotic infinite ocean of the primitive period. The many-headed snake is the giant Shesha Nag a which has hidden enormous energy. It seems that the sea is a symbol of female principle and the snake is a symbol of male principle.
Vishnu is dozing off and meditating on the giant snake's belly coiled up clockwise. Surprisingly，from his navel，the stem of a lotus grows into the air，and a beautiful lotus flower with fully opened petals is depicted at the tip of the stem. Moreover，Brahma in the similitude of a newborn baby is standing up in the center of the flower. Brahma is a deity who creates the universe. I was fascinated with the beautiful dreamlike mythol?ogy and picture，and wrote an organ work Meditation of Vishnu more than 20 years ago.
This work，The Navel of Vishnu，consists of three sections which are performed continuously.

I. Shesha Naga
Quick motions of thirty-second notes surge and pile up like waves，with which a curved melody played by a reed for cor anglais accompanies. It is followed by a piano solo in the style of a cadenza. After the surge of waves comes back，it goes into a heterophonic part led by a piano melody in tremolo.

II. Vishnu on Meditation
Based on a quiet pedal point，a solo violin plays a short introduction of a melismatic curved melody and the piano follows it. In this second section，Avatara，the incarnations of Vishnu，appear one after another during his meditation. The incarnations are represented here by quotations from my piano suite Avatara for Piano published in 2002. Matsya (fish) appears first，Varaha(boar)，Yamana (dwarf)，andKurma (turtle) performed by the solo piano follows，and Nrsimha (Man-lion) turns up shortly at the end. After the bridge passage which represents the uprising lotus stem and flower，it goes into the third section.

III. In the Petals
I attempted to write a small piano piece which is included this work and is able to be played separately. The piano piece In the Petals appears in this section. This piece is a sort of lullaby for an unborn baby Brahma who is sleeping in the petals. The part for the left hand imitates Nada Brahma (sound of universe) in tradition?al Indian music. It is the universally unchanged background sound of absolute harmony. I wrote this piece to praise the growth of the great fetus in the petals.