The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)-29

22. He returned gladly with his great gain to his homely

dwelling, and was highly delighted with the thought of keeping

off poverty for ever from his door. (The word Kerate is

commonly used for Kiráta—the miser).

23. Now as the Kiráta was quite satisfied, with his unexpected

gain of the great treasure, in the search of his trifling

couri; and passed his days without any care or fear of the

changeful world.

24. So the student comes to obtain his spiritual knowledge

from his preceptor, while he has been in quest of his temporal

learning, which is but a trifle in comparison to his eternal

concern.

[Pg 466]

25. But then, O sinless Ráma! it is not possible to attain to

divine knowledge, by the mere lectures of the preceptor;

because the lord is beyond the perception of senses, and can

neither be expressed by nor known from the words of the instructor's

mouth. (It requires one's intuition and spiritual inspiration

also to see the spirit in one's own spirit).

26. Again it is not possible to arrive to spiritual knowledge,

without the guidance of the spiritual guide; for can one gain

the rich gem without his search after the couri like the miserly

Kiráta? (This means that it is impossible to attain the esoteric

or abstract knowledge of the soul, without a prior acquaintance

of the exoteric and concrete).

27. As the search of couri became the cause of or was

attended with the gain of the gem, so our attendance on secular

instructions of the preceptor, becomes an indirect cause to our

acquirement of the invaluable treasure of spiritual knowledge.

28. Ráma, look at this wonderful eventualities of nature,

which brings forth events otherwise than the necessary results

of our pursuits (as the search of couri resulted the gain of

the gem).

29. As it often comes to pass, that our attempts are attended

with other result than those which are ought; it is better

for us to remain indifferent with regard to the result of

our act.

[Pg 467]

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

Pilgrimage of prince Sikhidhwaja.

Argument:—Sikhidhwaja's abandonment of the world, and remaining

as religious Recluse on the Mandara mountain; followed by the

visit of the Princess and her admonition to him.

VASISHTHA related:—The prince Sikhidhwaja continued

in utter darkness, without the sight of his spiritual

knowledge; and groped his way amidst the gloom of the

world, as a childless man passes his woeful days, in utter despair

of any glimpse of hope. (As son is the hope of a man

both in this world as well as in the next).

2. His heart burned disconsolate in the flame of his anxieties,

without the consolation of his salvation; and the great

affluence of his fortune, served as full to feed the fire of his

hopelessness, for want of the cooling shower of religion.

3. He found his consolation in lonely retreats, in the caves

of mountains and beside their falling waters; where he strayed

at large, like the beasts of prey flying from the arrows of

huntsmen.

4. Ráma, he became as distracted as you had been before;

and discharged his daily rituals, at the humble request and

repeated solicitations of his attending servants.

5. He was as inexcitable and cold blooded, as a religious

recluse; he desisted from the enjoyments of his princely

pleasures, and abstained also from his usual food.

6. He gave his homage with large largesses of lands and

gifts of gold and kine to the gods, Brahmans and his relatives

also.

7. He went on performing the austerities of the religious

rites, and the rigorous ceremonies of the chandáryana and

others; he travelled through wilds and deserts and inhabited

tracts, to his pilgrimages far and near.

[Pg 468]

8. Yet he found nowhere the consolation of his mind, which

he kept seeking all-abouts; as a miner digs the sterile soil

in quest of some mineral, where there is no such thing to be

found.

9. He was pining away under the ardour of his anxiety, as

it were under the fiery heat of the sun; in search of some

remedy for his worldly cares, which hunted him incessantly

both by day and night.

10. Being absorbed in his thoughts, he sought not for

aught of the poisonous pleasures of his realm; and with the

meekness of his spirit and mind, he did not look at the grand

estate which lay before him.

11. It happened one day, as he was sitting with his beloved

princess reclining on his lap; that he spoke to her as follows,

in his mellifluent speech.

12. Sikhidhwaja said:—I have long tasted the pleasures

of my realm, and enjoyed the sweet and bitter of my large

property and landed possessions. I am now grown as weary

of them, as they are both the same and stale to me.

13. Know my delighted lady, that the silent sage is exempt

from pleasure and pain; and no prosperity nor adversity, can

ever betide the lonely hermit of the forest.

14. Neither the fear of the loss of lives in battle, nor the

dread of losing the territory in the reverse of victory, can ever

betake the lonely hermit of the forest; wherefore I ween his

helpless state, to be happier far than the dignity of royalty.

15. The woodland parterres are as pleasing to me, as

thyself with the clusters of their blossoms in spring, and

with their ruddy leaves resembling thy rosy palms; their

twisted filaments are as the fillets of thy curling hairs, and

the hoary and flimsy clouds in the air, are as their white and

clean vests and raiments.

16. The blooming flowers resemble their ornaments, and

their pollen is the scented powder on their persons; and the

seats of reddish stones, bear resemblance to the protruberances

on their posteriors.

[Pg 469]

17. The ambient and pearly rills flowing amidst them,

resemble the pendant strings of pearls on their necks; and their

foaming waves seen as clusters of pearls, tied as the knots of

their vestures. The tender creepers are as their playful daughters,

and the frisking fawns are as their playsome darlings.

18. Perfumed with the natural fragrance of flowers, and

having the swarming bees for their eye-lids and eyebrows; and

wearing the flowery garment of flowers, they are offering an

abundance of fruits for the food of the passengers.

19. The pure waters of the falling cascades are sweet to

taste, and cool the body as thy company gratifies my senses. I

foster therefore an equal fondness for these woodland scenes,

as I bear for thy company also.

20. But the calm composures which these solitudes seem to

afford to the soul, are in my estimation far superior to the

delight, that I derive from the cooling moon light, and the bliss

that I might enjoy in the paradise of India and in the heaven

of Brahmá himself.

21. Now my dear one, you ought to put no obstacle to

these designs of mine; because no faithful wife ever presents

any obstructions to the desire of her lord.

22. Chúdálá replied:—The work done in its proper time,

is commendable as seasonable and not that which is unseasonable

or intempestive; it is as delightful to see the blossoming of

flowers in the vernal season, as it is pleasant to find the ripened

fruits and grains in autumn.

23. It is for the old and decrepit and those broken down

in their bodies by age, to resort in their retirement in the woods;

and does not befit a young man as yourself to fly from the

world, wherefore I do not approve your choice. (So says the

poet, "O that my weary age may find a peaceful hermitage").

24. Let us remain at home, O young prince, so long as we

have not passed our youth, and flourish here as flowers which

do not forsake the parent tree, until the flowering time is over.

25. Let us like flowery creepers grow hoary with grey hairs

on our heads, and then get out together from our home; as a

pair of fond herons fly from the dried lake for ever.

[Pg 470]

26. Mind also my noble lord, the great sin that awaits on

the person of that disgraceful prince of the royal race, who

forsakes to seek after the welfare of his people during the time

of his rule and reign. (Abdication of the crown was not allowable

without an apparent heir).

27. More over mind the opposition you will have to meet

with from your subjects, who are authorized to check your unseasonable

and unworthy act, as you are empowered to put a

check to theirs. (The Hindu law is opposed to the spirit of

despotism and lawlessness of the ruling power).

28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:—Know my royal dame, that

thy application is all in vain to my determination of going

away from here; and know me as already gone from thee and

thy realm to the retreat woods afar from hence.

29. Thou art young and handsome, and aught not accompany

me to dreary deserts and forests; which are in many respects

dreadful to and impassable by men.

30. Women however hardy they may be, are never able to

endure the hardships of forest life; as it is impossible for the

tender tendril to withstand the stroke of the felling axe.

31. Do thou remain here, O excellent lady, to rule over this

realm in my absence; and take upon thee the burden of supporting

thy dependants, which is the highest and best duty of

women.

32. Vasishtha related:—Saying so to the moon-faced princess,

the self governed prince rose from his seat; to make

his daily ablution and discharge his multitudinous duties of the

day.

33. Afterwards the prince took leave of his subjects, notwithstanding

all their entreaties to detain him; and departed

like the setting sun towards his sylvan journey, which was

unknown to and impassable by every one.

34. He set out like the setting sun shorn of his glory, and

disappeared like the sun from the sight of every body; veil of

melancholy covered the face of the princess, as she saw the

egress of her lord from the recess of her chamber; as the

face of nature is obscured from the shadow of darkness, upon[Pg 471]

the disappearance of day light below the horizon. (Here is a

continued simile between the parting sun and the departing

prince, and the face of nature and that of the princess).

35. Now the dark night advanced, veiling the world under

her mantle of the ash-coloured dusk; as when the God Hara

forsakes the fair Gangá, and takes the nigrescent Yamuná to

his embrace. (The day and night representing the two consorts

of the sun).

36. The sides of heaven seemed to smile all around, with

the denticulated clumps of evening clouds; and with the brightness

of the moon beams, glittering on the shoots of Támala

trees. (i.e. The skies seemed to smile with their glittering

teeth of the evening clouds, and smiling moon beams all

around).

37. And as the lord of the day departed towards the setting

mountain of Sumeru on the other side of the horizon, in

order to rove over the elysian garden or paradise of the gods

on the north; so the brightness of the day began to fail, as the

shade of evening prevailed over the face of the forsaken world.

38. Now sable night accompanied by her lord the nocturnal

luminary, advanced on this side of the southern hemisphere;

to sport as a loving couple with this cooling light and shade.

39. Then were the clusters of stars seen spangled in the

etherial sphere under the canopy of heaven, and appeared as

handfuls of lájas or fried rice scattered by the hands of celestial

maiden on the auspicious occasion.

40. The sable night gradually advanced to her puberty,

with the buds of lotuses as her budding breasts; she then

smiled with her moony face, and littered in the opening of

the nightly flowers.

41. The prince returned to his beloved princess after performing

his evening services, and was drowned in deep sleep;

as the mount Mainaka has drowned in the depth of the sea.

(Mainaka is a hidden rock in the sea).

42. It was now the time of midnight, when all was still

and quiet all about; and the people were all as fast asleep, as

if they were pent up in the bosom of stones.

[Pg 472]

43. He finding her fast asleep in her soft and downy bed,

and lolling in the lap of indolence like the female bee in the

cup of the lotus.

44. The prince started from his sleep, and parted the

sleeping partner of his bed from his cold embrace; as the ascending

node of ráhu slowly lets off from its mouth, the eclipsed

moon in the east.

45. He got up from one-half of the bed cloth, while the

supine princess lay on the other-half of it; as when the God

Hari rises from his bed of the waters of the milky ocean,

leaving the lonely Lakshmí roll in the waves after him.

46. He walked out of the palace, and bade the guards to

stand at their places; while he was going, he said to arrest

a gang of robbers beyond the skirts of the city, with his full

confidence in himself.

47. Farewell my royalty, said he, and then passed onward

out of his princedom; and passed through inhabited tracts and

forest lands, as the course of a river runs to the sea.

48. He passed amidst the gloom of night and through the

thickets of the forest beset by thorny bushes; and full of heinous

beasts and reptiles, with his firm fortitude.

49. In the morning he arrived at an open tract of land

which was free from woods and jungles, and ran the course of

the day with his peregrination on foot from sun rise to the

setting sun; when he took refuge under the bower of the

grove.

50. The sun departing from sight left him to the darkness

of night, when he performed his bathing and the daily rite; and

having eaten some root or fruit which he could get, he passed

the night resting on the barren ground under him. (The custom

of evening bath, is now falling into disuse).

51. Again and again the morning appeared and brought to

light many new cities and districts, and many hills and rivers;

which he passed over bravely for twelve repeated days and

nights.

52. He then reached at the foot of the Mandara mountain,

which was covered by a dense and immense forest which no[Pg 473]

human foot could penetrate; and lay (stood) afar from the reach

of man and the boundaries of human habitation.

53. There appeared a spot beset by sounding rills amidst it,

and set with rows of trees with aqueducts under them; here

the relics of a dilapidated dwelling came to sight, and seemed

to bear the appearance of the deserted mansion of some holy

hermit.

54. It was clear of all heinous reptiles and small insects, and

was planted with sacred plants and creepers for the sacerdotal

purposes of the holy siddhas; while it was full of fruit trees

which supplied its occupant with ample food.

55. There was seen a level and pure spot of ground with a

water course, and presenting the green verdure and verdant

trees; loaded with luxuriant fruits and stretching a cooling

shade all over it.

56. The prince built here a bower of verdant creepers and

leafy branches, which with their blooming blossoms glistened;

as the blue vault of heaven under the lightnings of the rainy

season.

57. He made for himself a staff of bamboo and some vessels

for his food and drink, as also some plates to put his offerings

of fruits and flowers in them; and a jar for the presentation of

holy water. He likewise strung some seeds together for the

purpose of his saintly rosary.

58. He procured the hides of dead animals and the deerskin

for his seat and cover let in cold, and placed them carefully

in his holy hermit's cell.

59. He also collected all other things, which were of use

in the discharge of his sacerdotal functions; and preserved

in his sacred cell, as the Lord of creatures has stored the

earth, with every provisions requisite for living beings.

60. He made his morning devotion, and turned his beads

with the muttering of his mantras in the hours of his forenoon;

and then performed his sacred ablution, and offered the flowers

in the service of the Gods in the afternoon.

61. He afterwards took some wild fruits and ground roots,

and the soft lotus stalks for his food in the evening, and then[Pg 474]

passed the night with his lonely self-possession, and in the

meditation of his Maker.

62. Thus did the prince of Malwa pass his days with perfect

cheer of his heart in the cottage cell, which he had constructed

at the foot of the Mandara mountain; and thought no

more of his princely pleasures which were utterly lost under

the influence of the resignation, which had now taken full

possession of his entire soul and mind.

[Pg 475]

CHAPTER LXXXV

Investigation into true Happiness.

Argument:—The princess goes in quest of the Prince. Their Meeting

and the Admonition of the Princess.

VASISHTHA continued:—In this manner, the prince Sikhidhwaja

remained in his monastery in the forest, in his state

of perfect felicity; while the princess remained at home, and did

as you shall now hear from me.

2. After the prince had gone away from the palace at midnight,

Chúdálá started from her sleep; as a timid fawn lying in

the village, is startled by fear.

3. She found the bed vacated by her husband and thought

it as dreary as the sky, without the sun and moon. (A deserted

wife is as forlorn as a deserted village or desolate country).

4. She rose up with a melancholy face, and with her heart

full of sorrow and sadness; and her limbs were as lank as the

leaves of plants, without being well watered in summer.

5. Sorrow sat heavy in her heart, and drove the charm

and cheerfulness off her countenance; and she remained as a

winter day, over cast by a cloud or covered by a hoar-frost

over its face.

6. She sat awhile on the bedstead, and thought with

sorrow in herself; saying, "Ah woe unto me" that my lord

is gone away from here, and abandoned a kingdom for a retreat

in the woods.

7. What then can I do now, than repair to my husband;

where he is, because it is appointed both by the law of nature

and God, that the husband is the only resort and support of

the wife.

8. Having thought so, Chúdálá rose up to follow her husband

and she fled by the door of a window into the open air. (This

means that her spirit fled into air, by the power of her yoga).

[Pg 476]

9. She roamed in her aerial course, and by the force of

her breath on the wings of air; and appeared before the face

of the aerial spirits (siddhas), as a second moon moving in the

skies.

10. As she was passing at the night time, she happened to

behold her lord roving about with a sword in his hand; and

appearing as a ghost of a vetála or demon wandering in the

solitary forest.

11. The princess seeing her husband in this manner from

her aerial seat, she began to reflect on the future state which

awaited on her husband; and which she foresaw by power of

her yoga.

12. It is certain, O Ráma! that whatever is allotted in

the book of fate to befall on any body at any time or place or

manner, the same is sure to take place at the very moment

and spot and in the same way (and all this is well known

to the holy seer and seeress by the prophetic power, which they

acquire by their knowledge and practice of yoga).

13. The princess seeing plainly in her presence, whatever

is to take place on her husband; and knowing it to be averted

by no means, she stopped from going to him to communicate

the same.

14. Be my visit postponed to him to a future occasion,

when it is destined for me to be in his company again.

15. Thinking so in her mind Chúdálá turned her course

from him, and returned to her inner apartment and reclined

on her milk white pillow; as the crescent of the moon lies

recumbent on the hoary forehead of Hara.

16. She proclaimed to her people, that the prince was gone

on some important occasion; and having relieved with the

consolation of his quick return, she took the reins of the government

in her own hands.

17. She managed the state in the manner of her husband,

according to the established rules of toleration; and with the

same care and vigilance, as the husband-woman guards her

ripening cornfields.

18. In this manner they passed their days without seeing[Pg 477]

one another, and the conjugal pair lived separated from each

other; in their respective habitations of the royal palace and

the solitary forest.

19. And in this manner passed on their days and nights,

their weeks and fortnights, their months and seasons in regular

succession over one and another; the one counting his days in

the woods and the other in her princely palace.

20. What is the use of a lengthy description of full eighteen

years, which glided on slowly over the separated couple, the

one dwelling in her palatial dome, and the other in his woodland

retreat.

21. Many more years elapsed in this manner, until the

hermit prince Sikhidhwaja was overtaken by the hoary old

age; in his holy hermitage in a cell of the great Mandara

mountain.

22. Knowing the passions of the prince to be on the wane,

with his declining age and grey hairs, and finding herself not

yet too old to overtake him in the distant forest.

23. And believing that it was the proper time for her to

prevail on him, and to bring him back to the palace, she

thought of joining her husband where he was.

24. With these thoughts, she made up her mind of going

towards the Mandara mountain; and started from her home at

night, and mounted on the wings of air to the upper sky.

25. As she was moving onward on the pinions of air, she

beheld in the upper sky some Siddhawomen, wearing the thin

bark of the kalpa tree and girt with jewels of clustering gems.

26. These were the inhabitants of the garden of paradise,

and going out to meet their Siddha husbands; and sprinkled

over with perfumeries, shedding their dews as bright moon

beams.

27. She breathed the air perfumed by the flowers of the

garden of paradise, and worn by the Siddhas of Eden; and

wallowed in the moon beams, waving like the billows of the

milky ocean.

28. She felt a purer moon light, as she ascended the higher

atmosphere; and she passed amidst the clouds, as the flashing[Pg 478]

lightning moves in their midst. (The fair princess flashed as

the lightning).

29. She said, this flashing lightning though situated in the

bosom of her cloudy spouse, is yet looking at him repeatedly

with the winkling of her eyes; so must I look out for my

absent lord, as I pass like the lightning in the midway sky.

30. It is true, she said, that nature is irrepressible during

the life time of a person; hence it is impossible for my disquieted

mind, to have its quiet without the sight of my loving and

lion like lord.

31. My mind roves and runs mad, when I say, I will see

my lord, and when I will see these creepers turning round and

clasping their supporting tree. (And all my philosophy avails

me naught against my nature).

32. My mind loses its patience to see the contraction of these

senseless creepers, and the excursion of the superior siddha

females in quest of their consorts. (All animated nature from

the vegetable to the immortal are bound by conjugal love).

33. How then and when, shall I like them come to meet

the man that is situated in my heart.

34. These gentle breezes, and these cooling moon-beams

and those plants of the forest, do all continue to disquiet my

heart and set it on fire (instead of cooling its fervour).

35. O my simple heart, why dost thou throb in vain and

thrill at every vein within me? and oh my faithful mind, that

art pure as air, why dost thou lose thy reason and right discretion?

36. It is thou O faithless mind! that dost excite my heart

to run after its spouse; better remain with thy yearnings in

thyself, than torment my quiet spirit with thy longings.

37. Or why is it, O silly woman! that thou dost long in

vain after thy husband, who possibly became too old (to require

thee any more); he is now an ascetic and too weak in his

bodily frame, and devoid of all his earthly desires.

38. I think these desires of the enjoyment of his princely

honors and pleasures, have now been utterly rooted out of his

mind; and the plant of his fondness for sensual gratifications, is[Pg 479]

now as dry as a channel that pours forth its waters into a

large river or sea.

39. I think my husband, who was as fond of me as to form

one soul with myself; has become as callous to soft passions,

as a dried and withered tree.

40. Or I will try the power of my yoga to waken his mind

to sense, and infuse the eager longings and throbbings of my

heart into his.

41. I will collect the thoughts of the ascetic devotee to one

focus, and employ them towards the government of his realm;

where we may be settled for ever to our hearts content.

42. O I have after long discovered the way to my object,

and it is by infusing my very thoughts into the mind of thy

husband.

43. The unanimity of the minds of the wedded pair, and

the pleasure of their constant union; contribute to the highest

happiness of human beings on earth.

44. Revolving in this manner in her mind, the princess

Chúdálá passed onward in her aerial journey; now mounting on

mountains and mountainous clouds, and then passing the bounds

of lands and visible horizons; she reached the sight of Mandara,

and found the glen and cavern in it.

45. She entered the grove as an aerial spirit invisible to

sight, and passed as the air amidst it known by the shaking of

the leaves of trees. (The spirits like winds have motion and

the power of moving other bodies).

46. She beheld a leafy hut in one corner of the wood, and

knew her husband by the power of her yoga; though appeared

to be transformed to another person.

47. She found his body that was decorated before by a

variety of jewels, and glittered as the mount of Meru with its

gold; to have grown as lean and thin and as dark and dry, as a

withered and dried leaf.

48. He wore a vest of rays, and seemed as if he had dipped

in a fountain of ink; he sat alone in one spot, and appeared as

the god Siva to be wholly devoid of all desire.

49. He was sitting on the barren ground, and stringing[Pg 480]

the flowers to his braided hairs; when the beauteous princess

approached before him.

50. She was moved to sorrow at the sight of his miserable

plight, and thus bespoke to herself inaudibly in her mind.

Alas, how painful it is to behold this piteous sight!

51. O! the great stupidity that rises from ignorance of

spiritual knowledge, and which has brought on this miserable

condition on this self-deluded prince.

52. I must not call him unfortunate, as long as he is

my husband; though the deep darkness of his mind (ignorance)

hath brought to this miserable plight. (The living husband

however miserable, is always to be called true fortunate by the

faithful wife.)

53. I must try my best to bring him to the knowledge of

truth, which will no doubt restore him to his sense of enjoyment

here, and of his liberation hereafter; and change his figure to

another form altogether.

54. I must advance nearer to him to instil understanding in

his mind, or else my words will make no effect in him; who

treats me always as his young and silly wife.

55. I will therefore admonish my husband in the figure of a

devotee, and it is possible that my admonition delivered in this

manner, will make its effect in him; who is now grown hoary

with age (old age must have abated the ardour of youth).

56. It is possible that good senses may dawn in the clear

understanding, which is not perverted from its nature; saying so

the princess Chúdálá took the shape of a Bráhman boy on herself.

57. She reflected a little on the Agni-soma-mantra, and

changed her form as the water turns to a wave; and then alighted

on the earth, in the shape of a Brahman's lad.

58. She advanced toward her lord with a smiling countenance,

and the prince Sikhidhwaja beheld the Bráhman boy advancing

towards him.

59. He appeared to come from some other forest, and stood

before him in the form of devotion itself; his body was as bright[Pg 481]

as the molten gold, and his person was ornamented with a string

of pearls.

60. The white sacrificial thread graced his neck, and his body

was covered with two pieces of milk white vests; he held the sacred

water pot on one hand, and with his pupils staff in the other, he

made his approach to the prince. (The order of the students

was called dandi from their holding the sacred stick in one hand,

like the pilgrim staff in Europe).

61. His wrist was entwined by a string of beads, and a long

and double chain of rosary hang from his neck to the ground.

(Double and triple threads of sacred seeds worn about the necks

of saints).

62. His head was covered over by long and flowing jet

black hairs, in the manner of the strings of black bees, fluttering

about the tops of white lotuses; and the radiance of his, shed

a lustre on the spot.

63. His face ornamented with earrings, glowed as the rising

sun with his lustre of rosy rays, and the knotted hair on the top

of his head with the mandára flower fastened on it, appeared as

pinnacle of a mountain with the rising moon above it.

64. The husband that sat quiet with his tall stature, and

his limbs and senses under his subjection; appeared as a mount

of ice with the ashes rubbed all over his body.

65. He saw the Bráhman boy appearing before him, as

the full moon rising on the aureate mount of Meru; and rose

before him with the respect. (Which is paid to that luminary

by her worshippers).

66. Thinking his guest as the son of some God, the prince

stood with his bare feet before him; and addressed him saying,

obeisance to thee O thou son of a God, take this seat and sit

thyself there.

67. He pointed out to him with his hand the leafy bed that

was spread before him, and offered him a handful of flowers

which he poured into his hands.

68. The Bráhman boy responded to him saying: "I greet

thee in return, O thou son of a king! that lookest like a dew

drop or the beaming moon-light sparkling on a lotus leaf." He[Pg 482]

then received the flowers from his hand and sat upon the leafy

bed.

69. Sikhidhwaja said:—Tell me O thou heaven born boy,

whence thou comest and whither thou goest, as for me it is lucky

day that has brought thee to my sight.

70. Please accept this pure water, and fragrant flowers and

this honorarium also; and receive this string of flowers, that I

have strung with my hands; and so be all well with thee.

71. Vasishtha related:—So saying, Sikhidhwaja offered the

flowers, the wreathed blossoms, the honorariums and other offerings;

as directed by the ceremonial law to his worshipful lady.