Reading section 76

6. The earth like a lotus is situated on the surface of the waters of the ocean, which make it shake at times, and cause the earthquake by their motion. It is supported upon the serpent Vásuki serving for its understalk, and is girt about by demons as its thorns and prickles.[15]

7. The mount Meru (and others) are its large seeds, and the great hives of human population; where the fair daughters of the giant race, propagated (the race of men), by their sweet embrace (with the sons of God).[16]

8. It has the extensive continent of Jambudwípa situated in one petal, the petioles forming its divisions, and the tubular filaments its rivers.

9. The seven elevated mountains, forming the boundary lines of this continent, are its seeds; and the great mount of Sumeru reaching to the sky, is situated in the midst. (_i.e._ The topmost north pole).

10. Its lakes are as dewdrops on the lotus-leaf, and its forests are as the farina of the flower; and the people inhabiting the land all around, are as a swarm of bees about it.

11. Its extent is a thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded on all sides by the dark sea like a belt of black bees.

12. It contains nine _varshas_ or divisions, which are ruled by nine brother kings, resembling the regents of its eight petalled sides, with the Bhárata-varsha in the midst.

13. It stretches a million of miles with more of land than water in it. Its habitable parts are as thickly situated as the frozen ice in winter.

14. The briny ocean which is twice as large as the continent, girds it on the outside, as a bracelet encircles the wrist.

15. Beyond it lies the Sáka continent of a circular form, and twice as large as the former one, which is also encircled by the sea.

16. This is called the milky ocean for the sweetness of its water, and is double the size of the former sea of salt.

17. Beyond that and double its size is the Kusadwípa continent, which is full of population. It is also of the size of a circle, and surrounded by another sea.

18. Around it lies the belt of the sea of curds, delectable to the gods, and double the size of the continent which is encircled by it.

19. After that lies the circle of the Krauncha dwípa, which is also twice the size of the former one, and surrounded by a sea in the manner of a city by a canal.

20. This sea is called the sea of butter, and is twice as large as the continent which is girt by it. Beyond it lies the Sálmali dwípa, girt by the foul sea of wine.

21. The fair belt of this sea resembles a wreath of white flowers, like the girdle of the _Sesha_ serpent, forming the necklace hanging on the breast of Hari.

22. Thereafter is stretched the Plaxa dwípa, double the size of the former, and encircled by the belt of the sea of sugar, appearing as the snowy plains of Himálaya.

23. After that lies the belt of the Pushkara dwípa, twice as large as the preceding one, and encircled by a sea of sweet water double its circumference.

24. Hence they saw at the distance of ten degrees, the descent to the infernal regions; where there lay the belt of the south polar circle, with its hideous cave below.

25. The way to the infernal cave is full of danger and fear, and ten times in length from the circle of the _dwípas_ (continents).

26. This cave is encompassed on all sides by the dreadful vacuum, and is half covered below by a thick gloom, appearing as a blue lotus attached to it.

27. There stood the Lokáloka Kumeru or South Polar mountain, which is bright with sun-shine on one side, and covered by darkness on the other, and is studded with various gems on its tops, and decked with flowers growing upon it.

28. It reflected the glory of the three worlds (in the everlasting snows), which are clapped as a cap of hairs on its top.

29. At a great distance from it, is a great forest, untrodden by the feet of any living being; and then proceeding upward, they saw the great northern ocean encompassing the pole on all sides.

30. Further on they beheld the flaming light of the aurora borealis, which threatened to melt the snowy mountain to water.

31. Proceeding onward, they met with the fierce Boreas or north winds, blowing with all their fury and force.

32. They threatened to blow away and uproot the mountains, as if they were dust or grass; and traversed the empty vacuum with their noiseless motion.

33. Afar from these they saw the empty space of vacuum, stretching wide all about them.

34. It spreads around to an unlimited extent, and encompasses the worlds as a golden circlet encircles the wrist (_i.e._ the belt of the zodiac).

35. Thus Lílá, having seen the seas and mountains, the regents of the worlds, the city of the gods, the sky above and the earth below in the unlimited concavity of the universe, returned on a sudden to her own land, and found herself in her closet again.

CHAPTER XXVI.

MEETING THE SIDDHAS

Vasishtha said:—After the excellent ladies had returned from their visit of the mundane sphere, they entered the abode where the Bráhman had lived before.

2. There the holy ladies saw in that dwelling, and unseen by any body, the tomb or tope of the Bráhman.

3. Here the maid servants were dejected with sorrow, and the faces of the women were soiled with tears. Their countenances had faded away, like lotuses with their withered leaves.

4. All joy had fled from the house, and left it as the dry bed of the dead sea, after its waters were sucked by the scorching sun (Agastya). It was as a garden parched in summer, or a tree struck by lightening.

5. It was as joyless as the dried lotus, torn by a blast or withering under the frost; and as faint as the light of a lamp, without its wick or oil; and as dim as the eyeball without its light.

6. The house without its master, was as doleful as the countenance of a dying person, or as a forest with its falling and withered leaves, and as the dry and dusty ground for want of rain.

7. Vasishtha continued:—Then the lady with her gracefulness of divine knowledge, and the elegance of her perfections, and her devotedness to and desire of truth, thought within herself, that the inmates of the house might behold her and the goddess, in their ordinary forms of human beings.

9. The dwellers of the house then beheld the two ladies as Laxmí and Gaurí together, and brightening the house with the effulgence of their persons.

10. They were adorned from head to foot, with wreaths of unfading flowers of various kinds; and they seemed like Flora—the genius of spring, perfuming the house with the fragrance of a flower garden.

11. They appeared to rise as a pair of moons, with their cooling and pleasant beams; infusing a freshness to the family, as the moonlight does to the medicinal plants in forests and villages.

12. The soft glances of their eyes, under the long, loose and pendant curls of hair on their foreheads, shed as it were a shower of white _málati_ flowers, from the dark cloudy spots of their nigrescent eyes.

13. Their bodies were as bright as melted gold, and as tremulous as the flowing stream. The current of their effulgence, cast a golden hue on the spot where they stood, as also over the forest all around.

14. The natural beauty of Laxmí’s body, and the tremulous glare of Lílá’s person, spread as it were, a sea of radiance about them, in which their persons seemed to move as undulating waves.

15. Their relaxed arms resembling loose creepers, with the ruddy leaflets of their palms, shook as fresh Kalpa creepers in the forest.

16. They touched the ground again with their feet, resembling the fresh and tender petals of a flower, or like lotuses growing upon the ground.

17. Their appearance seemed to sprinkle ambrosial dews all around, and made the dry withered and brown boughs of _tamála_ trees, to vegetate anew in tender sprouts and leaflets.

18. On seeing them, the whole family with Jyeshtha Sarmá (the eldest boy of the deceased Bráhman), cried aloud and said, “Obeisance to the sylvan goddesses,” and threw handfuls of flowers on their feet.

19. The offerings of flowers which fell on their feet, resembled the showers of dew-drops, falling on lotus leaves in a lake of lotuses.

20. Jyeshtha Sarmá said:—Be victorious, ye goddesses! that have come here to dispel our sorrow; as it is inborn in the nature of good people, to deliver others from their distress.

21. After he had ended, the goddesses addressed him gently and said, tell us the cause of your sorrow, which has made you all so sad.

22. Then Jyeshtha Sarmá and others related to them one by one their griefs, owing to the demise of the Bráhman pair.

23. They said:—Know O goddess pair! there lived here a Bráhman and his wife, who had been the resort of guests and a support of the Bráhminical order.

24. They were our parents, and have lately quitted this abode; and having abandoned us with all their friends and domestic animals here, have departed to heaven, and left us quite helpless in this world.

25. The birds there sitting on the top of the house, have been continually pouring in the air, their pious and mournful ditties over the dead bodies of the deceased.

26. There the mountains on all sides, have been lamenting their loss, in the hoarse noise (of the winds) howling in their caverns, and shedding showers of their tears in the course of the streams issuing from their sides.

27. The clouds have poured their tears in floods of rainwater, and fled from the skies; while the quarters of the heavens have been sending their sighs in sultry winds all around.

28. The poor village people are wailing in piteous notes, with their bodies mangled by rolling upon the ground, and trying to yield up their lives with continued fasting.

29. The trees are shedding their tears every day in drops of melting snow, exuding from the cells of their leaves and flowers, resembling the sockets of their eyes.