Conclusion of the Narrative of Bhusunda.

Argument.—Vasishtha's praise of Bhusunda, and his homage to the sage, Whose return to Heaven through the midway-sky is described at length.

BHUSUNDA added:—I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am and how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that I was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior intelligence.

2. Vasishtha replied:—O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have given of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me with admiration. (It beggars description, and is mirabile dictu).

3. Blessed are those eminent souls (great men), that have the good fortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of antiquity is next to none, expect the great grandfather of the gods the lotus born BrahmÁ himself.

4. Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your holy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full recital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.

5. I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the dignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men; but have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.

6. It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great soul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like yourself any where. (Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient (savant), but never so holy and godly as a saint).

7. We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow of a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy personage, like yourself in any part of this world.

8. I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also at the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and seen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.

9. Now please to enter your cell, and fare you well in this place; it is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noontide service, call my presence to my heavenly seat.

10. Hearing this Bhusunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out a golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. (Holy persons have the power to add to the members of their bodies).

11. The accomplished (lit. full knowing) crow made a vessel with his beak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers and pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be offered as an honorarium—arghya worthy of the divine sage.

12. The prime-born (ancient) bird, then took the arghya with some water and flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head to foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed god Siva.

13. Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk after me (in token of your respect). So saying I rose from my seat and made a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight. (BishtÁra—a seat, means also a bedding like the Persian bistar and Urdu bistara derived from the root strÍ to spread).

14. Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when I hindered his proceeding farther by compelling him to return after shaking our hands. (The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and parting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with the ancients).

15. The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in my ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it is difficult to part from the company of the good (or of good people).

16. Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate air, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea; and I full with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded upward to meet the munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the Pleiades, where I was honorably received by ArundhatÍ my wife.

17. It was in the beginning of the golden age (satya yuga) before, and after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at Bhusunda's, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.

18. Now, O RÁma! that golden age has gone by, and the TretÁ or silver age has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that thou art born to subdue thy enemies.

19. It is now only eight years past that (or the eight years since) I met with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and same as I had seen him long before.

20. Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character of Bhusunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you consider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. (In order to be as longlived as he).

21. VÁlmÍki says:—The man of pure heart, that considers well the narrative of the virtuous Bhusunda, will undoubtedly pass over the unstable gulf of this world, which is full of formidable dangers on all sides.