47. Thenceforwards, O Indra! has she betaken herself to her protracted devotion, and passed many years in the solitary wilderness in her steady position and posture of body.
48. It now behoves you, O Indra! that art skilled in stratagems, to devise some plan, in order to delude her from her object, or else her devotion will destroy the people, you have so long preserved.
49. Vasishtha said:—Indra having heard these words of Nárada, sent Maruta (Eolus) the god of winds to her search, in all quarters of the globe.
50. The god Maruta then proceeded in quest of her, in his spiritual form of intelligence; and having traversed the etherial regions, alighted upon the nether world. The winds and all other elemental and physical powers, are believed to be endued with intelligence also; and not as mere brute forces, on account of the regular discharge of their proper functions, which they could never do without intelligence.
(Hence the imagination and adoration of the Marutgana in the elemental worship of the Veda).
51. He beheld everything instantly at a glance of his intelligence; which perceived all things at one view; as the sight of the Supreme Spirit sees through all bodies without exception or hindrance. (i.e. The sight of the spirit like its breath, sees through and supports all things).
52. His sight stretched to the Lokáloka mountain in the polar circle, far beyond the seven seas of the earth, where there is a large tract of land abounding with gems. (It is doubtful whether the polar mountain or sea abounds with gems).
53. He viewed the circle of the Pushkara continent, surrounded by a sea of sweet water; and containing mountains with their dales and valleys.
54. He next saw the Gomeda islands, surrounded by the sea of liquor with its marine animals; and the land abounding with cities and towns.
55. He beheld also the fertile and peaceful continent of Kraunchadwípa, bounded by the sweet Saccharine sea, and beset by a range of mountains.