7. Vasishtha replied:—Attend now Ráma, to my narration of the history of Bhrigu and Kála, whereby you will know how he came to the possession of earthly enjoyments.
8. There is a table-land of the Mandara mountain, which is beset by rows of tamála trees, with beautiful arbours of flowers under them.
9. Here the sage Bhrigu conducted his arduous devotion in olden times and it was in this place, that his high-minded and valiant son Sukra, also came to perform his devotion.
10. Sukra was as handsome as the moon, and radiant with his brilliant beams (like the sun). He took his seat in that happy grove of Bhrigu, for the purpose of his devotion.
11. Having long sat in that grove under the umbrage of a rock, Sukra removed himself to the flowery beds and fair plains below.
12. He roved freely about the bowers of Mandara in his youthful sport, and became revered among the wise and ignorant men of the place.
13. He roved there at random like Trisanku, between the earth and sky; sometimes playing about as a boy, and at others sitting in fixed meditation as his father.
14. He remained without any anxiety in his solitude, as a king who has subdued his enemy; until he happened to behold an Apsara fairy, traversing in her aerial journey.
15. He beheld her with the eyes of Hari, fixed upon his Lakshmí, as she skims over the watery plain, decked with her wreaths of Mandara flowers, and her tresses waving loosely with the playful air.
16. Her trinkets jingling with her movements, and the fragrance of her person perfuming the winds of the air; her fairy form was as beautiful as a creeping plant, and her eyeballs rolling as in the state of intoxication.