Vasishtha continued:—Thence forward Dásúra remained as an ascetic in his hermitage, in that forest, and was known as the Kadamba Dásúra, and a giant of austere devotion.
2. There sitting on the leaves of the creepers growing on the branch of that tree, he looked up to heaven, and then placing himself in the posture of padmásana, he called back his mind to himself.
3. Unacquainted with spiritual adoration, and unpracticed to the ceremonial ritual, he commenced to perform his mental sacrifice, with a desire of gaining its reward.
4. Sitting on the leaves of the creepers in his aerial seat, he employed his inward spirit and mind, in discharging his sacrificial rites, of the sacred fire and horse sacrifice.
5. He continued there for the space of full ten years, in his acts of satisfying the gods with his mental sacrifices of the bull, horse and human immolations, and paying their honorariums in his mind.
6. In process of time, his mind was purified and expanded, and he gained the knowledge of the beatification of his soul. (It is believed that ceremonial acts, lead to the knowledge productive of spiritual bliss).
7. His ignorance being dispelled, his heart became purified of the dirt of worldly desires; and he came to behold a sylvan goddess, standing beside his leafy and mossy seat.
8. She was a body of light and dressed in a robe of flowers; her form and face were beautiful to behold, and her large bright eyes turned wistfully towards him.
9. Her body breathed the fragrance of the blue lotus, and her figure charmed his inmost soul. He then spoke to the goddess, standing before him with her down cast looks.
10. What art thou, O tender dame! That lookest like a creeper fraught with flowers, and defiest the god Cupid with thy beauteous form and eyes, resembling the petals of the lotus.