28. He retired to the bank of the meandering river of the Ganges, and there betook himself to his devotion; being devoid of all his worldly anxieties and cares.
29. Thus the son of Bhrigu, having passed in various forms in his successive births, according to the desires of his heart; remained at last as a fixed arbour on the bank of a running stream.
CHAPTER IX.
DESCRIPTION OF SUKRA’S BODY.
Argument. The departed spirit of Sukra, remembers the state of its former body.
Vasishtha related:—As Sukra was indulging his reveries in this manner, he passed insensibly under the flight of a series of years, which glided upon him in the presence of his father.
2. At last his arboraceous body withered away with age, under the inclement sun and winds and rain; and it fell down on the ground as a tree torn from its roots.
3. In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to forest.
4. He underwent repeated births and deaths, in his wanderings in the world in search of its enjoyments; and seemed as some thing whirled about in a turning mill or wheel; till at last he found his rest in the cooling beach of the rivulet.
5. Now the disembodied spirit of Sukra, remained to reflect on his past transmigrations, in all the real and ideal forms of his imagination.
6. It thought of its former body on the Mandara mountain, and how it was reduced to a skeleton of mere bones and skin by the heat of the sun and his austerities (i.e. of the five fires pancha-tapas of his penance).