Argument. Wandering of Janaka in a Vernal garden, and hearing the Song of Siddhas.
Vasishtha continued:—There lives the mighty king of the Videhas (Tirhutians) Janaka by name, who is blessed with all prosperity and unbounded understanding.
2. He is as the ever fruitful kalpa tree to the host of his suitors, and as the vivifying sun to his lotus-like friends; he is as the genial spring to the florets of his relatives, and as the god Cupid to females.
3. Like the dvija-rája or changeful moon, he gives delight to the dvija—or twice born Bráhmans, as that luminary gives the lilies to bloom; and like the luminous sun he destroys the darkness of his gloomy enemies. He is an ocean of the gems of goodness to all, and the support of his realm, like Vishnu the supporter of the world.
4. He chanced on a vernal eve to wander about a forest, abounding in young creepers with bunches of crimson blossoms on them, and resonant with the melody of mellifluous kokilas, warbling in their tuneful choirs.
5. He walked amidst the flowery arbours, resembling the graceful beauties with ornaments upon them, and sported in their bowers as the god Vásava disports in his garden of Nandana. (Eden or Paradise).
6. Leaving his attendants behind him, he stepped to a grove standing on the steppe of a hill, in the midst of that romantic forest, which was redolent with the fragrance of flowers borne all about by the playful winds.
7. He heard in one spot and within a bower of támala trees, a mingled voice as that of some invisible aerial spirits (siddhá), proceeding from it.
8. I will now recite to you, O lotus-eyed Ráma! the songs of the siddhas, residing in the retired solitudes of mountainous regions, and dwelling in the caverns of hills, and which relate principally to their spiritual meditations.
9. The siddhas sang:—We adore that Being which is neither the subjective nor objective (not the viewer nor the view); and which in our beliefs is the positive felicity, that rises in our souls, and has no fluctuation in it.