15. He (Sukra) having tasted the pleasure and pain of all these states at a moment’s thought of his mind, is now seated as a devotee on the bank of Samangá, under the spreading beams of the moon. (The Gloss speaks here of Sukra’s passing into many births, before his betaking himself to devotion).
16. His vital breath having fled from his heart, became as the moonbeam sparkling in a dew drop, which entered the uterus in the form of semen virilis.
17. Saying so, the lord of death smiled to think of the course of nature, and taking hold of Bhrigu’s hand in his own, they both departed as the sun and moon together.
18. O wonderful is the law of nature! said Bhrigu slowly to himself, and then rose higher and higher, as the sun ascends above his rising mountain.
19. With their luminous bodies, they arrived at the spot of Samangá, and shone on high above the tamála trees below. Their simultaneous rising in the clear firmament, made them appear as the sun rising with the full-moon over the cloudy horizon.
20. Válmíki said:—As the muni (Vasishtha) was telling these things, the sun went down his setting mountain, and the day departed to its evening service. The court broke with mutual salutations, to perform their evening rites and observances, after which they joined the assembly at the dawn of the next day.[1]
CHAPTER XIV.
SUKRA’S REMINISCENCE OF HIS METEMPSYCHOSIS.
Argument. Bhrigu and Yama’s Expostulation with Sukra, and desiring him to return to his former state.
Vasishtha said:—Now as Yama and Bhrigu departed from the cavern of the Mandara mountain, and proceeded towards the bank of Samangá river:—
2. They beheld upon their descending from the mountain, a great light below; proceeding from the bodies of the celestials, sleeping in the arbours of aureate creepers.