54. It was as the abode of tranquility, and the resting place of the lord of creation; it was charming by the variety of its blooming blossoms, and was as soft and mild as the cell of the lotus (which is the abode of the lotus-born Brahmá).
CHAPTER LII.
RATIOCINATION OF UDDÁLAKA:—
Argument. Uddálaka’s Remonstration with himself, amidst the reveries of his meditation.
Vasistha resumed:—The saintly Uddálaka then entered in that grotto of Gandhamádana mountain, as the sauntering bee enters into the lotus-cell, in the course of its romantic peregrination.
2. It was for the purpose of his intense meditation, that he entered the cave and sat therein; as when the lotus-born creator, had retired to and rested in his seclusion, after termination of his work of creation.
3. There he made a seat for himself, by spreading the unfaded leaves of trees on the floor; as when the god Indra spreads his carpet of the manifold layers of clouds.
4. He then spread over it his carpet of deerskin, as the bedding of stars, is laid over the strata of the blue clouds of heaven.
5. He sat upon it in his meditative mood, with the watchfulness of his mind; as when an empty and light cloud alights on the top of the Rishyasringa mountain. (i.e. His mind was as fleet, as a fleeting cloud).
6. He sat firmly in the posture of padmásana like Buddha, with his face turned upwards; his two legs and feet covered his private parts, and his palms and fingers counted the beads of Brahmá.
7. He restrained the fleet deer of his mind, from the desires to which it ran by fits and starts; and then he reflected in the following manner, for having the unaltered steadiness of his mind.