24. Every desire is a fever in the bosom, and the group of our errors is as the mist of autumn; and there is no release of mankind from these, save by the impassionateness of their minds.
25. They have gone over the bounds of worldly enjoyments, who have had the high-mindedness, to lay hold on the tranquility of their minds.
26. It is by my good fortune, that I came to find this body of mine, resting in these woods without its troublesome mind; and freed from all its tribulations and feverish anxieties.
27. Ráma said:—Venerable Sir, that art versed in all knowledge, you have already related of Sukra’s passing through many births in different shapes; and feeling all their casualties of good and evil.
28. How was it then that he regretted so much for his body begotten by Bhrigu; in disregard of all his other bodies; and the pains and pleasures which attended upon them?
29. Vasishtha answered:—Ráma! the other bodies of Sukra were merely the creations of his imagination; but that of Bhárgava or as the son of Bhrigu, was the actual one, as produced by the merit of his pristine acts. (Here the gloss is too verbose on the theory of metempsychosis; but the literal meaning of the couplet is what is given above).
30. This was the first body with which he was born by the will of his Maker, being first formed in the form of subtile air, and then changed into the shape of wind.
31. This wind entered into heart of Bhrigu in a flux of the vital and circulating breaths, and being joined in time with the semen, formed the germ of Sukra’s body. (So called from the seed—sukra).
32. The person of Sukra, received the Bráhmanical sacraments, and became an associate of the father; till at last it was reduced to the form of a skeleton in course of a long time.
33. Because this was the first body which Sukra had obtained from Brahmá the creator, it was on this account that he lamented so much for it. (Sukra the son of Bhrigu, was the grandson of Manu—the first human being, after creation of the world called kalpárambha).