20. He remained with an even composure, in his state of transcendent quietness; and enjoyed an even rapture in himself, with a placid countenance.
21. Being unruffled by the transport of his spiritual bliss, and attaining the state of divine holiness; he remained for a long time in his abstract meditation, by abstracting his mind, from all thoughts and errors of the world.—
22. His great body remained as fixed as an image in painting, and shone as bright as the autumnal sky, illumined by the beams of the full moon.
23. In course of some days, his soul gradually forgot its mortal state, and it found its rest in his pure spiritual bliss; as the moisture of trees is deposited in the rays of the sun, at the end of autumn (in the cold season).
24. Being devoid of all desires, doubts and levity of his mind; and freed from all foul and of pleasurable inclinations of his body; he attained to that supreme bliss on the loss of his former joys, before which the prosperity of Indra appeared as a straw, floating on the vast expanse of the ocean.
25. The Bráhman then attained to that state of his summum bonum which is unmeasurable, and pervades through all space of the measureless vacuum; and which fills the universe and is felt by the enraptured yogi alone. It is what is called the supreme and infinite bliss, having neither its beginning nor end, and being a reality, without any property assignable to itself.
26. While the Bráhman attained to this first state of his consummation, and had the clearness of his understanding, during the first six months of his devotion; his body became emaciated by the sun beams, and the winds of heaven whistled over his dry frame, with the sound of lute strings.
27. After a long time had elapsed in this manner, the daughter of the mountain king—Párvatí, came to that spot, accompanied by the Mátris, and shining like flames of fire with the grey locks of hair on their heads, as if to confer the boon of his austere devotion.
28. Among them was the goddess Chámundá, who is adored by the gods. She took up the living skeleton of the Bráhman, and placed it on her crown, which added a new lustre to her frame at night.
29. Thus was the disgusting and dead like body of Uddálaka, set and placed over the many ornaments on the body of the goddess; and it was only for her valuing it as more precious than all other jewels, on account of its intrinsic merit of spiritual knowledge.