VÁLMIKI says:—You have heard the relation of the subject of Stoicism or composure of the soul; attend now to that of Nirvána, which will teach you how to attain the final liberation of yourselves[1].
2. As the chief of Sages was saying his magniloquent speech in this manner, and the princes remained mute with their intense attention to the ravishing oration of the Sage:
3. The assembled chiefs remained there as silent and motionless portraits, and forgot their devotions and duties, by being impressed in their minds with the sense and words of the Sage's speech.
4. The assemblage of Saints, was reverently pondering upon the deep sense of the words of the Sage, with their curled brows and signs of their index fingers (indicating their wonder).
5. The ladies in the Seraglio were lost in wonder, and turned upward their wondering eyes, resembling a cluster of black bees, sucking intently the nectarious honey of the new blown flowers (of the Sage's speech).
6. The glorious sun sank down in the sky, at the fourth or last watch of the day; and was shorn of his radiant beams as he was setting in the west (as a man becomes mild with his knowledge, of truth at the end of his journey through life).
7. The winds blew softly at the eve of the day, as if to listen to the sermon of the Sage, and wafted about the sweets of his moving speech, like the fragrance of the gently shaking mandara flowers.
8. All other sounds were drowned in the deep meditation of the audience, as when the humming of the bumble bees, is pushed in their repose, amidst the cell of blooming flowers at night.
9. The bubbling waters of the pearly lakes, sparkled unmoved amidst their embordered beds; as if they were intently attentive to listen to the words of the Sage, which dropped as strings of pearls from his flippant lips. (So the verse of Hafiz affixed to the title page of Sir William Jones' Persian grammar: "Thou hast spoken thy verse, and strung a string of pearls").