Argument:—Anxiety of the Prince at the Disappearance of Kumbha, and his falling to a trance in his deep and hypnotic meditation.
KUMBHA continued:—I have already related to you, O prince, how have all this phenomenon of the world sprung from Brahma, and how it disappears also in him.
2. Having thus heard from me, and understood and reflected in yourself all what I have said; you are at liberty, O sagely prince, to repose in the supreme bliss, which you have well known and felt within yourself.
3. I am now to repair to my heavenly abode, at this time of the conjunction of the moon, when it is very likely that the sage Nárada, may have come before the assemblage of the gods from his seat in the high heaven of Brahmá.
4. He may be angry in not finding me there, and it is not mannerly in youth to tease their superiors at any time.
5. May you ever abide at your ease, by your utter abandonment of every tint of desire, and by your firm reliance in these holy precepts, which the wise have always in their view.
6. Vasishtha said:—At hearing these words, as Sikhidhwaja was about to throw his handful of flowers, and make his obeisance to his departing monitor, he vanished immediately from his sight and mixed in the etherial air.
7. As one absorbed in meditation, does not see the things present before him even in his waking state; so the prince lost sight of Kumbha from before his presence.
8. The prince was plunged in deep sorrow, after the departure of Kumbha from before him; and remained as a painted picture, with his thoughts dwelling on his vanished friend.
9. He thought how marvellous it was, and how very inscrutable are the ways of providence, that it should bring him to the light of the self-manifest Lord, through the means of strange person of Kumbha.