7. As he has passed the period of his youth, and was about to enter the career of worldly life, and had ere this acquired the full knowledge of worlds and things, he proposed the following query to his father.
8. He said, tell me, O father, that knowest all righteousness, how the animal spirit that is bound to the body by means of the too thin thread of life, is released from the bondage of it in this temporary world.
9. Brihaspati replied:—The soul, my son, is well able to fly away easily and swiftly over the perilous ocean of the world, by means of its abandonment of concerns with it.
10. Vasishtha added:—Kacha hearing this holy dictum of his father, abandoned all his earthly properties and expectations, and left his house and went to the forest where he took his shelter.
11. Brihaspati was filled with sorrow at his departure; because it is the nature of good hearted men, to feel equal anxiety both at the union as well as the separation of their friends and inmates.
12. After the sinless Kacha had passed three and five years in his solitude, he came to meet unawares his reverent father, seeking for him in the wood.
13. The son rose and did homage to his venerable father, who embraced him in his arms and to his breast; and then bespoke to his father—the lord of speech, in words that flowed like honey from his lips.
14. Kacha said:—You see father, that I have for these full eight years, forsaken every thing and betaken myself to this solitary retreat, and still why is it, that I do not enjoy the lovely and lasting peace of mind which I have been seeking so long?
15. Vasishtha related—Upon hearing these sorrowful words of Kacha, the lord of speech for Brihaspati told him again to abandon his all, and then left him and made his way to the upper sky.
16. After his father's departure, Kacha cast off his mantle made of the bark and leaves of trees; when his frail body appeared out of it like the clear autumnal sky, after the setting of the sun and the stars of heaven.