72. It is filled in all its various parts with animal, vegetable and mineral substances of infinite varieties; and it is plenteous with provisions for the sustenance of all sorts of beings.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
Further Description of the Earth.
Argument:—Relation of other wonders, which Vasishtha in his earthly body.
Vasishtha related:—Hear ye men, what I conceived afterwards in my consciousness, as I had been looking in my form of the earth, and considered the rivers running in my body.
2. I beheld in one place a number of women, lamenting loudly on the death of some body; and saw also the great rejoicing of certain females, on the occasion of their festive mirth.
3. I saw a direful dearth and famine in one place, with the rapine and plunder of the people; and I beheld the profusion of plenty in another, and the joy and friendliness of its people.
4. In one place I saw a great fire, burning down every thing before me; and in another a great flood deluging over the land, and drowning its cities and towns, in one common ruin.
5. I beheld a busy body of soldiers somewhere, plundering a city and carrying away their booty; and I observed the fierce raxas and goblins, bent on afflicting and oppressing the people.
6. I saw the beds of waters brimful with water, and running out to water and fertilize the land all around; I saw also masses of clouds issuing from mountain caverns, and tossed and borne by the winds afar and aloft in the sky (to pour their rains in other quarters).
7. I saw the out pourings of rain-water, the uprising of verdure, and the land smiling with plenty; and I felt within myself a delight, which made the hairs on my body stand upright; (as if they were the rising shoots of plants growing out of my body).