re for sixty-six thousand
years, subsisting all the while upon air alone. Once more undergoing
severe austerities of another kind for twice that period, he filled the
space between earth and heaven with his energy. When by those
austerities, O sire, he became like Brahma[269] he then beheld the
Master, Origin, and Guardian of the Universe, the Lord of all the gods,
the Supreme Deity, who is exceedingly difficult of being gazed at, who is
minuter than the minutest and larger than the largest, who is called
Rudra,[270] who is the lord of all the superior ones, who is called Hara
and Sambhu, who has matted locks on his head, who is the infuser of life
into every form, who is the First cause of all immobile and mobile
things, who is irresistible and of frightful aspect, who is of fierce
wrath and great Soul, who is the All-destroyer, and of large heart; who
beareth the celestial bow and a couple of quivers, who is cased in golden
armour, and whose energy is infinite, who holdeth Pinaka, who is armed
with thunderbolt, a blazing trident, battle axe, mace, and a large sword;
whose eye-brows are fair, whose locks are matted, who wieldeth the heavy
short club, who hath the moon on his forehead, who is clad in tiger-skin,
and who is armed with the bludgeon; who is decked with beautiful angadas,
who hath snakes for his sacred thread, and who is surrounded by diverse
creatures of the universe and by numerous ghosts and spirits, who is the
One, who is the abode of ascetic austerities, and who is highly adored by
persons of venerable age; who is Water, Heaven, Sky, Earth, Sun, Moon,
Wind and Fire, and who is the measure of the duration of the universe.
Persons of wicked behaviour can never obtain a sight of that unborn one,
that slayer of all haters of Brahmanas, that giver of emancipation.[271]
Only Brahmanas of righteous conduct, when cleansed of their sins and
freed from the control of grief, behold him with their mind's eye. In
consequence of his ascetic austerities, Narayana obtained a sight of that
unfading one, that embodiment of righteousness, that adorable one, that
Being having the universe for his form. Beholding that supreme Abode of
all kinds of splendour, that God with a garland of Akshas round his neck,
Vasudeva, with gratified soul, became filled with delight which he sought
to express by words, heart, understanding, and body. Then Narayana
worshipped that Divine Lord, that First cause of the universe, that giver
of boo