ed them
unto me saying, 'Do thou ask some boon, O Kunti's son. I am well-pleased
with thee. Tell me, what I shall do for thee. And, O hero, express the
desire that dwelleth in thy heart. I will grant it. Except immortality
alone, tell me as to the desire that is in thy heart. Thereat with my
mind intent on the acquisition of arms, I only bowed down unto Siva and
said, 'O divine one, if thou beest favourably disposed towards me, then I
wish to have this boon,--I wish to learn all the weapons that are with
thy god-head.' Then the god Tryamvaka said unto me, 'I will give. O
Pandava, my own weapon Raudra shall attend upon thee.' Thereupon
Mahadeva, well-pleased, granted to me the mighty weapon, Pasupata. And,
having granted that eternal weapon, he also said unto me, This must never
be hurled at mortals. If discharged at any person of small energy, it
would consume the universe. Shouldst thou (at any time) be hard pressed,
thou mayst discharge it. And when all thy weapons have been completely
baffled, thou mayst hurl it.' Then when he having the bull for his mark,
had been thus gratified, there stood manifest by my side that celestial
weapon, of resistless force capable of baffling all weapons and
destructive of foes and the hewer of hostile forces and unrivalled and
difficult to be borne even by the celestials, the demons and the
Rakshasas. Then at the command of that god, I sat me down there. And in
my very sight the god vanished from the spot.'"

SECTION CLXVII

"Arjuna said, 'O Bharata, by the grace of that god of gods the Supreme
Soul, Tryamvaka, I passed the night at that place. And having passed the
night, when I had finished the morning rituals, I saw that foremost of
the Brahmanas whom I had seen before. And unto him I told all as it had
happened, O Bharata, namely, that I had met the divine Mahadeva.
Thereupon, O king of kings, well-pleased, he said unto me, 'Since thou
hast beheld the great god, incapable of being beheld by any one else,
soon wilt thou mix with Vaivaswata and the other Lokapalas and the lord
of the celestials; and Indra too will grant thee weapons.' O king, having
said this unto me and having embraced me again and again, that Bhrahmana
resembling the Sun, went away whither he listed. And, O slayer of foes,
it came to pass that on the evening of that day refreshing the whole
world, there began to blow a pure breeze. And in my vicinity on the base
of the Himalaya mountain fresh, fragrant and fa