'"The Brahmana said, 'Thou hast made strenuous efforts before all these
persons (for making me a sharer of the rewards in store for thee as the
consequences of thy own acts). Let us then become equal in respect of our
rewards (in next life), and let us go to receive that end which is ours.'
Knowing the resolve to which they came there, the chief of the gods came
to that spot, accompanied by the deities and the Regents of the world.
The Sadhyas, the Viswas, the Mantras, diverse kinds of loud and sweet
music, the Rivers, the Mountains, the Seas, the Sacred Waters, the
Penances, the Ordinances about yoga, the Vedas, the Sounds that accompany
the singing of the Samans, Saraswati, Narada, Parvata, Viswavasu, the
Hahas, the Huhus, the Gandharva Chitrasena with all the members of his
family, the Nagas, the Sadhyas, the Munis, the god of gods, viz.,
Prajapati, and the inconceivable and thousand-headed Vishnu himself, came
there. Drums and trumpets were beat and blown in the firmament. Celestial
flowers were rained down upon those high-souled beings. Bands of Apsaras
danced all around. Heaven, in his embodied form, came there. Addressing
the Brahmana, he said, 'Thou hast attained to success. Thou art highly
blessed.' Next addressing the monarch, he said, 'Thou also, O king, hast
attained to success.' Those two persons then, O monarch (viz., the
Brahmana and the king), having done good to each other, withdrew their
senses from the objects of the world. Fixing the vital breaths Prana,
Apana, Samana, Udana and Vyana in the heart, they concentrated the mind
in Prana and Apana united together. They then placed the two united
breaths in the abdomen, and directed their gaze to the tip of the nose
and then immediately below the two eye-brows. They next held the two
breaths, with the aid of the mind, in the spot that intervenes between
the two eye-brows, bringing them there very gradually. With bodies
perfectly inactive, they were absorbed with fixed gaze. Having control
over their souls, they then placed the soul within the brain. Then
piercing the crown of the high-souled Brahmana a fiery flame of great
splendour ascended to heaven. Loud exclamations of woe, uttered by all
creatures, were then heard on all sides. Its praises hymned by all, that
splendour then entered Brahman's self. The Great grandsire, advancing
forward, addressed that splendour which had assumed a form of the
tallness of a span, saying, 'Welcome!' And once more he utter