non-anger against the Brahmanas, grace of my father, a hundred sons, the
highest enjoyments, love for my family, the grace of my mother, the
attainment of tranquillity and peace, and cleverness in every act!'

"'"Uma said, 'It shall be even so, O thou that art possessed of prowess and
puissance equal to that of a celestial. I never say what is untrue. Thou
shalt have sixteen thousand wives. Thy love for them and theirs also for
thee shall be unlimited. From all thy kinsmen also, thou shalt receive
the highest affection. Thy body too shall be most beautiful. Seven
thousand guests will daily feed at thy palace.'"

"'Vasudeva continued, "Having thus granted me boons both the god and the
goddess, O Bharata, disappeared there and then with their Ganas, O elder
brother of Bhima. All those wonderful facts I related fully, O best of
kings, to that Brahmana of great energy, viz., Upamanyu (from whom I had
obtained the Diksha before adoring Mahadeva). Bowing down unto the great
God, Upamanyu said these words to me.'

"'"Upamanyu said, 'There is no deity like Sarva. There is no end or refuge
like Sarva. There is none that can give so many or such high boons. There
is none that equal him in battle.'"'"

SECTION XVI

"'"Upamanyu said, 'There was in the Krita age, O sire, a Rishi celebrated
under the name of Tandi. With great devotion of heart he adored, with the
aid of Yoga-meditation, the great God for ten thousand years. Listen to
me as I tell the fruit or reward he reaped of such extraordinary
devotion. He succeeded in beholding Mahadeva and praised him by uttering
some hymns. Thinking, with the aid of his penances, of Him who is the
supreme Soul and who is immutable and undeteriorating, Tandi became
filled with wonder, and said these words,--"I seek the protection of Him
whom the Sankhyas describe and the Yogins think of as the Supreme, the
Foremost, the Purusha, the pervader of all things, and the Master of all
existent objects, of him who, the learned say, is the cause of both the
creation and the destruction of the universe; of him who is superior to
all the celestials, the Asuras, and the Munis, of him who has nothing
higher, who is unborn, who is the Lord of all things, who has neither
beginning nor end, and who is endued with supreme puissance, who is
possessed of the highest felicity, and who is effulgent and
sinless."--After he had said these words, Tandi beheld before him that
ocean of penances, that great Deit