19. Afterwards their disembodied minds entered into the net-work of lunar beams, and then in the form of molten frost or rain water, they grew the vegetables on earth. 20. Some of these vegetables were concocted, and then eaten by a Bráhman in the land of Dasárna or confluence of the ten streams. The substance of Sukra was changed to the semen of the Bráhman, and then conceived as a son by his wife. 21. The boy was trained up in the society of the munis to the practice of rigorous austerities, and he dwelt in the forests of Meru for a whole _manwantara_, observant of his holy rites. 22. There he gave birth to a male child of human figure in a doe (to which his mistress was transformed in her next birth), and became exceedingly fond of the boy, to the neglect of his sacred duties. 23. He constantly prayed for the long life, wealth and learning of his darling, and thus forsook the constancy of his faith and reliance in Providence. (Longevity, prosperity and capacity for learning, are the triple blessings of civil life, instead of austerity, purity and self-resignation of painful asceticism). 24. Thus his falling off from the thought of heaven, to those of the earthly aggrandizement of his son, made his shortened life an easy prey to death, as the inhaling of air by the serpent. (It is said that the serpent lives upon air, which it takes in freely in want of any other food). 25. His worldly thoughts having vitiated his understanding, caused him to be reborn as the son of the Madra king, and succeed to him in the kingdom of the Madras (Madura-Madras). 26. Having long reigned in his kingdom of Madras by extirpation of all his enemies, he was overtaken at last by old age, as the lotus-flower is stunted by the frost. 27. The king of Madras, was released of his kingly person by his desire of asceticism; whereby he became the son of an anchorite in next-birth, in order to perform his austerities. 28. He retired to the bank of the meandering river of the Ganges, and there betook himself to his devotion; being devoid of all his worldly anxieties and cares. 29. Thus the son of Bhrigu, having passed in various forms in his successive births, according to the desires of his heart; remained at last as a fixed arbour on the bank of a running stream. CHAPTER IX. DESCRIPTION OF SUKRA’S BODY. Argument. The departed spirit of Sukra, remembers the state of its former body. Vasishtha related:—As Sukra was indulging his reveries in this manner, he passed insensibly under the flight of a series of years, which glided upon him in the presence of his father. 2. At last his arboraceous body withered away with age, under the inclement sun and winds and rain; and it fell down on the ground as a tree torn from its roots. 3. In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to forest.