67. At the end of the kalpa age (of universal destruction), he beheld the twelve suns of the zodiac shining at once before him, and he was reduced to ashes by their warmth, as a grasshopper is burnt up by its falling on fire. 68. Finding no other world nor body where he could enter (upon the extinction of the universe), his spirit roved about in the empty air, as a bird soars on high without its nest. 69. After the lapse of a long time, as Brahmá awoke again from his long night of repose, and commenced anew his creation of the world in all its various forms:— 70. The roving spirit of your son was led by its desire, as if it was propelled by a gust of wind, to become a Bráhman again, and to be reborn as such on this earth. 71. He was born as the boy of a Bráhman, under the name of Vásudeva, and was taught in all the Srutis, among the intelligent and learned men of the place. 72. It is in this _kalpa_ age that he has become a Vidyádhara again, and betaken himself to the performance of his devotion on the bank of Samangá, where he is sitting still in his yoga meditation. 73. Thus his desire for the varieties of worldly appearances, has led him to various births, amidst the woods and forests in the womb of this earth, covered with jungles of the thorny khadira, karanja and other bushes and brambles. CHAPTER XI. CAUSE OF THE PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD. Argument. Yama’s narration of Sukra’s meditation, and his inclination to worldliness. Yama continued:—Your son is still engaged in his rigorous austerities on the bank of the rivulet, rolling with its loud waves on the beach, and the winds blowing and howling from all sides. 2. He has been sitting still in his firm devotion, with matted braids of hair on his head; and beads of _rudráksha_ seeds in his hand; and controuling the members of his body from their going astray. 3. If you wish, O venerable sage! to know the reveries in his mind, you shall have to open your intellectual eye, in order to pry into the thoughts of others. 4. Vasishtha said:—Saying so, Yama the lord of world, who sees all at one view, made the Muni to dive into the thoughts of his son with his intellectual eye. 5. The sage immediately saw by his percipience, all the excogitations of his son’s mind; as if they were reflected in the mirror of his own mind. 6. Having seen the mind of his son in his own mind, the _muni_ returned from the bank of Samangá to his own body on mount Mandara, where it was left in its sitting posture, in the presence of Yama (during the wandering of his mind). 7. Surprised at what he saw, the sage looked upon Yama with a smile; and dispassionate as he was, he spoke to the god in the following soft and dispassionate words. 8. O god, that art the lord of the past and future! we are but ignorant striplings before thee; whose brilliant insight views at once, the three times presented before it.