12. He did not walk in the ways of the ungodly, nor spent his time in aught but religious discourses. His mind did not dwell on visible objects, as the lotus never grows on dry land. 13. His mind did not delight in pleasures, which were all linked with pain; but longed for its liberation, which is as entire of itself and unconnected with anything, as a single grain of unperforated pearl. 14. But his mind being abstracted from his enjoyments, and not yet settled in its trance of ultimate rest; had been only waving between the two states, like a cradle swinging in both ways. 15. The god Vishnu, who knew all things by his all-knowing intelligence; beheld the unsettled state of Prahláda’s mind, from his seat in the milky ocean. 16. Pleased at Prahláda’s firm belief, he proceeded by the sub-terranean route to the place of his worship, and stood confest before him at the holy altar. 17. Seeing his god manifest to his view, the lord of the demons worshipped him with two-fold veneration, and made many respectful offerings to his lotus-eyed deity more than his usual practice. 18. He then gladly glorified his god with many swelling orisons, for his deigning to appear before him in his house of worship. 19. Prahláda said:—I adore thee, O my lord Hari! that art unborn and undecaying; that art the blessed receptacle of three worlds; that dispellest all darkness by the light of thy body; and art the refuge of the helpless and friendless. 20. I adore my Hari in his complexion of blue-lotus leaves, and of the colour of the autumnal sky; I worship him whose body is of the hue of the dark _bhramara_ bee; and who holds in his arms the lotus, discus, club and the conch-shell. 21. I worship the god that dwells in the lotus-like hearts of his votaries, with his appearance of a swarm of sable bees; and holding a conch-shell as white as the bud of a lotus or lily, with the earrings ringing in his ears with the music of humming bees. 22. I resort to Hari’s sky-blue shade, shining with the starry light of his long stretching nails; his face shining as the full-moon with his smiling beams, and his breast waving as the surface of Ganges, with the sparkling gems hanging upon it. 23. I rely on that godling that slept on the leaf of the fig tree (when his spirit floated on the surface of the waters); and that contains the universe in himself in his stupendous form of Virát; that is neither born nor grown, but is always the whole by himself; and is possest of endless attributes of his own nature. 24. I take my refuge in Hari, whose bosom is daubed with the red dust of the new-blown lotus, and whose left side is adorned by the blushing beauty of Lakshmí; whose body is mantled by a coloured red coverlet; and besmeared with red sandal paste like liquid gold.