32. A kind look of the great, gives as much joy to the mind, as draughts of pure ambrosia, serve to satisfy the heart. 33. Tell me who are you, whose feet have sanctified this place; as the glorious orbs of the day and night, enlighten the firmament. 34. Being addressed in this manner, Bhrigu desired him to remember his prior births, which he could well do, by his enlightened understanding. 35. Bhrigu made him acquainted with the state of his former birth, and he remembered it instantly by the clairvoyance of his inward sight. 36. He was struck with wonder at the remembrance of his former state, and smiled with a joyous face and gladsome heart, to ponder on what he had been; and then uttered as follows. 37. Blessed is the law of the Supreme Being, which is without its beginning or end, and is known as destiny here below; and by whose power the world is revolving as a curricle. 38. I see my countless and unknown births, and the innumerable accidents to which they were subject, for the period of a whole kalpa or duration of the world from first to last. (The Soul being immortal, has to pass into infinite births under various shapes and forms of bodies. If it were to lie dormant in the grave for ever what is the good of its being made or created to be immortal?) 39. I have undergone great hardships, and known prosperity also with the toil of earning; have had my wanderings also in different lives, and remember to have roamed for a long time, over the mountainous regions of Meru. 40. I drank the water reddened with the pollen of mandara flowers, and roved along the bank of the heavenly stream of Mandákiní filled with lotuses. 41. I wandered about the Mandara groves, filled with flowering creepers like gold, and under the shade of the kalpa arbors of Meru, and in the flowery plains above and about it. 42. There is naught of good or evil, which I have not tasted or felt or done myself; nor is there anything, which I have not seen and felt and known in my past lives. 43. I have now known the knowable (that is to be known), and seen the imperishable one in whom I have my repose. I have now rested after my toils were over, and have passed beyond the domain of error and darkness. 44. Now rise, O father! and let us go to see that body, lying on the Mandara mount, and which is now dried as a withered plant. 45. I have no desire to remain in this place, nor go anywhere of my own will; it is only to see the works of fate, that we wander all about. 46. I will follow you, with my firm belief in the one adored Deity of the learned. Let that be the desirable object of my mind, and I will act exactly in conformity with my belief. CHAPTER XV. LAMENTATION AND EXPOSTULATION OF SUKRA. Argument. Sukra laments on seeing his former body, and his consolation at its ultimate anaesthesia.