11. He overcame by his resolute perseverance, all his manifold obstacles and troubles, in his alternate propitiations of the god Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu, for their discharging the course of the stream. (The holy Gangá was first confined in Brahmá's water pot, and then restricted in Hara's crown, and lastly locked up under Jahnu's seat, whence the river has the nickname of Jáhnaví). 12. Though he was yet in the vigour of his youth, he seemed even then to feel the decay of age, coming fastly upon him, at his incessant thoughts on the miseries of human life. 13. His excogitation of the vanities of the world, produced in him a philosophical apathy to them; and this _sang froid_ or cold heartedness of his in the prime of his youth, was like the shooting forth of a tender sprout on a sudden in a barren desert. (So great was the early abstractedness from the world, prized by the ancient Aryans, that many monarchs are mentioned to have became religious recluses in their youth). 14. The prince thought in his retired moments on the impropriety of his worldly conduct, and made the following reflections, on the daily duties of life in his silent soliloquy. 15. I see the return of day and night, in endless succession after one another; and I find the repetition of the same acts of giving and taking (receipts and disbursements), and lasting the same enjoyments, to have grown tedious and insipid to me. (So it was with Rasselas the prince of Abyssinia, who felt disgusted at the daily rotation of the same pleasures and enjoyments and one unvaried course of life). 16. I think that only to be worth my seeking and doing, which being obtained and done, there is nothing else to desire or do in this transitory life of troubles and cares. 17. Is it not shameful for a sensible being, to be employed in the same circuit of business every day, and is it not laughable to be doing and undoing the same thing, like silly boys day by day? 18. Being thus vexed with the world, and afraid of the consequence of his worldly course, Bhagíratha repaired in silence to the solitary cell of his preceptor Tritala, and bespoke to him in the following manner. 19. Bhagíratha said:--My Lord! I am entirely tired and disgusted with the long course of my worldly career, which I find to be all hollow and empty within it, and presenting a vast wilderness without. 20. Tell me lord, how can I get over the miseries of this world, and get freed from my fear of death and disease and from the fetters of errors and passions, to which I am so fast enchained. (The Hindu mind is most sensible of the baneful effects of the primeval curse pronounced on man, and the accursedness of his posterity and of this earth for his sake; and is always in eager search of salvation, redemption or liberation from the same by _mukti_, _moksha_, and _paritrána_).