33. Afterwards as I beheld him drawing the waters of the ocean into his nostrils, by the force of his breath. 34. I saw a flame of fire flashing out from his mouth, and thought it to be the flash of the latent fire of the water, which was drawn in him, by the breath of his nostrils. 35. Rudra the personified Ego, remains in the form of latent heat in the submarine fire; and continues to suck up the waters of the ocean, until the end of a kalpa epoch. 36. The waters then enter into the infernal regions, as snakes enter in the holes beneath the ground; and the diluvian winds entered into his mouth, in the form of the five vital airs; just as the winds of heaven have their recess in hollow sky. 37. The lord Rudra then goes on to swallow and suck up the marine waters, as the bright sunlight swallows the gloom of the dark fortnight. 38. There appears at last a calm and quiet vacuity as the azure sky, and resembling the wide ocean filled with flying dust and smoke; and devoid of any being or created thing, and stretching from the Empyrean of God to the lowest abyss or _infernum_. 39. I described amidst it four different spheres of empty void, bearing no vestige of anything moving or stirring in them. Listen to me, O son of Raghu, and you will hear what they were. 40. One of these lay in the midst of the air, and was sustained in it without any prop or support like the particles of fragrance floating in the air. This was Rudra of the form of the azure sky. 41. The second was lying afar, and appeared as the concavity of the sky over this earth; it was a part of the mundane system and below the seven spheres of the infernal regions. 42. The third was a region above the mundane sphere, and was invisible to the naked eye, owing to its great distance beyond the azure sky. 43. Then there was the surface of the earth, with its lower hemisphere of the watery regions; it was traversed by the great mountain which was the seat of gods—the Himálayas; and beset by islands, and sea-girt sands and shores. 44. There is another sphere, lying at the furthest distance from the other circles of the world; and comprises the infinite space of vacuum, which extends unlimited like the unbounded and transparent spirit of God. 45. This was the remotest sphere of heavens, that could be observed by me; and there was nothing else observable on any side, beside and beyond the limits of these four spheres or circles. 46. Ráma interrogated, saying:—I ask you to tell me, O venerable sir; whether there is any sphere or space, beyond what is contained in the mind of Brahmá; then tell me what and how many of them are there, what are their boundaries, and how are they situated, and to what end and purpose.