53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had been residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back, after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village. 54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing about it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for my own amusement. 55. I got to <the> region of vitality which was situated within the heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before, and I left behind. 56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together with the positions of the world. 57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state, the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed <to> be dislocated from its place. 58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I know where they were taken. 59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew to view. 60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water. 61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them save in the memory of men. 62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all away. 63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening sky. 64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and unscathed by the burning flame. 65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as the flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over the burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of the lands (_sthala_ padma). CHAPTER CXXXXI. DESCRIPTION OF THE TERMINATION OF A KALPA-PERIOD. Argument:--Continuation of the subject of fire and flame, and hot winds and fiery clouds at the final Dooms-day Dissolution. The sage continued:--Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yet I was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and though falling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dream in my dreaming (_i.e._ one dream in another).