18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the precepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal of the mind’s suspense between unity and duality (_i.e._ between God and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of _nirvána_--anaesthesia in quietism. 19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to all worldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and abstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart-- 20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities, and enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are the surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable bliss--_nirvána_ (which is ever attendant on the Deity). CHAPTER CLV. RELATION OF FUTURE FORTUNE. Argument:--The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman to heaven by means of his austere devotion. The God Agni said:--Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in wonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the very forest. 2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and appeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a sea. 3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him onward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an alligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his meditation. 4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his _nirvána_ or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was tossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness. 5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he came to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to be the production (display) of Providence. 6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning; and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body, which I have gained by means of devotion. 7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the existent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which is above the etherial space (_i.e._ in heaven). 8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and set his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated to him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its constant practice. 9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied himself to the observance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers. 10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely seers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for very many years and seasons.