here, I have approached this spot, O regenerate one, for beholding thee.  When thou hast come hither, thou art certain to return hence with thy object fulfilled.  It behoveth thee, O foremost of regenerate persons, to employ me to any task with all confidence.  All of us have certainly been purchased by thee with thy merits,[1939] since thou, disregarding what is for thy own good, hast employed thy time in seeking the good of ourselves.’

“The Brahmana said, ’O highly blessed Naga, I have come hither, moved by the desire of obtaining a sight of thee.  I have come here, ignorant as I am with all things, for asking thee about something, O Naga, relying on the Jiva-soul, I desire to attain to the Supreme Soul which is the end of the Jiva-soul.  I am neither attached to, nor dissociated from, the world.[1940] Thou shinest with the effulgence of thy own merits covered by pure fame,—­with an effulgence that is as agreeable as that of the moon.  O thou that livest on air alone, do thou first answer a question that I wish to put to thee.  Afterwards I shall inform thee of the object that has brought me hither!’”

SECTION CCCLXII

“The Brahmana said, ’Thou goest away for dragging the one-wheeled car of Vivaswat according to thy turn.  It behoveth thee to describe to me anything wonderful that thou mayst have noticed in those regions through which thou sojournest!’

“The Naga said, ’The divine Surya is the refuge or home of innumerable wonders.  All the creatures that inhabit the three worlds have flowed from Surya.  Innumerable Munis, crowned with ascetic success, together with all the deities, reside in the rays of Surya like birds perching on the branches of trees.  What, again, can be more wonderful than this that the mighty Wind, emanating from Surya, takes refuge in his ray and thence yawns over the universe?  What can be more wonderful than this, O regenerate Rishi, that Surya, dividing the Wind into many portions from desire of doing good to all creatures, creates rain that falls in the rainy season?  What can be more wonderful than this that the Supreme Soul, from within the solar disc, himself bathed in blazing effulgence, looketh upon the universe?  What can be more wonderful than this that Surya has a dark ray which transforms itself into clouds charged with rain and pours showers of rain when the season comes?  What can be more wonderful than this that drinking up for eight months the rain he pours down, he pours it down once again in the rainy season?  In certain rays of Surya, the Soul of the universe is said to reside.  From Him is the seed of all things, and it is He that upholds the Earth with all her mobile and immobile creatures.  What can be more wonderful, O Brahmana, than this, that the foremost of Purushas, eternal and mighty-armed, endued with exceeding effulgence, eternal, and without beginning and without end, resides in Surya?  Listen however, to one thing I shall