to him, setting thy heart upon him, depending upon him, and accepting him as thy one refuse, do thou, O son, adore Mahadeva and then mayst thou obtain the fruition of all thy wishes.  Hearing those words of my mother, O slayer of foes, from that day my devotion was directed to Mahadeva, having nothing else for its object.  I then applied myself to the practice of the austerest penances for gratifying Sankara.  For one thousand years I stood on my left toe.  After that I passed one thousand years, subsisting only upon fruits.  The next one thousand years I passed, subsisting upon the fallen leaves of trees.  The next thousand years I passed, subsisting upon water only.  After that I passed seven hundred years, subsisting on air alone.  In this way, I adored Mahadeva for a full thousand years of the celestials.  After this, the puissant Mahadeva, the Master of all the universe, became gratified with me.  Desirous of ascertaining whether I was solely devoted to him and him alone, he appeared before me in the form of Sakra surrounded by all the deities.  As the celebrated Sakra, he had a thousand eyes on his person and was armed with the thunderbolt.  And he rode on an elephant whose complexion was of the purest white, with eyes red, ears folded, the temporal juice trickling down his cheeks, with trunk contracted, terrible to look at, and endued with four tusks.  Indeed, riding on such an elephant, the illustrious chief of the deities seemed to blaze forth with his energy.  With a beautiful crown on his head and adorned with garlands round his neck and bracelets round his arms, he approached the spot where I was.  A white umbrella was held over his head.  And he was waited upon by many Apsaras, and many Gandharvas sang his praise.  Addressing me, he said,—­O foremost of regenerate persons, I have been gratified with thee.  Beg of me whatever boon thou desirest,—­Hearing these words of Sakra I did not become glad.  Verily, O Krishna, I answered the chief of the celestials in these words.—­I do not desire any boon at thy hands, or from the hands of any other deity.  O amiable deity, I tell thee truly, that it is Mahadeva only from whom I have boons to ask.  True, true it is, O Sakra, true are these words that I say unto thee.  No other words are at all agreeable to me save those which relate to Maheswara.  At the command of Pashupati, that Lord of all creatures, I am ready to become a worm or a tree with many branches.  If not obtained through the grace represented by Mahadeva’s boons, the very sovereignty of the three worlds would not be acceptable to me.  Let me be born among the very Chandalas but let me still be devoted to the feet of Hara.  Without, again, being devoted to that Lord of all creatures, I would not like to have birth in the palace of Indra himself.  If a person be wanting in devotion to that Lord of the universe,—­that Master of the deities and the Asuras,—­his misery will not end even if from want of food he has to subsist upon only air