That powerful being will be the husband of
this lady and the joint leader of thy forces with thee." Thus addressed,
the lord of the celestials and the lady bowed unto him and then repaired
to the place where those great Brahmanas, the powerful celestial
_Rishis_, Vasistha and others, lived. And with Indra at their head, the
other gods also, desirous of drinking the Soma beverage, repaired to the
sacrifices of those _Rishis_ to receive their respective shares of the
offerings. Having duly performed the ceremonies with the bright blazing
fire, those great-minded persons offered oblations to the celestials.
And the _Adbhuta_ fire, that carrier of oblations, was invited with
_mantras_. And coming out of the solar disc, that lordly fire duly
repaired thither, restraining speech. And, O chief of Bharata's race,
that fire entering the sacrificial fire that had been ignited and into
which various offerings were made by the _Rishis_ with recitations of
hymns, took them with him and made them over to the dwellers of heaven.
And while returning from that place, he observed the wives of those
high-souled _Rishis_ sleeping at their ease on their beds. And those
ladies had a complexion beautiful like that of an altar of gold,
spotless like moon-beams, resembling fiery flames and looking like
blazing stars. And seeing those wives of the illustrious Brahmanas with
eager eyes, his mind became agitated and he was smitten with their
charms.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334