TJblE WUKJUU-1JLJLU&J.U.N AJN.U .JL.M..& JKlS-AJ^ aiiA^l4 0.^

0 eyes ! that set the darkness of the night on fire ! Why did
I ever part with you ? Alas ! Why did I give you all away for
this contemptible needleness that even the hoof of a fly can
fling' away ? Alas ! when shall I get you back again ?^

Silently she suffered, till in the intensity of her remorse it
^came to her that as she lost her giant body, so, by those
same means, she might recover it again. Therewith she went

•back to the • self-same mountain peak on which she first per-
formed her long austerities, and stood again on a single tiny
foot, fixing it deep into a single grain of granite to avoid being"
'blown away by the winds,(1) Thus she stayed for full seven
thousand years, flooded by the torrents of the rains, swayed by
mighty tempests, roasted by forest-fires, pelted by hail, dazed
by the lightning, interrupted in her meditations by the thunder
of the clouds, yet never shaken from her purpose and her place.
With the lapse of that long time, and with the pressure of her
manifold experience;, a wonder and a restlessness of thought
arose within her, and she reflected deeply on the nature of the
world and of the Self. She pondered for a thousand years on
the great mystery, until she saw that very Nature of the Self,
containing all the worlds within It-Self. That final knowledge
rose all luminous within her, under the unremitting stress of
Self-reflection, than which there is no higher Teacher to the
JJva ; and the long Tapas came unto its ripening.

The mountain glowed with its glory, and Indra, the King
of the gods, enquired of Narada, their Sage, whose strong
penance was so potently enveloping the worlds in overpower-
ing blaze, converting the cool caves of the Abode of Snow
into hiding-places of heat untenable by the gods* Narada

•explained ; and Indra went at once to seek for remedy from
Brahma, praying him to grant the wished-for boons of

(1) The caterpillar petrifies into the chrysalis, and then bursts

•out of it as a butterfly. ..,.'. . , - ^