tain heaven, and their anxieties gone, sport
with the celestials. O king of mountains, O mountain, thou art the
asylum of _Munis_, and thou holdest on thy breast numerous sacred
shrines. Happily have I dwelt on thy heights. I leave thee now, bidding
thee farewell. Oft have I seen thy tablelands and bowers, thy springs
and brooks, and the sacred shrines on thy breast. I have also eaten the
savoury fruits growing on thee, and have slated my thirst with draughts
of perfumed water oozing from the body. I have also drunk the water of
thy springs, sweet as _amrita_ itself. O mountain, as a child sleepeth
happily on the lap of his father, so have I, O king of mountains, O
excellent one, sported on thy breast, echoing with the notes of Apsaras
and the chanting of the Vedas. O mountain, every day have I lived
happily on thy tablelands.' Thus having bidden farewell to the mountain,
that slayer of hostile heroes--Arjuna--blazing like the Sun himself,
ascended the celestial car. And the Kuru prince gifted with great
intelligence, with a glad heart, coursed through the firmament on that
celestial car effulgent as the sun and of extra-ordinary achievements.
And after he had become invisible to the mortals of the earth, he beheld
thousands of cars of extra-ordinary beauty. And in that region there was
no sun or moon or fire to give light, but it blazed in light of its own,
generated by virtue of ascetic merit. And those brilliant regions that
are seen from the earth in the form of stars, like lamps (in the
sky)--so small in consequence of their distance, though very large--were
beheld by the son of Pandu, stationed in their respective places, full
of beauty and effulgence and blazing with splendour all their own. And
there he beheld royal sages crowned with ascetic success, and heroes who
had yielded up their lives in battle, and those that had acquired heaven
by their ascetic austerities, by hundreds upon hundreds. And there were
also Gandharvas, of bodies blazing like the sun, by thousands upon
thousands, as also Guhyakas and Rishis and numerous tribes of Apsaras.
And beholding those self-effulgent regions, Phalguna became filled with
wonder, and made enquiries of Matali. And Matali also gladly replied
unto him, saying, 'These, O son of Pritha, are virtuous persons
stationed in their respective places. It is these whom thou hast seen, O
exalted one, as stars, from the earth.' Then Arjuna saw standing at the
gates (Indra's region) the