himself unto me in excellent grace. And I saw _Yama_ seated on the south
and _Varuna_ and the lord of the celestials at their respective regions.
And, O foremost of men, O mighty monarch, they after having cheered me
said, "O Savyasachin, behold us--the Lokapalas--seated. For the
performance of the task of the gods thou hast obtained the sight of
_Sankara_. Do thou now receive weapons from us seated around."
Thereupon, O lord, having bowed down unto those foremost of the
celestials with regard, I duly accepted those mighty weapons. And then
they recognised me as one of their own. Afterwards the gods repaired to
the quarter from whence they had come. And that lord of the celestials,
the divine Maghavan too having ascended his glorious chariot, said, "O
_Phalguna_, thou shalt have to repair unto the celestial region. O
Dhananjaya, even before this thy arrival I knew that thou wouldst come
hither. Then I have, O best of the Bharatas, manifested myself unto
thee. As formerly thou hadst performed thy ablution in the various
_tirthas_ and now hast performed severe austerities, so thou wilt be
able to repair unto the celestial regions, O Pandava. Thou wilt,
however, again have to practise extreme penance, for thou shouldst at
any rate journey to heaven. And at my command, Matali shall take thee to
the celestial regions. Thou hast already been recognised by the
celestials and the celestial sages of high soul." Thereupon I said unto
Sakra, "O divine one, be thou favourable unto me. With the view of
learning arms do I beseech thee that thou mayst be my preceptor." At
this Indra said, "O child, having learnt weapons thou wouldst perform
terrible deeds and with this object thou desirest to obtain the weapons.
However, obtain thou the arms, as thou desirest." Then I said, "O slayer
of foes, I never would discharge these celestial weapons at mortals
except when all my other arms should have been baffled. Do thou, O lord
of the celestials, grant me the celestial weapons (so that) I may
hereafter obtain the regions attainable by warriors." Indra said, "O