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