Sri Vasista

1. O Rāma, Sukra, the son of Bhrigu, was extremely pleased with this love-encounter with the celestial maiden which was a metaphonic fancy conceived over a long time as his gleeful mental pastime.

2. -11 He roamed about on the banks of ‘Mandākini’ – bedecked with flowers and garlands woven out of mandāra flowers – like a second moon in the company of the ‘apsara’.  Banks of ‘Mandākini’ were peopled by birds and ‘yakshas’ and ‘kinnaras’.  He enjoyed drinking the nectar, oozing out of moon, along with the heavenly beings, seated in the arbans of ‘Pārijāta’ creepers.  He made love to many ‘vidyadhani’ women, who were engaged in swinging in swings of flower-creepers in the beautiful gardens of ‘kubera’.  He wandered around the ‘Nandana’ garden, taking several rounds of it.  He whirled around the many rivers on Meru.  The golden-hued creepers on Meru looked like matted locks.  He spent many nights, - white with the light of the moon on Hona’s head, - in the gardens of ‘Kailas’ sporting with amorous ladies.  While resting on the top of ‘gandhamādana’ mountain, he, Sukra, went on decorating the (delicate) apsara with golden-hued lotuses and lilies.  He made love to her, wandering about the ‘Lokaloka’ mountain slopes which are full of marvels and strange things.  He spent sixty years in a celestial palace beside a lake on ‘Mandara’ mountain.

12. He and the apsara spent half of Krita yuga in the company of white-islanders.

13. Sukra went on mentally conceiving many ‘gandharva’ cities and gardens.  Thus he almost created a while world.  He thus became a replica of ‘Time’.

14. Ending all his ramblings, he returned to the city of Indra and spent happily eight four-yuga cycles in the company of the ‘apsara’, the doe-eyed one.

15. As his merit started declining, he fell down to the earth along with his lady.  The fall destroyed their (beautiful) forms and bodies.

16. - 17. Losing all the gardens and chariots (which wheeled him around), and with broken limbs, he was overwhelmed with grief like a warrior who lost a battle.  His body broke into hundred pieces.

18. With their bodies completely broken, they moved around in the sky with their grief-stricken subtle mental envelopes like birds looking for shade.

19. Then their subtle bodies entered the moon-breams in space.  Then acquiring the shape of dew they entered the cereal grain.

20. Then the cereal was eaten by a brahmin in the ‘Dasārna’ Country.  Then Sukra became a semen-seed (spermatozoa)  and entered the womb of the brahmin’s wife.  He thus became the brahmin’s son.

21. (After he grew up) he did ‘tapas’ in the company of several ‘munis’ in the forests on The ‘Meru’ mountain.

22. -23. There he got a human son from an ‘apsara’ (in the form of a deer).  He became tremendously attached to him.  He started thinking ‘this son of mine should become rich, he should live long’ Thinking always thus, he left his (quest for truth) regular duties.

24. -25. Because of his neglect of his ‘dharmic’ duties in the pursuit of his son’s pleasures, his life-span got reduced.  In course of time he died.  Since his subtle body was engaged in the thoughts of pleasure at the time of death, he was born to King of Madra.  In course of time, he became the King of Madra.

26. -27 He ruled over ‘Madra’ for a long time, freeing it from enemies.  In course of time, old age overtook him.  It was like a thunderbolt striking a lily.  Because of his tendency for ‘tapas’ he left everything and became a ‘tapasi’.

27. Rāma, He reached the banks of ‘Samanga’ river and engaged himself in penance in a mood of peace.

28. Thus O Rāma, after a series of births (and deaths) guided and dictated by ‘vāsanas’, Sukra settled down happily to a regime of penance