138 KEV. G. U. POPE, D.D., ON 



generation has done them service and lavished gifts upon them ; that 

 they are connected by association with long lines of saints and sages ; 

 and that it is believed that ^i van's method of gracious manifestation is by, 

 and through, and in these, as what we should call sacraments of his 

 perpetual presence, we shall understand with what profound awe and 

 enthusiastic affection even images, to us most unsightly can be held 

 by multitudes of good and excellent jieople. 



NOTE X. 



'CivAN Enthroned on the Silver Mountain.' 



' Q'ivan sat upon his throne, and on his left side was with him his 

 gracious energy, the world's mother, the goddess Parvathi. He is from 

 eternity free from all impurity, the Everlasting, the All-Pervader, 

 possessed of all wisdom, all pre-eminence, and all spontaneous grace. 

 Through his infinite compassion towards souls, for which they can render 

 him no return, he ever jierforms, without performance, the acts of 

 creation, protection, destruction, veiling and disjiensing grace. He is 

 the first and only god, having one sacred face and thiee eyes, which are 

 the glowing splendoui's of the sun, the moon, and the god of fire. His 

 crest of matted hair (<^CT3L.j S. Jata) is crowned with the Ganges, the 

 crescent moon, and the kondrai (cassia) garland. His sacred ears are 

 adorned with earrings of conch-shell and flower-petals {(o^t(§). His 

 throat is black with the poison churned out from the milky sea. (See 

 notes to Lyric XII.) His sacred hands grasp, one the antelope, and one 

 the axe ; one gives the sign of safety, and the fourth assurance of gifts of 

 grace. His body, ruddy like coral, is besmeared with sacred ashes. 

 His breast is adorned with the white investing thread and necklaces 

 consisting of the bones of innumerable Brahmas and Vishnus and the 

 skulls of Brahmas of innumerable seons. He has girt himself with the 

 tiger's skin (Note VI.). His waist is resplendent with dagger and girdle. 

 His feet, like red lotus-flowers, tinkle with the heroic anklets and sound- 

 ing bells. Such is the body that he wears as ^ri-Kanthar (He of the 

 auspicious throat). He sits on the silver hill of Kaildgam, whose innumer- 

 able white peaks are adorned with divers jewels. There in a shrine of 

 ruddy gold he gleams, while his crowding hosts make music with 

 innumerable instruments. Many on either side wave the white Camaram 

 (the white tail of the Yak, or Bos grunniens\ and many others wave flower- 



