Verse 71

⁷¹There the boy bathed, held himself in check, fasted through that night, and with a gathered mind attended on the Person as the sage had directed. ⁷²At the end of every third night he ate wood-apple and jujube, only so much as kept his body going, and so passed a month worshipping Hari. ⁷³The second month went the same way: on every sixth day the boy made his food of withered grass and leaves and such, and worshipped the mighty one. ⁷⁴He passed the third month taking water only, on every ninth day, and ran toward him whose renown is highest with a mind wholly gathered. ⁷⁵The fourth month too: on every twelfth day, living on air, his breathing mastered, he held the god fast in his mind.

⁷⁶When the fifth month came, the king's son, his breathing mastered, stood on one foot holding Brahman in mind, unmoving as a post. ⁷⁷He drew his mind in from every side, and with it the resting place of the elements and the senses, into the heart; and holding the form of the Bhagavan in mind, he saw nothing else at all. ⁷⁸As he held fast to Brahman, which bears up the great principle and the rest, the Lord of the ground and of the Person, the three worlds shook.