to all creatures, and observant of diverse excellent vows.  They are the refuge of all creatures in the universe.  They are the authors of all the regulations which govern the worlds.  They are possessed of great fame Penances are always their great wealth.  Their power consists in speech.  Their energy flows from the duties they observe.  Conversant with all duties, they are possessed of minute vision, so that they are cognizant of the subtlest considerations.  They are of righteous desires.  They live the observance of well-performed duties.  They are the causeways of Righteousness.  The four kinds of living creatures exist, depending upon them as their refuge.  They are the path or road along which all should go.  They are the guides of all.  They are the eternal upholders of all the sacrifices.  They always uphold the heavy burdens of sires and grandsires.  They never droop under heavy weights even when passing along difficult-roads like strong cattle.  They are attentive to the requirements of Piths and deities and guests.  They are entitled to eat the first portions of Havya and Kavya.  By the very food they eat, they rescue the three worlds from great fear.  They are as it were, the Island (for refuge) for all worlds.  They are the eyes of all persons endued with sight.  The wealth they possess consists of all the branches of knowledge known by the name of Siksha and all the Srutis.  Endued with great skill, they are conversant with the most subtle relations of things.  They are well-acquainted with the end of all things, and their thoughts are always employed upon the science of the soul.  They are endued with the knowledge of the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things, and they are persons in whom doubts no longer exist in consequence of feeling certain of their knowledge.  They are fully aware of the distinctions between what is superior and what is inferior.  They it is who attain to the highest end.  Freed from all attachments, cleansed of all sins, transcending all pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, happiness and misery, etc.), they are unconnected with all worldly things.  Deserving of every honour, they are always held in great esteem by persons endued with knowledge and high souls.  They cast equal eyes on sandal-paste and filth or dirt, on what is food and what is not rood.  They see with an equal eye their brown vestments of coarse cloth and fabrics of silk and animal skins.  They would live for many days together without eating any food, and dry up their limbs by such abstention from all sustenance.  They devote themselves earnestly to the study of the Vedas, restraining their senses.  They would make gods of those that are not gods, and not gods of those that are gods.  Enraged, they can create other worlds and other Regents of the worlds than those that exist.  Through the course of those high-souled ones, the ocean became so saline as to be undrinkable.  The fire of their wrath yet burns in the forest of Dandaka, unquenched