Hymn to Nilakantha - Verse 6

By means of Rk, Yajus and Saman Mantras, dances, songs and worships, by Omkara and obeisance they always worship Siva. 7-9 The (heavenly ) luminaries had come up. The Sun had reached the middle of the sky, the sages who had been performing sacred rites and discussing the holy story were so exhausted as to feel that life just clung to them. Then Vayu said, “Obeisance to the blue-necked !” On hearing that the eighty-eight thousand sages of sublimated sexuality, who were known as Valakhilyas, whose souls had been purified and who had performed holy rites, who were constant devotees of the Sun and whose diet was cofined to wind, leaves and water, asked the Wind-god :