STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.
Argument. The desire of the king, and his departure to the realm of
death, followed by Lílá and the goddess; and their arrival to his
former city.
Vasishtha continued:—In the meantime the eye-balls of the king became
convoluted, and his lips and cheeks grew pale and dry, with his whole
countenance; and there remained only the slender breath of life in him.
2. His body became as lean as a dry leaf, and his face turned as ghastly
as the figure of death; his throat gurgled as the hoarsest beetles, and
his lungs breathed with a bated breath.
3. His sight was darkened upon the insensibility of death, and his hopes
were buried in the pit of despair; and the sensations of his external
organs, were hid within the cavity of his heart.
4. His figure was as senseless as a picture in painting, and all his
limbs were as motionless, as those of a statue carved upon a block of
marble.
5. What need is there of a lengthy description, when it may be said in
short; that his life quitted his body, as a bird flies off afar from a
falling tree.
6. The two ladies with their divine eye-sight, beheld his animal spirit,
flying upwards in the sky in its aerial form; and his consciousness
disappearing, like the odour of a flower wafted by the wind.
7. His living soul being joined with its spiritual body, began to fly
higher and higher in the air; as it was led by its inward desire or
expectation of ascending to heaven.
8. The two ladies kept going after that conscious soul, like a couple of
female bees, pursuing a particle of perfume borne afar in the air on the
wings of the wind.
9. Then in a moment after the fainting fit of death was over; the
conscious soul was roused from its insensibility, like some fragrance
expanding itself with the breeze.
10. It saw the porters of death, carrying away the souls of the dead,
that have resumed their grosser forms, by means of the mess offerings of
their kinsmen to their manes.
11. After a long year’s journey on the way, it reached at the distant
abode of _Yama_, with the hope of reaping the reward of its acts; but
found the gate fast beset by beasts of prey. (Like the Cerberus at the
hellgate of Pluto).
12. Yama, on beholding the departed spirit of every body brought before
him, ordered to find out its foul acts all along its life time.
13. On finding the prince’s spirit spotless, and ever inclined to
virtuous acts and to have been nourished by the grace of the goddess of
wisdom:—
14. He ordered it to be released, and re-entered into its former dead
body, which lay buried under the flowers in the tomb.
15. It was then let to fly in the etherial path, with the swiftness of a
stone flung from a sling; and was followed by the living Lílá and the
goddess in the air.
16. The living soul of the king thus sailing through the sky, did not
observe the forms of the two ladies that followed it, though they saw it
all along its course. (Because heavenly forms are invisible to mortal
eyes and souls).
17. They traversed through many worlds, and soon passed the bounds of
the extra-mundane systems; till they arrived at the solar world, whence
they descended on this orb of the earth.
18. The two self-willed forms (of Lílá and the goddess), in company with
the living soul of the king; arrived at the royal city of Padma, and
entered the apartment of Lílá.
19. They entered in a trice and of their own free will, into the inside
of the palace; as the air passes in flowers, and the sunbeams penetrate
in the water, and the odors mix with the air.
20. Ráma asked:—How was it Sir, that they entered into the abode
adjoining to the tomb, and how could they find out the way to it, the
one having been dead a long time, and all three being but bodiless
vacuity?
21. Vasishtha replied:—The tomb of the dead body of the prince, being
impressed in his soul, and the object of its desire, led his spirit
insensibly to it, as if it were by its inborn instinct.
22. Who does not know, that the endless desires which are sown in the
human breast, like the countless seeds of a fig fruit, come of their own
nature, to grow up to big trees in their time?
23. Just as the living body bears its seed—the subtile or _linga deha_
in the heart, which germinates and grows to a tree at last; so every
particle of the intellect, bears the mundane seed in itself. (The cosmos
is contained in every individual soul).
24. As a man placed in one country, sees within himself his house, which
is situated in a far distant land, so the soul sees the objects of his
distant desires, ever present before it.
25. The living soul, ever longs after the best object of its desire;
though it may undergo a hundred births, and become subject to the errors
and delusions of his senses, and of this illusive world. (For whatever
is born in the root, must come out in the seed; and that which is bred
in the bones, must appear in the flesh).
26. Ráma rejoined:—There are many persons, that are free from their
desire of receiving the funeral cake: now tell me, sir, what becomes of
those souls, who get no cake offering at their Srádh.
27. Vasishtha replied:—The man having the desire of receiving the mess
settled in his heart, and thinking it to be offered to him; is surely
benefitted by its offering. (The funeral cake like every other food, is
said to nourish the spirit, and cause its resuscitation in a new life
and body).
28. Whatever is in the heart and mind, the same notions form the nature
of living beings; and whether these are in their corporeal or
incorporeal states, they think themselves as such beings and no other.
(The sense of personal identity accompanies the soul everywhere).
29. The thought of having received the _pinda_ cake, makes a man
_sapinda_, though it is not actually offered to him; so on the other
hand the thought of not being served with the cake, makes a _sapinda_
become a _nispinda_ (or one served with it becomes as one without it).
30. It is verily the desire of all living beings to be such and such as
they have in their hearts, and that is the cause of their becoming so in
reality. (Gloss. The ordinance of the necessity of cake offering,
fosters its desire in the hearts of men. Or, which is the same thing,
the desire of receiving the funeral cake, is fostered in the hearts of
men, by the ordinance of Srádh).
31. It is the thought of a man, that makes the poison savour as nectar
to his taste; and it is his very thought that makes an untruth seem as
truth to him. (Gloss. The thought of a snake-catcher that he is the
snake eating Garuda, makes him swallow the bitter poison as sweet honey;
and the thought of snake-bite from the pricking of a thorn, mortifies a
man by his false fear or imagination only).
32. Know this for certain, that no thought ever rises in any one without
some cause or other; hence the desire or thought which is inherent in
the spirit, is the sole cause of its regeneration on earth.
33. Nobody has ever seen or heard of any event, occurring without its
proper cause; except the being of the Supreme Being, which is the
causeless cause of all beings, from their state of not-being into being.
34. The desire is inherent in the intellect, like a dream in the soul;
and the same appears in the form of acts, as the Will of God is
manifested in his works of creation.
35. Ráma said:—How can the spirit that is conscious of its demerit,
foster any desire of its future good; and how can it profit by the pious
works of others for its salvation? (as the Srádh made by the relatives
of the deceased).
36. Tell me too whether the pious acts of others, which are offered to
the manes go for nothing; and whether the absence of future prospects of
the unmeritorious ghost, or the benevolent wishes of others (for its
future good) are to take effect.
37. Vasishtha said:—A desire is naturally raised in one at its proper
time and place, and by application of appropriate acts and means; and
the rising of the desire necessarily overcomes its absence. Gloss. So a
Srádh done in proper season and manner, serves to the benefit of the
desertless spirit.
38. The pious gifts made on behalf of the departed souls, accrue to them
as their own acts; and the sense which they thus acquire of their
worthiness, fills them with better hopes and desires of their future
state. (Hence rises the hope of redemption by means of the redeeming son
of man).
39. And as the stronger man gains the better of his adversary, so the
later acts of piety drive away the former impiety from the spirit.
Therefore the constant practice of pious acts is strictly enjoined in
the Sástras.
40. Ráma said:—If the desire is raised at its proper time and place, how
then could it rise in the beginning when there was no time nor place:
(_i.e._, when all was void and yet Brahma had his desire and will).
41. You say that there are accessory causes, which give rise to the
desires, but how could the will rise at first without any accessory
cause whatever?
42. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O long-armed Ráma, that there was
neither time nor place in the beginning, when the Spirit of God was
without its will.
43. And there being no accessory cause, there was not even the idea of
the visible world, nor was it created or brought into existence; and it
is so even now.
44. The phenomenal world has no existence, and all that is visible, is
the manifestation of the Divine Intellect, which is ever lasting and
imperishable.
45. This will I explain to you afterwards in a hundred different ways,
and it is my main purpose to do so; but hear me now tell you what
appertains to the matter under consideration.
46. They having got in that house, saw its inside beautifully decorated
with chaplets of flowers as fresh as those of the spring season.
47. The inmates of the palace were quietly employed in their duties, and
the corpse of the king was placed upon a bed of _mandara_ and _kunda_
flowers.
48. The sheet over the dead body, was also strewn over with wreaths of
the same flowers; and there were the auspicious pots of water placed by
the bed side.
49. The doors of the room were closed, and the windows were shut fast
with their latchets; the lamps cast a dim light on the white washed
walls around, and the corpse was lying as a man in sleep, with the
suppressed breathing of his mouth and nostrils.
50. There was the full bright moon, shining with her delightsome lustre,
and the beauty of the palace, put to blush the paradise of Indra; it was
as charming as the pericarp of the lotus of Brahmá’s birthplace, and it
was as silent as dumbness or a dummy itself, and as beautiful as the
fair moon in her fulness.