REVIVAL OF PADMA.
Argument. Extinction of the Spiritual life of Lílá, and Restoration of
Padma’s Life.
Vasishtha continued:—It was in the meantime that the goddess of wisdom,
stopped the course of Vidúratha’s life, as we stop the flight of our
minds at will.
2. Lílá said:—Tell me, goddess, what length of time has expired, since
the corpse of the king was laid in this tomb, and I was absorbed in my
deep meditation.
3. The goddess replied:—A month has passed since these maid servants of
thine have been waiting here for watching thy body, which they thought
lay asleep in the room.
4. Hear excellent lady! what has become of thy body, after it was rotten
in a fortnight and evaporated in the air.
5. Seeing thy lifeless corpse lying as cold as frost on the ground, and
turning as dry as a log of wood, or rather as a withered leaf on the
floor;—
6. The royal ministers thought thee to be dead of thyself (a suicide),
and removed thy putrid carcase out of the room.
7. And what more shall I say, than they laid thy corpse on a heap of
sandal wood, and having set fire to the pile with the sprinkling of
ghee, they reduced it to ashes in a short while.
8. Then the family raised a loud cry that their queen was dead, and wept
bitterly for sometime, after which they performed thy funeral
ceremonies.
9. Now when they will behold thee coming here in thy same body, they
must be astonished to think thee as returned from the next world of the
dead.
10. Now my daughter, when thou shalt appear before them in this thy
purer and spiritual form, they must look upon thee with astonishment.
11. For thou hast not thy former form at present, but it is changed to a
purer one, agreeably to the tenor and temperament of thy mind. (Lit.
according to the desire in thy heart).
12. For every body beholds every thing without him, according to his
inward feelings; as for example the sight of shadowy ghosts is frequent
to children, that have a fear of devils at heart.
13. Now, O beauteous lady! Thou art an adept in spiritualism, and hast a
spiritual body on thee, and hast forgotten and forsaken thy former body,
with all the desires connate with it.
14. The view of material bodies, is lost to the sight of spiritualists;
and the intelligent view them in the light of autumnal clouds, which are
void of substance. (_i.e._ The flimsy clouds which are without
rain-water in them).
15. On attainment of the spiritual state, the material body becomes as
an empty cloud, and as a flower without its odor.
16. When a man of pure desire, is conscious of his attaining the
spiritual state; he loses the remembrance of his material body, as a
youth forgets his embryonic state.
17. It is now the thirty first day that we have arrived at this place;
and I have caused the maid servants here, to fall into a fast sleep this
morning.
18. Now Lílá! let us advance before the wilful Lílá, and then discover
to her at our will, the form of the truthful Lílá, and her manner and
conduct to thee.
19. Vasishtha said:—So saying, they wished themselves to be perceived by
the wilful Lílá, and stood manifest to her sight in their etherial forms
of the goddess and her inspired dame.
20. At this instant the Lílá of Vidúratha, looked upon them with her
staring eyes; and found the room lighted up by the full lustre of their
bodies.
21. The apartment seemed to be lighted by the bright orb of the moon,
and its wall washed over with liquid gold; the ground floor shone as
paved with ice, and all was full of splendour.
22. After seeing the brightness of the bed chamber, Lílá looked up at
the goddess and the other Lílá, and rising respectfully before them, she
fell at their feet.
23. Be victorious, O ye goddesses! she said, that have blessed me with
your visit, and know that know all, that I have come here first as a
preparer of your way. (Lit. as the sweeper of your path).
24. As she was speaking in this manner, they received her with good
grace, and then all the three sat together on a bedding in their
youthful bloom, like luxuriant creepers on the snow capt top of Meru.
25. The goddess said:—Tell us daughter, how you came here before
ourselves, how you have been, and what you have seen on your way hither.
26. The younger Lílá answered:—As I lay insensible on that spot (upon
the shock of my death), I was enveloped in darkness like the new moon,
and felt myself burnt away by the flame of a conflagration (_i.e._,
funeral fire).
27. I had no sense nor thought of anything good or bad, but remained
with my eyes closed under my eye-lids.
28. Then I found myself, O great goddess! after I had recovered from my
anaesthesia of death, to assume (by mistake a new body agreeably to my
former impression), and to be translated at once into the midst of the
sky.
29. I mounted on the vehicle of winds, and was borne like fragrance to
this mansion through the etherial space.
30. I found this house guarded by its warders, and lighted with lamps,
and having a costly bedstead placed in the midst of it.
31. I am looking here upon this corpse, as my husband Vidúratha, who has
been sleeping here with his body covered under the flowers, like the
vernal god in a flower garden.
32. I thought he was taking his rest, after the fatigue of the warfare,
and did not like to disturb his repose in this place.
33. I have now related to you, my gracious goddesses! all that I have
seen and thought of, since I have been restored to my new life.
34. The goddess spake:—Now I tell thee Lílá, that hast such beautiful
eyes, and movest like a swan, that I will raise the corpse of the king
to life from his bed in this bier.
35. Saying so, she breathed the breath of life as the lotus lets off its
fragrance; and it fled into the nostrils of the carcase, like a creeping
plant crawls into a hole.
36. It entered into the heart through the vital sheath, as the wind
penetrates into the hole of a bamboo; and the breath of life was fraught
with desires, as the waves of the sea sparkle with pearls.
37. The infusion of life, added to the colour of the face and body of
king Padma; as the rain-water refreshes the fading lotus in a drought.
38. By degrees the members of the body became renovated, like a garden
with its returning flowering season; and as the sides of a hill become
virescent, with fresh grown bushes and creepers.
39. The person of the king shone as the queen of the stars, with all her
digits of the full moon, when she enlightens the whole world, with the
beams of her radiant face.
40. All his limbs became as tender and roscid, as the branches of trees
in spring; and they regained their bright and golden hue, like the
flowers of the vernal season.
41. He oped his eyes which were as clear as the sky, with their two
pupils rolling as the two orbs of light; and enlightening the world,
with their charming and auspicious beams.
42. He raised his body, as the Vindhyá mountain uplifts its head, and
cried, “who waits there” with a grave and hoarse voice.
43. The two Lílás responded to him saying:—“your commands;” when he
beheld the two Lílás in attendance upon him, and lowly bending
themselves at his feet.
44. Both of them were of the same form and features, and of the like
demeanour and deportment towards him. They were alike to one another in
their voice and action, as in their joy and gladness at his rising.
45. Then looking upon them he asked, “what art thou and who is she”? At
this the elder Lílá responded to him saying—“deign to hear what I have
to say”.
46. I am Lílá thy former consort, and was joined as twain in one with
thee, as sounds and their senses are combined together.
47. The other Lílá is but a reflexion of myself, and cast by my free
will for your service.
48. The lady sitting here beside the bed, is the goddess of wisdom—the
blessed Sarasvatí, and mother of the three worlds; set her on the golden
seat before you.
49. It is by virtue of our great merit, that she has presented herself
to our sight, and brought us back from other worlds to your presence in
this place.
50. Hearing this, the lotus-eyed king, rose from his seat, and with
pendant wreaths of flowers and a strap of cloth hung about his neck,
prostrated himself at her feet.
51. He exclaimed:—I hail thee, O divine Sarasvatí! that dost confer all
blessings on mankind. Deign to confer on me the blessings of
understanding and riches with a long life.
52. As he was saying so, the goddess touched him with her hand and said,
“be thou my son, possessed of thy desired blessings, and gain thy
blessed abode in future.
53. “Let all evils and evil thoughts be far from thee, and all thy
discomforts be dispersed from this place; let an everlasting joy alight
in thine hearts, and a thick population fill thy happy realm. May all
prosperity attend on thee for ever.”