STORY OF VISÚCHIKÁ—(_continued_).[5]
Argument. Brahmá’s boon to Visúchí, and the _mantra_ against her Power.
Vasishtha resumed:—After the lapse of a thousand years, Brahmá appeared
to her, in order to put an end to the ardour of her austerities, and
crown her with success or the reward of her devotion. (Ardent devotion
has the power of displacing even the gods from their heavenly seats).
2. She saluted him internally in her mind, and remained fixed in her
position; thinking about the boon she should beg of him, for allaying
her keen appetite.
3. She soon recollected a certain request, which she should prefer to
her complying god; and it was to transform her soft and flexible form to
the shape of an inflexible iron-nail, wherewith she could torment all
living beings. (_i.e._ To make her fleshy form as stiff as a poker, so as
to be able to pierce all others without being pierced herself).
4. At Brahmá’s bidding, she bethought in herself: “I will become as thin
as a minute pin, in order to enter imperceptibly into the hearts of
animals, as the odor of flowers enters the nostrils.”
5. “By this means will I suck the heart-blood of beings, to my heart’s
satisfaction; in this way will my hunger be satiated, and the
gratification of my appetite, will give the greatest delight to my
soul.”
6. As she was thinking in this manner, the God discovered her sinister
motives, contrary to the character of a yogi; and accosted her in a
voice resembling the roaring of clouds.
7. Brahmá said:—Daughter Karkatí, of the Rákshasa race, that sittest
here like a cloud on the inaccessible top of this mountain; know that I
am pleased with thy devotion, and bid thee now to raise thyself, and
receive the boon that thou desirest of me.
8. Karkatí answered:—“O Lord of the past and future! If thou art
inclined to grant my request, then please to confer on me the boon, of
transforming my unironlike body to the form of an iron needle.”
9. Vasishtha said:—The God pronounced “Be it so,” and joined, “thou wilt
be as a pin, and shalt be called the cholic pain, for thy giving pain
to all bodies.”
10. “Thou shalt be the cruel cause of acute pain and pang to all living
being; and particularly to the intemperate and hard-working fools, and
loose libertines, who are destined to be thy devoted victims.”
11. “Moreover shalt thou molest the dwellers of unhealthy districts, and
the practicers of malpractices; by entering their hearts with thy
infectious breath, and by disturbing their sleep, and deranging the
liver and other intestinal parts of the body.”
12. “Thou shalt be of the form of wind (in the bowels), and cause bile
and flatulence under the different names of colic diseases, and
attack the intemperate both among the wise and unwise.”
13. “The wise when attacked by thee, will be healed by repeating this
runic _mantra_, which I will here propound for their benefit.”
14. The mantra runs thus:—“There lives Karkatí, the Rákshasí, in the
north of the snowy mountain; her name is Visúchiká, and it is for
repelling her power that I repeat this mantra; “Om, I bow to _hring,
hrang_ and _ring, rang_—the powers of Vishnu, and invoke the Vaishnavi
powers to remove, destroy, root out, drive away this colic pain, far
beyond the Himálayas, and afar to the orb of the moon. Om, (amen) and
_swáhá_ (soho), be it so.” Let these lines be held on the left arm as an
amulet.
15. “Then rub the painful part with the palm of that hand, and think the
colic Karkatí to be crushed under the mallet of this amulet, and
driven back beyond the hills with loud wailing.”
16. “Let the patient think the medicinal moon to be seated in his heart,
and believe himself to be freed from death and disease; and his faith
will save his life and heal his pain.”
17. “The attentive adept, who having purified himself with sprinkling
the water in his mouth, repeats this formula, he succeeds in a short
time to remove the colic pain altogether.”
18. The lord of the three worlds then disappeared in the air, after
delivering this efficacious amulet to the _Siddhas_ attending upon him.
He went to his splendid seat in heaven, where he was received by the god
Indra, who advanced to hail him with his hosannas.