CONDUCT OF VISÚCHÍ, OR THE ADVENTURES OF THE NEEDLE.
Argument. The gradual leanness of _Súchí_, and her entrance in Human
bodies.
Vasishtha continued:—Now this Súchí who had been as tall as a
mountain-peak, and a Rákshasí of the blackest kind, resembling a thick
and dark cloud of the rainy season; began gradually to fade away, and
grow leaner and leaner day by day.
2. Her gigantic cloud-like form, was soon reduced to the shape of the
branch of a tree, which afterwards became of the figure of a man, and
then of the measure of a cubit only.
3. It next became of the length of a span in its heighth, and then of a
finger’s length in all. Growing by degrees thinner and thinner like a
corn or grain, it became at last as lean as a needle or pin.
4. She was thus reduced to the thinness of a needle, fit only to sew a
silken robe; and became as lean as the filament of the lotus flower by
her own desire; which can change a hill to a grain of sand. (This
passage bears reference to the microcosm of human soul).
5. The unmetallic _Súchí_, was thus transformed to the form of a black
and slender iron needle; which containing all her limbs and organs of
her body in it, conducted her in the air and everywhere as she liked.
(Thus the gross human body being reduced to its subtle _átiváhika_ or
spiritual form, it is possible for the Yogi to traverse through the air,
as we perceive in the course of our minds).
6. She viewed her person as an iron pin, and having neither any
substance nor length or breadth of her body. (The false idea of length
and breadth of the soul is a fallacy of our understanding; because the
soul like a geometrical line, has no dimension nor substance whatever in
it).
7. Her mind with its power of thought, appeared as bright as a golden
needle (pointing to the point); and as a streak of the sapphire
impregnated by solar ray.
8. Her rolling eye-balls, were as dark as the spots of black clouds,
moved to and fro by the winds; and her sparkling pupils were gazing at
the bright glory (of God); piercing through their tenuous pores. (It is
explained also as fixing the eye-sight to some chink (as that of a wall
or other), through which the light of God enters the sensory of sight,
and then penetrates into the soul as in Yoga meditation).
9. She had observed the vow of her taciturnity (mauna-vrata), for
reducing the plumpness of her person, and was gladdened in her face, to
become as lean as the filament of a feather. (The vow of keeping silence
is said to be of great good, by increasing the power of thought; for he
who speaks little thinks much, and who so talks much, must talk in vain.
It is the practice of _munis_ or saints to remain silent, whence the vow
has its name).
10. She beheld a light alighting on her, from the air at a distance; and
she was glad in her face to find her inward spirit, to be sublimated as
air. (The internal light and lightness of the body are results of _yoga_
practice).
11. With her contracted eye brows, she beheld the rays of light
extending to her from afar; which caused the hairs on her body, to stand
up like those of babies at bathing.
12. Her grand artery called Brahmanádí or _susumna_, was raised about
its cavity in the head called the _Brahma-randhra_; in order to greet
the holy light, as the filaments of the lotus, rise to receive the solar
light and heat.
13. Having subdued the organs of her senses and their powers, she
remained as one without her organic frame, and identified with her
living soul; and resembled the intelligent principle of the Bauddhas and
Tárkikas, which is unseen by others. (_i.e._ In her spiritual form only).
14. Her minuteness seemed to have produced the _minutiae_ of minute
philosophers, called the siddhárthas; and her silence was like that of
the wind confined in a cave. Her slender form of the puny pin, resembled
the breath of animal life, which is imperceptible to the eye.
15. The little that remained of her person, was as thin as the last hope
of man (which sustains his life). It was as the pencil of the
extinguished flame of a lamp; that has its heat without the light.
16. But alas! how pitiable was her folly, that she could not understand
at first, that she was wrong to choose for herself the form of a slender
pin, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite.
(This is a ridicule to Yogis and students, that emaciate themselves with
intense study and Yoga, only with a desire to pamper their bodies
afterwards, with luxuries and carnal enjoyments).
17. Her object was to have her food, and not the contemptible form of
the pin; her heart desired one thing, and she found herself in another
form, that was of no use to her purpose.
18. It was her silliness, that led her make the injudicious choice of
needleship for herself; and so it is with the short witted, that they
lack the sense of judging beforehand, about their future good.
19. An arduous attempt to accomplish the desired object, is often
attended by a different result; and even success on one hand, becomes a
failure on another; just as the mirror is soiled by the breath, while it
shows the face to the looker. (Disappointment lurks in many a shape, and
often stings us with success).
20. How be it, the Rákshasí soon learnt to be content with her
needleship, after she had relinquished her gigantic form; although she
viewed her transformation as worse, than her dissolution itself. (Utter
annihilation is more desirable to the Yogi than his metamorphosis to
meaner forms).
21. Lo! the contrariety in the desires of the infatuated, who distaste
in a trice, what they fondly wished at one time; as this fiend was
disgusted at her pinship in lieu of her monstrous figure. (And so they
wilfully shun the object of their former fondness, as the suicides and
dying people quit their fond bodies without remorse).
22. As one dish of food is easily replaced by another, suiting the taste
of the voluptuary; so this fiend did not hesitate to shun her gigantic
body, which she took to taste the heart blood of animals in her pinnate
form.
23. Even death is delectable to the giddy headed, when they are overfond
of some thing else; as the minim of a meagre needle was desirable to the
monstrous fiend for the gratification of her fiendish desire.
24. Now this needle took the rarefied form of air, and moved about as
the colic wind (colica flatulenta), after all living beings, in
quest of her suction of animal gore.
25. Its body was that of fiery heat, and its life the vital breath of
animals; its seat was in the sensitive heart, and it was as swift as the
particles of solar and lunar beams.
26. It was as destructive as the blade of the deadly sword, and as fleet
as the effluvia flying in air. It penetrated into the body in the form
of the _minutiae_ of odor.
27. It was ever bent to do evil, like an evil spirit, as she was now
known by that name; and her sole object was to kill the lives of others
at her pleasure.
28. Her body was afterwards divided into two halves; one of which was as
fine as a silken thread, and the other as soft as a thread of cotton.
29. Súchí ranged all about the ten sides of the world, in these two
forms of hers; and pierced and penetrated into the hearts of living
beings, with all her excruciating pains.
30. It was for the accomplishment of all these purposes of hers, whether
they be great or little; that Karkatí forsook her former big body, and
took the form of the acute and small needle. (Because humbleness and
acuteness are the means of success in every project).
31. To men of little understanding, a slight business becomes an arduous
task; as the foolish fiend had recourse to her austerities, in order to
do the mean work of the needle.
32. Again men however good and great, can hardly get rid of their
natural disposition; and it was for this reason that the great Rákshasí,
performed her austere devotion, in order to become a vile pin for
molesting mankind.
33. Now as Súchí was roving about in the sky, her aerial form which was
big with her heinous ambition, disappeared in air like vapour, or as a
thick cloud in autumn.
34. Then entering in the body of some sensualist or weak or too fat a
person, this inward colic flatulence of Súchí, assumed the shape of
Visúchiká or cholera.
35. Sometimes she enters in the body of some lean person, as also in
those of healthy and wise people; and appearing at first as a colic
pain, becomes a real cholera at last.
36. She is often delighted, to take her seat in the hearts of the
ignorant; but is driven back afterwards by the good acts and prayers,
and _mantras_ and medicines of the wise.
37. In this manner she continued many years in her rambles; her
bipartite body kept sometimes flying up in the air, and oftentimes
creeping low on the ground.
38. She lies concealed in the dust of the ground, and under the fisted
fingers of hands; she hides herself in the sun-beams, in air and in the
threads of cloths. (All this refers to the pestilential air).
39. She is hid in the intestines, entrails and genitals, and resides in
the bodies of pale and ash coloured persons; she abides in the pores,
lines and lineaments of the body; as also in dry grass and in the dried
beds of rivers (All these are abodes of malaria).
40. She has her seat among the indigent, and in the naked and uncovered
bodies of men; as also in those which are subject to hard breathings.
She dwells in places infested by flies and of obstructed ventilation, as
also in green verdures excepting only of the mango and woodapple (bel)
trees.
41. She lurks in places scattered with bones and joints of animal
bodies, and such as are disturbed by violent winds, and gusts of air,
she lies in dirty places, and in cold and icy grounds and likewise in
polluted cloths and places polluted by them.
42. She sits in holes and hollow places, withered trees, and spots
infested by crows, flies and peacocks. Also in places of dry, humid and
high winds, and in benumbed fingers and toes.
43. As also in cloudy regions, in cavernous districts of the form of
rotten bodies; in regions of melting and driving snows, and in marshy
grounds abounding in ant hills and hills of málúra trees. (_Málúra_ is
_Kapitha_ or _kath-bel_, which is deemed unwholesome).
44. She exhibits herself in the mirage of desert sand, and in
wildernesses abounding with ravenous beasts and snakes. Sometimes she is
seen in lands infested by venomous reptiles, and disgusting leeches and
worms.
45. She frequents the stagnate pools, soiled by dry leaves and those
chewed by the Pisáchas; and haunts the hovels beside the cross ways,
where passengers halt and take shelter from cold.
46. She rambles in all places, ever where the leeches suck the blood of
men, and vile people tear them with their nails and hold them in their
fists for feeding upon them. (Here is a relation between the blood
sucking Súchí or Needle and the leeches).
47. In this manner she passes in all places, that we view in the
landscape of cities in drawings; until she is tired with her long
journey through them.
48. She then stops in her course like a tired bullock, whose body is
heated by travelling through towns, with loads of cotton and utensils on
their backs.
49. She afterwards lays her down to rest in some hidden place, like a
needle tired with continued sewing; and there drops down like it, from
its bridling thread in the hand of the sewer.
50. The hard needle held in the hand of the sewer, never hurts his
finger; because a servant however sharp he may be, is never faithless or
is injurious to his master.
51. The iron needle growing old in its business of stitching, was at
last lost by itself; like the rotten plank of a boat, bearing the
burthensome ballast of stones in it.
52. It wandered about on all sides of its own accord, and was driven to
and fro like chaff by the driving winds, according to the course of
nature (with all things).
53. Being taken up by some one, it is fed with the fag end of a thread
put into its mouth, as the malady of cholera is caught by those human
parasites, who glut themselves with food supplied by the sap of another.
54. The malady of colic, like the needle, is ever fond of feeding on
the pith of others with its open mouth; and continually finds the
thread-like heartstring of some body put into its hole.
55. Thus the strong bodies of greedy and heinous beings, are nourished
by the sap of the weak and innocent, as the colic disease preys on
the lean bodies of the poor; and the sharp needle is supported by the
thin thread of the needy (who cannot afford to buy new suits).
56. Though the heart of Súchí like the hole of the needle, was to
receive the thread-like sap of the patient’s heart; yet her power to
pierce it, was like that of the sewing needle, which is as potent as the
piercing sun-beams, to penetrate into the toughest substances.
57. At last Súchí came to find on a sudden, the fault of her wrong
choice of the puny body (of the needle); which was to be filled with her
scanty fare of a bit of thread, and then she began to repent for her
folly.
58. She continued however with all her might, to trudge on in her wonted
course, of pricking and piercing the bodies of others; and
notwithstanding her great regret, she could not avoid the cruelty of her
nature.
59. The sewing man cuts and sews the cloth; agreeably to his own liking;
but the weaver of destiny weaves the long loom of lengthened desires in
all bodies, and hides their reason under the garb of her own making.
60. The colic Súchí went on like the sewing needle, in her business
of piercing the hearts of people by hiding her head; as it is the
practice of robbers to carry on their rogueries, by covering their
faces. (All the three are sly boots, and carry on their trades under the
seal of secrecy).
61. She like the needle with the sewing thread behind it, raises her
head to make and look at the loop-hole, that she should penetrate in the
manner of burglars, making and marking the holes in the wall for their
entry.
62. She entered alike in the bodies of the weak and strong, like the
needle stitching cloths of all textures (whether silken, linen or
fibrous); as it is the custom of the wicked to spare neither the just
nor unjust (from their calumny and villainy).
63. The colic pain like the piercing needle, being pressed under the
fingers, lets off its griping, like the thread of the needle in its act
of sewing. (So the wicked when caught in the act, let out and give up
their wickedness).
64. The acute and unfeeling colic, being as ignorant as the stiff and
heartless needle, of the softness or dryness of the object; pierces the
hardiest breast, without deriving any sweetness from it. (So the
unfeeling ruffians molest the moneyless, to no benefit to themselves).
65. The needle is compared with a rich widow, being both equally stern
and full of remorse; both equally veiled and speechless, and with their
eye of the needle, are empty in their joyless hearts.
66. The needle hurts no body (but rather does good in clothing mankind,
by mending their tattered habits); and yet she is dragged by the thread,
which is no other than the thread of her fate (woven by the fatal
sisters for her drudgery).
67. Slipt from the finger of her master, the needle sleeps in peace
after her trudging, in company with her fellows of dirt and dregs; for
who is there that does not deem himself blest, in the company of his
equals, when he is out of employ?
68. The herd of common people, is ever fond of mixing with the ignorant
rabble in their modes of life; because there is no body that can avoid
the company of his equals. (Kind flies with its own kind; or, Birds of
one feather fly together).
69. The lost needle when found by a blacksmith and heated in the hearth,
flies to heaven by the breath of the bellows, after which it disappears
in the air. (So the society of the good elevates one to heaven, which
leads at last to his final liberation).
70. In this manner the current of vital airs, conducts the breath of
life in to the heart; which becomes the living spirit, by force of the
acts of its prior states of existence.
71. The vital airs being vitiated, in the body, cause the colic pains
known by different names; such as flatulence, bile and the like.
72. The colic caused by vitiation of the Vyána air, produces many
diseases, and affects all the members of the body with a watery fluid.
When it comes by breathing of the lungs, it causes the _Váya súla_ or
pulmonary colic of lungs, and is attended by disfigurement of the
body, and insanity or hysteria known as the hysteric colic.
73. Sometimes it comes from the hands of sheepkeepers, and by the smell
of the sheep’s wool in blankets; and at others it seizes the fingers of
children, and causes them to tear their bed cloths therewith.
74. When it enters the body by the foot, it continues in sucking the
blood; and with all its voracity, becomes satisfied with very little
food.
75. It lies in the glandular vessel of the faeces, with its mouth placed
downward; and takes at pleasure any form, it likes to assume as its
prerogative.
76. It is the nature of the malicious, to show the pervertedness of
their hearts by doing injury to others; as it is characteristic of the
base people to raise a row for their pleasure, and not for any gain or
good to themselves.
77. The miserly think much of their gain of even a single cowry: so
deeprooted is the avaricious selfishness of human nature. (All little
gain is no gain, compared with the wants of men).
78. It was but for a particle of blood, or as much as could be picked
out by the point of a pin, that the colic Súchí was bent on the
destruction of men: so the wise are fools in their own interests (and so
do cut-throats kill others for a single groat).
79. How great is my master-stroke, says the needle, that from stitching
the shreds of cloth, have come to the pitch of piercing the hearts of
men; so be it and I am happy at my success.
80. As the rust of the lazy needle passes off in sewing, without being
rubbed with dust; so must it take the rust, unless it is put in the
action of piercing the patient and passive shreds. (The rolling stone
gathers no moss).
81. The unseen and airy darts of fate, are as fatal as the acts of the
cruel Vísúchi; though both of them have their respite at short intervals
of their massacres.
82. The needle is at rest after its act of sewing is done; but the
wicked are not satisfied, even after their acts of slaughter are over.
83. It dives in the dirt and rises in the air, it flies with the wind
and lies down wherever it falls; it sleeps in the dust and hides itself
at home and in the inside, and under the cloths and leaves. It dwells in
the hand and ear-holes, in lotuses and heaps of woolen stuffs. It is
lost in the holes of houses, in clefts of wood and underneath the
ground. (Compare the adventures of a pin in Gay’s Fables).
84. Válmíki added:—As the sage was speaking in this manner, the sun went
down in the west, and the day departed to its evening service. The
assembly broke after mutual salutations, to perform their sacred
ablution; and joined again on the next morning, with the rising beams of
the sun to the royal palace.