STORY OF INDU AND HIS SONS.
Argument. The Sun’s Narrative of Indu and his Devotion.
The Sun continued:—It was, my lord! only the other day of one of thy by
gone kalpas, and at the foot of a mount, beside the table-land of mount
Kailasa standing in a corner of the continent of Jambudvípa:—(A kalpa
is one day of Brahmá, and occupies the whole duration of a creation
from its beginning to the end, which is called the Kalpánta or night
of the god. This agrees with the seven days of creation in the book of
Genesis, which are supposed to embrace so many long ages of creation).
2. That there lived a man by name of Suvarnajatá together with all his
sons and their progeny, who had rendered that spot a beautiful and
pleasant habitation. (The gloss says they were the patriarchs of
mankind, settled first on the table-land and at the foot of the
Himalayas).
3. There lived among them a Bráhman by name of Indu, a descendant of the
patriarch Kasyapa, who was of a saintly soul, virtuous and acquainted
with divine knowledge.
4. He resided in his residence with all his relatives, and passed his
time agreeably in company with his wife, who was dear to his heart as
his second self. (That, woman is _ardhánga_ or half of the body of man,
is established in Hindu law; and represented in mythology in the
androgyne figures of Hara-Gaurí and Umá-Maheswara).
5. But there was no issue born of this virtuous pair, as there grows no
grass in a sterile soil; and the wife remained discontented at the
unfruitfulness of her efflorescence or seed.
6. With all the purity and simplicity of their hearts, and the beauty
and gracefulness of their persons and manners; they were as useless to
the earth, as the fair and straight stem of the pure paddy plant,
without its stalk of corn. The discontented pair then repaired to the
mountain, in order to make their devotion for the blessing of progeny.
7. They ascended the Kailása mountain, which was unshaded by shady
trees, and unpeopled by living beings; and there they stood fixed on one
side, like a couple of trees in the barren desert.
8. They remained in their austere devotion, subsisting upon liquid food
which supported the trees also. They drank but a draught of water, which
they held in the hollow of their palms, from a neighbouring cascade at
the close of the day. (There is no single word for a _gandusha_ or
_chuluka_ of water in English; the word handful being equivalent to
_mushthi_ and _prastha_).
9. They remained standing and unmoved as immovable trees, and continued
long in that posture, in the manner of an erect wood in heat and cold.
(_Várkshivritti_ means intense meditation conducted by forgetting one’s
self to wood or stone).
10. They passed in this manner the period of two ages, before their
devotion met with the approbation of the god, who bears the crescent of
the moon on his forehead. (This crescent was no doubt the missile disk,
which the war-like god Siva held on his head in the manner of the
Seiks).
11. The god advanced towards the parching pair, with the cooling
moon-beams on his forehead; as when that luminary casts her dewy light on
the dried trees and scorched lotuses, under the burning sun beams of a
summer day.
12. The god, mounted on his milk-white bull, and clasping the fair Umá
on his left, and holding the beaming moon on his head, appeared to them,
as the vernal season was approaching to a green wood (or furze), with
strewing flowers upon them. (There is an alliteration of _soma_ and
_soma_ in the double sense of Uma and the moon. This kind of play upon
words is very characteristic of metaphysical writers in all ages, as
_Alethes melethon_. Lewis Hist. Phil. I. 69).
13. They with brightening eyes and faces beheld the god, as the lotuses
hail the appearance of the comely moon; and then bowed down to the god
of the silvery bow and snow white countenance. (Kálidása in his
Mahápadya, has heaped all these and many more ensigns of whiteness on
the hoary Hara of Himálaya).
14. Then the god rising to their view like the full moon, and appearing
in the midst of the heaven and earth, spoke smilingly unto them in a
gentle and audible voice; the breath of which refreshed them, like the
breath of spring reviving the faded plants of the forest.
15. The god said:—I am pleased with thy devotion, O Bráhman! prefer thy
prayer to me, and have thy desired boon granted to thee immediately.
16. The Bráhman replied:—O Lord of gods, deign to favour me with ten
intelligent male children. Let these be born of me to dispel all my
sorrows (for want of a male issue).
17. The sun rejoined:—The god said, be it so, and then disappeared in
the air; and his great body passed through the etherial path, like the
surge of the sea with the tremendous roar of thunders.
18. The Bráhmanic couple then returned to their home with gladness of
their hearts, and appeared as the reflexions of the two divinities Siva
and Umá in their persons. (The god Siva otherwise called Hara, bears
every resemblance to Hercules (Harakula) the son of Jove (Siva); and his
consort Umá to Omphale the wife of Hercules. Todd’s Rajasthan).
19. Returning there, the Bráhmani became big with child, by the blessing
she had got of her god Siva.
20. She appeared as a thick cloud heavy with rain water, in the state of
her full pregnancy; and brought forth in proper time (of child-birth), a
boy as beautiful as the digit of the new moon.
21. Thus there were born of her ten sons in succession, all as handsome
as the tender sprouts of plants; and these grew up in strength and
stature, after they had received their sacramental investitures.
22. In course of a short time, they attained their boyhood, and became
conversant in the language of the gods (Sanskrit); as the mute clouds
become sonorous in the rainy season. (The Sanskrita, says Sir W. Jones,
is more sonorous than Latin. It is the voice of gods, which is as high
sounding as the roaring of clouds).
23. They shone in their circle with the lustre of their persons, as the
resplendent orbs of the sky burn and turn about in their spheres.
24. In process of time these youths lost both their parents, who
shuffled off their mortal coil to go to their last abode. (_i.e._ To be
amalgamated with the person of Brahmá, with which they were acquainted
by their proficiency in yoga divinity).
25. Being thus bereft of both their parents, the ten Bráhman lads left
their home in grief, and repaired to the top of the Kailása mountain, to
pass there their helpless lives in mourning.
26. Here they conversed together about their best welfare, and the right
course that they should take to avoid the troubles and miseries of life.
27. They parleyed with one another on the topics, of what was the best
good (_Summum bonum_) of humanity in this world of mortality, and many
other subjects (which form the common places in ethics), such as:—
28. What is true greatness, best riches and affluence, and the highest
good of humankind? What is the good of great power, possessions,
chiefship and even the gain of a kingdom? What forms the true dignity of
kings, and the high majesty of emperors?
29. What avails the autocracy of the great Indra, which is lost in one
moment (a moment’s time of Brahmá). What is that thing which endures a
whole kalpa, and must be the best good as the most lasting?
30. As they were talking in this manner, they were interrupted by the
eldest brother, with a voice as grave, as that of the leader of a herd
of deer to the attentive flock.
31. Of all kinds of riches and dignities, there is one thing that
endureth for a whole kalpa, and is never destroyed; and this is the
state of Brahmá, which I prize above all others.
32. Hearing this, the good sons of Indu exclaimed all in one voice
saying:—Ah! well said; and then they honoured him with their mild
speeches.
33. They said: How—O brother, can it be possible for us to attain to the
state of Brahmá, who is seated on his seat of lotuses, and is adored by
all in this world?
34. The eldest brother then replied to his younger brothers saying:—O
you my worthy brothers, do you do as I tell you, and you will be
successful in that.
35. Do you but sit in your posture of _padmásana_, and think yourselves
as the bright Brahmá and full of his effulgence; and possessing the
powers of creation and annihilation in yourselves. (Padmásana is a
certain posture with crossed legs for conducting the yoga).
36. Being thus bid by the eldest brother, the younger brothers responded
to him by saying “_Amen_”; and sat in their meditation together with the
eldest brother, with gladness of their hearts.
37. They remained in their meditative mood, like the still pictures in a
painting; and their minds were concentrated in the inmost Brahmá, whom
they adored and thought upon, saying:—
38. Here I sit on the pericarp of a full blown lotus, and find myself as
Brahmá—the great god, the creator and sustainer of the universe.
39. I find in me the whole ritual of sacrificial rites, the Vedas with
their branches and supplements and the Rishis; I view in me the
Sarasvatí and Gáyatrí mantras of the Veda, and all the gods and men
situated in me.
40. I see in me the spheres of the regents, of the world, and the
circles of the Siddhas revolving about me; with the spacious heaven
bespangled with the stars.
41. I see this terraqueous orb ornamented with all its oceans and
continents, its mountains and islands, hanging as an ear-ring in the
mundane system.
42. I have the hollow of the infernal world, with its demons, and
Titans, and serpents and dragons within myself; and I have the cavity of
the sky in myself, containing the habitations and damsels of the
immortals.
43. There is the strong armed Indra, the tormentor of the lords of
peoples; the sole lord of the three worlds, and the receiver of the
sacrifices of men.
44. I see all the sides of heaven spread over by the bright net of the
firmament; and the twelve suns of the twelve months dispensing their
ceaseless beams amidst it.
45. I see the righteous regents of the sky and the rulers of men,
protecting their respective regions and peoples with the same care, as
the cowherds take for protection of their cattle.
46. I find every day among all sorts of beings, some rising and falling,
and others diving and floating, like the incessant waves of the sea.
(Everything is changing in the changeful world).
47. It is I (the Ego) that create, preserve and destroy the worlds, I
remain in myself and pervade over all existence, as the lord of all.
48. I observe in myself the revolution of years and ages, and of all
seasons and times, and I find the very _time_, to be both the creator
and destroyer of things.
49. I see a _Kalpa_ passing away before me, and the night of Brahmá
(dissolution) stretched out in my presence; while I reside for ever in
the Supreme soul, and as full and perfect as the Divine Spirit itself.
(Immortality of the human soul and its unity with the Divine).
50. Thus these Bráhmans—the sons of Indu, remained in this sort of
meditation, in their motionless postures like fixed rocks, and as images
hewn out of stones in a hill.
51. In this manner these Bráhmans continued for a long period in their
devotion, being fully acquainted with the nature of Brahmá, and possest
of the spirit of that deity in themselves. They sat in their posture of
the _padmásana_ on seats of kusa grass, being freed from the snare of
the fickle and frivolous desires of this false and frail world.
It is evident from this instance of the Bráhmans’ devotion, that it
consisted of the contemplation of every thing in the world in the mind
of man; like that of the whole universe in the mind of God. It is the
subjective view of the objective that forms what is truely meant by yoga
meditation and nothing beside.