STORY OF THE BOY AND THREE PRINCES.
(_An Allegory of the Hindu Triads_).
Argument. The old Nurse’s tale of the three Princes or Powers of the
Soul, in elucidation of the Fabrications of Imagination.
Ráma said:—Relate to me, O chief of sages! the tale of the boy, in
illustration of the Mind (and the other principles of our intellectual
nature).
2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, tell you the tale of a silly and
jolt-headed boy, who once asked his nurse, to recite to him some pretty
story for his amusement.
3. The Nurse then began to relate her fine wrought story for the
pleasure of the boy, with a gladsome countenance, and in accents sweet
as honey.
4. There were once on a time, some three highminded and fortunate young
princes; in a desolate country, who were noted for their virtues and
valour. (The three princes were the three hypostases of the holy
trinity, dwelling in the land of inexistence or vacuity, _asat-pure_.
_i.e._ These triple powers were in being in empty space, which is
co-eternal with them).
5. They shone in that vast desolate land resembling the spacious sky,
like stars in the expanse of the waters below. Two of them were
unbegotten and increate, and third was not born of the mother’s womb.
(These three uncreated princes, were the principles of the soul and the
mind, and the living soul—jíva, which is not procreated in the womb with
the body).
6. It happened once on a time, that these three, started together from
their dreary abode (of vacuum), for the purpose of finding a better
habitation somewhere else. They had no other companion with them, and
were sorrowful in their minds, and melancholy in their countenances; as
if they were transported from their native country. (This means the
emigration of these principles, from the eternal and inane sphere of
Brahma, to the mundane world of mortality, which was very painful to
them).
7. Having come out of that desert land, they set forth with their faces
looking forward; and proceeded onward like the three planets Mercury,
Venus and Jupiter in their conjunction.
8. Their bodies which were as delicate as _Sirísha_ flowers, were
scorched by the powerful sun shining on their backs; and they were dried
like leaves of trees by the heat of the summer day on their way. (_i.e._
Their tender spiritual bodies melted under the heat of the solar world).
9. Their lotus like feet were singed by the burning sands of their
desert path, and they cried aloud like some tender fawns, going astray
from their herd saying:—“O Father save us”. (The alienated soul and
mind, which are doomed to rove about in this world are subjected to
endless pains, causing them to cry out like the tormented spirit of our
Lord:—Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani;—Lord, Lord, hast thou forsaken me?).
10. The soles of their feet were bruised by the blades of grass, and the
joints of their bodies, were weakened by the heat of the sun; while
their fair forms were covered with dust flying from the ground on their
lonesome journey. (Their pilgrimage in the thorny and sunny paths of the
world of woes).
11. They saw the clump of a leash of trees by the way side, which were
braided with tufts of spikes upon them, and loaded with fruits and
flowers hanging downward; while they formed a resort for flights of the
fowls of air, and flocks of the fauna; of the desert, resting both above
and around them. (The copse of the three trees, means the triple states
of _dharma_, _artha_ and _Káma_, or virtue, wealth and their fruition,
which are sought after by all).
12. The two first of these trees did not grow of themselves, (but were
reared by men); and the third which was easy of ascent, bore no seeds to
produce other plants in future. (_i.e._ Virtue and wealth require to
thrive by cultivation, and enjoyment which is delectable to taste, is
not productive of any future good or reward).
13. They were refreshed from the fatigue of their journey, under the
shade of these trees; and they halted there like the three Deities
Indra, Váya and Yama, under the umbrage of the Párijáta arbour of
Paradise. (The three gods—Jupiter, Eolus and Pluto, were the regents of
the three regions of heaven, sky and the infernal world:—_swar_,
_bhuvar_ and _bhur_, composing the three spheres of their circuit).
14. They eat the ambrosial fruits of these trees; and drank their
nectarious juice to their fill; and after decorating themselves with
_guluncha_ chaplets, they retook themselves to their journey. (_i.e._ The
intellectual powers are supported by the fruits of their acts in their
journey through life).
15. Having gone a long way, they met at the mid-day a confluence of
three rivers, running with its rapid currents and swelling waves. (The
three streams are the three qualities of _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_ or
of goodness, mediocrity and excess, which are commingled in all the acts
of mankind).
16. One of these was a dry channel and the other two were shallow and
with little water in them; and they looked like the eyes of blind men
with their blinded eye-balls. (_i.e._ The channel of _satva_ or temperance
was almost dried up, and that of _rajas_ or mediocrity had become
shallow for want of righteous deeds; but the stream of _tamas_ or excess
was in full force, owing to the unrighteous conduct of men).
17. The princes who were wet with perspiration, bathed joyfully in the
almost dried up channel; as when the three gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva
lave their sweating limbs, in the limpid stream of Ganges. (The three
powers of the soul, like the three persons of the Puránic trinity, were
respectively possessed of the three qualities of action; and yet their
pure natures preferred to bathe in the pure stream of goodness—_satva_,
as in the holy waters of heavenly Ganga—the hallowed Mandákiní).
18. They sported a long while in the water, and drank some draughts of
the same, which was as sweet as milk, and cheered their spirits with
full satisfaction of their hearts (meaning that _satwika_ or good
conduct is sweeter far to the soul, than any other done as unjust or
showy—_rajas_ or _tamas_).
19. They resumed their journey, and arrived at the end of the day and
about sunset, to their future abode of a new-built city, standing afar
as on the height of a hill. (This new-built city was the new-made earth;
to which the spirits descended from their Empyrean).
20. There were rows of flags fluttering like lotuses, in the limpid lake
of the azure sky; and the loud noise of the songs of the citizens was
heard at a distance.
21. Here they saw three beautiful and goodly looking houses, with
turrets of gold and gems shining afar, like peaks of mount Meru under
the blazing sun. (These were the human bodies, standing and walking
upright upon the earth, and decorated with crowns and coronets on their
heads).
22. Two of these were not the works of art, and the third was without
its foundation; and the three princes entered at last into the last of
these. (The two first were the bodies of men in their states of sleep
and deep sleep, called _swápa sopor_ or _swapnas-somnus_ and
_sushupti-hupnos_ or _hypnotes_, which are inborn in the soul; but it is
the _jágrata_ or waking body which is the unstable work of art).
23. They entered this house, and sat and walked about in it with joyous
countenances; and chanced to get three pots as bright as gold therein.
(These pots were the three sheaths of the soul, mind and of the vital
principle, called the _ pránamáyá-kosha_). 24. The two first broke into
pieces upon their lifting, and the third was reduced to dust at its
touch. The far sighted princes however, took up the dust and made a new
pot therewith? It means, that though these sheaths are as volatile as
air, yet it is possible to employ the vital principle to action.
25. Then these gluttonous princes cooked in it a large quantity of corn
for their food; amounting to a hundred _dronas_ minus one, for
subsistence of their whole life-time. (It means that the whole life-time
of a hundred years, allotted to man in the present age of the world, is
employed in consuming so many measures of food, except perhaps one
_Drona_, which is saved by his occasional fasts during his long life).
26. The princes then invited three Bráhmans (childhood, youth and age)
to the fare prepared by them, two of whom (childhood and youth) were
bodiless; and the third (_i.e._ old age) had no mouth wherewith to eat.
27. The mouthless Bráhman took a hundred dronas of the rice and eat it
up, because he devoured the child and youth, and the princes took the
remainder of the Bráhman’s food for their diet (which was nothing).
28. The three princes having refreshed themselves with the relics of the
Bráhman’s food; took their rest in the same house of their next abode,
and then went out in their journey of hunting after new abodes (or
repeated transmigrations).
29. Thus I have related to you, O Ráma! the whole of the story of the
boy and princes; now consider well its purport in your mind, and you
will become wise thereby.
30. After the nurse had finished her relation of the pretty parable, the
boy seemed glad at what he had heard (though it is plain without
understanding its import).
31. I have told you this story, O Ráma! in connection with my lecture on
the subject of the mind; and it will serve to explain to you, the
fabrication of the mind of this imaginary being of the world.
32. This air-built castle of the world, which has come to be taken for a
reality, is like the story of the body, but a false fabrication of the
old nurse’s imagination. (Or old grand-mother’s tale, and giving a name
and form to an airy nothing).
33. It is the representation of the various thoughts and ideas of our
minds, which exhibit themselves to view, according to the notions we
have of them in our states of bondage and liberation. (_i.e._ Our bondage
to gross bodies, exhibits them in their grosser form, and our liberation
from the materialistic, shows them in their subtile and immaterial
shapes).
34. Nothing is really existent except the creations of our imagination,
and it is our fancy which fashions all the objects in their peculiar
fantastic forms. (Everything appears to us as we fancy it to be; whereby
the same thing is viewed in a different light, not only by different
persons; but by the same person in a different state of mind).
35. The heavens, earth, sky and air, as also the rivers, mountains and
the sides and quarters of the sky, are all creations of our fancy, like
the visions in our dreams; which join and disjoin and fashion the views
in their phantastic forms. (Imagination or phantasy, is a faculty
representative of the phenomena of internal or external worlds. Sir
William Hamilton).
36. As the princes, the rivers and the future city, were mere creations
of the nurse’s imagination, so the existence of the visible world, is
but a production of the imaginative power of man. (The nurse’s
representations of the princes &c., were rather the prosopopœia or
personifications of her abstract thoughts; as the material world is a
manifestation of the ideal, and called by the sufis _suwari manavi_ and
_suwari zahiri_).
37. The imaginative power manifests all things all around, as the moving
waters, show the rise and fall of the waves in the sea. “It gives a
shape of airy nothing”. “It is the power of apprehending ideas and
combining them into new forms and assemblages”.
38. It was this imaginative power of God, which raised the ideas of
things in his omniscient and all comprehensive soul; and these ideals
were afterwards manifested as real by his omnipotence; just as things
lying in the dark are brought to view by the light of the day.
(Imaginatio est rei corporae figuram contemplari. Descartes and Addison.
It is a lively conception of the objects of sight. Reid. It recalls the
ideas by its reproductive fancy, and combines them by its productive
power).
39. Know hence, O Ráma! the whole universe to be the net-work of
imagination, and your fancy to be the most active power of the mind.
Therefore repress the thickening phantoms of your fleeting fancy, and
obtain your tranquility by your sole reliance on the certainty of the
immutable soul of souls.
“Retire the world, shut out, imagination’s airy wings repress; call thy
thoughts home &c.” Young’s Night thoughts.
THE CO-ORDINATE TRIADS.
-----------------------------|-----------------|---------------------
/ I. |II. |III.
/ | |
/ The Three Princes or |The Three Stages |The Three Planets.
/ Intellectual Powers. | or Vyahritis.|
/ | |
/ 1. The Soul. |1. Swar—Heaven. |1. Jupiter.
/ 2. The Mind. |2. Bhuvar—Sky. |2. Mercury.
/ 3. The Living Spirit. |3. Bhúr—Earth. |3. Venus.
/ | |
/ ------------------|-----------------|-----------------|---------------------
| | |
IV. |V. |VI. |VII.
| | |
The Three Deities. |The Three Trees |The Three Rivers.|The Three Gods.
| of Act. | | of Rest.
| | |
1. Indra of heaven.|1. Dharma—Acts. |1. Satya—Goodness|1. Brahma of creation.
2. Váyu—Air ether. |2. Artha—Gains. |2. Rajas— |2. Vishnu sustentation.
3. Yama—Death or |3. Káma—Fruition.| Righteousness.|3. Siva dissolution.
mortal state. | |3. Tamas—Vice. |
| | |
\-------------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------------
\ | |
\ VIII. |IX. |X.
\ | |
\ The Three Houses |The Three Pots |The Three Bráhman
\ | or Sheaths. | Guests.
\ | |
\ 1. Sushupti—Sleep. |1. Of the Soul |1. Childhood Neutral.
\ | Neutral. |
\ 2. Swapna—Dream. |2. Of the Mind |2. Youth Active.
\ | Action. |
\ 3. Jágrata—Waking. |3. Of Life to |3. Old age
\ | operation. | co-operation.
\ | |
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