MIGRATION OF THE CHANDÁLAS.
Argument. The perilous journey through the Delusive World.
The king continued:—As these calamities continued to rage in this
place, by the displeasure of destiny; and the disasters of the last
dissolution prematurely overtook the forest and mountaineers here:—
2. Some of these men went out from that place, with their wives and
children, in search of some new abodes in foreign lands; as the clouds
disperse and disappear from the sky, after the rainy season is over.
3. They were accompanied by their wives and children and close
relatives, who clung to them as the members of their bodies; but the
lean and infirm were left behind them, like the separated branches of
trees.
4. Some of these emigrants were devoured by tigers, as they went out of
their houses; as unfledged birds are caught by falcons, as they come out
of their nests.
5. Some entered into the fire like moths, to put an end to their
miserable lives; others fell into the pits, like fragments of rocks
falling from the hills.
6. I separated myself from the connections of my father-in-law and
others; and depending upon myself, I escaped narrowly from that
distressed country, with my wife and children about me.
7. We passed the pit-falls and storms, and the wild beasts and snakes,
without any harm; and came out of that forest safe from all the deadly
perils of the way.
8. Having then arrived at the border of that forest, we got to the shade
of some palm trees, where I lay down my children from my shoulders as
burdens of my sin and woes.[11]
9. I halted here after my tiresome journey and lengthened troubles, as
one who had fled from the confines of hell; and took my rest like the
withering lotus, from the scorching sun-beams and heat of summer.
10. My Chandála wife also slept under the same tree, and my two boys lay
fast asleep in each other’s embrace, under the cooling shade.
11. Afterwards my younger son Prach’chhaka, who was as dear to us as he
was the less intelligent, rose up and stood before me.
12. He said with a depressed spirit, and tears gushing out of his eyes,
“Papa give me soon some meat-food and drink or else I die”.
13. The little boy repeatedly made the same request, and said with tears
in his eyes, that he was dying of hunger.
14. I told him I had no meat, and the more I said so, the more he
repeated his foolish craving, which could neither be supplied with nor
put down to silence.
15. I was then moved by paternal affection, and affliction of my heart,
to tell him, “child, cut off a slice of my flesh, and roast and eat it.”
16. He agreed to it, and said ‘give it then’; because his hunger was so
pressing and his vitality was so much exhausted, that he could not
decline to crave my flesh for his food.
17. Being then overpowered by affection and compassion I thought of
putting an end to all my grief with my life, which became so intolerable
to me at his excessive distress.
18. Being unable to endure the pain of my affection, I despaired of my
own life; and resolved to resort to death, as my only friend at this
last extremity.
19. I collected some wood, and heaped them together for my funeral pile,
and having put it on fire, I saw it blaze as I wished.
20. As I was hastening to throw myself on this pile, I was immediately
roused from my reverie by the sound of music proceeding from this
palace, hailing me as king, and shouting my victory _jaya_.
21. I understood this conjurer had wrought this enchantment on me, and
put me to all these imaginable troubles for so long a period.
22. Like the ignorant, I was subject to a hundred changes of fortune
(which can never approach the wise). As the great and mighty
King—Lavana, had been recapitulating and expostulating on the
vicissitudes of fortune:—
23. The sorcerer suddenly disappeared from his sight, at which the
courtiers looked around them with their staring eyes; and then addressed
the king, saying:—
24. This man was no sorcerer, our liege lord! who had no mercenary views
of his own in this; but it was a divine magic (theurgy), that was
displayed to our lord, to represent the lot of humanity and the state of
the world.
25. This world is evidently a creation of the mind, and the imaginary
world is only a display of the infinite power of the Almighty. (It was a
coinage of the brain, a stretch of the imagination which gives images to
ideals).
26. These hundreds of worldly systems, display the multifarious powers
of Omnipotence; which delude even the minds of the most wise, to believe
in the reality of unrealities, as it were by the spell of magic.
27. This delusion being so potent on the minds of wise, it is no wonder,
that our king would be overpowered by it, when all common minds are
labouring under the same error.
28. This delusive magic was not spread over the mind, by any trick or
art of the conjurer; who aimed at nothing more than his own gain, by the
act of his sorcery. (It is the divine will, which spreads the illusion
alike on all minds).
29. They that love money, never go away of themselves without getting
something: therefore we are tossed on the waves of doubt (_i.e._
doubtful) to take him for a sorcerer.
30. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! though I am sitting here at this moment,
before you and others of this assembly; yet I am quite sensible of the
truth of this story, which is no fiction like the tale of the boy I have
told you before, nor is it any coining or hearsay of mine.
31. Thus the mind is enlarged by the various inventions of its
imagination, as a tree is extended by the expansion of its boughs and
branches. The extended mind encompasses all things, as an outstretched
arbor overspreads on the ground. It is the mind’s comprehension of
every thing, and its conversancy with the natures of all things, that
serve to lead it to its state of perfection. (The amplitude of the mind,
consists in the extent of its knowledge).