Conclusion of the celestial messenger’s message of liberation 1164
CHAPTER CVI.
INVALIDATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.
Argument:--Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and the
representation of the world therein.
Ráma said:--Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity
which you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to
hear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.
2. Vasishtha replied:--I have fully explained to you that the two
states of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues
of composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are
differentiated by two names.
3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none
between two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as
the vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.
4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self
consciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the
Intellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is
styled the intellectual sphere.
5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein
the earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of
the earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti;
and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is
always clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).
6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of
a man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose
composure is never disturbed by anything.
7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who
had got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease;
before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.
8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and
fill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual
sphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being
touched by or related to any.
9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and
as vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from
the impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any
thing in the world.
10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks
and trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then
said to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state
is called the active mind and not the intellect).
11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of
the view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is
said to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the
imperceptibility of soul).
12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the
various kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making
any effect of change in its immutable nature.
13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all
things, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is
permeated throughout all nature for ever.
14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the
inside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the
vacuity of the intellect.
15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether,
connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the
intellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity
or non-entity.
16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and
at last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and
dissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the
vacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it
(_Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse_; there the
whole universe is a void nothing)).
17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping
state of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream
is dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is
vanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.
18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection,
and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it,
as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist
and disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping
states of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of
the world).
19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the
sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where;
and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (_i.e._
Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).
20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his
consciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in
its place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an
instant.
21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been
before; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind,
gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.
22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears
in varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor
alters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.
23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and
internal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever
wakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.
24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you
speak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly
cold and quiet, as long as you have to live.
25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as you fix
your eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the
mirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in
the sky.
26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because
the want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no
possibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial
causality.
27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a
causeless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that
appears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible
One).
28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very
original form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a
duality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects
to us.
29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion
of the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the
false for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.
30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it
actually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise
never annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil
again.
31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must
be quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the
form of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and
imperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void,
cannot be annulled to a nullity again).
32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is
ever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of
visible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.
33. Ráma rejoined:--If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O
most eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer;
and what are these that thus appear to our view?
34. Vasishtha replied:--There being no assignable cause, for the
appearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and
yet it <is> maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.
35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is
all fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But the
world in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.
36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the
shapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample
garden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in
itself.
37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the
first creation of the world; and that <which> sparkles any where before
us, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless
form, but in his spirit or intellectuality).
38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere,
that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.
39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified
vacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent
beings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the
attribute of a material substance.
40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete
attribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion
of it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.
41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of
the Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself;
say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not
being, or a something or nothing.
42. Ráma rejoined:--If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither
the reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view
(_i.e._ if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither
the subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between
the cause and effect, what is the source of all these, and if they are
unreal why do they appear as realities?
43. Vasishtha replied:--Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation
of his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then
becomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.
44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as
the earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for
that form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause
to move it to action, except its own free will.
45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his
self consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its
identity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state
of the plenum.
46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and
invisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it
is the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody
questions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and
effect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms
of error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding
from its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world,
and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his
blunder.
47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer
of these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and
what is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable
to reproof.
48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible
vacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world);
how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without
being blamed for it?
49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance
of the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth,
which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by
Brahmá.
50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led
mankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or
_máyá_, of ignorance or _avidyá_, of the phenomenal or _drisya_, and
finally of the world or _jagat_.
51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of
the mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality
before it, as the false phantom of <a> ghost, takes a firm hold on the
mind of an infant.
52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as
something real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the
embodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in
empty air.
53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea
or as the God Virát himself; just <as> a man thinks in his dream, that
he sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.
54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless
cause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid
world, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great
annihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It
is therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form
only in the Divine Mind.
55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in
the vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an
emptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.
56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving
the dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those
of reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light
of the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called
_Pratyagnánátma_ or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).
57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible
forms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and
remain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and
place no faith or reliance on anything else.
58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in itself by its
incessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition
throughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its
whirlpools.
59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our
wished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing
before us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective
mind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).
60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of
its desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its
desired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.
61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the
interim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts,
when it sees neither the one nor another thing.
62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly
in variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though
devoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity
of the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.
63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than
what is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a
material cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the
created world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance
of dreams before our sleeping minds.
CHAPTER CVII.
THE NATURE OF IGNORANCE OR ILLUSION OF THE MIND.
Argument:--Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of the
Intellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world.
Vasishtha continued:--The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn
in it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the
empty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself,
and here the _tripart_ or the triple state of the Intellect, its
intellection and the _chetya_ or intellectual combine together. (_i.e._
The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together).
2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as
dead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless
figures in a picture.
3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks
of wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and
unmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.
4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the
chrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as
nothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.
5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering
vapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in
them, but never does any one rely on their reality.
6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the
Intellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet
it is never relied on by any one.
7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught
in his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things
rising as smoke before it.
8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism and meity,
so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive it
now, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their
visionary flights.
9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet
prone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of
truth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in
search of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.
10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves _a priori_
the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing,
proves _a posteriori_ the inexistence of a causal agent (_i.e._ there
is no creation nor its creator likewise).
11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows
of its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby
to nourish their unborn or dead offspring.
12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made,
and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the
Intellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and
serene.
13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a
causality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined
to believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do
with their puerile reasoning.
14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is
but a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these
images like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues
and figures to our eyes.
15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only
by our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same
which shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective
soul appears as the subjective world to our sight.
CHAPTER CVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE OF THE SOUL.
Argument:--The Knowledge of the objective continuing with our
ignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise prince
Vipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies.
Ráma rejoined:--He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright
vividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the
noumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.
2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this
ignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this
ignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.
3. Vasishtha replied:--Know Ráma, those that are besotted by their
ignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as
everlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale on
this subject.
4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with
its three _lokas_ of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this
terrestrial world.
5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours;
and is called the _sama bhúmi_ or level land, where all beings had
their free range.
6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his
learning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of
his court.
7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright
as the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or
polar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its
president.
8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his praises, and
he was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support
of its refugees.
9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched
its lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus
blossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape
with delight every morning.
10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lord
of gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as
equal to him (Because _agni_ is said to be the Brahma or father of the
gods).
11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants
and foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is
girt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.
12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of
the four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the
earth on all its four sides.
13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the
whole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his
foes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.
14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern
borders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a
secret message that was not pleasing unto him.
15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by
thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to
you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go--Gr.
ge.--Pers. gao--cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their
mutual simile).
16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the
relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the
regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.
17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers
thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from
the east and west, and killed by the enemy.
18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his
army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).
19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical
princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way
journey to the spot.
20. Vasishtha continued:--As he was relating in this wise, another
emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a
rush, as a current of the deluging flood.
21. He represented, saying:--O lord, the general of thy forces on the
north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post,
like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.
22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing
out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.
23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to
appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal,
and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).
24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on
foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.
25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around;
thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.
26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his
head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is
waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike
sight”.
27. The king answered:--Go thou quickly there, and get him to my
presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that
quarter.
28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal
presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld
the chieftain in the following plight.
29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds
and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself
with difficulty.
30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and
contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.
31. The chieftain said:--My lord, the three other chiefs of the three
quarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the
realms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest
(_i.e._ to encounter the enemies on every side).
32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone
on this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all
their strength.
33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to
this palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to
punish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.
34. Vasishtha continued:--As the yet alive and wounded chieftain,
had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there
appeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and
speaking to the king in the following manner.
35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening
the shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the
skirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.
36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all
around; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords
and spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.
37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking
weapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their
rolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.
38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy
arbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big elephants, seem
as huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.
39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending
of their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea,
sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.
40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth
fallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the
foaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.
41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike
array of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon
the surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.
42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are
shining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.
43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long
stretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these
marine animals upon the shore.
44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord
against us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering
and muttering their invectives to us.
45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things
to my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the
borders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.
46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club
and sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.
47. Vasishtha added:--Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the
emissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears,
after making a gurgling noise.
48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and
attendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the
men and women and all the citizens at large were struck with terror;
and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered
their arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees
shaken by a hurricane.
CHAPTER CIX.
FIGHTING WITH THE INVADING ARMIES AT THE GATE OF THE CITY.
Argument:--Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances of
the hostile enemies.
Vasishtha continued:--In the mean while, the assembled ministers
advanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the
celestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas--Titans around.
2. The ministers addressed:--Lord! We have consulted and ascertained,
that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace,
dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or
due punishment.
3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages
doth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a
reconciliation.
4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different
countries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those
that are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly
conciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.
5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing
our valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed,
towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.
6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the
people to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the
generals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.
7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and
order the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the
dark deluging clouds inundate the land.
8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the bowstrings
twang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure
the skies as by the clouds.
9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in
the air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling
clouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain,
and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their
ear.
10. The king said:--Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly
all what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you
straightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the
adoration of Agni--the fiery god.
11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king;
yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure
_Gangá_ water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering
of rain water.
12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire
with as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and then
began to reflect in himself, in the following manner.
13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and
prosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm
stretching to the sea.
14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies
under my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the
bending skies on all sides.
15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and
cooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches
to the three worlds, like the three branches of _Gangá_.
16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to
respectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures
for myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut
fruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:--his
realms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans on
all sides).
17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they
groaned before me as croaking frogs with their distended pouches, and
my rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands
amidst the distant seas.
18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond
the visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering
mountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.
19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation;
I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good
will for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments in
spiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).
20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains and
fetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my
treasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without
letting them clash with one another.
21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those
triple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and
renown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and
frost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.
22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts;
and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are
eager for warfare.
23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the
victory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a
sacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its
worshipper with victory.
24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the
Fire-god (as a fit fruit to <the> shrine; and say:--O Igneous god, I
make here an offering of my head to thee).
25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to
fire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my
former offerings.
26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine,
with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with his
mighty arms.
27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my
enemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by
keeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.
28. Vasishtha replied:--So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in
his hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as
boys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many
instances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).
29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the
headless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also
upon the burning furnace.
30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal
carcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its
burning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an
instantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.
31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his
kingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as
the radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formless
deep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).
32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent
lustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal
crown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to
the Agniculas or fiery races of men).
33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets,
bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and
necklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.
34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and
sizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse
back, like so many Indras riding on their _Uchai-srava_ horses (having
their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight).
35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of
golden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally
long and strong with the god of war.
36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their
war-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike
impregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the
vehicles they rode upon.
37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the
submarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the
oblations that were offered upon it.
38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all
sides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked
like Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.
CHAPTER CX.
BATTLE OF THE WISE PRINCES, WITH THE IGNORANT BARBARIAN.
Argument:--Description of the warfare before the city gates,
betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm.
Vasishtha continued:--In the mean time the battle was raging in its
full fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had
advanced before the city gates.
2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there
they set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds
of smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and
wailing on every side.
3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of
arrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to
view: and was then lost to sight the next moment.
4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of
the forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as
loosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling
through the air.
5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the
burnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great
combatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra,
where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.
6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of
bravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in
showers.
7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits
of dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air,
appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.
8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about with loud
shouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken
by lightnings in the battle field.
9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from
above; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and
descending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were
ready to die.
10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy
ocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants,
crackled like the clashing clouds in air.
11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and
its bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a
glare of fire around.
12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their
garments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the
clashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.
13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons
dashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the
battlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.
14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and
the flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air,
resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.
15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the
clashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding
main beset by islands.
16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of
the foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the
wounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots
and slain elephants in its rapid course.
17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle
axes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken
arms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.
18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the
clashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified
souls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their
wrinkled and decaying frames of earth.
19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes
of lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled
the air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.
20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut
their weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at
each other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.
21. Here the headless trunks of the _kabandhas_ (anthropophagi),
mingled with the gigantic bodies of the _vetála_ demons, were
disastrous on every side; and there the demoniac _vetála_ plucking
their hearts for their hearty meal.
22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking
asunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking
arms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.
23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made
their maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing
with their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.
24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s final
glory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in
their giving or receiving of wounds.
25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers
and chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants
(_i.e._ puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on
destruction.
26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and
unrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured
upon the nameless and dastardly cowards.
27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as
glorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures,
for the protection of their protégés.
28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of
elephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of
ichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.
29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes,
and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and
overcome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their
hands.
30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people,
being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and
fell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under
the shining sun.
31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became
subject to death (_i.e._ they called death, to be re-born); as
millionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.
32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their
arms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the
adoration of the three worlds.
33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when
churned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers
under them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.
34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour
of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (_i.e._
the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva
(who fought dead drunk in battle).
35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who fought
together in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on
carcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of
mountains.
36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with
the detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there
were the flying stones on another, which were flung from the slings of
the combatants, and which covered the ground below.
37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions,
resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was
heard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty
edifices of the city.
38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire
brands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people
betook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and
treasures all behind.
39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in
order to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves,
for fear of the devouring _phoenix_, darting upon them from the sky.
40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they
were pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in
their pressing mills.
41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the
stones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions,
resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the
ragged caverns.
42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud
shouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and
dearly earned vigour in the battle field.
43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism
flashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings,
went on unceasingly all around.
44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who
were as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Siva
seated therein.
45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a
lasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state,
by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:--The
brave live by dying, and die by their living).
46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers
immerging into the waters of lakes; great champions were seen to stalk
over the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.
47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing
sound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise
around; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The
flying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of
horses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels,
together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened
the ears of men all about.
CHAPTER CXI.
THE FLIGHT OF THE SOLDIERS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, and
their use of pneumatic arms.
Vasishtha continued:--Thus the war waged with the fury of the four
elements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world;
and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and
about the battle field.
2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums
and conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on
all sides.
3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and
their steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in
twain with clattering noise.
4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell
fainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and
mown down as straws and grass.
5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal
that filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a
treble roar, resounding with uproar of the _kapa_ or doomsday clouds.
6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill
and mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every
where.
7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold
or four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four
quarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching to
so many sides of heaven.
8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse,
elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the
confines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying
out of the town.
9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his
enemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the
wild roar of the surrounding sea.
10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as
sharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the
wide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.
11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the
whirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving
flags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.
12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the
neighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of
shining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the
sunshine.
13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges
and swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians
gabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.
14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed
as they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and
breaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.
15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which
the slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of
floating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling
waves of the sea.
16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely
dissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders
of the visible horizon.
17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the
sparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces,
resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.
18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above;
and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of
fleecy vapours in another.
19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king
thought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the
ocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which
he thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the
cloud of the hostile force like the wind).
20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when
the god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the
demon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the
Indo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).
21. He bowed to his god Agni--Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile
with all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his
own forces from destruction.
22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the
cloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the
enemy.
23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth
into a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four
sides or quarters of the sky.
24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and
arrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots
and rockets.
25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of
discs and battle axes.
26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of
bhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and
also swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.
27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of
lightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying
swords and sabres.
28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great
force and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in
mountain caves, and grew there for ages.
29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms, blasted
the ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in
all directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.
30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were
driven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all
sides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows
on the land in the rains.
31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots
and foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four
directions; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides
during the rains.
32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled
down as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were
broken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of _mariche_ flowers
over the ground.
33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the
ground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the
groans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.
34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks
rising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying
with thunder claps and roaring clouds.
35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the
crashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses
clashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.
36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the
rattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the
clashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as
the crashing of stones.
37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and
cries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in the
air all around.
38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of
an eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed on their bodies,
exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.
39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the
shore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a
purple cloud.
40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall
_tala_ trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were
seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.
41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on
the ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and
fat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the
field.
42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and
the concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a
rattling sound all around.
43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation
were blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders
of destruction were clapping all about.
44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of
the land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky
was drizzling through all its pores.
45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in
a blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and
elephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.
46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and
rumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to
the twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.
47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing
of the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from
them, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.
48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the
four sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like
swarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.
49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the
conflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons,
falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying
forces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed
by the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine
fire.
CHAPTER CXII.
FLIGHT OF THE FOREIGN FOES.
Argument.--Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their
countries and places of retreat.
Vasishtha continued:--The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded
as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling
the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and
driven afar to the southern main--the Indian Ocean.
2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking
against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in
the forest.
3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant
Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the
field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of
Afghanistan).
4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down
torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors,
and glittered like curling lightnings.
5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and
gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh,
similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.
6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains,
who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid
Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.
7. Those that fled to the _tala_ and _tamala_ forests, and to the old
woods on the bank of the _dasárná_ river; were caught by lions and
tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.
8. The _yovanas_ living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those
in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in
the course of their flight.
9. The sákas or _Scythians_ being unable to endure the impulse, of the
black iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and the Rumatha
people were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed by the
blowing winds.
10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its three
peaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantled
by the sable clouds of the rainy weather.
11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the arms
of the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of their
raiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by the
nocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert.
12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; by
the broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaven
twinkling in myriads above.
13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the clouds
above, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the king
both in earth and heaven.
14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under the
whirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on dried
lands for want of rain.
15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and having
halted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places.
16. Many took shelter in the Gandhamádana mountains, while multitudes
of them resorted to the Punnága forests; and the retreating Gandharvas
became refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidyádhara maidens.
17. The Huns, Chins and Kirátas, had their heads struck off by the
flying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the opposite
winds, like lotus flowers by the blast.
18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and as
fixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles.
19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and hilly
tracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rush
and crush of the forces.
20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after they
deserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles.
21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the other
side of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by the
hurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation.
22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke down
the woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking its
hidden rocks below.
23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise;
and the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, which
obscured its face on all sides.
24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about;
and there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like the
waters of the sea.
25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, with
the loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of the
lake, like bees from lotuses.
26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of the
earth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered under
the showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tears of
their eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (_i.e._ They were as
dust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears of their
eyes below).
27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flight
over the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as the
dirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northern
seas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians,
residing beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as dark
complexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India).
28. The Sáks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests on
the bank of the eastern main; there they were confined for some time,
and then released without being despatched to the regions of death.
29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence they
lightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there they
were protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tender
care as they bear for the stags of their hermitage.
30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, found
in lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, the
two fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comes
to pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was least
expected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at this
place, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of _sahya_ or
patience is the door to prosperity and success).
31. The soldiers flying to Dasárná at the confluence of the ten rivers,
fell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and there
they lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof.
32. The Haihayas that fled to Himálayas, drank the juice of
_Visalya-karaní_ or pain killing plants by mistake; and became thereby
as volant as Vidyádharas, and flew to their country.
33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers,
showed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from which
they dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pisáchas all along.
34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of their
country; are as strong as Vidyádharas, and sport with their mates, as
if it were in heavenly bliss.
35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into the _tala_
and _tamala_ forests; whereby drinking their intoxicating extracts,
they became as giddy as drunken men. (The addictedness of Persians to
their delicious drinks, is well known in their Ána Cronatics).
36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy Kalingas,
pushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where all
lay slain in promiscuous heaps.
37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fell
into the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with the
whole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap of
rocks.
38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries in
all directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, where
they were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves.
39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay dead
and unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fields
and plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains and
dales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there is
nobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying every
moment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves and
dens, and every where in the world.
CHAPTER CXIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE OCEAN.
Argument:--Relation of the cessation of arms, and description of
majestic ocean.
Vasishtha continued:--The hostile forces of the enemies thus flying
on all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms of
Vihaschit as said before.
2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; went
on conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent and
purpose.
3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite,
to the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keep
on their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distant
ocean.
4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies,
soon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all their
resources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost under
the sands ere it reaches the lake.
5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be as
exhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost up
on his ultimate liberation.
6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after they
had done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside of
themselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles.
7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weapons
stuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, like
birds upon their spray at night fall.
8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows to
fall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, and
the fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind.
9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the falling
showers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts, were thwarted by
the thickening showers of snow (_i.e._ the dropping arrows were driven
away, by the drifts of snow).
10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled by
hundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweep
of the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouring
down in floods of rain.
11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean,
composed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing the
sparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarine
fire of the sun in the midst of it.
12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright and
serene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of great
men (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.).
13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies;
being of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmost
limits of the horizon.
14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are as
gratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with their
showers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts.
15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide their
huge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on the
ground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up their
billowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.
16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, and
though they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in their
hollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this world
with all its dizzy rounds.
17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sun
beams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells,
resound all along the coast.
18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaring
loudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as the
shattered corallines were scattered along.
19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosom
of the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded as
the splashing of the oars of vessels in them.
20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecy
mermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining in
their reflexions on the rising waves.
21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of the
waters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forward
by the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails and
cracking cordage.
22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handles
the orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem,
with reflexions of their ’beams in them.
23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; and
there were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants’ trunks
to the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos.
24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curling
creepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others,
little rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernal
flowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters.
25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs,
resembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where were
the groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn the
clusters of shining stars in the skies.
26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, like
little gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there are
the huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills on
earth.
27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds of
gemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the ground
strewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom;
while the glistening pearls bursting out of their silvery shells
sparkle amidst the spreading sands.
28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecy
waves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while the
rivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it with
their various waters.
29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display as
it were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of its
feet.
30. The shadows of the beaching _tali_ forests, falling on the swelling
waves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marine gems; and
appeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage, fruits and
flowers.
31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in the
waters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with their
reflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and falling
shadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging the
falling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).
32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping to
catch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in their
reflexions on the waves.
33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments,
and rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in the
vacuous air.
34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the three
worlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the pure
vacuum in itself, as it bore the image of Náráyana in its breast.
35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it the
appearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom,
as it were imprest upon it.
36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof,
as if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, or
resembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves.
37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent winds,
and washing the welkin’s face with their briny sprays; and the deep
sounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud like
the diluvian clods.
38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunder
claps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst out
of the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the waters
of the main.
39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with its
waves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfs
as blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers.
40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming and
skipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, and
carried away by the gliding waters.
41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the salt
seas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side;
while the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops,
intercepted the sight on all sides.
CHAPTER CXIV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPECTS ALL AROUND.
Argument:--Description of the forest trees, the hills and seas,
the forest and hill peoples, and clouds on high.
Vasishtha continued:--Then the royal army beheld whatever there was on
sides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds,
and the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest.
2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty top
to the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmost
part is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard and
rugged stones.
3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, and
the groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds.
4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers,
and disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters the
bordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits and
flowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to mean
the maritime lands of Madras).
5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the tops
of mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancing
over them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.
6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden of
paradise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing in
the full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of the
moon.
7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouring
you with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of their
rubicund leaves.
8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; and
devouring the huge sharks and swallowing the swelling waves, in its
cavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth.
9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds
(moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defiance
against his weaker rival.
10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated with
forests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling with
its outstretched arms of the waves on the shore.
11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides;
is looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away the
treasured gems of the earth.
12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, and
waving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping with
their crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.
13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling with
each other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men,
as that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another.
14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable to
raise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, and
dies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides.
15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled with
living beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so are
all lands and islands full of living beings.
16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpools
and revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that are
taken for and viewed as realities.
17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert in
themselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahma
contains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without any
substantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).
18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants of
yore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures,
which have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods.
19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexions
of the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false and
fictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, and
of these no one can deprive it.
20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom,
with equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is daily
deposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to the
nether world. It is called the gem of day दिनमनि, because
it makes day wherever it shines.
21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, and
assemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, as
it is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions.
22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutual
contentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of the
waters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.
23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves;
and spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these shedding
showers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowing
winds.
24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearing
the bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn the
breast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion.
25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and sádhya
classes of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns of
Mahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the sounding
main.
26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains,
are gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud of
flowers over its table lands.
27. Here is the Mount Gandhamádana, full of mango and kadamba trees;
and there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caves
like stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings.
28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Himálaya mountains, and
passing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, are
scattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.
29. The winds of the Gandhamádana mountain, are exhaling the fragrance
of the _kadamba_ flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surface of
the sea with curling waves.
30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locks
of hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the winds
are passing by the alleys of the Gandhamádana groves, and forming <a>
cloud or canopy of flowers at this place.
31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrant
flowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, are
creeping slowly amidst the alleys.
32. Lo there the _nálikera_ creepers, diffusing their sourish scent
to the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, are turning
towards the regions of Persia.
33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests of
Ísana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with the
perfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away the
camphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky.
34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis of
elephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of the
caverns of the Vindhya mountain.
35. The females of the _savara_ foresters, covering their bodies with
the dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthy males, in
leafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, by extirpating
the wild animals, with their iron arrows.
36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests and
rivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they are all smiling
under your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams.
37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidyádhari wood
nymphs; and their sports (which <is> omitted on account of their
uselessness).
CHAPTER CV.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Argument:--Description of the hills and forests, rivers and other
objects on all sides.
The Royal companions related:--Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnara
females from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselves
with singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with the
music, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day.
2. There are the Himálaya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra,
Mandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view,
appear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoary
clouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves of
trees.
3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear to
stretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which are
seen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as the
woof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.
4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops of
mountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from their
lofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-coloured
and roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air,
warbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are dropping
down the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenly
nymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands.
5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching all
along the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by the
surges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast.
6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean,
that supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it; contained the
unrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all the
mountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it.
7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all the
gold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities and
forests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky and
all its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.
8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, and
presenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earth
extending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hides
the sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm.
9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandal
wood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet paste
decorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot on
the forehead like the frontal eye <of> Siva; and is sprinkled over the
body belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat.
10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrown
with forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes;
while the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre about
it by the beauty of their persons.
11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with the
cooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshly
to one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutual
friction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these is
heard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screams
of peacocks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe.
12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in the
groves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound of
their bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers.
13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads of
elephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the drink; which has made
the sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them.
14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting in
their reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from which
it was churned as its butter or froth.
15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-lands
of the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms of
their hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees.
The blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warbling
cuckoos fill the groves with their festive music.
16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance of
_vansa-lochana_, in the hollows of bamboos; and the _gaja-mati_ or
frontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and large pearls in the womb
of pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, are productive of unlike
effects in different persons.
17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as they
are produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men and
stones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. They
gladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death,
and many other preternatural and supernatural effects.
18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing in
praise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorways
and openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsive
to his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of its
caves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.
19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonished
and uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by the
winds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peak
carried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountain
flying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance of
the earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight.
20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain, how cool
they are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves of
Ganges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidyádhara tribe;
and behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady clouds
of flowers above.
21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, with
the huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look at
the holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them,
the very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities.
22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon;
the dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed by
clouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights are
sure to melt away masses of our crimes.
23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent with
the odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills,
abounding with infuriate elephants; the Kailása mount yielding the
best kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra,
fraught with its mineral ore (_aguru_--agallochum); the summits of
the snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses and
medicinal plants; thus while every place <is> found to abound with
richest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his time
worn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole.
24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as another
world, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it with
its flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishes
in the etherial ocean.
25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts of
frozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high.
They are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, and
shaking the body with horripilation.
26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with the
dark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster of flowers, from the
twigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain drops
dropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odours
of kadamba blossoms.
27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languid
females, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by and
borne on the wings of zephyr.
28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the new
blown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odours
to the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the folded
clouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves.
29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contact
with the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists,
perfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.
30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers,
and others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some places
they are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust of
flowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoary
mountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and red
minerals.
31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, and
these are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods,
like the riotous rabble in a country.
32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading the
conflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clattering
noise afar.
33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentle
beams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heaving
waves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hot
to separated lovers.
34. Lo here, O lord! how the _savara_ women, on the low lands of the
eastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments,
and wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they are
strutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.
35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodies
of their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in the
manner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees.
36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at day
break; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as the
darkness lingers in the enclosed room.
37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, on
the border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them with
lavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them.
38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards
like mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like
flames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as
extinguished cinders of fire.
39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wild
fire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borne
above the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.
40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at the
foot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peacocks
dancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrill
cries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, and
blowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides.
41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousand
peaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the evening
sky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling down
with its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But the
solar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only).
42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a full
blown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of this
world; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-bees
upon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world,
which is free from its fault and frailty.
43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra,
amidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of the
great hall of the universe, or it likens <to> the milky fluid of the
milky ocean of the sky.
44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, and
the variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beams
of the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milky
ocean.
45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts,
that are as hideous as the large _tála_ or palm trees; and also those
puny Vetála younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of the
Hunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night.
46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of a
fairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; but
it is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, by
its appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, by
appearing out of the inner apartment.
47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with the
fair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed by
floods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetual
snows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness.
48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning the
forest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradle
chimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming in
various hues.
49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers like
offerings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins,
and resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heaven
shines over their heads.
50. There is the Kailása mountain on the north, vying with firmament in
its brightness; below it there is the hermitage of _Skanda_, and the
moon shines in her brilliance above.
51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the branches
of trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of which
they have been carrying afar.
52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after the
rains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while the
flights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.
53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the blooming
flowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and in
villages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields.
54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, and
the house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepers
upon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up to
the heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers all
about. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods.
55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradise
or fairy land; by the blooming _champaka_ flowers, the swinging of the
rural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling of birds
and gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palm trees in
the skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snow white
blossom, the dancing of peacocks on the tops of houses, and the borders
shaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over the village
and the bordering hills.
56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leaves
of the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries of
cranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; these
together with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of the
pastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and
their glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.
CHAPTER CXVI.
NARRATION OF THE SPEECH OF CROW AND CUCKOO.
Argument.--Description of the battle field, and of the hills and
sky, and the story of the foolish crow.
The companions added:--Look lord, the field of battle, stretching to
the bordering hills; look upon the heaps of shining weapons, and the
scattered forces of elephants, horse, infantry and war chariots.
2. Look at the slain and their slayers, and the combatants attacking
their corrivals; and how their dying souls are borne by celestial
nymphs in heavenly cars to heaven.
3. The victor finding his adversary worsted in warfare, ought not slay
him unjustly, unless he is justified to do so by laws of warfare (as a
youth is justified to take unto him no other woman but his legal wife).
4. As health and wealth and prosperity, are good for men when they
are rightly gained; so it is right to fight for those by whom one is
supported.
5. When one kills his opposing corrival in combat, without violation of
the laws of warfare, he is justly styled a heavenly champion, and not
one who takes undue advantage of his enemy.
6. Behold there the bold champion brandishing his sword, as if he is
swinging a blue lotus in his hand; and casting the dark shadow of the
evening dusk on the ground. Such a hero is courted by Laxmi for her
spousal.
7. Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers of
wild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea,
dancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads.
8. Look at the sky on one side, resembling the sea with its watery
clouds, and shining with strings of its stars on another; see how it
is covered by dark clouds on one side; and how it is brightened by moon
beams on the other.
9. Look at the firmament, ranged by multitudes of revolving planets,
resembling the rolling chariots of warriors; and crowded by myriads of
moving stars, likening the soldiers in the battle field; and yet it is
the error of the ignorant to think it an empty vacuum; an error which
is hard for the wise to remove.
10. The sky with its over spreading clouds, its fiery lightnings, its
thunder bolts that break down the mountain wings; its starry array,
and the battle of gods and demigods that took place in it; is still
as inscrutable in his nature, as the solid minds of the wise, whose
magnitude no one can measure.
11. O wise man, thou hast been constantly observing before thee, the
sun, moon and all the planets and stars in the firmament, together with
all the luminous bodies of comets, meteors and lightnings; and yet
is astonishing that your ignorance will not let see the Great
Náráyana in it.
12. Thou dark blue sky, that art brightened by moon-light, dost yet
retain thy blackness, like the black spot amidst the lightsome disk of
the moon; and such is the wonder with ignorant minds, that with all
their enlightenment, they will never get rid of their inward bias and
prejudice.
13. Again the clear sky which is full with endless worlds, is never
contaminated by their faults, nor ever changed in its essential state;
and resembles the vast and pure mind of the wise, which is full with
its knowledge of all things, and devoid of all their pollutions.
14. Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevated
objects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees and
summits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon and
the aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by the
flames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret,
notwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselves
high in heaven.
15. Thou sky that art replete with pure and transparent light, and
great with thy greatness of giving quarters to all the great and
elevated objects of nature; but it is greatly to be pitied, that the
dark clouds to whom thou givest room to rise under thee, molest us like
base upstarts, with pelting their hailstones at random.
16. Again thou dark sky, art the attestor of all lights; as the
touchstone is the test of gold; and thou art a void in thy essence, yet
thou dost support the substances of stars and planets of clouds and
winds and all real existences at large.
17. Thou art the day light at daytime, and the purple red of evening,
and turnest black at night; thus devoid of all colour of thyself thou
dost exhibit all colours in thee; hence it is impossible even for the
learned, to understand aright thy nature and its convertible conditions
also.
18. As the helpless man is enabled to achieve his purposes, by means
of his patient perseverance; so the inane sky has risen above all, by
means of its universal diffusion. (The gloss says that, extension of
knowledge, is the cause of elevation).
19. The sun that persists in his wonted course, rises to the vertical
point in time; but the unmoving straws and trees, and the dormant hills
and places, and stagnant pools and ponds, are ever lying low on the
ground.
20. The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles over
it the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with the
decoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantles
the firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover it
in clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. Thus is
time ever busy, to decorate the heavenly paths of his lords the sun and
moon, the two time keepers by day and night.
21. The firmament like the magnanimous mind, never changes the firmness
of its nature; although it is ever assailed by the disturbances of
smokes and clouds of dust and darkness, of the rising and setting sun
and moon and their dawns and dusks: and of the confluence of stars and
combat of gods and demons.
22. The world is an old and decayed mansion, of which the four sides
are its walls, the sky its covering roof above and the earth its ground
floor below; the hills and mountains are its pillars and columns, and
the cities and towns are its rooms and apartments; and all the various
classes of animal beings, are as the ants of this abode.
23. Time and action are the occupants of this mansion from age to age,
and all its ample space presents the aspect of a smiling garden; it is
feared every day to be blown and blasted away, and yet it is a wonder
how this frail flower should last so long and for ever more.
24. It is the air methinks, that puts a stop to the greater height or
rising of trees and hills; for though it does not actually restrain
their growth, yet its influence (pressure from above), like the
authority of noble men, puts a check to the rise of aspiring underlings.
25. O fie for that learning, which calls the air as void and vacuity;
seeing it to contain millions of worlds in its bosom, and producing and
reducing also unnumbered beings in its boundless bosom.
26. We see all things to be born in and to return into the air; and
yet we see the madness of men, that reckon the all containing and all
pervading air, as something different from God.
27. We see the works of creation, to be continually producing, existing
and extinguishing in air, like sparks of fire; I ween this pure and
sole air, which is without beginning, middle and end, as the universal
source and terminus of all, and no other distinct cause as God.
28. The vacuum is the vast reservoir of the three worlds, and bears in
its ample space the innumerable productions of nature; I understand
infinite vacuity as the body of the Intellect, and that transcendent
being, in which this erroneous conception of the world, has its rise
and fall.
29. Therein the woodlands on mountain tops, the solitary forester
chants his charming strains amidst his sylvan retreat; and attracts the
heart of the lonely passenger, who lifts up his head to listen to the
rapturous times.
30. Hearken O Lord, to the sweet music, proceeding from the thick
groves on yonder lofty mountain; and emitted with the heart rending
strains, of love born Vidyádhara nymphs; and behold the lonely and
lovesick passenger, whose lovesick heart being smitten by the sound,
has neither the power to proceed forward or recede backward from the
spot, or utter a word.
31. I hear a lovelorn Vidyádhara damsel, singing her love ditty
amidst the woods of the hill with her heaving sighs and tears flowing
profusely from her eyes. She sang saying: “Lord, I well remember the
day, when thou ledst me to the recess of the bower, holding my chin and
giving kisses on my cheeks with thy smiling face, and now the pleasing
remembrance of that gladsome moment, hath left me to deplore its loss
for years”.
32. I heard her tale, O Lord, thus related to me from the mouth of a
forester on the way. He said:--Her former young lover, was cursed by
a relentless sage to become an arbour for a dozen of years; and it is
since this ill fated change of his, that she has been reclining on that
tree, and singing her mournful ditty unto the same.
33. And now observe the wonder, that on my approach the arborescent
lover, was released of his sad curse, and shedding a shower of flowers
upon her, he changed his form and clasped her unto his arms with his
face smiling as his blooming flowers.
34. The tops of hills are decorated with flowers, as the heads of
elephants are painted with white dye; the sky is whitened with the
stars and falling meteors, as the summit of the mountain is etiolated
with hoar-frost and snows.
35. Behold there the beautiful stream of Kaveri, gliding along with
shoals of fishes skimming in its waters; to its boisterous waves
resounding with the cries of shrill and clamorous cranes; see its banks
mantled in vests of flowers, and its shores freely grazed by timid
fauns without any fear.
36. Look the Bela rock, which is washed by the billows of Varuna--the
god of the sea; its stones shining as gold under the solar rays; and
sparkling as the marine fire when they are laved by the waves.
37. Look at the abodes of the Ghosha shepherds at the foot of the
mountain, which are continually covered under the shrouding clouds;
and behold the beauty of the blossoming _palása_ and _patala_ trees
thereabouts.
38. Look at the plains, whitened by the full-blown whitish flowers;
see the _mandara_ tree with twining and flowering creepers; look at
the banks crowded by cranes and peacocks; look at those villages and
the water falls, resounding as music from the mouths of mountain caves
and forests, and redounding to the joy of the happy inhabitants of the
valley.
39. Here the buzzing bees are sporting about the new blown petals of
plantain flowers; and inspiring fond desire in the breasts of the
Pamara foresters; who enjoy a bliss in their rustic pastures and hidden
hilly caverns, which I ween, is not attainable by the immortal gods in
their garden of Eden. (So says Hafiz:--Thou canst not have in heaven,
the blissful fount of Roknabad, nor the flowery groves of Mossella).
40. Behold the black bees sporting and swinging in their cradles of the
flowery creepers of the forest; and to the Pulinda forester singing
to his beloved, with his eyes fixed upon her face; and mark also the
sportive Kiráta, forgetting to kill the deer roving beside his lonely
cavern.
41. Here the weary traveller is regaled, by the sweet scent of various
full blown flowers, and is cooled in his body by the odorous dust,
wafted by the breeze from the flowering creepers; while the winds
bearing the watery particles of the waves, which lave the vale on all
sides, render the spot more delightful than the spotted disc of the
moon (_i.e._ the people have more of coolness here, than the gods have
in the moist sphere of the moon).
42. Here the unceasing gliding of waters, and the continued waving of
the palm trees; together with the dancing of the blossoming branches,
and the undulation of the spreading creepers in the air; the forest
of lofty sála trees in the borders, and the hanging clouds over the
bordering hills, all combine to add a charm to this village of the
vale, not unlike to that of the gardens in the orb of the moon.
43. The flashing of lightnings, and the deep roaring of clouds; the
merry dance of peacocks and their loud shrieks and screams, and their
trailing trains displayed in the air, decorate the valley with a
variety of variegated gems.
44. The bright orb of the moon appearing on one side, and the dark
clouds rising as huge elephants on the other; serve to embellish the
village in the valley, and the hills in the skirts, with a beauty
unknown in the heavenly kingdom of Brahmá: (which is the empyrean or
city of fire only).
45. O! how I long to lodge myself in the mountain grotto, amidst
the fragrant arbours of the beauteous _Mandána_ forest, and in the
delightsome groves of blooming _santánaha_ blossoms, and where the busy
bees are continually fluttering, over the _mandára_ and _paribhadra_
arborets.
46. O, how much are our hearts attracted, by the cries of the tender
deer, browzing the verdant and delightsome verdure; and by the blooming
blossoms on hills and in dales, as by sight of the cities of mankind.
47. Look on yonder village in the valley, where the waterfall appears
as a column of clear chrysolite; and the peacocks are in their merry
dance, all about the precipitate cascade.
48. See how the joyous peacocks, and the gaysome creepers, bending down
under the burden of their blossoms; are dancing delightfully, beside
the purling water of the cataract.
49. I believe the lusty god of desire (Káma or Cupid), sports here at
his pleasure, in this village of the valley protected by the hills all
around. He is sporting with the handsome _harita_ birds (the green
partridges and parrots) in the verdant groves, and beside the crystal
lakes, resounding with the sweet warblings of water-fowls.
50. O most prosperous and magnanimous lord, that art the centre of all
virtues, and the highest and gravest of men; thou art like the towering
mountain, the refuge of mankind from heat, and the cause of their
plenty (_i.e._ the rainy clouds on mountain tops, are the causes of
plenteous produce).
51. Thou cloud that bathest in holy waters (_i.e._ that resist from the
waters of seas and rivers); that art exalted above all earthly beings,
and choosest to abide in hills and wildernesses like holy hermits,
and art taciturn like them, from the pure holiness of thy nature;
thou appearest also as fair in the form when thou art emptied (of thy
waters) in autumn; all this is good in thee; but say why dost thou
rise in thy fulness with flashing lightnings in thy face, and roaring
thunders in thy breast, like lucky upstarts of low origin?
52. All good things being misplaced (or out of their proper place),
turn to badness; as the water ascending to the clouds, turns to hoar
frost and cold ice.
53. O, wonder! that the drops distilled by the clouds, fill the earth
with water; and wonder it is that this water supports all beings, and
makes the poor grow with plenty (of harvest).
54. Ignorant people are as dogs, in their unsteadiness, impudence, in
their impurity and wayfaringness; hence I know not whether the ignorant
have derived their nature from dogs or these from them.
55. There are some persons, who notwithstanding all their faults, are
yet esteemed for certain qualities in them; as the dogs are taken into
favour, on account of their valour, contentedness and faithfulness
to their masters. (So are men serviceable to their masters for these
virtues in them).
56. We see all worldly people pursuing the course of their worldliness
as madmen, and pushing on in the paths of business at the sacrifice of
their honor, and likely to tumble down with fatigue. I find them flying
to and fro as trifling straws, and know not whether it is of their will
or madness or stupidity, that they have made choice of this foolish
course.
57. Among brute creatures, the brave lion hears the tremendous thunder
claps without shuddering: while the cowardly dog trembles and shuts his
eyes with fear at the sound.
58. I believe, O vile dog, that thou hast been taught to bark at
thy fellows, and to ramble about in the streets, by some surly and
strolling porter or peon (among men).
59. The divine creator, that has ordained varieties in all his works,
has made the nasty breed of his daughter Saromá all equal in their
filthiness. These are the dogs, that make their kennels or dog holes in
dirt, that feed upon filth and carrion and copulate in public places,
and carry about an impure body every where. (This is a slur against the
progeny of one’s daughters, who generally turn to be vicious).
60. “Who is there viler than thee”; says a man to his dog; to which
he answered, “the silly man as thee is the vilest of all”. There are
the best qualities of valour, fidelity and unshaken patience, combined
in the canine tribe; and these are hard to be had in human kind, who
grovel in the darkness of their ignorance amidst greater impurities and
calamities. (The instinctive sagacity of beasts, is a surer safe guard
to them, than the boasted reason of man).
61. The dog eats impure things and lives in impurity; he is content
with what it gets, feeds upon dead bodies and never hurts the living,
and yet men are fond of pelting stones on him every where; thus the dog
is made a plaything by men, contrary to the will of God.
62. Looking at the crow flying there upon the offerings, left on the
_lingam_ or phallus of Siva on yonder bank; and there appearing to
sight to tell its tale to people, saying; “Behold me on high, with all
my degrading sin” (of stealing from the altars of deities).
63. Thou croaking crow, that crowest so harshly, and treadst the marshy
lake; it is no wonder that thou wouldst vex us with thy cries, that
hast put down the sweet buzz of humming bees.
64. We see the greedy rook, devouring ravenously the dirty filth, in
preference to the sweet lotus stalk. It is no wonder that some would
prefer sour to sweet, from their long and habitual taste of it.
65. A white crow sitting in a bush, of white lotus flowers and their
snowy filaments, was taken at first for a _hansa_ or heron, but as it
began to pick up worms, it came to be known as a crow.
66. It is difficult to distinguish a crow, sitting in company with a
cuckoo, both being of the like sable plumes and feathers; unless the
one makes itself known as distinct from the other, by giving out its
own vocal sound.
67. The crow sitting on a forest tree, or on a mould of clay or high
built building, looks on all sides for its prey; as a nightly thief
mounts on a _chaitta_ tree; and sits watching there from the ways of
people.
68. It is impossible for a crow, to abide with cranes and storks by
the side of a lake, which abounds in lotus flowers, that diffuse their
sombre farina all about.
69. For shame that the noisy crow, should have a seat on the soft lotus
bed in company with silent swans, and play his disgraceful part and
tricks among them. (_i.e._ It is impudence on the part of the ignorant,
to open their mouths, where the learned hold their silence).
70. Thou crow that criest as the hardest saw, say where hast thou left
or lost thy former reservedness to-day. Why dost thou brood over the
young cuckoo, the sweetness of whose voice thou canst never attain, and
whom thou canst not retain as thy young.
71. One seeing a dark crow sitting as a black steg, in a bed of white
lotuses, and crowing aloud with delight at that place, said unto him
saying:--It is better for thee O clamorous crow to rend ears of those
with thy cracking voice, that are not tired with splitting the head of
others with their wily verbiage.
72. It is well when the cunning consort with the cunning, as the crow
and the crab meeting at a pool; or the rook and the owl joining in an
arbour; for the two rogues though seemingly familiar, will not fail to
foil one another by their natural enmity (ká ko lu kiká).
73. The cuckoo associating with the crow, and resembling him in figure
and colour; is distinguished by his sweet notes from the other; as the
learned man makes himself known by his speech in the society of the
ignorant.
74. The blossoming branch is well able to bear, the spoliation of its
flowers by the cuckoo; and will not yet suffer the association of crows
and cranes, and cocks and vultures upon its twigs. (_i.e._ It is
possible to bear with an injury from the good, but not to tolerate the
society of bad people).
75. How delightfully do people listen to the sweet notes of the
cuckoo, which unites the separated lovers together; but who can brook
to hearken unto the jarring cries of the crow or hooting of the owl,
without disgust.
76. When the sweet notes of the young _kokila_, serve to ravish the
ears of hearers, with the gladsome tidings of the vernal season; there
is the grating cry of the crow, immediately obtruding upon their ears,
and demanding the melodious cuckoo as its foster child. (It is well
known to all here, that young cuckoos are fostered in the nests of
crows).