with so much joy and glee in yonder grove; lo! thy pleasant vernal
season is too soon over with its fading flowers, and behold the stern
winter approaching fast, to blast the blossoming trees with its icy
breath, and bidding thee to hide thy head in thy nest.
78. A separated mistress seeing a sweet kokila, pour forth his notes to
the tender blossoms of the vernal season thus address to him saying:
“say, O sweet cuckoo! who taught thee to tell, that vernal season is
_tava tava tua tua_, _i.e._ “for thee and thy enjoyment,” this is
verily a woeful lie thou tellest me, instead of saying “it is mine and
mine” that art enjoying thy companion.” (It would better rendering in
English to reverse the application of the words mine and thine).
79. The cuckoo sitting silent in an assemblage of crows, appears as one
of them in its form and colour of its feathers; and the graceful gait
of the cuckoo, makes it known from the rest, as the wise man is marked
in the company of fools. It is hence that every body is respected by
his inward talents and outward deportment, more than by outer form and
feathers.
80. O brother kokila! it is in vain that thou dost coo so sweetly, when
there is none to appreciate its value; it is far better therefore, that
thou shouldst sit quiet in thy secluded covert under the shady leaves,
when these flocks of crows are so loud in their cries; and when it is
time for the falling dews, and not of vernal flowers.
81. It is to be wondered, that the young cuckoo forsakes its mother for
its fostering crow; which on her part begins to prick it with its bill
and claws. As I reflect on these, I find the young cuckoo growing in
its form to the likeness of its mother; and hence I conclude, that the
nature of a person prevails over his training every where.
CHAPTER CXVII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LOTUS-LAKE, BEE AND THE SWAN.
Argument:--Description of a Lake of lotus, and the bees and swans
frequenting them.
The companions said:--Behold there, O lord! the lotus lake on the
tableland of the mountain; reflecting the sky in its bosom, and
resembling the pleasure pond of Káma or Cupid. Behold there the beds of
white, red and blue lotuses, with their protruding stalks; and listen
to the mingled sounds of the water fowls sporting thereon.
2. Lo the full blown lotus standing on its stalk with its thousand
petals, and the royal gander or swan resting on its pericarp; it is
crowded by double streaked bees, and birds of various kinds, as if it
were the abode of the lotus-seated Brahmá himself.
3. All the sides are overspread by mists and fearful frost, and the red
dust of the farina of full blown flowers and lotuses, have been flying
all about; the bees and birds giddy with the odours spread around, are
humming and warbling their tunes and notes in the open air; and the
clouds are spreading above as an aerial canopy.
4. There is the lashing sound of the breaking waves, beating against
the shore; and here is the rumbling noise of the humming bees, vying
with one another; somewhere the silent waters are sleeping in the deep,
and elsewhere the fair lotus of the lake, are lying hid in the bushes.
5. The pearly particles of water, are lulling away the heat of the
people; wild beasts are prowling on the bank, overgrown by wild
thickets all around; the waves are laving the stones on the bank, and
the land appears as the clear sky on the earth.
6. The bosom of the lake displays the rays of lightnings, from the
redness of the clouds by the dust of flowers borne above by the winds;
and one side of it is obscured by a dark rainy cloud hanging over it,
while the other side exhibits the variegated rays of the evening skies
above it.
7. There is a fragment of the autumnal cloud, borne aloft by the
driving winds; and appearing as it were a part of the sky supported
upon the air.
8. The rippling waves of the lake by gentle breeze, and the wettish
humming bees fluttering over the bed of the lotus lake, made a noise
all around; like the falling of flowers from the branches of trees,
lying on the bank of a river.
9. The large lotus leaves are waving like fans made of palm leaves, and
the foaming froths were puffing as the snowy _chowries_ of princes; the
buzzing bees and cooing cuckoos, were singing to and lauding the lake
which lay like a lord, in the assemblage of lotuses, resembling the
consorts of his _harem_. (The lake is likened to a lord).
10. Lo the chorus of black bees, singing their charming chimes before
him; and the yellow farina of the lotus flowers, have strewn his waters
with dust of gold. The yellowish froths are floating like fragments of
its gold coloured flowers; and the flowery furzes on the bank, decorate
it as its headdress.
11. The deep fountain, having the beautiful lotuses on its bosom;
enjoys their sweet fragrance, as princes derive from the assemblage, of
talented men in their courts.
12. The pellucid lake, reflecting the clear autumnal sky on its
surface; resembles the mind of the wise man, which is ever clear and
composed, with the light of the true sástra.
13. The limpid lake is little discernible in winter, when the keen
blasts have covered it with hoar frost, and converted its blueness to
white.
14. So the world appears to the wise, a vast sheet of the glory of God;
and all these distinct forms of things, like waves of the sea are lost
at last, into the bright element of Eternity.
15. It is by one’s own exertion, that every body should try to raise
himself above the sea of error, or else he must be continually whirling
in the whirlpool of blunder, like all other ignorant men.
16. As the waters of wells, tanks, lakes and seas, differ from one
another in their quality; so the persons of men and women, are
different from each other in their respective dispositions.
17. Who can count the aquatic plants and lotuses, which grow in the
lakes as plentifully, as the passions and desires spring in the
fountain of the human heart; and which are carried away by the waves of
accidents, or hurled into the whirlpool of perdition.
18. Oh, the wonderful effect of bad company, that the lotus growing
in the company of aquatic plants, loses its fragrance in the current
waters, and shows its thorny stalks to view.
19. The good qualities of a person like those of the lotus, are lost
under the assemblage of vicious faults in the same; such as the pores,
the hollowness and the too fine and fragile fibres of the lotus stalks,
make them entirely useless to any body.
20. But the lotus which adorns its natal waters, and fills the air with
its fragrance; is as a nobleman born with the noble qualities of a
noble family, and whose virtues are impossible for the hundred hooded
serpent--Vásuki also to relate. (Such a person is called the lotus of
his family).
21. What other thing can equal the lotus in its praise, which in form
of Laxmí, rests on the bosom of Hari, and graces his hand in the manner
of a _bouquet_ or nose gay.
22. The white and blue lotuses, are both esteemed for their quality of
sweet scent, though they differ in their colour; and hence the one is
sacred to the sun and the other to the moon.
23. The blooming beauty of the lotus-bed, is not comparable to that
of the full blown flowers of the forest; nor does the lotus-lake bear
comparison with the starry heaven also; but they are to be compared
with the comely and smiling face of the dancing girl in her fete.
24. Blessed are bees, that have all along enjoyed their lives in
revelling over the sweets of flowers, without having any other thing to
care about.
25. Blest are the bees and cuckoos, that feast upon the flavour of
mango fruits, and regale themselves with the fragrance of their
flowers; all others not so blest, are born only to bear the name of the
species.
26. The bees cloyed with honey, and giddy with the flavour of lotuses,
in the lake where they revel; laughed to scorn some others of their
tribe, that led their humble lives on the common farina of flowers.
27. The black bee that buzzed to the lotus, lived and sported in its
company and slept in its honey cup at night; was in trouble at the
approach of autumn, not knowing what flower to choose for its fare, and
were to resort for its rest.
28. A black bee sitting on the unblown bud of a flower, appeared as a
black man placed over a trident by _kála_.
29. O thou insatiate bee! that ever rovest over hills and dales, and
suckest the sweets of all kinds of flowers; why wanderest thou still,
unless it were for thy restless discontent.
30. Thou soft bodied bee, that art bred up in sweets, and feedest upon
the farina of flowers; it is better for thee to resort to the lotuses
of the lake, than bruise thy body in thorns and thistles.
31. O humble bee, if thou art deprived of thy mellifluous food and
thy fair fare of the farina of flowers in stern winter; thou shouldst
yet repair as wise men do to such as may suit thy taste, and be
congenial to thy nature; rather than be mean and debase thyself, by thy
attendance upon the base and mean.
32. Look there, O lord! the assemblage of milk white swans, swimming
in the lake, and feeding upon the silvery fibres of lotus stalks, and
guggling as gravely, as the chaunters of the Sáma Veda.
33. Here the gander pursuing the geese, seated in their cradles of
lotus bushes; thinks the limpid lake as the blue sky, and the lotus
cradle as a cloud, and stops from his pursuit (for fear of falling down
on earth). (Mistake of the terrestrial lake, for the aerial mandákiní).
34. Let no body be so unfortunate, O lord, as was this gander, which
<was> in pursuit of the shadow of the goose.
35. The sweet music of the swan as it sings of its own accord, is
inimitable by the crow or crane, although they are taught to learn it
for many years in its society.
36. Although the swan and drake are both of the same kind, and of like
form and figure, and live upon the same sort of food; yet they differ
widely from one another in their respective species and qualities.
37. The swan soaring in the sky, with his snow white wings and
feathers; appears as the hoary lotus sitting upon its stalk; and then
it gladdens the minds of men, as the full-moon with her icy beams.
38. The elevated stalks of lotuses, rising as the lofty stems of
plantain trees, with the lotuses sitting as the goddess Flora upon
them, afford delight to swans only, and to no other bird.
39. Lo, how the lake is adorned like a beauteous lady, with the
waves resembling her waving bracelets, and the ripples likening her
necklaces; while the aquatic plants and flowers, represent wreaths and
garlands on her bosom.
40. The strings of fluttering bees, are as streaks of black spots on
her person; the swelling of cranes and storks are as the tinklings of
her anklets, and the rippling waves are as the glances of her eyes.
41. The lake is graced like a lady, by the young swans crying by her
side as her young ones; and looking up to the mountain as her lord, for
a fresh supply of fresh water from his profluent cascade.
42. Don’t you, O harmless swan, says one, reside with the malicious
water fowls and birds of prey, in one and the same lake; it is better
that thou dost remain with thy own kind, that may assist thee in
distress.
43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddy
with thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the heads
of elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest at
large among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fast
approaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon the
dewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones.
44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered into
the lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, begin
to cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The young
ones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver and
one sees fog over his head at mid-day.
45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of the
lake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucent
atmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds of
lotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distil
their fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner of
the holy water of Ganges.
CHAPTER CXVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF DEER, PEACOCKS, CRANES &C.
Argument:--This chapter is devoted to the description of some
beasts and birds, some fishes and a traveller.
Some companion said:--Behold the crane, which notwithstanding its
destitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of uttering
the onomatopoeia signifying the rain.
2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thou
mightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without the
rapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu).
3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidst
deep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, now
sitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves into
the water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their open
mouths and wide stretched jaws.
4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of diving
king-fishers, and cry out saying, “_madgu madguru_, this king-fisher is
our instructor in killing.”
5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sitting
silently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for a
_hansa_ or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimp from
the marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last.
6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like a
devotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey,
until the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for their
bread.
7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how these
rustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if you
like you can follow them, but I will fall back from you.
8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how that
traveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bower
of the weedy bush.
9. Look then, O lord, at the dalliance of the lady, and at her smiling
face mixed with her frowning looks; and hearken to her speech to her
associate.
10. The crane, king-fisher and other rapacious birds, that live
together in the same place, are all of the same mind and purpose; but
the fool and wise man can never agree, though they abide together in
the same society for ever.
11. As the cricket caught under the bill of wood pecker, whistles to
his face; so the retribution of our past misdeeds, flies as a flag
before us, and unfolds itself unto us (wherever we may happen to go, or
chance to be reborn).
12. As long as the cruel crane of fate, keeps clucking upon the tall
tree on the shore; so long doth the fearful shrimp (of the living
soul), keep itself concealed in the bog (of the body) with its inward
trepidation. Hence there is no rest or quiet of the body and soul,
until the ultimate _quietus_ of both.
13. The bodies of animals, which are devoured by rapacious beasts
and birds, and then disgorged unhurt and entire out of their bowels;
resemble I ween to their rising from the lap of sleep, or a state of
profound trance.
14. The fear that overtakes the fishes in their native waters, at the
sight of rapacious animals, is far greater than those of thunder claps
or thunder bolts falling upon them; and this I know from remembrance of
my past life of a fish, and cannot be denied by the wise.
15. Behold there the herd of deer before thus reposing in raptures over
the bed of flowers, under the shade of trees on the borders of the
lake; and look also at the hive of the bees about the new blown flowers
of the grove.
16. Look the high minded and lofty headed peacock craving and crying
aloud for rain water, to the great god of the clouds and rains; and
the god Indra in return pours in floods to fill the whole earth with
water; for the greatness of gods looks to the general and individual
good.
17. The peacocks like suckling babes, attend on the clouds as their wet
nurses; or it may be, that the black peacocks are the offspring of dark
clouds (that endears and unites them thus to one another).
18. Lo the wanderer looking with wonder on the eyes of the antelope,
and finding their resemblance with those of his dear one at home,
remains stupified as statue at the sight of the objects exposed to his
view.
19. The peacock instead of drinking water from the ground, snatches by
force the snake from underneath; wherefore I am at a loss to know which
of these to blame for its malice. (The peacock kills the snake, but
this one destroys all living creatures).
20. Why is it that the peacock shuns to drink in the large lake, which
is as liberal as the minds of great men; and is content to swallow the
drops of rain water, spit out and spirted by the cloud; unless it be
for shame of stooping down his head, to drink the water of the lake.
21. See the peacock dancing, with displaying his gaudy train to the
clouds; and oscillating their starry plumage in the rain, as if they
were the offspring of the rainy season.
22. The rainy dark cloud which was carried by the wind from the bed of
ocean, appeared over the forest lake and met with the gleeful dancing
peacock below.
23. It is better for thee, O chátaka! to pick up the blades of grass
for thy food, and drink the water of the fountains, and rest in the
shady plantain grove of the forest; than to dwell in the hollow cave of
a withered tree in sultry heat, by thy pride of never stooping down for
thy subsistence.
24. Think not, O peacock! this cloud to be a sea and the abode of
sharks; but know to be a watery cloud, born of the smoke of wild
fire, and of the vapours of the mountain and ascending to the sky.
(Therefore thou canst not fear to dance before it).
25. The peacock seeing the cloud that was so profuse of rain even in
autumn, becoming sometimes so scant of its supply as not even to fill a
tank (such as in times of drought), sustains its thirst with patience,
in gratitude to the past favours of the cloud; nor does it fain to
blame its former supporter for failing, nor deigns to drink any other
earthly water like the common people.
26. The peacock that was wont to drink the crystal drops of the
clouds, would not now stoop to drink the dirty water of the ditch,
though pressed and pinched by drought and thirst; because the sweet
remembrance of his past beverage, supports him from fainting, and the
expectation of fresh draughts, preserves him from dying.
27. Travellers mitigate the toils of their journey, by mutual
conversation on the way; as the ignorant that cannot commune with
themselves, communicate their thoughts with others, to beguile the
tediousness of their lives.
28. Look there, O lord! to the slender stalks of the lotuses,
supporting the burden of the water on the lotus leaves; like yon tender
damsels carrying the water pots on their heads.
29. Being asked why they were carrying those of lotus flowers and
leaves and for what use; they replied, to make cooling beds for
assuaging the fever heat of the love sick wives of travellers from
their homes.
30. These impassioned damsels, with their swollen breasts and youthful
dalliance, and the motions and gestures of their bodies, served to
excite the remembrance of the separated brides, whom the travellers had
left behind at their far distant abodes.
31. Ah surely, says a traveller, that dear one of mine, must now be
weeping and wailing, or falling down and rolling on the ground, at the
sight of yonder dark cloud in the sky in my absence.
32. Lo there the lines of black bees, fluttering on the cups of
lotuses, and the little bees giddy with the dulcet liquor of flowers;
the gentle breezes are blowing on all sides, and wafting the fragrance
of the opening blossoms; while the leaves of trees are dancing to the
tunes of the rustling winds.
CHAPTER CXIX.
LAMENTATION OF THE LOVELORN TRAVELLER.
Argument:--The lovesick traveller, relating the woes of his
separation to his beloved one.
The companions continued:--The traveller having returned home, and
finding his beloved one by the arbour of _mandara_ trees, began to
relate to her the pangs of his protracted separation.
2. Listen to my marvellous tale, said he, and what happened to me one
day, when I sought to send some one to thee with my tidings.
3. I sought long but sought in vain, at the time of my painful
separation, to send one to thee at this house of mine; but where such
a one be found in the world, who would take a severe interest in the
affliction of another, for the sake of charity or mere friendship?
4. Lo, I came to behold even then and there, a big cloud on the top of
a mount, resembling the steed of cupid, that appeared jocundly before
me, accompanied by the swift lightening as his precursor.
5. I advanced before him and addressed unto him, saying: ah brother
cloud, thou bearest the rainbow of Indra, as a collar about thy neck,
and are graceful in thy course, have pity on me for a moment. Please go
to my dear one and tell her my tidings, with thy low voice, sympathetic
tears and breath of sighs; because the tender form of the pliant
creeper, will not be able to bear thy loud uproar.
6. I know not, O dark cloud! to what abode to direct thee to find my
beloved one, who is pictured in the plate of my heart by the pencil of
my mind, and is forever situated in my bosom.
7. But now, O my friendly cloud! my distracted mind has lost that
figure of my beloved in my breast, together with the sight of her
person from my eyes; and now having lost the freedom of my body in a
foreign country, I have become but a wooden framework without my love,
which is its living soul: for what living body can bear the pangs of
separation.
8. People then thought me dead, and with tears in their eyes, began to
prepare my obsequies and collect wood for my funeral.
9. I was borne away to be burnt on a dreadful funeral pile, which was
horribly crackling with the cracking wood, of the blazing fire on the
burning ground.
10. There, O my lotus eyed love, I was laid on the pile by some persons
with their weeping eyes; and the pyre was surrounded by a number of
men, who stood as spectators of the horrible sight.
11. At that time the curling smoke of the pyre, began to enter into my
nostrils like the creepers or stalks of lotus plants; and as when the
dark and lengthy body of the curvilinear snake, enters into a hole in
the ground.
12. But <in> all this, I was defended by the strong armour of my firm
love to thee; as the unborn or selfborn son of god Brahmá, was defended
from the showers of darts, of the whole host of demons and thinking
myself to be plunged in the cooling pool of thy love within my heart; I
was untouched by the flames of fire burning all about me.
13. All this time I lay in the ecstacy of my love to thee, and I felt
raptures of joy rise in my breast, from my fancied association with
thee. I deemed myself as drowned in an ambrosial lake, while I was in
that state of rapture, and thought sovereignty of the whole world, too
insignificant before my ecstatic transport.
14. Methought I felt raptures of inexpressible delight fill my whole
soul, at the thought of all thy blandishments and graces, and in the
allurements of thy speech, sweet smiles and sidelong glances, and all
the gestures and motions of thy person, that spread an ambrosial charm
all around me.
15. Methought we clasped in mutual embraces, and together in amorous
folds; till exhausted with surfeit, I lay upon the cool soft bed, as
if I was drowned in the cold and icy ocean of the lunar disc.
16. At this moment as I lay long in my bed, bedewed with cool sandal
paste, and the cooling beams of the full-moon; I heard a thundering
noise accompanied with flames of fire, rising from the burning pile of
woods under me, as it was the submarine fire, proceeding from the milky
ocean wherein I was lying.
17. The companions resumed:--When the husband had said so far, his
listening spouse cried out aloud; saying “Ah me! I am dead, I am gone,”
and for fear of hearing the sad consequence, fell into a swoon and
became senseless.
18. The husband finding her fainting, began to wave over her <a> fan of
lotus leaves, besprinkled with water; and taking her up to his bosom,
tried to restore her to her senses.
19. Being then desired by her to finish his tale, he began to relate
the remainder by holding her chin with his hand.
20. As I felt the pain of the burning flame touching my body, I cried
out and groaned in affliction; the spectators hastened to extinguish
the blazing pile, and felt delighted to find me alive.
21. The attendants then with loud shouts of joy, like the sound of
drums &c. and with garlands of flowers, raised and embraced me to their
bosoms; and went on shouting and singing and dancing and laughing with
exultation.
22. I then saw the funeral ground resembling the formidable body of
Bhairava--the god of destruction. It was equally covered with ashes,
wreathed with snakes and studded with human skulls: and the scattered
bones that were strewn over the ground, seemed as the beams of the moon
crowning the head of Siva.
23. Here hot winds were blowing from the funeral piles, as from the
burning fire on Hara’s head; and bearing the burnt ashes of the dead
bodies, as a dark mist all around; they bore stink of the rotten bones
to the air, and carried about the rustling noise of the bones jostling
against one another.
24. The burning piles and their flashing flames and flying sparks, and
the fiery winds scorching the trees and herbage; give this place the
appearance of the play ground, of the gods of wind and fire, and of the
sons of sun--Yama and Saturn.
25. Thus I saw the funeral ground full of terrors, and covered with
skeletons of half-burnt bodies and putrid carcasses also; it is
infested by hungry dogs and howling jackals, and other voracious
beasts, and the ravenous ravens and vultures. It is a place where the
Vetála--demons and Pisácha--hobgoblins, revel with fearful shrieks and
jarring sounds.
26. I beheld there the biers of dead bodies, borne by their mourning
friends, with loud cries and lamentations that filled the air all
about. I saw the beasts and birds, that tore their entrails and
arteries, yet moist with blood, and I saw the ground strewn over with
half burnt logs of wood and bushes.
27. In some places the glaring pyres, gave a gloomy light, and in
others the tufts of hair, were heaped as spots of clouds; somewhere
the ground was besmeared with blood, and looked like a lurid sheet of
cloth; and elsewhere the clouds were roaring, as the setting sun went
down the western hill (or horizon).
CHAPTER CXX.
DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS OBJECTS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--Prolusion on the winds and the forest trees and wild
bees; then on celestial nymphs, birds &c.
The companions continued:--Thus the loving pair after taking to one
another in the aforesaid manner; began to sip their delicious wine. And
now attend, O lotus eyed lord to the other things of things of this
place.
2. Lo, there the winds, shaking the plantain leaves and clusters of
their flowers, and blowing to all sides, with the dust of various sorts
of flowers, with which they have adorned themselves.
3. There the breezes are blowing, loaded with odours exhaled by the
flowers of the forest; and there the gentle zephyrs are wafting the
perfumes, which they have stolen from the locks of their favourite
fairies.
4. Here are the blasts blowing from the salt sea on the south; and
driving as fastly as the stern lion rushes into the fastness of woods
and mountain caves; and as forcibly, as the fierce giants attacked the
gods on the top of Mount Meru.
5. Again there is the high wind playing and shaking with the high
_tamála_, tála and other palma trees; while the gentle gales, are
softly gliding over the waves, and wafting their moisture to the tender
plants below.
6. There the soft breezes are wheezing, with the dust thrown out by the
flowers; while gentle zephyrs are moving about as princes amidst the
bowers and flower gardens.
7. There the god Aeolus plays his sweet sylvan pipe, in the holes of
the hollow bamboo; in the manner of the female sweet musicians, tuning
their reeds in the city of Pándu or Hastinápura. (Here is a palpable
anachronism with regard to the anterior of prince Pándu).
8. Here every plant is fraught with bees, except the _karnikara_
flower; which is avoided by them, on account of its disregard of the
god of air, by withholding to pay him the tribute odour and farina.
9. The _tála_ or palm tree, that rises as high as a column but yields
no fruit nor flower to the hungry passenger, owing to its inaccessible
height, is as disgraceful in itself as the uncharitable rich man.
10. Ignorant and unworthy people, build their pride on outward show,
as the _kinsuka_ flower displays the beauty of its colour to view, in
absence of its fragrance.
11. Look at the _Karnikara_ flower, blooming only to decay; because its
want of fragrance makes it as worthless and despicable, as unworthy and
ignorant men are disregarded by all.
12. So the _tamála_ tree with its blushing blossoms, beguile the
thirsty _chátaka_ by its false appearance of a rainy cloud, so the fair
outside of the foul, deceives the unwise by his inward foulness.
13. Look at these robust, woody, shady and cloud-capt hills, which
afford shade and shelter to others; and are possessed of many more
qualities, befitting the kings of men; are standing in the manner of
lofty bamboos (having all these qualities in them).
14. Look at yonder cloud on the mountain top, resting as it were upon
the seat of its table land of bright gold, and twirling its yellow
mantle of lightnings; appearing as the god Hari clad in his vest of
aureate yellow.
15. Look on the blooming _kinsuka_ flower, with the flutter-bees and
birds about them appearing as a fighting warrior, pierced by flying
arrows, and besmeared with crimson blood.
16. Lo the golden _mandára_ flowers, touching the amber-coloured clouds
of heaven; appearing as the giddy Gandharva lads, lying on the top of
the Mahendra mountain.
17. Behold the weary wayfarers, laying and lulling themselves to rest,
under the shade of the Kalpa trees in the garden of paradise; while
the siddhas and Vidyádharas are sitting there at ease, and singing
their songs to the tune of their stringed instruments.
18. Behold also the celestial nymphs, stretched there at ease,
tittering and singing in the groves-bowers of the Kalpa arbour of Eden.
19. There is the silent abode of the great sage Mandapala, famed in the
legends; and the cave of the celebrated vulture said to be his wife.
20. See there the line of hermitages of the ancient sages; where the
envious animals forget their mutual animosities, and <live> together in
perfect concord and amity.
21. There are the coral plants, growing with other shrubs and bushes,
by the side of the sea coast; and the drops of water trickling upon
them, glisten as gems by the solar rays.
22. The waves are rolling with precious gems, on the bosom of the
ocean; like playful damsels rocking on with their ornaments on the
breasts of their lovers.
23. Here the jingling noise of the jewelleries of the celestial nymphs,
sauntering from the celestial regions, to the infernal abodes of the
serpents through the midway skies.
24. Here those hollow mountain caves, whistling with a sound resembling
the buzzing of wild bees, falling down giddy with drinking the ichor
exuding from the forehead of elephants.
25. Lo the sea ebbing with the waning moon during the dark fortnight
of the month; and the receding tides describing and leaving the linear
marks of their regression upon the sands on the shore.
26. Lo the woodland decorated as a beauty, with clusters of flowers
hanging as wreaths and garlands on every side; breathing fragrance all
about, and attired in the robe of its cooling shade.
27. The variegated foliage from its party-coloured dress, and the
waterfalls seem as its sweet smiles; and the flowers strewn about,
appear as the flowery bed of the happy woodland dame. (The word _vana_
means the _vana-devi_ or woodland goddess, corresponding with a dryad,
sylva or Flora).
28. Here the high-minded sages and hermits, are as highly delighted
with their quiet sylvan retreats; as the celestials are joyous in
gardens of Eden. (Eden and Udyána are both the same).
29. The placid and indifferent minds of sages, are equally delighted
with these solitary woodlands, as the restless and impatient minds of
lovers and worldly people.
30. The waters of the sea, whether running into the land, or washing
the foot of the rock on the sea-shore; are equally shining and sounding
as their tinkling ornaments or anklets (nupurs).
31. The _punnága_ flowers blooming on mountains, appear as golden mines
upon them; and the goldfinch birds flying over them, look like winged
angels in the aerial course.
32. The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with their
full blown _champaka_ flowers blazing as fire, and the bees and clouds
hovering over them as smoke; while the current winds are spreading
above their dust and petals like the sparks of fire.
33. Lo the _kokila_ swinging and singing, on his seat of the topmost
stalk of a _karavira_ tree; when his mate comes and embraces him there,
and sings responsive to his songs with her clamorous chattering. (It is
a sarcasm on pettish wives, that often interrupt the silent musings of
their consorts with their tastelessness).
34. See the salt waters of the briny ocean, roaring aloud against
shore; but the coast-lands are kept in subjection under the hands of
their able masters. (The rule of kings stretched to the seashore).
35. O lord! deign to make this earth (_i.e._ the continent of
Jambudwípa or Asia), stretching to the four seas on the four sides, as
thy footstool; and establish thy rule over the remaining potentates,
that escaped the brunt of thy valour; appoint rulers over all the
provinces on all sides; and provide them with proper force and arms,
which are necessary to keep them in order; and continue to govern thy
realms with mercy and moderation.
CHAPTER CXXI.
EXPOSITION OF THE STORY OF VIPASCHIT.
Argument:--Boundaries of Vipaschit’s Realms. His adoration of
fire and attempt to proceed further.
Vasishtha related:--Then the king Vipaschit and his companions, sat
on the coast of the sea, and did whatever was requisite for the
establishment of his sovereignty.
2. They then chose spots for their abodes at that place, and made
houses for themselves according to their positions; they settled the
boundaries of the provinces, and set guards for their defence.
3. At last they went down into the ocean, and then proceeded to the
other side of the world; in order to show his glory; like that of
Vipaschit, to other parts of the world.
4. Then came on the dark night, in the form of an all overshading
cloud; and the people all sank into the lap of sleep, after finishing
their daily works and rituals.
5. They were amazed to think in themselves, how insensibly they were
led to so great a distance in so short a space of time, and to meet the
ocean like currents of rivers falling into it.
6. They said: “It is a wonder that we have come so far, without
any attempt on our part; and therefore this great velocity must be
attributed, to the swiftness of the vehicles of the great god Agni (or
Electricity itself)”.
7. Lord! say they, how extensive is the view that lies before our
sight; stretching from one end of the Jambudwípa to its other extremity
of the vast salt ocean, and thence again to the islands in it, and
other lands and seas beyond them.
8. There are islands and seas beyond these, and others again beyond
them; how many such and many more, may there be of this kind, and how
inscrutable is the delusion which is thus spread before our minds.
(_i.e._ All these are but our mental delusions).
9. Let us therefore pray the god of fire (electricity), that we may
see at once every thing on all sides by his favour, and with<out> any
exertion of or pain on our sides.
10. So saying and thinking in this manner, they all reflected on
the god with one accord, and meditated on him, as they sat in their
respective places.
11. The god appeared to them, and stood manifest before their sight in
his tangible form, and spoke to them saying:--“Ask ye my sons, what
favor you desire of me.”
12. They said: O lord of gods, that abidest beyond this visible and
elemental world, ordain, that by means of the vedic mantra and our
purified minds, we may know the knowables in our minds.
13. Give us, O God, this great and best boon, that we ask of thee; that
we may know by thy light, whatever is knowable by either the external
senses; mind or by our self-consciousness. (_i.e._ By the three means
of knowledge).
14. Enable us to see with our eyes O lord! the paths, which lead the
siddhas and yogis to the sight of the invisibles; and make us also to
perceive in our minds the things, that <are> imperceptible to them.
15. Let not death overtake us, till we have reached to the ways of the
siddhas; and let thy grace guide us in the paths, where no embodied
being can pass (_i.e._ in our journey to the next world, when we have
shuffled our mortal coil).
16. Vasishtha said:--“So be it”, said the igneous god, and instantly
disappeared from their sight; as the submarine fire bursts forth, and
vanishes at once in the sea.
17. As the fiery god disappeared, there appeared the dark night after
him; and as the night also fled after a while, the sunshine returned
with the reviving wishes of the king and his men, to survey the wide
ocean lying before them.
CHAPTER CXXII.
THE KING’S SURVEY OF THE SEA, AND HIS LOCOMOTION ON IT.
Argument:--The king walks on foot on the sea, his chase of sharks
and other marine animals.
Vasishtha related:--Rising then in the morning, they regulated the
affairs of the state according to the rules prescribed by law; and were
eager to see the sea, as if they were impelled by some preternatural
force, which nothing less than the power of ministerial officers could
restrain.
2. But they were so exasperated by their mad ambition, that they forgot
their affection for their families, and forsook them all weeping before
them, for undertaking their perilous sea voyage.
3. They said, “we will see what there is on the other side of the sea,
and then return instantly to this place.” Saying so they muttered the
invocatory mantras of the Fire god, who inspired them with the power of
walking on foot and dryshod over the sea.
4. All the representatives of the king, being followed by their
companions on all sides, proceeded to the borders of the several seas,
and then walked on their feet over to watery maze.
5. They walked on foot upon the waters, as if they were walking upon
the surface of the ground, and all the four bodies of the quadruple
king, now met together in one place, and immediately afterwards they
separated apart with all their forces.
6. Marching on foot over the vast expanse, they surveyed all that was
in and upon the sea; and disappeared altogether from the sight of the
people on the shore, as a spot of cloud, vanishes from view in autumn.
7. The forces travelled on foot all over the watery path of the ocean,
with as much fortitude; as the elephants of the king, traverse with
patience on land, when they are bound to a distant journey.
8. They mounted high and went down, along with the rising and lowering
waves; as when men climb upon and descend from steep mountains, and as
one rides and goes galloping on horseback, or in the manner of Hari
floating upon the billowy ocean, or in his act of churning the sea.
9. They paced over the whirlpools, as the straws float upon waters; and
they promenaded as gracefully amidst the encompassing waves, as the
beauteous moon passes through the surrounding clouds.
10. The brave soldiers that were so well armed with weapons in their
hands, and so well protected by the power of their _mantras_ and
amulets; that they were as often disgorged from bowels of the sharks,
as they came to be devoured by them: (because they could neither
masticate nor digest them).
11. Pushed onward by the waves, and driven forward by the winds, their
bodies were carried to the distance of many a league in a moment.
12. The huge surges which lifted them to great heights, represented
the enormous elephants, on which they used to mount, and ride about in
their native land.
13. The vast expanse of water appears as the void space of the sky;
and the succession of heaving waves in it, represents the folds of
gathering clouds in heaven, and as they were dashing against one
another, they emitted the flash of lightnings anon.
14. The loose and loud surges of the sea, resembled the loosened
elephants in the battle field; and though they dashed against the shore
with all their force; yet they were unable to break them down, as the
elephants are baffled in their attempt to break down a stone built
rampart.
15. The waving waves reflecting the rays of the brilliant pearls and
gems, which they bore with them from shore to shore; resemble the
eminent men, who though they pass alone from place to place, appear
yet to be accompanied by their train and glory every where.
16. The surf tramples over the mass of hoary froth with contempt, as
the snowy white swan treads upon the bed of whitish lotuses in disdain.
(The surf and the swan, being whiter far than the froth and the lotus).
17. The sounding main, which was as loud as the roaring clouds, and the
re-billowing billows, which were louder than they, bore no terror to
them that stood as rocks thereon.
18. The cloud-kissing waves of the ocean, now rising above the
mountains, and now falling low at their feet, were likely to touch the
solar orb, and then sink into the infernal.
19. They were not afraid of the rising or falling waters; but passed
over the sea as upon sheet of cloth; and shrouded by the drizzling
clouds, which formed a canopy over them.
20. Thus the companions of the king crossed the ocean, which was full
of sharks and alligators, and tremendous eddies; they were sprinkled by
water like showers of flowers, and adorned with marine gems and pearls;
and they crossed over on foot, as others do in navies.
CHAPTER CXXIII.
THE KING’S EXCURSIONS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--The King and his train, pass over the islands and
proceed towards the west.
Vasishtha related:--Thus they proceeded onward, to explore into the
visible phenomena, exposed before them by Ignorance (avidyá or external
nature); and continued to walk on foot, over the watery maze and the
islands it contained.
2. They passed over the ocean to some island, and then from that island
to the sea again; and in this manner they traversed on foot, over many
a mountain and wilderness in interminable succession.
3. Then as the king was proceeding towards the western main, he was
seized and devoured by a voracious fish, which was as the undying breed
of Vishnu’s fish, and as fleet as a boat in the stream of Bitasta
Beyah. (Vishnu’s fish was the deathless incarnation of himself).
4. The fish fled with him in his belly to the milky ocean; but finding
him too hard for his digestion, he bore him in his bowels to a great
distance in another direction.
5. He was then borne to the saccharine ocean on the south, and was
there cast out in the island of Yakshas; where he was overpowered to
the love of a female fiend by her art of enchantment, (or) where he was
enchanted into the amour of a female Yakshí, by her skill in sorcery.
(The yakshas are the present yakhas of Ceylon, or Egypt, and are said
to be equally adept in the art of máyá or magic).
6. He then went towards the east, and passing by the Ganges, he killed
a shark that had pursued him, and arrived at last at the district of
Kánya Kubja the modern Cawnpore.
7. Then proceeding towards the north, he came to the country, of
Uttara-kurus, where he was edified by his adoration of Siva, and
became exempted from the fear of death, in all his wanderings on all
sides of the earth.
8. In this way, travelling long and afar, both by land and sea; he
was often attacked by wild elephants on the boundary mountains, and
repeatedly gorged and disgorged by sharks and alligators in the seas.
9. Then proceeding towards the west, he was picked up by an eagle and
set upon his back; and the bird took to his golden pinions, and bore
him in an instant to the Kusa-dwípa across the ocean.
10. Thence he passed to the Krauncha-dwípa on the east; where he was
seized and devoured by a Rákshasa of the mountain, but whom he killed
afterwards by ripping up his belly and its entrails.
11. Roving then in the south, he was denounced to become a yaksha by
curse of Daksha the king of that part: until he was released from that
state by the king of the Saca-dwípa after some years.
12. He then passed over the great and smaller seas lying in the north,
and after passing over the great frigid ocean, he arrived at the
country of gold, where he was changed to a stone by the siddhas of that
place.
13. In this state he remained a whole century, till by the grace of
his god Agni--ignis, he was released from the curse of the siddha, who
received him again into his favour.
14. Then travelling to the east, he became king of the country of
cocoanuts; and after reigning there for full five years, he was
restored to the remembrance of his former state.
15. Then passing to the north of the Meru Mountain, he dwelt among the
Apsaras, in the groves of kalpa trees for ten years, and subsisted on
the bread fruits of cocoanuts.
16. Going afterwards to the Salmali-dwípa in the west, which abounds
in trees of the same name, he dwelt in the society of birds for many
years, having been previously instructed in their language, when he had
been carried away by Garuda.
17. Thence journeying in his westerly course, he reached to the
Mandara Mountain which abounded in verdure and _madára_ forests; and
here he sojourned for a day in company with Mandarí--a Kinnera female.
18. He then journeyed to the Nandana garden of the gods, which abounded
in kalpa trees rising as high as the waves of the milky ocean; and he
remained in the company of the woodland gods for a septenary, sporting
with the Apsara damsels in their amorous dalliance.
CHAPTER CXXIV.
QUADRIPARTITE STATE OF THE KING VIPASCHIT.
Argument.--The actions of the Individual prince, appertaining to
his quaternary forms.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, whether the different states and acts of the
prince, relate particularly to any one part of his quadripartite body,
or generally or severally to all and each part of himself; because it
is equally impossible that all and every part should act the same part,
as that the several parts of the same person, could act differently
from the other. (It is unnecessary to be multipartite to act alike, as
well as impossible for the same personality to act differently in its
many persons or parts or forms, which are all one and the same being).
2. Vasishtha replied:--Any person that is conscious of his self
identity, and its invariability and indivisibility, may yet think
himself as another person and doing different things, as a man does in
his dream.
3. Again it is the clearness of the soul, that shows the abstract
images of things in itself, as it did in that of Vipaschit or the wise
prince; and as a mirror reflects the discrete figures of objects, and
of the sky and sea, in its clear and empty bosom.
4. As reflectors made of the same metal, reflect one another in
themselves; so all things which are in reality but of an intellectual
or ideal nature, reflect themselves in the intellect. (The mind is the
repository of the ideal forms of things, and it is mental fallacy only
which makes them appear as real ones. This is the idealistic theory of
Berkeley).
5. Hence whatever object presents itself, to any one of the senses
of any body, is no other than the concretion or density of his
intellectual idea of the same in its nature. (Hence the sensibles are
but solidified ideas, and ectypes of the ideal; and not as causes or
prototypes of our eternal ideas).
6. It is the one and self same thing <that> appears as many, and the
varied ones are but the invariable one in reality; there is no positive
variety nor uniformity either in _esse_, because all apparent variety
is positive unity (_i.e._ all is one, and the one in all).
7. Hence whatever part of the prince, was conscious of anything,
which presented itself before him of any time; the same is said to be
the state of his being during that time. (_i.e._ Whatever a man is
conscious of doing or suffering at any time, the same forms the state
or mode of living for the time being).
8. And as it is possible to a yogi, who sits secluded in one place;
to see all present, past and future events at one view before him; so
it is possible for a prince, sitting retired in his palace, to manage
all affairs of his whole domain; and much more for the king Vipaschit,
who delegated his viceroys, as members of his body to all parts. (This
passage explains the quadripartite kings, to mean himself and his three
viceroys on three sides).
9. So doth a cloud stretch itself to all the quarters of the sky, and
perform at once the several functions of quenching the parched earth
with its water, and of growing the vegetables and fructifying the
trees. So also doth a man boast of his manifold acts at the same time.
10. So also are the simultaneous acts of the lord God, and those of the
lords of men and yogis; who design and perform at the same time, the
multifarious acts relating to the creation, preservation and management
of the world.
11. So doth the one and selfsame Vishnu, with his four arms and as many
forms, act many parts and separably also, as the preservation of the
world on the one hand, and the enjoyment of his fair consorts on the
other.
12. Again though the two hands of a person, are enough to discharge the
ordinary affairs of life; yet it is requisite to have many arms, in
order to wield many weapons in warfare.
13. It was in the same manner, that the self same monarch was situated
with his fourfold persons, in all the four sides of the earth; where
though they were impressed with the consciousness of their self
identity, yet they all acted their several parts as quite distinct and
apart from others.
14. They were all alike conscious of the pains and pleasures attending
on their lying down on naked grounds, their passing to distant islands
and their travelling to different forests and groves, and desert lands
also.
15. They all remembered their journeys over hills and mountains, as
well as their voyages by water and air; they knew how they floated on
the seas, and rested on clouds.
16. They knew how they mounted upon waves of seas, and rode on the back
of flying wind; and how they lay on the shores of seas, and at the foot
of mountains.
17. Again the prince proceeding to Scythea, or the land of _sacas_ on
the east; passed into the enchanted city of the yakshas, lying at the
foot of the Eastern mountain or Udaya-giri; where being spellbound by
their sorcery, he lay asleep for full seven years in the wood of the
leafless mansá sijá trees.
18. Rising afterwards from his drowsiness, he was converted to the
torpid state of a stone by his drinking some mineral water, and was
condemned to remain for seven years more with the mineral substances of
the earth.
19. He was then confined in a cave of the western mountain--Astáchala,
which reaches to the region of the clouds and is shrouded by darkness;
and he became enamoured of the company, of Pisácha and Apsara females.
20. He then arrived at a region which was free from fear, and where
there rose a high mountain with water-falls in all sides of it; here
the prince was lost in the forest of _haritaki_ or chebula--myrobalans,
and become invisible for years.
21. The prince that had erewhile been spellbound by the yaksha,
travelled afterwards to the frigid climate; and there being transformed
to a lion, he roved about the Raivata hills for ten days and nights.
22. And then being deluded by the black art of Pisáchas, he was changed
to the form of a frog, and lived in that state in the caves of the
golden mountain for a decad of years.
23. Travelling afterwards to the country of Kumárika (Cape Comorin),
he dwelt at the bottom of the northern ridge of the Black mountain.
Then going to the _saca_ country, he was transformed to a hog, and
lived in a dark hole for a hundred years in that shape.
24. He lived for fourteen years as a squint-eyed, in the land of
_marivaca_; when the western form of the prince was turned to a
Vidyádhara, by virtue of his skill in learning various lore.
25. There he enjoyed sexual intercourse at his full satisfaction under
the scented bower of _alá_, and passed his time in amusement.
CHAPTER CXXV.
ON THE LIVING LIBERATION OF THE PRINCE.
Argument:--Mutual assistance of the four persons of the prince to
one another, and their true meaning.
Vasishtha continued:--Now of the quadripartite bodies of the prince,
that which was transformed to a tree, in the valley called the vale of
fearlessness in _sacadwípa_: supported itself by sucking the better
water of the rock which it drew by its roots.
2. It was then that the western part of the royal person, came up to
the relief of the former or eastern part, and released it from the
curse of its vegetable state of full seventy years, by the power of its
incantations.
3. Again the western person of the king, passing to the frigid clime,
was there transformed to a stone by curse of the chief of the Pisácha
tribe; but was released afterwards from that state by <a> southern
personage, by his offering of meat food to the carnivorous Pisácha.
4. At another time as this western personage, was settled beyond the
western horizon, it was changed to the form of a bull by a female
fiend, that had assumed on her the form of a cow, and was freed at last
from that state by the southern person.
5. Again the southern figure of the prince, was doomed to live as a
demon on a mountain tree in the Kshemaka, and was liberated at last
from it by the yaksha prince.
6. Then again, the eastern person of the prince, was metamorphosed to
the shape of a lion, on a mountain in the province of Vrishaka, and was
delivered for its metamorphoses by the western personality.
7. Ráma rejoined:--How is it sir, that the single individuality of
the prince, which was confined in one spot as that of a yogi; could
be ubiquious at one and the same time, could perform the various
acts of different times and places at once, by the all comprehensive
universality of the mind.
8. Vasishtha replied:--O Ráma! Let the unenlightened think whatever
they may, respecting this world (_i.e._ let them take its unreality for
positive reality); but do you attend to what I say, regarding the light
in which it is viewed by the enlightened yogis (who view it in its
spiritual light, and conduct all their operations in the mind only).
9. According to spiritualists, there is no other essence, except one
universal Intellect; the phenomenal are an utter inexistence, and the
creation or increate entity of the world, blends into nothing. (The
intellect is a formless and all-pervading essence, and acts in many
ways in all places).
10. This universal Intellect is the eternal residence of and one with
the eternal and universal soul; and it is this that constitutes the
essentiality and universality of the Supreme soul at all times.
11. Say, who can obstruct any where or by any force the course of the
great mind, which is ubiquious and all comprehensive, and exhibits
itself in various forms in the endless varieties of its thoughts.
(Hence there is nothing in reality, except they be but representations
of the inward thoughts of the mind; or manifestations of the
omnipresent One in various shapes).
12. What is it to us and what can we call to be ours, when all these
sights are exhibited in the supreme soul or Intellect in all places and
times; and all that is present, past and future, are comprised <in>
that all-comprehending mind.
13. So that the far and near, a moment and an age, are the same to it,
which is never altered in its nature (so says the sruti:--It is both
near and afar, the past and the present &c.).
14. All things are situated in the soul, and yet look at the act of
Ignorance, that they appear to be placed without it, as we behold them
with our naked eyes (as phantasms of the hidden soul).
15. The soul is the substantial omniscience of vacuous form, and
exhibits the three worlds in its vacuity, without changing its
vacuousness (but shows like the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria of
these in itself).
16. The universal soul appears in the universe, as both its viewer and
the view in itself, or as the subjective and objective in its self-same
nature; but how is it possible for the inherent soul of the apparent
world, to admit of a visible form in any way, unless it be by the
delusion of our understanding to think it so.
17. But tell me thou sage that knowest the truth, what thing is
impossible to the active agency of the selfsame Deity, to whom all
things are alike possible at all times and places; and so also to the
wise king Vipaschit, who was alike conscious of his self identity in
all his quadruple forms. (The Lord that spreads unspent, and acts alike
in all. Pope).
18. The enlightened Intellect of the yogi, that has not yet arrived at
its transcendent state of unity with the Deity; and retains the sense
of its individuality; can yet readily unite itself with the souls of
others in all places.
19. There is nothing impossible to the supreme soul; but the half
enlightened soul, that lingers between its knowledge and ignorance, and
has not attained to transcendent wisdom, is confounded in its intellect
regarding the true knowledge of things.
20. The soul that is some what advanced in its knowledge, is said to
have partly progressed towards its perfection (siddhi); hence the four
parts of Vipaschit situated on the four sides, made up a perfect whole.
(The whole number in common calculation, is usually divided into and
made up of four quarters).
21. These four parts were as so many states or degrees of perfection,
which lighted on Vipaschit like the rays of heavenly light; and these
states mutually helped and healed each other, as the members of the
body assist and supply to the defects of one another.
22. Ráma said:--Tell me, O venerable Bráhman, why the quadruple king
Vipaschit, ran on all sides like brutes, if he was so enlightened in
every part, and why he did not sit collected in himself as he was.
23. Vasishtha replied:--What I have related to you regarding
enlightenment, applies only to the case of yogis, who though they
are combined of many parts in their minds, do yet remain sedate in
themselves in the same state.
24. But the Vipaschitas were not so wholly enlightened as the holy
yogis, but being partly enlightened, they remained in the midmost state
between the two, as if hanging betwixt both state of enlightenment and
ignorance at the same time.
25. They bore upon them the marks of both at once, namely of the one by
their discretion and discernment, and of the other by the passions and
affections of their minds, that led them to the two different ways of
liberation as well as of bondage.
26. Those who are ever vigilant in the discharge of their pious acts,
and are wavering between their temporal and eternal concerns, as the
Vipaschitas continued in their course of action, such persons cannot be
perfect and esoteric yogis in this life.
27. The devotees that are devoted to their devotion of a particular
deity as the Vipaschitas were of the god of fire, are styled as the
dháraná yogis; and not transcendent or _param_ yogis, unless they
attain to transcendental knowledge (or jnána yoga, which removes the
_avidyá_--ignorance).
28. The learned yogi does not see any mist of ignorance, to obstruct
his sight of the lights of truth; but the ignorant devotee is blind to
truth, though he may be received into the favour of his favorite deity.
29. The Vipaschitas were all of them subject to ignorance, and they
rejected the knowledge of the true soul, by their attachment to gross
material bodies, which are at best but vain unrealities. Listen
therefore to what I will now relate, regarding those that are liberated
from their grossness even in their lifetime.
30. The yogis retain of course their knowledge of the concrete, in
their conduct of the external affairs of life; but liberation is the
virtue of the mind, consisting in its freedom from subjection to gross
materials, and subsisting in the mind only, and not in the body or its
sensibility.
31. But as the bodily properties are inseparably connected with the
body, and its sensibility can in no way be separated from it; the
liberated soul is therefore <in> no way attached to it, nor doth the
yogi ever take any heed of it in his mind (his thoughts being solely
fixed in the solity of the soul).
32. The mind of the liberated yogi, is never reunited with his body,
any more than pollen is ever rejoined with its parent stalk; although
the bodily properties of the living liberated yogi, ever remain the
same as those of worldly persons. (Freedom consists in the minds and
soul, and not in the bonded body).
33. The bodies of both are of course equally perceptible by all, but
not the minds which are hidden in them; the liberated soul cannot be
seen by others; but the incarcerate spirit is known to every body, by
its addictedness to the discharge of its bounded duties.
34. Self-liberation is as well perceptible to oneself, as his
perception of the sweetness of honey and the taste of other things, are
well known to himself; and one is well acquainted with his liberation
and bondage, from his consciousness of pleasure and pain from the one
or other.
35. It is thus by one’s inward perception of his liberation, that he is
called the liberate; and it is also the inward coolness of his soul, as
well as the indifference of his mind, that constitute his liberation
even in his life time.
36. Neither the bondage, or liberation of the soul, nor the pleasure or
painfulness of one’s mind can be any how known to another; whether you
divide the body into pieces or place it upon a royal throne. (Though
the features of the face, are said to be indicators of the inward mind).
37. Whether laughing or crying, the liberated soul feels no pleasure or
pain therein; because it is situated in both states in the unalterable
spirit of God.
38. The minds of liberated persons, are settled in the divine spirit
and no where else, even when they are in the act of receiving or doing
any thing with their bodies: But the learned men of the different
schools, are seen to be quite otherwise from their unacquaintance with
liberation (and being moved by the circumstances of life).
39. The bodies of liberated persons, are not affected by external
events, and though such a one may appear to be weeping, yet he never
weeps in grief; nor does he die, with the death of his mortal body.
40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smile
though he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry at any
thing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger. (_i.e._ His
feelings are never lasting).
41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any he
sees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as ideal
unto him.
42. Every thing is as _nil_ to the liberate, as flowers growing in the
garden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existence unto
him, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being all and
all being one; all others are lost in the only One).
43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who are
indifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, by
their liberation from all sensations in their life time.
44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; as
the mouths of Brahmá, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)
45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahmá, as a bud of lotus,
with the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grew
another head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogi
remains unresentful at any harm done to him.
46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inner
or intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hence
the possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, who
sees everything within himself.
47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retribution
of his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), does
not betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva also to the sweet
embraces of Gaurí, as well as to his melancholy contemplation for
ever; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in his
ample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to his
nakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).
48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, though
they are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quite
dispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles of
their bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level with
the dust in their silent graves).
49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything,
nor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with any
person, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.
50. What avails one’s passionateness or dispassionateness in this
world; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.
51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease from
his work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands of
Indra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons;
and is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such is
the general doom of all).
52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, nor
is there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, or
relinquishment of the other.
53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, without
having any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without any
desire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligence
only. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).
54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ball
on every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world in
appearance (and not in reality).
55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from its
apparent course; though he is seated in his _nirvána_ as he is, without
any desire of changing his place.
56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease,
though she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so the
soul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body is
subject to decay by age.
57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, because
nothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it was
suppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquid
of Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light and
heat are coeternal elements).
58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, were
liberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views of
predominance, they <appeared> as dull and miserable persons.
59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind,
and yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quell
his enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not in
cessation from action).
60. The great kings Nala, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilípa, Nahusa and others,
were all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled over
their realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.
61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither bound
to or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathy
to worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.
62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura and
others, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted as
unwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.
63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in the
conduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character;
but it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constitutes
his liberation in this world.
64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the living
liberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; and
is freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divine
spirit. (The sense of self personality, is lost in the knowledge of
the universality of the divine soul).
65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which he
knows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in empty
air (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).
66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in the
field of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, are
but vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worlds
are as minute atoms in the sight of great God).
67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it is
unborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to our
sight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.
68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have both
of these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality;
it is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it is
indestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.
69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in the
vacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue,
takes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence is
considered as the material cause of the world, and the one being void
the other is considered equally void also).
70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deep
meditation (samádhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comes
to the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights of
all the worlds, as if absorbed in it.
71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of the
intermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to the
sight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and other
existences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single point
in view is called the _sakhá chandra darsana_. _Nyáya_).
72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a duality is
lost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in that
of a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (which
is the _summum bonum_ of yoga philosophy).
73. In this state of _insouciance_, the duality of the world is lost in
the nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality is dwindled
to spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearly to the view
of the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms the _púrnatá_ or
perfectibility of yoga practice).
74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuous
sky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silent
and as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, and
remains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.
CHAPTER CXXVI.
RESUSCITATION AND CONDUCT OF THE VIPASCHITAS.
Argument:--Release of the Dead from the error of the world, their
wanderings and fancies of themselves.
Ráma said:--Now tell me sir, what the Vipaschitas did, being cast in
the seas, islands and forests, in the different parts of the earth.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear now, Ráma, of the Vipaschitas, in all their
wanderings amidst the forests of tála and tamála trees, upon the hills
and in the islands of different sides.
3. One of the Vipaschitas, that was roving about the westerly ridge of
a mountain in Kraunchadwípa, was crushed to death by the tusk of an
elephant, as it tears a lotus in the lake.
4. Another of these was smashed in his contest with a Rákshasa, who
bore his mangled body aloft in air, and then cast it amidst the marine
fire, where it was burnt to ashes.
5. The third was taken up by a Vidyádhara, to the region of the
celestials; where he was reduced to ashes by curse of the god Indra,
who was offended at the prince’s want of respect towards him.
6. The fourth that went to the farthest edge of a mountain in the
Kusadwípa, was caught by a shark on the sea shore, which tore his body
to eight pieces.
7. In this manner did all these four lose their lives on all sides, and
they all fell as sorrowfully as the regents of the four quarters, at
the last dissolution of the world on the doomsday.
8. After they were reduced to the state of vacuity amidst the vast
vacuum, their vacuous and self-conscious souls, were led by the
reminiscence of their former states to behold the earth (to which they
had been so much attached).
9. They saw the seven continents with their belts of the seven oceans,
and also the cities and towns with which they were decorated every
where.
10. They beheld the sky above, with the orbs of the sun and moon
forming the pupils of its eyes; and also the clusters of stars, that
were hanging as chains of pearls about its neck, and the flaky clouds
that formed its folded vest.
11. They saw with their intellectual eye, the stupendous bodies that
rose out of chaos at the revolutions of past kalpa cycles, and filled
the amplitude of the sky and all sides of the horizon with the gigantic
forms. (These were the big bodies of the many Unitarian Saivas that
appeared at the beginning of repeated creations).
12. Being possest of their consciousness in their spiritual forms, they
descended to observe the manners of elemental bodies that were exposed
before them.
13. All the four Vipaschitas were actuated by their previous
impressions, to the inquiry into the measure and extent of the
ignorance, which led people to the belief of the body as soul itself,
in want of their knowledge of the spiritual soul (as it is the case
with gross materialists).
14. They roved from one continent to another, to witness in what part
of this ideal globe of the earth was this ignorance (avidyá) most
firmly seated, so as to give it the appearance of a visible substance.
15. Then passing over the seven continents and oceans, the western
Vipaschit, happened to meet with the God Hari standing on a parcel of
firm land.
16. Receiving then the incomparable knowledge of divine truth from him,
he remained in his _samádhi_ meditation at that spot for full five
years.
17. Finding afterwards his soul to be full with divine presence, he
relinquished even his spiritual body, he fled like his vital breath, to
the transcendent vacuum of final extinction _nirvána_.
18. The eastern Vipaschit was translated to the region of moon (by his
adoration of that luminary), and was seated beside that full bright orb
(for his great purity and piety). But the prince, though placed in the
exalted sphere of the moon, continued ever afterwards to lament for
the loss of his former body. (So heavenly souls are said to long for
their bodies).
19. The southern prince being forgetful of his spiritual nature,
thinks himself to be reigning in the Salmalidwípa, and employed in the
investigation of external and sensible objects.
20. The northern one dwelling amidst the limpid waters of the seventh
ocean, thought himself to be devoured by a shark, which retained him in
his belly for the space of a thousand and one years.
21. There he fed upon the bowels of the shark, which killed the animal
in a short time; and then he came out of its belly, as if it gave birth
to a young shark.
22. Then he passed the frigid ocean of snows and over its icy tracts,
stretching to eighty thousand yojanas (or leagues) in dimension.
23. He next arrived <at> a spot of solid gold, which was the haunt of
gods, and stretched to ten thousand yojanas, and here he met with his
end.
24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead,
in the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burning
furnace.
25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lokáloka or polar
mountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueduct
begirds the base of a tree.
26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has the
inhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternal
darkness reigning on the other.
27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starry
sphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of a
star by the beholders below.
28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deep
and dark abyss of infinite void.
29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond it
was the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of impervious
darkness.
30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black bees, and
as the shade of the black tamála trees; there is neither the stable
earth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void is
devoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time.
(This is chaos).
CHAPTER CXXVII.
COSMOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSE.
Argument:--Account of the Earth and the starry frame below the
endless Vacuum, which envelops the Universe.
Ráma said:--Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth is
situated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do the
stars revolve about the same.
2. Vasishtha replied:--As boys build their fancied castles in empty
air, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind of
Brahmá, and no more than this.
3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other false
sights before his eyes, so the creative Power--Brahmá sees in the
beginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of its
Intellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).
4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible to
the eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, and
not exhibited in actuality.
5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in the
mind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previous
reminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that state
before the sight (as in a dream).
6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deluded
mind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (_i.e._ the heavenly
bodies).
7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and there
resides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presenting
themselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones before
the sight.
8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subside
continually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appear
incessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and set
in endless succession).
9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; it
is visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisible
to the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. It
is imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the same
manner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of the
mind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one’s self.
10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of some
astronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as large
as the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as a
real entity (by the materialist).
11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence or
absence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity,
which is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse of
Zodiacal light.
12. The polar circle is called the polar mountain, from the
protuberance of the poles at both ends; it is termed also the Lokáloka
or having a light and another dark side, owing to the course of the sun
towards or away from it. Its distance from the starry circle, derives
it also of Zodiacal light.
13. Beyond the polar circle, and afar from the sphere of the sky, there
is the sphere of the starry frame, which revolves around them at a
great distance on all the ten sides.
14. This starry (zodiacal) belt, girds the firmament up and down, from
the heavens above to the infernal regions below, in the vast vacuity of
space; and extends to all sides.
15. The starry sphere (or belt of the zodiac), turns round the polar
circle of the earth, and its nether regions, as it appears to our
imagination, and not otherwise (as fixed and motionless).
16. The sphere of zodiacal stars, is twice as distant from the poles,
as those are distant from the middle of the earth; in the same manner
as the covering crust of a ripe walnut is aloof from the sheath of its
seeds.
17. Thus the starry belt is settled at double the distance from the
poles, as the polar circle is situated from the equator; and it turns
all about the ten sides, as a _bel_ fruit whirls in the sky.
18. The aspect of the world is according to the modality, in which it
is situated in the imagination of Brahmá, and as it is reflected from
its archetype in the Divine mind (or its consciousness of it).
19. There is another sphere of the heavens, which is afar from the
starry frame, and twice in its extent than that; this is lighted by the
zodiacal light and beyond it there reigns a thick darkness.
20. At the end of this sphere, there is the great circle of the
universe; having one half of it stretching above and one below, and
containing the sky in the midst of them. (This is called the _Brahmánda
kharpara_, or the mundane sphere).
21. It extends to millions of yojanas, and is compact with all its
contents; it is a mere work of imagination, and formed of vacuity in
the immensity of vacuum (which is the mind of God).
22. The sphere of light turns on every side, of the great circle of
vacuity, with all the lightsome bodies of the sun, moon and stars in
its circumstance: there is no upside nor downward in it, but are all
the same herein.
23. There is no actual ascending, descending nor standing, of any
planetary body therein; they are mere manifestations of the intellect,
which exhibits these variations in the workings of the mind.
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
THE VACUUM OF BRAHMA AND THE SIGHT OF THE WORLD THEREIN.
Argument:--Vipaschita’s wanderings beyond the sphere of the world
and the regions of darkness.
Ráma! I have told you all these by my personal perception of them, and
not by any guess-work of mine, because it is by means of their purely
intelligent bodies, that yogis like ourselves have come to the clear
sight of these things in nature, which are otherwise unknowable to the
material body or mind.
2. Thus the world of which I have spoken, appears to us as in a dream,
and not in any other aspect as it is viewed by others (As either an
imaginary or solid material body).
3. Now whether the world is viewed in the light of a dream or any
other thing, it is of no matter to us; since it is the business of the
learned, to speak of its situation and what relates thereto (and not of
its nature or essence).
4. There are the two poles (merus) situated at the utmost extremities
of the north and south of the world; and it is the business of the
learned, to enquire into the endless kinds of beings lying between them.
5. These varieties are well known to the people of those particular
parts; and not to us here, where they do not appear in their native
beauty.
6. The two poles (as said before), standing at the farthest extremities
of the globe, limit the earth with its seven continents and seas, and
stretch no farther beyond them.
7. Now hear, O Ráma, that the whole body of water on earth, is ten
times as much, as the extent of the two continents (lit., valves),
which are surrounded by it.
8. The two continents attract the circumambient waters around them, as
the magnet attracts the needles about it; and the water (in its turn),
upholds the continents (and islands), as the Kalpa tree supports the
fruits upon it.
9. All things on earth are supported by it, as the fruits of a tree are
supported by its stem; wherefore every thing on earth falls down on it,
as fruits fall upon the ground.
10. Far below the surface of the water, there is a latent heat
underneath, which is ever burning without any fuel, which is as still
as air, and clear as the flame of fire.
11. At the distance of ten times from it, there is the vast region
of air; and as many times afar from that, there is the open space of
transparent vacuum.
12. At a great distance from that, there is the infinite space of the
vacuity of Divine spirit; which is neither dark nor bright, but is full
of Divine Intelligence.
13. This endless void of the supreme spirit, is without its beginning,
middle or end; and is named as the universal soul, the great Intellect
and perfect bliss (nirvána or insouciance).
14. Again there are myriads of orbs, in the distant parts of these
spheres; that appear to and disappear from view by turns.
15. But in reality, there <is> nothing that either appears or
disappears, in the uniformly bright soul of Brahma; where every thing
continues in the same manner, throughout all eternity.
16. I have thus related to you, Ráma, all about the phenomenal worlds,
that are perceptible to us; hear me now to tell you, what became of
Vipaschit in the polar region.
17. Being led by his former impressions and accustomed habit, he kept
wandering about the top of the mountain (as he was wont to do before);
but fell down afterwards in the dark and dismal pit therein.
18. He found himself lying as dead at that spot, when the birds of air,
as big as mountain peaks, alighted upon his dead body, which they tore
to pieces and devoured at last.
19. But as he died on the holy mount, and had a spiritual body of
himself; he did not feel the pains and pangs which are inevitable upon
the loss of the material body, but retained his clear consciousness all
along.
20. Yet as his self-consciousness, did not attain the transcendent
perceptivity of his soul; he remembered the grossness of his past acts
and deeds, and was sensible of them, as any living body.
21. Ráma asked:--How is it possible sir, for the unembodied mind, to
perform the outward actions of the body; and how can our spiritual
consciousness, have any kind of perception of any thing?
22. Vasishtha replied:--As desire drives the home-keeping man from
his house, and as imagination leads the mind to many places and
objects, so the mind of this prince was led from place to place (as his
reminiscence portrayed them before it).
23. As the mind is moved or led by delusion, dream, imagination and
by error or misapprehension and recital of stories, (to the belief of
things); so the mind of the prince was led to the credence (of whatever
appeared before him).
24. It is the spiritual or intellectual body (or the mind), which is
subject to these fallacies (and not the corporeal body); but the human
mind, forgets in course of time, its spiritual nature; and thinks on
its materiality (_i.e._ takes it for a material substance).
25. But upon disappearance of these fallacies, in the manner of the
mistaken notion of the snake in a rope; there appears the spiritual
body only, in lieu of the corporeal one.
26. Consider well, O Ráma! that the spiritual body is the only real
substantiality; because all that appears to exist here beside the
intellect, is no existence at all (without the mind, which makes and
unmakes them).
27. As the mind of a man going from one place to another, passes on
quietly over the intermediate places, and is quite unconscious of them;
such is the case with the intellect, which passes to endless objects,
without ever moving from its fulcrum, or changing itself to any other
form.
28. Say therefore, where is there a duality, and what object is there
deserving your amity or enmity, when all this totality is but one
infinite Deity, and known as the transcendent understanding.
29. The transcendental understanding is that calm and quiet state of
the Intellect, which is without the workings of the mind; and though
the prince Vipaschit was settled in his spiritual body, he had not yet
attained to that state of transcendentalism. (This is Platonism or
musing of the soul in itself).
30. He being in want of this percipience, found his mind on the
stretch; and with his spiritual body, he saw a dark gloom, as it
appears to a foetus confined in the embryo.
31. Amidst this gloom, he beheld <the> mundane egg split in twain,
and perceived the surface of the earth, situated in the lower valve
thereof. It was a solid substance, as bright as gold, and extending to
millions of yojanas.
32. At the end of this he saw the waters, eight times in extent to that
of the land; and these in the form of crusts of the oceans, formed the
two valves (continents) of the earth (_i.e._ the Eastern and Western
hemispheres).
33. After passing over this, he reached to the region of light, blazing
with the sun and stars; emitting flames of conflagration issuing from
the vault of heaven.
34. Having passed that region of fire, without being burnt or hurt in
his spiritual body; he was led by his mind to another region, where he
thought and felt himself to be borne aloft by the winds to his former
habitation.
35. As he was carried in this manner, he felt himself to be of a
spiritual body; for what is it beside the mind, that can lead any body
from one place to another.
36. With this conviction of himself, the patient prince passed over the
region of the winds; and got at last to the sphere of vacuum, which was
ten times in extent to that of the former.
37. Passing over this, he found the infinite space of the vacuum
of Brahma; wherein all was situated, and whence all had proceeded,
which is nothing and yet something, of which nothing can be known or
predicated.
38. Moving along this empty air, he was carried far and farther onward
in his aerial journey; until he thought in his mind, he could see from
there, all the other spheres of the earth and water, and of fire and
air, which he had passed over before.
39. There were again the formations of worlds, and repeated creations
and dissolutions of them to be seen in it; and trains of gods and men,
and those of hills and all other things; going on in endless succession
therein.
40. There was a recurrence of the primary elements, and their assuming
of substantial forms; and repetitions of creations, and reappearances
of worlds and the sides of the compass.
41. Thus the prince is still going on in his journey through the
infinite void of Brahman; and finds the succession of creations and
their dissolutions in it to no end.
42. He has no cessation from his wanderings, owing to his conviction
and assuetude of thinking the reality of the world; nor does he get rid
of his ignorance, which is from God also. (Man is created in ignorance,
and barred from tasting the forbidden fruit of knowledge).
43. Whatever you view in your waking, or see in your dream; is the
perspicacity of the Divine soul, and ever displays these sights in
itself.
44. This world is an apparition of our ignorance, like the spectres
that are seen amidst deep darkness; but know that it is the transparent
intellect of God which represents it so, and will ever do the same.
45. And as the dark sight of the gross world, as well as the clear
light of its transparency, do both of them proceed alike from the
selfsame mind of God; it is impossible to conceive, whether it is the
one or the other, or both alike.
46. Hence, O Ráma, this prince being uncertain of the transparency of
the Divine spirit has been wandering for ever more, in the dark maze
of his preconceived worlds; as a stray deer, roves amidst the tangled
wilderness.
CHAPTER CXXIX.
VIPASCHIT’S BECOMING A STAG.
Argument:--The fates of the four Vipaschitas, and the
transformation of one to a stag.
I have heard of the liberation of two Vipaschitas, by grace of Vishnu;
and want now to know what became of the two brothers, that have <been>
wandering all about.
2. Vasishtha replied:--One of these two, learnt by long habit to subdue
his desires, and by his wandering in many islands, had at last settled
in one of them, and obtained his rest in God.
3. Having relinquished the sight, of the outward livery of the world,
he saw millions of orbs rolling in the vacuity and is still enrapt with
the view.
4. The second one (or other) of them, was released from his personal
wanderings, by his continuance in the contiguity of the moon, where
his constant association with the stag-like mark on the disc of that
luminary, changed his form to that of that animal, which he still
retains in his situation upon a hill.
5. Ráma asked:--How is it sir, that the four persons of Vipaschit,
having but one mind, and the same desire and aim in view, could differ
so much in their acts, that brought upon them such different results of
good and evil?
6. Vasishtha replied:--The habitual desire of a person, becomes varied
according to the various states of his life, in course of time and in
different places; it becomes weaker and stronger in degree, though it
is never changed in its nature.
7. It is according to circumstances that the selfsame desire or object
of a person, is modified in different forms; and whatever of these is
greater in its intensity, the very same takes the precedence of others,
and comes to pass in a short time.
8. In this divided state of their desires, the four persons of the
prince, arrived to four different states in their modes in life; so
that two of them were immerged in their ignorance, the third became a
deer, and the last gained his liberation at last.
9. The two former have not yet arrived at the end of their nescience,
but have been grovelling in darkness by their blindness to the light of
truth; which can hardly dispel the darkness, that is continually spread
by ignorance.
10. It is only the light of philosophy, that is able to drive the
gloom of ignorance; which however deep rooted it is, then flies at a
distance, as the shade of night is dispersed before the light of day.
11. Attend now to what this Vipaschit did in the other world, where he
was cast on the coast of gold, across the far distant ocean of sweet
waters, and which he mistook for the habitable earth.
12. Beyond this he beheld an orb in the vacuity of Brahmá, which was as
he thought the vacuum of the great Brahma himself.
13. Here he was led by his excellent virtues, amidst the society of the
learned; and learning from them the visible world in its true light, he
was amalgamated into the state of Brahma himself.
14. No sooner had he arrived at that state, than his ignorance and his
body disappeared from him, as the sea in the mirage vanishes before the
closer view, and as falsehood flies before truth.
15. Thus I have related to you all the acts of Vipaschit, and about the
eternity of ignorance as that of Brahma, because it is coeval with him
(because the positive idea of knowledge, is always blended with that of
its counterpart or the negative idea of ignorance).
16. See the millions of years, that have been passing in eternity, but
the mind by its nature, is quite unmindful of their course and number.
(So also is the idea of eternity, of which we have no definite idea).
17. As the knowledge of horses is said to be false, when known, so the
knowledge of the world (as a separate existence) is a falsity, but
being truly known, it is found to be Brahma himself. (?)
18. There is no difference of _avidyá_ or ignorance, from the essence
of Brahma; because the one subsists in the other; for Brahma is the
perfect Intellect himself that shows the difference in the modes of
intellection. (All differences are displayed in the Divine Mind).
19. Another Vipaschit, that was wandering all about in the universal
sphere, could not come to the end of his ignorance (avidyá), in his
course of a millennium.
20. Ráma said:--How was it, sir, that he could not reach to the utmost
pole of the universe, nor could he pierce its vault to get out of it?
Please explain this fully to me, which you have not yet done.
21. Vasishtha replied:--When Brahma was born at first in mundane egg,
he broke the shell with both his hands, into the upper and lower halves.
22. Hence the upper valve of the shell, rose too far upwards from the
lower half; and so the lower valve, descended as far below the upper
part.
23. Then there are the circles of earth, water and air, which are
supported upon these valves; while these two serve as bases for the
support of other spheres.
24. In the midst of these there is the vacuous sky, which is infinite
in its extent, and which appears unto us, as the blue vault of heaven.
25. It is not bounded by the circles of earth and water, but is a pure
void, and basis of all other spheres that rest upon it.
26. He passed by that way into the infinite void, as the circles of the
starry frame revolve amidst the same; in order to examine the extent of
ignorance and to obtain his release from it, as he was taught to find.
27. But this _avidyá_ or ignorance being coalescent with Brahma, is as
infinite as the Deity himself; and there she is as unknowable as God,
as yet nobody has been able to know her nature. (God and Nature are
both unknowable).
28. Vipaschit continuing to mount afar and higher in the heavens, found
the nature of _avidyá_ or ignorance to be coextensive with the extent
of the worlds, through which he traversed on high.
29. Now see how one of these persons was liberated, and another
grazing about as a stag; see the other two fast bound to their former
impressions, and constrained to rove about the worlds, which they took
for realities in their ignorance.
30. Ráma said:--Tell me kindly, O sage, where and how far and in what
sorts of worlds, have these Vipaschitas been still roaming, with
getting their intermission.
31. At what distance are those worlds, where they are born over and
over again; all this is very strange to me, as they have been related
by you.
32. Vasishtha said:--The worlds to which the two Vipaschitas are
carried, and where they have been roving; are quite invisible to me,
notwithstanding all my endeavours to look into them. (It is the _terra
incognita_).
33. So the place where the third Vipaschit is roving as a deer, is also
in a land which is known to nobody on earth.
34. Ráma said: you have <said> sir, that the Vipaschit who is
transformed to a deer, has been roving on a hill; tell me therefore, o
most intelligent seer, where is that hill situated, and how far is it
from here.
35. Vasishtha answered:--Hear me tell you, how far off is that world
from here, where Vipaschit has entered after passing through the vast
vacuity of the supreme spirit; and has been wandering there in his form
of a deer.
36. Know it to be somewhere amidst these three worlds, where he has
been roving as a stray deer; because this is the vast vacuity of the
Divine spirit; in which all these worlds are interspersed at great
distances from one another.
37. Ráma rejoined:--How is it consistent, sir, to say with good reason,
that Vipaschit was born and dead in this world, and is still roving
as a deer in it? (Why did he wander about in infinity, if he were to
remain a finite being herein? gloss).
38. Vasishtha replied:--As the whole must well know all the parts
of which it is composed, so do I know every thing every where, which
is situated in the all comprehensive soul of God, whereto I have
assimilated myself. (Vasishtha means to say, that he knew all in his
_svánubhava_ or all knowing mind. Gloss).
39. I know the absent (_i.e._ all things past and future), and all that
is destroyed, as well as all forms of things whether small or great,
are all interwoven together and exhibited before me, as if they were
the production of this earth of ours.
40. Hence all that I have told you, O Ráma, regarding the adventures of
the prince, was the work of his fancy, and took place in some part of
this world, where he lived and died.
41. The Vipaschitas all wandered about the other worlds in empty air,
and all this was the work of their imagination, which is unrestricted
in its flight through boundless space.
42. One of these has happened to be born here as a deer, and it is in
the dale of a mountain, somewhere upon this earth. (It is believed that
all mortal souls transmigrate to this again, after their wanderings are
over in other spheres).
43. The place where the prince is reborn in his form of a stag, after
all his wanderings in other spheres were over; is in this orb of earth,
where he is placed on a certain spot by an act of unaccountable chance
(káka táliya).
44. Ráma said:--If it is so, then tell me sir, in what region of this
earth, on what hill and in what forest of it, is this stag placed at
present.
45. What is he doing now, and how does he nibble the grass in the
verdant plain; and how long will it be, before that veteran seer may
come to the remembrance of his former state and past actions.
46. Vasishtha replied:--It is the same stag, which has been presented
to you by the ruler of the province of Trigarta; and is kept close in
your pleasure garden for your sport.
47. Válmíki said:--Ráma was quite surprised with all the people sitting
at the court, upon hearing the sage say so; and ordered his attendant
lads in the hall to bring it forthwith before his presence there.
48. Then the brute stag was brought and placed before the open court,
when the court-people found it plump and fat, and quite tame and
gentle. (Lit.: content with its own state).
49. Its body was spotted all over, as with the stars of heaven; and its
eyes were as outstretched as the petals of lotus flowers, and by far
more handsome than the eyes of beauteous damsels.
50. It looked with its timorous glances, on the blue sapphires which
decorated the court; ran to bite them with its open month, thinking
them to be blades of grass.
51. Then as it gazed at the assemblage, with its raised neck, uplifted
ears and staring eyes through fear; so they raised their heads, pricked
up their ears, and looked upon the animal with their open eyes, for
fear of its leaping and jumping upon them.
52. At last the king with all his ministers and courtiers, were all
amazed at the sight of the animal, and thought it was all a magic,
which they saw before them.
53. The wondering eyes of the assembled people, and the shining gems on
the persons of the princes, made the court hall appear, as if it were
studded with full blown lotuses all around. (The simile of blooming
eyes and blossoming lotuses, is common in all Indian poetry).
CHAPTER CXXX.
ENTERING OF THE STAG INTO THE FIRE.
Argument:--The stag burnt in the meditation of Vasishtha, and
turned in its former figure of the Prince.
Válmíki related:--Ráma then asked Vasishtha, to tell him by what means
Vipaschit was released from his brutish shape and restored to his human
form again.
2. Vasishtha said:--The way by which a person has had his rise, is the
only means that conduces to his success, welfare and happiness in life
(and a departure from this course, brings on his ruin).
3. Vipaschit had been a worshipper, and it is by his re-entrance into
the refuge of that deity only; that his changed form of the stag, may
be altered and restored to its former figure, of bright and unalloyed
gold.
4. I will now try the means of his restoration in your presence, as you
may all witness it with your open eyes; and this stag will of itself
enter into the fire before your sight.
5. Válmíki related:--Saying so, the benevolent sage, touched his water
pot with his hand, and muttered his mantras upon it in the proper form
(_i.e._ with fixed attention).
6. He thought intently upon the god of fire, with his flashing flames
all around him; and immediately there sprang a blaze of fire, upon his
reflection on it (in the midst of the royal hall).
7. This was a pure flame, kindled without any coal or fuel, and burning
with a rumbling noise, without emitting any smoke or soot or sloe.
8. Brighter and brighter it burnt in its beauty, and shone as a dome
of gold, by shedding a golden lustre all about; it was as flushing as
the blushing _kinsuka_ blossom, and as glowing as the evening clouds of
heaven.
9. The assembled hosts receded backward, upon beholding the spreading
flame; but the stag flushed with the fervour of its former faith, on
seeing its adored deity manifest before its sight.
10. As it looked on the fire with its ardent desire, he got rid of his
sins, as if they were burnt away by its flames; and then advancing
slowly towards it, he jumped at once amidst the blaze, as a lion
springs aloft on his prey.
11. At this moment, the Muni moved his mind to meditation, and found
the sins of the prince were burnt away from his soul; and then
addressed the god, saying:--
12. O lord, that bearest the sacrificial butter to the celestials,
recall to thy mind the past acts of the prince, in his faith to thee;
and kindly restore him, to his former handsome figure again.
13. As the sage was praying in this manner, he saw the stag to be
released from the flame, and running towards the assembled princes,
with the velocity of an arrow flying towards its butt end or mark.
14. Having entered into the burning fire, he appeared as a flaming
body, and was seen by the assembly to be of a form, as bright as the
appearance of an evening cloud.
15. Thus the stag was changed to the form of a man, before the sight
of the assembled princes; as a spot of cloud is seen to assume another
figure in the face of the bright vault of heaven.
16. It was seen amidst the flame, to assume a figure as that of pure
gold; which afterwards took the form of a man, of handsome shape and
appearance. (So the funeral fire purifies the soul of its impurities,
and gives it a brighter form afterwards).
17. He appeared as the orb of the sun, or as the disc of the moon in
the sky; or as the god Varuna in the waters of the deep, or as the
evening cloud or rising moon.
18. There was the reflexion of the sun in the pupils of his eyes, as
it was reflected on the surface of water, or on a mirror or bright
gem; and the fire of his faith, blazed serenely in the sockets of his
eyeballs.
19. Shortly afterwards this blaze of light disappeared from the court,
as the light of a lamp is blown away by the breath of wind; or as the
tinges of evening clouds vanish in the sky under the shades of night.
20. The man then stood as plainly in the hall, as the idol of a deity
is seen to stand in a dilapidated temple (without its brightness); or
as an actor is seen behind the scene (without his dress).
21. He stood silent holding a rosary on his hand, and having his sacred
thread, hanging down a chain of gold about his neck; he wore a robe of
pure white blanched by the fiery heat; and appeared as the bright moon,
rising before the assembly.
22. On seeing the brightness of his person and attire, the courtiers
all and every one, cried out saying, “O to the lustre”; and because he
was as lustrous as day light, he was named, “Lustre” by all.
23. The courtiers also confirmed it by saying that, because he is as
bright as brightness itself, let him be styled the “bright or Bhása”,
the name that he bore on him ever afterwards.
24. He sat in the hall in his meditative mood, and remembered all the
incidents of his past life and former body.
25. The assembly was struck with wonder, and remained quite motionless
and speechless and absorbed in thought; as Bhása was reflecting in his
mind the adventures of his past life.
26. Then the prince rose from his reverie after a short while, and
advanced towards the assembly, under his newly obtained title of Bhása
or the light.
27. He advanced at first towards Vasishtha, and saluted him with
delight; and then addressed him saying:--“I bow down, sir, before thee,
as the giver of my life and light of knowledge of myself.”
28. Vasishtha raised him by touching his head with his hand; and said:
“May thy protracted ignorance, O prince, dissipate this day and for
ever after”.
29. Victory to Ráma, said Bhása, and bowed down to Dasaratha; who
rising a little from his seat, thus accosted him smilingly and said:--
30. Dasaratha said:--You are welcome, O prince! be seated on this
seat; you have wandered through many difficulties of the world, now
take your rest here.
31. Válmíki related:--Thus accosted by the king, the prince now bearing
the name of Bhása, took his seat on a cushion, after making his
salutation, to the venerable sages Visvámitra and others.
32. Dasaratha exclaimed:--O the pains, that Vipaschit has so long
undergone, under the thraldom of Ignorance; in the manner of a wild
elephant, tied in fetters at his feet by ruthless huntsmen.
33. O to what miseries is man exposed, owing to his want of precise
understanding, and by his false knowledge of the reality of these
worlds, that are seen to be revolving in empty shape.
34. How wondrous are these worlds, so extensive and so remote, which
Vipaschit has traversed out, and how incredible are the pains, through
which he has passed so long.
35. O how wonderful is the nature and glory, of the inane Intellect
of the vacuous spirit of the Supreme, that exhibits in empty air, the
blank thoughts of his all comprehensive mind, as sole and substantial
ones (to the apprehension of ignorant mortals).
CHAPTER CXXXI.
BHÁSA’S ACCOUNT OF THE WORLDS AND HIS JOURNEYS THROUGHOUT.
Argument:--There is no substantive world, separate from the
thoughts in the Eternal mind.
Dasaratha said:--I understand that Vipaschit has acted unwisely, in
taking so much pains in his wanderings for a knowledge of the spheres;
because it is all in vain to inquire into unrealities and useless
matters, and it was his ignorance or _avidyá_ alone, that led him to
the search.
2. Válmíki related:--At this moment the sage Viswámitra, who was
sitting beside the king; oped his mouth and said on the subject now
under consideration.
3. Viswámitra said:--O king, there are many such men, who without a
good understanding, and for want of best knowledge; are apt to think
that all things are possible to be known by them.
4. Hence it is that the sons of king Vatadhána, have been wandering in
this manner, and for very many years, in search of true knowledge, all
over this earth, and without ever being able to arrive at it.
5. It is for exploring the limits of this earth, that they have been
employed with ceaseless toil and unwearied labour, as a river runs in
its incessant course for ever.
6. This great world (the earth), is situated as an orb in the air,
like an imaginary tree of boys growing in the sky, or as a toy ball of
fanciful Brahmá, rolling about in empty air.
7. As creeping emmets move about a sugar ball, without falling off from
it; so do all living bodies move about their support of this earth,
which is sustained in the empty air.
8. Those that are situated on the lower surface of this globe, are
moving thereabouts as erectly, as those that are on its upper side
(and though this earth is turning up and down yet no one sides away
from it).
9. The sun, moon and planets, together with the starry frame and
the heavenly stream (the milky way); are attracted to turn round it
incessantly, without ever coming in contact with it.
10. The sky girds and surrounds it on all sides, though the firmament
appears to be above our heads, and the earth below our feet.
11. The living beings below the earth, are both moving downward or
flying upward, as the beasts and birds on the upper side of it; and the
region to which they fly is called the upper sky (whether it be in this
or that side of it).
12. There is on some part of this earth, a warrior race by name of
Vatadhánas; and there were born three princes of this royal family, in
days of yore (and are said to be living still).
13. They were firmly intent like Vipaschit, to know the limits of the
visible world; and set out in their journey to explore the same, with a
firm and unfailing resolution.
14. They passed from the land to water, and the waters to other lands
again; and thus they passed many lives and ages, in their repeated
inquiries with their resuscitated bodies in reiterated births (because
the steady pursuit of one, follows him in his successive births).
15. Thus wandering for ever all about the earth, they like ants moving
on a sweet cake, found no end of it, nor reached to any other spot,
beyond the same even in their thought of another one.
16. They are still turning around it in the air, like busy emmets about
a roll; and they are yet in the same search without being tired of it.
(Alexander said, “Earth is this thy end?” but these princes found no
end of it).
17. Because whoever stands on any part of the globe, thinks it as the
uppermost, and all other places on every side of it, to be lower than
it; and so the antipodes below think themselves as upmost.
18. They then said among themselves that, if they could not find the
end of the earth all their toil, they must give up the pursuit and
remove themselves elsewhere.
19. So it is with this world, O king! which is no more than display of
the thoughts of Brahmá; it is a work or creation of the mind only, and
a delusion as that of a protracted dream.
20. The mind is the Supreme Brahma, and Brahma is self-same with his
very mind; they are both of the form of the intellect, and there is no
<more> difference between them, than that of open air and the sky.
21. The intellect operates in itself, like the running waters in
whirlpools; and as the eddies and their swelling bubbles, are no other
than the very water, so the operations of the mind, are modifications
of the mind itself.
22. The sky which is but vacuum, and was a void in the beginning; shows
itself in the form of the world; which is neither created nor ever
destroyed.
23. Whatever the intellect suggests (from its preconceptions and
predilections); the mind (which is the active principle), obeys the
same and is inclined in the same way; and continues to view the outer
world, as it has ever existed in thought.