EXPLICATION OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF BHUSUNDA.
Argument.--The stability of the world even at the change and
dissolution of the worldly objects; and the immortality of Bhusunda
even after the Demise of his Brethren.
Bhusunda continued. This world has existed by the prior and bygone
kalpa, in the very same state as it does at present, and there is no
variation in the formation or location of any thing in any wise. (The
ante-diluvean world alike the post-diluvean).
2. Therefore O great Sage! I am accustomed to look to the past and
present with an equal eye, and will relate the events of my passed life
and by gone ages for your information, as if they are existent with me
even at present. (It is the fashion of the old chroniclers, to describe
the long past as if it is actually present before them).
3. I find to-day, O great Sage! the fruit of my pious acts of my passed
life, that have rewarded me with your blessed presence in this my
humble cell.
4. This nest of mine, this branch of the tree, this _kalpa_ arbour and
this myself, are all blessed by your propitious presence in this place.
(The sight of a superior is a great favour).
5. Deign Sir, to accept of this seat and this honorarium, which are
here offered to you by a suppliant bird; and having purified us by
your kind acceptance of our poor offerings, please command what other
service can we render unto you. (_i.e._, what more can I relate to you).
6. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! after Bhusunda had again presented the
seat and honorarium to me, I proffered to him another request in the
following words.
7. I said, tell me, O thou senior among birds, why don't I see here
those brethren of yours, who must be equally senile and strong in their
bodies and intellects, as thou showest thyself to be.
8. Bhusunda answered and said:--I am here destined to remain alone,
O Muni! to witness the continuous course of time, and to count and
recount the revolutions of ages, as they reckon the succession of days
and nights.
9. During this length of time, I had the misfortune to witness all
my juniors and younger brothers, to their mortal frames as trifling
straws, and find their rest in the blessed state (Of eternity).
10. I saw, O great Sage! the very long lived, and the very great
indignity, the very strong and very wise, to be all gorged in the
unconscious bowels of bodiless death. (The great and small equally
fall; and time at last devours them all. Non semper erit æstas).
11. Vasishtha said:--Say, O venerable father! how you remained
unmolested by the deluvian tempest, which outstripped the winds in its
velocity, and bore the great bodies of the sun and moon and stars as
jewels hanging about its neck.
12. (The deluvian tempest is called _tufani nuh_ or hurricane of Noah
in the Koran. The Khandapralaya is a partial deluge of the earth, but
the mahápralaya is the aggregate of all the cosmic revolutions of the
whole world).
12a. Say, O primeval seer! how you escaped unscorched by the burning
flame of solar rays, which melted down the uprising mountains, and
consumed there the woods in one all devouring conflagration. (The
burning sun on the day of the last dissolution, is said in the Koran,
to come down and stand at a lance's distance above the heads of men).
13. Say, O senile sire, how you remained unfrozen under the cold moon
beams, that froze the limpid waters to hard stone; and how you fled
unhurt from the showers of hail, which were poured in profusion by the
deluvian clouds.
14. Say, O ancient bird! why you were not crushed under the snows,
which fell from the deluvian clouds as thickly as huge trees, when they
are felled by axes from the tops of high hills.
15. Say, why this _kalpa tree_ which rises higher than all other
forests, was not broken down, when all other arbors on earth, were
levelled to the ground by the universal tornado.
16. Bhusunda replied:--Our station, O Bráhman! in the open and empty
air, is quite supportless and without any solid or fixed support. It
is either unnoticed or looked upon with disregard and contempt by all,
and our living and livelihood is the most despicable among all living
beings. (All this is meant of the soul, which is here personified as a
bird--a dark crow, and named as the _amara_ Bhusunda, a contemptuous
word often applied to senile people).
17. Thus has the Lord of beings appointed these aerial beings, to
remain free from disease and death in these forests, or fly about in
the empty air in their aerial course. (The forests mean the living
bodies, and the empty air is the field for the rambles of disembodied
spirits).
18. How then, O venerable sir, can any sorrow or sickness betide us
here, where we are born to be immortal, and rove freely in open air;
and are free from those pains and sorrows, which betake those birds
that are bound in snares of their desires, and are subject to their
hopes and fears.
19. We sir, have always placed our reliance on the peace and
contentment of our souls, and never allow ourselves to fall into error,
of taking the insubstantials for substantial.
20. We are quite content with what simple nature requires and affords,
and are entirely free from those cares and endeavours which are
attended with pain. We live only to pass our time in this our own and
lonely lodging (which is allotted to us by providence).
21. We neither wish to live long to wallow in our bodily enjoyments nor
desire death to avoid the retribution of our acts; but live as long
as we have to live, and die when death comes upon us. (Neither love
thy life nor hate, but live well how long or short permit to heaven.
Milton).
22. We have seen the changeful states of mankind, and witnessed many
instances of the vicissitudes of human affairs, and have thereby
banished all sorts of levity from our bodies and minds. (Lit. the
restlessness of body and mind).
23. By the constant light of our internal spirit, we are kept from the
sight of all sorrow and grief; and from our seat on the height of the
kalpa tree, we clearly see the course of the world and the changes
of time. (The kalpa tree of desire is at once the tree of life and
knowledge of the garden of paradise, because both of them are equally
desirable to man; and any one who is seated above this tree, must
know all things by his all knowingness and immortality as the soul of
Bhusunda).
24. Though we are wholly unacquainted with the changes of days and
nights, on this high pinnacle of our heavenly mountain (where there is
the eternal sunshine of Divine presence); yet we are not ignorant of
the vicissitudes of the times and events, in the solar and sublunary
worlds which roll incessantly below us.
25. Though our habitation in the cell of this Kalpatree, is ever
illumined by the light of gems which are inlaid in it; yet we can
know the course of time by the respirations of our breath, which as a
chronometer informs us with the regular course of time. (The ajapá or
breathings indicate the succession of time, as any time piece or the
course of days and nights).
26. Knowing what is real from all that is unreal, I have desisted from
my pursuit after unrealities, and settled in my knowledge of the true
reality; and by forsaking its natural fickleness, my mind is practised
to rest at all times in its perfect peace and tranquillity. (The mind
is no more troubled with the tempting trifles of the world, after it
has come to know their falsity and vanity).
27. We are not led to the snare of false worldly affairs, nor
frightened like earthly crows in our hankering after food by the
hissings of men.
28. It is by the serene light of the supreme felicity of our souls, and
by the virtue of the unalterable patience of our minds, that we look
into the errors and delusions of the world, with out falling in them
ourselves.
29. Know great sage, that our minds remain unruffled, even under
the shock of those dangers and perils, which ruffle the tempers and
understandings of ordinary people; just as the pure crystal remains
unstained by the blackest hues that environ it all around.
30. The course of the world, appears very smooth and pleasant in its
first beginning; but upon mature consideration, it proves to be frail,
fickle and false, as one goes on in it.
31. Thus all living beings are seen to pass away, and whether to return
here again or not, no body can tell; what then is it that we must fear
(knowing death and demise to be the unavoidable doom of nature).
32. As the course of streams runs continually to the ocean, so the
progress of life tends incessantly to the depth of eternity; but we
that stand on the border of the great ocean of eternity, have escaped
from being carried away by the current of time.
33. We neither cling to our life nor fling it away, but bear it as well
as we may, and remain as airy orchids, lightly touching and unattached
to their supporting arbour.
34. It is more over by the good of the best sort of men, who are beyond
the reach of fear, sorrow and pain like yourself; that we have been set
free from all sorts of malady.
35. From the examples of such persons, our minds have become cold, and
unconcerned about the affairs of busy life; and are employed only in
scanning truth and the true nature of things. (Blessed are they that
meditate on the laws of God both day and night).
36. Our souls finding their rest in their unchangeable and unperturbed
state, have the fullness of their light and delight, as the sea has
its flux of floodtide at the rising of the full and new moon upon its
bosom. (The flood of spiritual light in the soul, resembling the flood
of hightide in the sea).
37. Sir, we were as highly pleased at your presence here at this
time, as the milky ocean was overflown at its churning by the Mandara
mountain. (The Mandara mountain is said to have been the resort of the
remnants of men at the great deluge, and was used by them as their
churning stick, to recover their lost properties from the depth of the
waters. The recovery was rather joyous to the men than it could be to
the sea).
38. Sir, We do not account any thing as more precious and more
favourable unto us, than that the holy saints that have nothing to
desire, should take pains to pay their kind visit to our humble cell.
39. What do we gain from our enjoyments, which are pleasant for the
time being, and lose their zest the next moment; it is the company
of the great and good only, that gives the best gifts like the
philosopher's stone.
40. You sir, who are cool and grave in your nature, and soft and sweet
and slow in your speech, are like the beneficent bee, that sits and
sips the juice from the flowers in the three worlds, and converts it to
the sweet balm of honey.
41. I ween, O spiritual Sage! all my sins to be removed at your blessed
sight, and the tree of my life to be blest with its best fruit of
spiritual bliss, which results from the society of the virtuous, and
whose taste removes all diseases and dangers.