STORY OF THE VILVA OR BELFRUIT.
Argument.--God represented as the Belfruit or Wood apple; containing
the Worlds as its seeds.
Vasishtha said:--Attend now, O Ráma! to a pleasant story, which was
never told before, and which I will briefly narrate to you for your
instruction and wondrous amusement.
2. There is a big and beautiful _vilva_ or _bel_ fruit, as large as the
distance of many myriads of miles, and as solid as not to ripen or rot
in the course of as many many ages.
3. It bears a lasting flavour as that of sweet honey or celestial
ambrosia; and though grown old yet it increases day by day like the
crescent new moon, with its fresh and beautiful foliage.
4. This tree is situated in the midst of the universe, as the great
Meru is placed in the middle of the earth; it is as firm and fixed
as the Mandara mountain, and is immovable even by the force of the
diluvian winds.
5. Its root is the basis of the world, and it stretches to the distance
of immeasurable extent on all sides.
6. There were millions of worlds all within this fruit as its
un-countable seeds; and they were as minute in respect to the great
bulk of the fruit, that they appeared as particles of dust at foot of a
mountain.
7. It is filled and fraught with all kinds of delicacies, that are
tasteful and delicious to the six organs of sense; and there is not
one even of the six kinds of savoury articles, that is wanting in this
fruit.
8. The fruit is never found in its green or unripe state, nor is it
ever known to fall down ever over-ripened on the ground; it is ever
ripe of itself, and is never rotten or dried or decayed at any time by
age or accident.
9. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Rudra, are not sempiternal with this
tree in their age, nor do they know aught of the origin and root of
this tree, nor anything about its extent and dimensions.
10. None knows the germ and sprout of this tree, and its buds and
flowers are invisible to all. There is no stem or trunk or bough or
branch, of the tree that bears this great fruit.
11. This fruit is a solid mass of great bulk, and there is no body that
has seen its growth, change or fall. (It is ever ripe without ripening
or rotting at any time).
12. This is the best and largest of all fruits, and having no pith nor
seed, is always sound and unsoiled.
13. It is as dense as the inside of a stone in its fullness, and as
effluent of bliss as the disk of the moon, drizzling with its cooling
beams; it is full of flavour and distils its ambrosial draughts to the
conscious souls of men.
14. It is source of delight in all beings, and it is the cause of the
cooling moon-beams by its own brightness; It is the solid rock of all
security, the stupendous body of felicity, and contains the pith and
marrow that support and sustain all living souls, which are the fruits
of the prior acts of people. (_i.e._ The souls of all beings are as
fruits formed according to the nature and merit of their previous
acts--karma, and all these souls are filled with delight by the great
soul of God).
15. Therefore that transcendent pith which is the wonder of souls, is
contained in the Infinite spirit of God, and deposited and preserved in
that auspicious fruit--_sriphala_--the bel or wood apple.
16. It is deposited with its wondrous power in that small _bel_ fruit,
which represents the human as well as the divine soul, without losing
its properties of thinness and thickness and freshness for ever.
(_i.e._ All the divine powers--of evolution are lodged in the soul).
17. The thought that 'I am this', clothes the unreality with a gross
form (as the thought of a devil gives the unreal phantom a foul
figure); and though it is absurd to attribute differences to nullities,
yet the mind makes them of itself and then believes its fictitious
creatures as real ones.
18. The Divine ego contains in itself the essential parts of all things
set in their proper order, as the vacuity of the sky is filled with the
minute atoms, out of which the three worlds did burst forth with all
their varieties. (So the substance of the bel fruit, contains the seeds
of the future trees and all their several parts in it).
19. In this manner there grew the power of consciousness in its
proper form, and yet the essence of the soul retains its former state
without exhausting itself. (It means that notwithstanding the endless
evolutions of the Divine soul, its substance ever continues the same
and is never exhausted).
20. The power of consciousness being thus stretched about (from its
concentration in itself), makes it perceive the fabric of the world and
its great bustle in its tranquil self. (It means how the subjective
consciousness is changed to the objective).
21. It views the great vacuum on all sides, and counts the parts of
time as they pass away; it conceives a destiny which directs all
things, and comes to know what is action by its operation.
22. It finds the world stretching as the wish of one, and the sides of
heaven extending as far as the desires of men; it comes to know the
feelings of love and hatred, and the objects of its liking and dislike.
23. It understands its egoism and non-egoism or tuism, or the
subjective and objective and views itself in an objective light, by
forgetting its subjectivity. It views the worlds above and being itself
as high as any one of them, finds itself far below them. (The human
soul though as elevated as the stars of heaven, becomes as low as a
sublunary being by its baseness).
24. It perceives one thing to be placed before, and another to be
situated beside it; it finds some thing to be behind, and others to be
near or afar from it; and then it comes to know some things as present
and others as past or yet to come before it. (The soul losing its
omniscience has a partial view of things).
25. Thus the whole world is seen to be situated as a play house in it,
with various imaginary figures brightening as lotuses in a lake.
26. Our consciousness is seated in the pericarp of the lotus of our
hearts, with the knowledge of our endless desires budding about it, and
viewing the countless worlds turning round like a rosary of lotus seeds.
27. Its hollow cell like the firmaments is filled with the great
Rudras, who rove about in the distant paths of the midway sky, like
comets falling from above with their flaming tails. (The vedas describe
the Rudras as blue necked &c. (nílagríváh). These worshipful gods of
the vedas are found to be no other than wondrous phenomena of the
vacuity which are deified in the Elementary religion of the ancients).
28. It has the great mount of Meru situated in its midst, like the
bright pericarp amidst the cell of the lotus flower. The moon capt
summit of this mount is frequented by the immortals, who wander about
it like wanton bees in quest of the ambrosial honey distilled by the
moon beams on high. (The gloss places the Meru in the northern region
of the distant pole, while the Puránas place it in the midst of the
earth). It was the resort of the gods as also the early cradle of the
pristine Aryans, who are represented as gods.
29. Here is the tree of the garden of Paradise with its clusters of
beautiful flowers, diffusing their fragrance all around; and there is
the deadly tree of the old world, scattering its pernicious farina
for culling us to death and hell. (The gloss explains _rajas_ or
flower dust as our worldly acts, which lead us to the hell torments of
repeated transmigrations).
30. Here the stars are shining, like the bright filaments of flowery
arbors, growing on the banks of the wide ocean of Brahma; and there is
the pleasant lake of the milky path, in the boundless space of vacuity.
31. Here roll the uncontrolled waves of the ceremonial acts, fraught
with frightful sharks in their midst, and there are the dreadful
whirlpools of worldly acts, that whirl mankind in endless births for
ever more.
32. Here runs the lake of time in its meandering course for ever, with
the broad expanse of heaven for its blooming blossom; and having the
moments and ages for its leaves and petals, and the luminaries of sun,
moon and stars for its bright pistils and filaments.
33. Here it sees the bodies of living beings fraught with health and
disease, and teeming with old age, decay and the torments of death;
and there it beholds the jarring expositions of the sástras, some
delighting in their knowledge of spiritual Vidyá, and others rambling
in the gloom of Ignorance--Avidyá (which leads them from error to
error).
34. In this manner doth our inner consciousness, represent the wonders
contained in the pulp of the _vilva_ fruit; which is full of the
unsubstantial substance of our desires and wishes, and the pithless
marrow of our false imagination.
35. It sees many that are tranquil, calm, cool and dispassionate, and
who are free from their restraints and desires; they are heedless of
both their activity and inactivity, and do not care for works whether
done or left undone by them.
36. Thus this single consciousness presents her various aspects, though
she is neither alone nor many of herself, except that she is what she
is. She has in reality but one form of peaceful tranquillity; though
she is possest of the vast capacity of conceiving in herself all the
manifold forms of things at liberty.