ACCOUNT AND ADMONITION OF BHAGÍRATHA.
Argument:--Conduct and character of Bhagíratha, his private reflexion
and the Instructions of his tutor.
Ráma said:--Please sir, to relate unto me, the wonderful narrative of
prince Bhagíratha, how he succeeded to bring down the heavenly stream
of Gangá on the earth below.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The prince Bhagíratha was a personage of eminent
virtues, and was distinguished as a crowning mark (_Tilaka_), over all
countries of this terraqueous earth and its seas.
3. All his suitors received their desired boons, even without their
asking; and their hearts were as gladdened at the sight of his
moon-bright countenance, as were it at the sight of a precious and
brilliant gem.
4. His charities were always profusely lavished upon all good people,
for their maintenance and supportance; while he carefully collected
even straws (for his revenue), and prized them as they were gems unto
him. (_i.e._ He earned as he gave).
5. He was as bright in his person, as the blazing fire without its
smoke, and was never weak even when he was tired in the discharge of
his duties. He drove away poverty from the abodes of men, as the rising
sun dispels the darkness of night from within their houses.
6. He spread all around him the effulgence of his valour, as the
burning fire scatters about its sparks; and he burned as the blazing
midday sun, among all his hostile bands.
7. Yet he was gentle and soft in the society of wisemen, and cooled
their hearts with his cooling speech. He shone amidst the learned, as
the moon-stone glistens under the moon light.
8. He decorated the world with its triple cord of the sacrificial
thread, by stretching out the three streams of the Ganges, along the
three regions of heaven, earth and infernal regions. (Hence Gangá is
called the tripathagá or running in the trivium in heaven, earth and
hell).
9. He filled the ocean that had been dried up by the sage Agastya, with
the waters of Ganges; as the bounteous man fills the greedy beggar with
his unbounded bounty.
10. This benefactor of mankind, redeemed his ancestral kinsmen from the
infernal region (in which they were accursed by the indignant sage;) and
led them to the heaven of Brahmá, by the passage of the sacred Gangá
(which ran through the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell).
11. He overcame by his resolute perseverance, all his manifold
obstacles and troubles, in his alternate propitiations of the god
Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu, for their discharging the course of
the stream. (The holy Gangá was first confined in Brahmá's water pot,
and then restricted in Hara's crown, and lastly locked up under Jahnu's
seat, whence the river has the nickname of Jáhnaví).
12. Though he was yet in the vigour of his youth, he seemed even then
to feel the decay of age, coming fastly upon him, at his incessant
thoughts on the miseries of human life.
13. His excogitation of the vanities of the world, produced in him a
philosophical apathy to them; and this _sang froid_ or cold heartedness
of his in the prime of his youth, was like the shooting forth of a
tender sprout on a sudden in a barren desert. (So great was the early
abstractedness from the world, prized by the ancient Aryans, that many
monarchs are mentioned to have became religious recluses in their
youth).
14. The prince thought in his retired moments on the impropriety of
his worldly conduct, and made the following reflections, on the daily
duties of life in his silent soliloquy.
15. I see the return of day and night, in endless succession after
one another; and I find the repetition of the same acts of giving and
taking (receipts and disbursements), and lasting the same enjoyments,
to have grown tedious and insipid to me. (So it was with Rasselas the
prince of Abyssinia, who felt disgusted at the daily rotation of the
same pleasures and enjoyments and one unvaried course of life).
16. I think that only to be worth my seeking and doing, which being
obtained and done, there is nothing else to desire or do in this
transitory life of troubles and cares.
17. Is it not shameful for a sensible being, to be employed in the same
circuit of business every day, and is it not laughable to be doing and
undoing the same thing, like silly boys day by day?
18. Being thus vexed with the world, and afraid of the consequence of
his worldly course, Bhagíratha repaired in silence to the solitary cell
of his preceptor Tritala, and bespoke to him in the following manner.
19. Bhagíratha said:--My Lord! I am entirely tired and disgusted with
the long course of my worldly career, which I find to be all hollow and
empty within it, and presenting a vast wilderness without.
20. Tell me lord, how can I get over the miseries of this world, and
get freed from my fear of death and disease and from the fetters of
errors and passions, to which I am so fast enchained. (The Hindu
mind is most sensible of the baneful effects of the primeval curse
pronounced on man, and the accursedness of his posterity and of this
earth for his sake; and is always in eager search of salvation,
redemption or liberation from the same by _mukti_, _moksha_, and
_paritrána_).
21. Tritala replied:--It is to be effected by means of the continued
evenness of one's disposition (obtained by his quadruple practice
of devotion _sádhana_); the uninterrupted joyousness of his soul
(arising from its communion with the Holy spirit); by his knowledge
of the knowable true one, and by his self sufficiency in everything
(tending to his perfection). (The quadruple devotion consists in one's
attendance to holy lectures and in his understanding, reflection and
practice of the same lessons, called the _sádhana chatushtaya_).
22. By these means the man is released from misery, his worldly bonds
are relaxed, his doubts are dissipated, and all his actions tend to his
well being in both worlds.
23. That which is called the knowable, is the pure soul of the nature
of intelligence; it is always present in everything in all places and
is eternal--having neither its rising or setting (_i.e._ its beginning
or end). The animating soul of the world, is identified with the
supreme and universal soul of God. The vedánta knows no duality of the
animal and animating souls.
24. Bhagíratha rejoined:--I know, O great sage! the pure intelligent
soul to be perfectly calm and tranquil, undecaying and devoid of all
attributes and qualities; and neither the embodied spirit, nor the
animal soul, nor the indwelling principle of material bodies.
25. I cannot understand sir, how I can be that intelligence, when I
am so full of errors, or if I be the selfsame soul, why is it not so
manifest in me as the pure divine soul itself.
26. Tritala replied:--It is by means of knowledge only, that the mind
can know the truly knowable one in the sphere of one's own intellect,
and then the animal soul finding itself as the all-pervading spirit,
is released from future birth and transmigration. (The belief of the
difference of one's soul from the eternal one, is the cause of his
regeneration).
27. It is our unattachment to earthly relations, and unaccompaniment
of our wives, children and other domestic concerns, together with
the equanimity of our minds, in whatsoever is either advantageous or
disadvantageous to us, that serve to widen the sphere of our souls and
cause their universality.
28. It is also the union of our souls with the supreme spirit, and our
continual communion with God; as also our seclusion from society and
remaining in retirement that widen the scope of our souls.
29. It is the continued knowledge of spirituality, and insight into the
sense of the unity and identity of God, which are said to constitute
our true knowledge; all besides is mere ignorance and false knowledge.
30. It is the abatement of our love and hatred, that is the only remedy
for our malady of worldliness; and it is the extinction of our egoistic
feelings, that leads to the knowledge of truth.
31. Bhagíratha responded:--Tell me, O reverend sir, how is it possible
for any body to get rid of his egoism, which is deep rooted in our
constitution, and has grown as big with our bodies as lofty trees on
mountain tops.
32. Tritala replied:--All egoistic feelings subside of themselves
under the abandonment of worldly desires, which is to be done by the
very great efforts of fortitude, in our exercise of the virtues of
self-abnegation and self-command, and by the expansion of our souls to
universal benevolence.
33. We are so long subjected to the reign of our egoism, as we have
not the courage to break down the painful prison house of shame at
our poverty, and the fear at our exposure to the indignity of others.
(Poverty is shameful to worldly people, but graceful to holy men).
34. If you can therefore renounce all your worldly possessions and
remain unmoved in your mind (although in actual possession of them);
you may then get rid of your egoism, and attain to the state of supreme
bliss.
35. Bereft of all titular honors, and freed from the fear of falling
into poverty (and its consequent indignity); being devoid of every
endeavour of rising, and remaining as poor and powerless among
invidious enemies; and rather living in contemptible beggary among
them, without the egoistic pride of mind and vanity of the body; if you
can thus remain in utter destitution of all, you are then greater than
the greatest.