STORY OF THE MISERLY KIRÁTA.
Argument:--Perfection of Chúdálá and the imbecility of the Prince;
efficacy of instruction and its elucidation in the tale of niggardly
Kiráta.
Vasishtha continued:--Thus the royal dame was possest of the qualities
of contracting and expanding herself to any form, and became so expert
in these by their continued practice of them;
2. That she made her aerial journey and navigated at pleasure over the
expanse of waters; she moved on the surface of the earth, as the river
Ganges glides on in her silent course.
3. She dwelt in the bosom of her lord, as the goddess of prosperity
abides in the heart of Hari, and travelled in a moment with her mind
over every city and country over the earth.
4. This fairy lady fled in the air, and flashed like the lightning with
the flashes of her twinkling eyes; she passed as a shadow over the
earth, as a body of clouds passes over a range of mountains.
5. She passed without any hazard through the grass and wood, stones
and clods of earth, and through fire and water and air and vacuum, as
a thread passes through hole of a heart. (Milton says:--That with no
middle flight, to the heaven of heavens I have presented through an
earthly quest).
6. She lightly skimmed over the mountain peaks, and pryed through the
regions of the regents of all the sides of heaven; she penetrated into
the cavities of the empty womb of vacuity, and have a pleasant trip
whatever she directed in her flight. (All this is brain action and no
reality at all).
7. She conversed freely with all living beings, whether they move or
prone on the ground as the beast of earth, or crawl upon it as the
snakes and insects. She talked with the savage Pisácha tribes and
communicated with men and the immortal Gods and demi-gods also. (The
clever princess like the far-seeing seer saw every thing with her
mind's eye, and held her converse (vyavahára) with all).
8. She tried much to communicate her knowledge to her ignorant husband,
but he was no way capable of receiving her spiritual instruction.
(Átmajnána means also her intuitive or self taught knowledge).
9. He understood her as no other than his young princess and the
mistress of his house, and skilled only in the arts of coquetry and
house wifery (and quite ignorant of higher things because the ladies of
India were barred from spiritual knowledge).
10. Until this time the prince had been ignorant of the qualifications
of the princess Chúdálá, and knew not that she had made her progress in
the spiritual science, as a young student makes his proficiency in the
different branches of learning.
11. She also was as reserved to show her consummate learning to her
unenlightened husband; as a Brahman declines to show his secret rites
to a vile sudra.
12. Ráma said:--If it was impossible, sir, for the seeress of
consummate wisdom to communicate her knowledge to her husband
Sikhidhwaja, with all her endeavours to enlighten him on the subject;
how can it be possible for others, to be conversant in spiritual
knowledge in any other means.
13. Vasishtha answered:--Ráma, it is obedience to the rule of attending
to the precepts of the preceptor, joined with the intelligence of the
pupil, which is the only means of gaining instruction.
14. The hearing of sermon nor the observance of any religious rite,
is of any efficacy towards the knowledge of the soul; unless one will
employ his own soul, to have the light of the supreme soul shine upon
it. It is the spirit alone that can know the spirit, as it is the
serpent only that can trace out the path of another serpent.
15. Ráma rejoined:--If such is the course of the world, that we can
learn nothing without the instruction of our preceptors; then tell me,
O sage! how the precepts of the wise lead to our spiritual knowledge
also.
16. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me Ráma, relate to you a tale to this
effect. There lived an old Kiráta of yore, who was miserly in his
conduct as he was rich in his possessions of wealth and grains. He
dwelt with his family by the side of the Vindhyan woods, as a poor
Brahman lives apart from his kith and kin.
17. He happened to pass by his native forest at one time, and slip a
single _couri_ from his purse, which fell in a grassy furze and was
lost under the grass.
18. He ran on every side, and beat at the bush for three days to find
out his lost _couri_, and impelled by his niggardliness to leave no
fallen leaf unturned over the ground.
19. As he searched and turned about, he ran and turned it ever in his
mind, saying:--Ah! this single _couri_ would make four by its commerce,
and that would bring me eight in time, and this would make a hundred
and a thousand, and more and more by repetition, so I have lost a
treasure in this.
20. Thus he counted over and over, over the gains he would gain, and
sighed as often at the loss he did sustain; and took into no account of
the rustic peasantry on his foolish penury.
21. At the end of the third day he came across a rich jewel, as
brilliant as the bright moon in the same forest; which compensated for
the loss of his paltry _couri_ by a thousand fold.
22. He returned gladly with his great gain to his homely dwelling, and
was highly delighted with the thought of keeping off poverty for ever
from his door. (The word _Kerate_ is commonly used for Kiráta--the
miser).
23. Now as the Kiráta was quite satisfied, with his unexpected gain of
the great treasure, in the search of his trifling _couri_; and passed
his days without any care or fear of the changeful world.
24. So the student comes to obtain his spiritual knowledge from his
preceptor, while he has been in quest of his temporal learning, which
is but a trifle in comparison to his eternal concern.
25. But then, O sinless Ráma! it is not possible to attain to divine
knowledge, by the mere lectures of the preceptor; because the lord is
beyond the perception of senses, and can neither be expressed by nor
known from the words of the instructor's mouth. (It requires one's
intuition and spiritual inspiration also to see the spirit in one's own
spirit).
26. Again it is not possible to arrive to spiritual knowledge, without
the guidance of the spiritual guide; for can one gain the rich gem
without his search after the _couri_ like the miserly Kiráta? (This
means that it is impossible to attain the esoteric or abstract
knowledge of the soul, without a prior acquaintance of the exoteric and
concrete).
27. As the search of _couri_ became the cause of or was attended with
the gain of the gem, so our attendance on secular instructions of
the preceptor, becomes an indirect cause to our acquirement of the
invaluable treasure of spiritual knowledge.
28. Ráma, look at this wonderful eventualities of nature, which brings
forth events otherwise than the necessary results of our pursuits (as
the search of _couri_ resulted the gain of the gem).
29. As it often comes to pass, that our attempts are attended with
other result than those which are ought; it is better for us to remain
indifferent with regard to the result of our act.