CONTINUATION OF THE SAME AND ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Sikhidhwaja's praise of Kumbha and expression of his sorrow,
he turns to be a disciple of the same and professes his faith in the
vedánta doctrines.
Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, it appears to me that the hoarded merits of
all my former lives, have brought you today to my presence here; as an
unforeseen hurricane drives the waters of the sea on the dry mountain
tops. (_i.e._ thy speech is as cooling draught to my perished soul).
2. I reckon myself as highly blest among the blessed today to be thus
favoured by your presence, and cooled by your speech distilling as
ambrosial dews from your lips.
3. Never did a more sensible speech, touch and cool my soul to such a
degree as yours ere this; wherefore I deem your holy presence as more
precious to me, than the gaining of a kingdom.
4. The unrestrained delight which is felt in general (from the words of
the wise), which are free from self-interest and selfish motives; is
far superior to the self-restricted pleasure of sovereignty, which is
delightful once in imagination only (and not in its actual possession).
5. Vasishtha said:--As the prince was uttering these encomiums, the
Bráhman boy Kumbha passed over them in silence; and interrupted him by
saying:--
6. Chúdálá said:--Please put a stop, sir, to these words of yours, and
give me an account of yourself as I have given mine to you; and tell me
who you are, and what you do in this lonely mountain.
7. How long is it that you have passed in this forester's life of
yours, and what is your main object in view. Tell me the bare truth,
because it is beyond the probity of an ascetic, to utter anything but
the plain truth. (The ascetics are names of _satyavrata_ or vowed to
truth).
8. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Lord as you are the offspring of a God,
everything must be well known to you; and as the Gods are full well
acquainted with the secrets and circumstances of all people, I have
very little to relate to you about me.
9. It is from my fear of the world (and its temptations), that I have
abandoned it and taken my abode amidst this forest; and this though you
well know, will I now briefly state unto you.
10. I am Sikhidhwaja the ruler of a country, which I have long
relinquished for a seat in the forest; and know, O knower of all
truths, that it is my fear of the trap-doors of the world and future
transmigration in it, that has driven me to this retired wilderness.
11. It is no more than the reiteration of pain and pleasure, and of
life and death in this accursed world; and it is to evade all these,
that I have betaken myself to my austerities in these solitary woods.
12. I wander about on all sides, and perform my rigorous austerities
without any respite; and I give no rest to myself, but keep my vigils
like a miser over his little stock.
13. I am without any effort or attempt, and so without any fruit and
fruition also; I am lonely, and so helpless likewise; I am poor and
therefore friendless also, and know me Divine personage! to be pining
in this forest like a withered tree perforated by worms.
14. I observe strictly all my sacred rites without any fail or failure,
and yet I fall from one sorrow into a sea of sorrows; and have grown
too pensive, that even the ambrosial draught is unpleasant to me.
15. Chúdálá said:--It was once on a time that I had my great progenitor
(Brahmá) to tell me which of the two, the observance of duties or their
non-observance for the sake of knowledge (_i.e._ whether practice
or theoretical knowledge); is the more useful to and preferable by
mankind.
16. Brahmá replied:--Knowledge is no doubt the supreme Good, as it
leads to ones acquaintance with the unity of the Deity and the oneness
of himself; but action is inculcated to man at the duty of his life,
both for the pleasure and passing of his life time.
17. Let them that have not acquired their intellectual light and the
sight of the soul, be employed in their duties by their offsprings and
fellow creatures; for who that is devoid of a silken robe, will go
about naked and not wrap himself with a blanket or coarse cloth.
18. The ignorant that are actuated by their desires and live upon their
hopes, meet with their objects as the reward of their action; but the
knowing and speculative theorist, having neither any desire in his mind
nor action of his body, meets with no reward of either.
19. An action without its object goes to naught and for nothing, as
the fruit bearing plants become fruitless and die away without being
properly watered in their time. (There it is doubtful whether the
comparison of watering refers to the desire or action. The gloss refers
it to the action without which no desire is successful).
20. As the effect of a certain season on plants &c., is displaced by
that of the succeeding one; so the fruit of an action, is frustrated by
its want of its desire (of the object).
21. As it is the nature of kusa-grass never to fructify, though they
bear the flowers in time; so my son, no action can produce any fruit
without the desire of the main object (as its final cause). (Here
Chúdálá addresses her husband as her son).
22. As the boy possest the idea of a ghost in his mind, sees the
apparition of a devil before him; and as a sick man having hypochondria
of his malady, is soon attacked by it (so everyone meets with what he
has in his mind).
23. As the kusa-grass presents the fair flowers to view, without ever
bearing their fruits; so does the speculative theorist meditate on the
beauty of his theory, without producing its results by its practice.
24. Sikhidhwaja said:--But it is said that all human desire is vain,
and its accompanying egoism is a fallacy; and that they are the
creatures of our ignorance, like our error of a sea in the burning
sands of a desert.
25. So it is to the gnostic theist, whose ignorance is altogether
removed by his knowledge of all things as the Divine spirit; such a man
of course has no desire rising in his mind, as there is no appearance
of the sea in the sands before the eyes of the wise.
26. It is by forsaking his desires, that a person is freed from his
bonds of his disease and death; and his internal soul arriving to the
perfection of the Deity, is exempted from future birth.
27. But know the human mind to be fraught with desires, from which the
learned few are only exempt; it is by their transcendental knowledge of
the knowable one, that the Divinely wise alone are exempted from their
regeneration in this mortal world.
28. Chúdálá replied--It is true, O princely sage! that knowledge is
said to be the chief good (summum bonum), by the Gods Brahmá and others
and also by all sapient sages; and notwithstanding thy knowing of this,
why is it that thou remainest in this state of thy gross ignorance?
29. What mean these pots and staffs, these wooden stools and those
seats of kusa-grass; and why is it, O royal prince! that you delight in
these false playings of fools?
30. Why is it that you do not employ your mind to inquire into
the questions as to what thou art, and how has this world came to
existence, and how and when will cease to exist (in your consciousness
of reality). Instead of making inquiries in these solemn truths, you
are passing your time like the ignorant in your fooleries only?
31. Why don't you discuss about the natures of bondage and liberation
in the company of the learned, and pay your homage at their venerable
feet?
32. Do you want, O prince to pass your life in the discharge of your
painful austerities, as some insects finish their days in perforating
the stones in which they live?
33. You can easily obtain the delight you seek, if you will but betake
yourself to the service of holy man; and keep company with the tolerant
and wise souls, arguing with them on spiritual subjects.
34. Or you may continue to remain in your grotto, in this forest living
on the simple food of holy men; and by forsaking the evil propensities
of your mind, abide here as an insect in a hole under the ground.
35. Vasishtha related:--Being thus awakened to sense by his wife--the
Divine boy--Sikhidhwaja, melted into tears; and with his face bathed in
water, spoke to the lad as follows:--
36. Sikhidhwaja said:--O Divine child! it is after a long time, that
I am awakened by thee to my senses; and I perceive now that it was my
weak-headedness, which drove me from the society of respectable to this
lonely forest.
37. Ah! I find now that my mind is purged to-day of its endless sins,
which has brought thee to my presence here, and remonstrate with me on
my past misconduct.
38. O beauteous boy! I deem thee henceforward as my monitor and father
and my best friend forever, and acknowledge myself as thy pupil;
wherefore I bow down at thy feet and pray thee to take piety on me.
39. Please admonish me now on the subject of Divine knowledge, as you
are best acquainted with it; and whereby I may be freed from all my
sorrows, and be settled with perfect peace and bliss of my mind.
40. You said at first, that knowledge is the supreme bliss or summum
bonum of mankind; now tell me, which is that knowledge which saves us
from misery; whether it is the knowledge of particulars which lead us
to the acquaintance of specials, or that of the general which brings
us to the transcendental. (The former is the inductive knowledge
of ascending from particulars to the universal, and the latter is
deductive knowledge of deducing everything from the primitive one).
41. Chúdálá replied:--I will tell thee prince as far as I know about
it, and what may be best acceptable to thee; and not throw away my
words in vain, like crowing ravens about a headless trunk.
42. Because the words that are uttered to the impertinent questions
of a person and not heeded by him, are thrown in vain; and become as
useless to him, as her eye sight in the dark.
43. Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, your words are as acceptable to me as the
ordinances of veda (gospel truth); and though you utter them without
previous meditation (extempore), yet I have full faith in them.
44. Chúdálá replied:--As a boy obeys the words of his father, knowing
it to be pronounced for his certain good; so must you receive my words
(knowing them to tend to your best welfare).
45. Think my advices to be all good for you, after you hear them with
proper attention; and hear unto my words, as you hear music without
inquiring into their reason or rhyme.
46. Hear me now relate to you an interesting story of a certain person,
whose conduct and character resembled in every way to thine; and who
was brought back to his sense after his long aberration. This is a tale
to dispel the worldly cares and fears of the intelligent.