WAY TO OBTAIN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.
Argument:--Chúdálá's Interpretation of the Parable of the Precious
stone and the Glassy Gewgaw.
Sikhidhwaja said:--Please explain unto me, O Divine boy! the purport of
the parables of the true and false gems; and the unfettered and pent up
elephant, which you have spoken before to me.
2. Chúdálá replied:--Hear me now expound to you the meaning of my
stories, and the purport of the words and their senses; which I
have stored in your heart and mind, for the enlightenment of your
understanding.
3. That searcher after the philosopher's stone, was undoubtedly
acquainted with science, but had no knowledge of the truth
(tatwajnána); he searched the gem but knew not what it was, and the
same man is thyself.
4. You are versed in the sciences as he, and shinest above others as
the shining sun on the mountain tops; but you have not that rest and
quiet, which is derived from the knowledge of truth; and are immerged
in your errors, as a block of stone in the water.
5. Know O holy man! that it is relinquishing of errors, which is said
to be the philosopher's stone (because they are the only men that have
set themselves above the reach of error). Try to get that O holy man!
in your possession, and set yourself thereby above the reach of misery.
6. It is the relinquishment of gross objects, that produces the pure
joy of holiness; it is the abandonment of the world, that gives one
the sovereignty over his soul, and which is reckoned as the true
philosopher's stone.
7. Abandonment of all is the highest perfection, which you must
practice betimes; because it is contemning of worldly grandeur, that
shows the greatest magnanimity of the soul.
8. You have O prince! forsaken your princedom together with your
princess, riches, relatives and friends, and have rested in your
resignation; as Brahmá the lord of creatures, rested at the night of
cessation of the act of his creation.
9. You have come out too far from your country, to this distant
hermitage of mine; as the bird of heaven the great _Garuda_ lighted
with his prey of the tortoise, on the farthest mount of the earth. (The
legend of Gaja-_kachchhapa_ borne by _Garuda_, is narrated at length in
the _Purána_).
10. You have relinquished your egotism, with your abandonment of all
worldly goods; and you purged your nature from every stain, as autumnal
winds disperse the clouds from the sky.
11. Know that it is only by driving away the egoism of the mind as
well as all desires from the heart, that one gets his perfection and
has the fulness of the world or perfect bliss in himself. But you have
been labouring under the ignorance of what is to be abandoned and what
is to be retained, as the sky labours under the clouds. (It is not the
abandonment of the world, but the greedy desires of the mind, that is
attended with true felicity).
12. It is not your abandonment of the world, which can give you that
highest felicity the _summum bonum_ that you seek; it is something else
that must be yet sought after by you. (True happiness is a thing of
heavenly growth, and is to be obtained by the grace of God only).
13. When the mind is overflown by its thoughts, and the heart is
corroded by the canker of its desire; all its resignation flies from
it, as the stillness of a forest flies before the tempest.
14. Of what avail is the abandonment of the world to one, whose mind
is ever infested by his troublesome thoughts; it is impossible for a
tree to be at rest, that is exposed to the tempests of the sky. (Inward
passions disturb the breast, as tempests rend the sky).
15. The thoughts constitute the mind, which is but another name for
will or desire; and so long as these are found to be raging in one, it
is in vain to talk of the subjection of the mind.
16. The mind being occupied by its busy thoughts, finds the three
worlds to present themselves before it in an instant; of what avail
therefore is the abandonment of this world to one, when the infinite
worlds of the universe are present before his mind.
17. Resignation flies on its swift pinions, soon as it sees a desire to
be entertained in it; as a bird puts on its wings, no sooner it hears a
noise below.
18. It is _insouciance_ and want of care, which is the main object
of the abandonment of the world; but when you allow a care to rankle
in your breast, you bid a fair adieu to your resignation; as one bid
farewell to his honoured and invited guest.
19. After you have let slip the precious gem of resignation from
your hand, you have chosen the false glossy gewgaw of austerity for
some fond wish in your view. (All outward observances of rites and
austerities proceed from some favourite object fostered in the mind,
while the pure bliss of holiness is obtained from the purity of the
heart only, and without any need of outward acts).
20. I see thy mind is fixed in wilful pains of thy austerities, as the
sight of a deluded man is settled on the reflexion of the moon in the
waters (from his error of its being the true moon).
21. Forsaking the indifference of your mind, you have become a
follower of the prurience of your heart; and chosen for yourself the
mortification of an anchorite, which is full of from its first to last.
22. He who forsakes the easy task of his devotion to God, which is
fraught with infinite bliss; and betakes himself to the difficult
duties of painful austerity, is said to make a suicide of his own soul.
(The sruti calls them self-suicides (_átmaghanojánah_); who neglect the
felicity of their souls).
23. You betook yourself to the vow of self-resignation, by your
relinquishment of all earthly possessions; but instead of observing the
forbearance of resignation, you are bound to the painful austerities of
your asceticism in this dreary wilderness.
24. You broke the bonds of your princedom, and decamped from the bounds
of your realm thinking them as too painful to you; but say are you
not constrained here to the faster and far more irksome toils of your
asceticism, and the unbearable chains of its rigid incarceration.
25. I think you are involved in much more care to defend yourself from
heat and cold in the defenceless forest, and have come to find yourself
to be more fast bound to your rigours than you had any idea of this
before.
26. You thought in vain to have obtained the philosopher's stone
before, but must have come to find at last; that your gain is not worth
even a grain of glassy bauble.
27. Now sir, I have given you a full interpretation of the avidity of
a man to pocket the invaluable gem; you have no doubt comprehended
its right meaning in your mind, and will now store its purport in the
casket of your breast.