ADMONITION OF CHÚDÁLÁ.
Argument.--Obligation of the Prince for the instructions of his
Monitor. And his attaining the Jívan-mukta emancipation in lifetime.
Vasishtha said:--After the prince had so far attended to the lectures
of Kumbha, he remained for some time in silent and deep meditation of
his soul as if in a state of trance.
2. He continued with his intent-mind and fixed eyes and quite
speechless all the while, and resembled the figure of a silent sage,
and a carved statue without its motion and sensation.
3. And then as he awoke after a while with his twinkling eyes, he was
thus accosted by Chúdálá in her disguised form of Kumbha the Bráhman
youth.
4. Kumbha said:--Say prince, how you enjoyed yourself in your short
lived trance; did you feel in it that sweet composure of thy soul, as
the yogis experience in their bed of steadfast meditation and unshaken
hypnotism?
5. Say, were you awakened in your inmost soul, and set at large beyond
the region of error and darkness; say, have you known the knowable one,
and seen what is to be seen?
6. Sikhidhwaja replied--O Sir, it was by your good grace, that I have
beheld a great glory in the most high heaven of heavens.
7. I have beheld a state of bliss which is full of ambrosial delight,
never yet known to mortals, and whose sight is the most ultimate reward
of the wishes of the best and most intelligent men, and of saints and
mahátmas of great and high souls.
8. It is in your society today, that I have felt a delight, to which I
have never experienced in my life before.
9. O lotus eyed sage! I have heretofore, never enjoyed such a degree
of spiritual bliss which knows no bounds and is a sea of ambrosial
delight.
10. Kumbha said:--The mind becomes composed and tranquil, after
subordination of its desire of enjoyments, and its indifference to the
taste of sweet and bitter, and its full control over the organs of
sense.
11. There arises a peace in the mind, which is purer than any earth
born delight; and is as delightsome as the dew drops falling from
flowers under the bright beams of cooling moonlight night.
12. It is today, O prince, that your bad desires like the bitter taste
of bodies, are bettered by your advancement in knowledge.
13. It is by your holiness, O lotus-eyed prince, that the filth of your
person is purged out; like the fruits of trees, falling off after they
are ripened.
14. As the desire of the impure heart, becomes purified by reason it
is then only capable of receiving the instructions of the wise, as
the pipe draws the water inside. (Else, advising the fool is folly or
spreading pearls before swines).
15. After the bitterness of your disposition, was tempered by my
lectures; you have been awakened today to your spiritual knowledge by
me.
16. You are just now cleansed from your impurity, and immediately
purified by your pure knowledge; even now it is that you have received
my admonition, and have been instantly awakened to your knowledge.
17. You are purged today, from the merits and demerits of your good and
bad conduct; and it is by the influence of good society, that you have
got a new life in you.
18. It was before the midday of this day, that I have come to know the
edification and regeneration of your soul to spiritual light.
19. I find you now, O prince, to be wakened in your mind, by your
taking my words to your heart; and having now got rid of the feelings
of your mind, you are awakened to your spiritual knowledge.
20. As long as the mind has its seat and operations in the heart of
man, so long does it retain its companion of ignorance by its side;
but no sooner doth the mind forsake its residence in the heart, than
pure knowledge comes to shine forth in it as the midday light.
21. It is the suspense of the mind between unity and duality, that is
called its ignorance; and it is the subsidence of these that is known
as knowledge, and the way to the salvation of the soul.
22. You are now awakened and emancipated, and your mind is driven
away from your heart; you are now the reality and rescued from your
unreality, and are set beyond this world of unreality. (The spiritual
state is held to be real and all else as unreal).
23. Rest in the pure state of thy soul, by being devoid of cares and
anxieties; forsaking all society and relying your soul in no body and
in nothing here; and by your becoming as the devout and Divine and
silent sage or saint or _muni_.
24. Sikhidhwaja said:--So I see sir, that all ignorant people rely
mostly on their minds; but the few that are awakened to the knowledge
of God, do not mind their minds (_i.e._ they are not led away by the
inclinations of their minds).
25. Now sir, please tell me, how the living liberated men conduct
themselves in their lifetime in this world; and how do these unmindful
men like yourself, manage yourselves herein.
26. O! tell me fully and dispel by the lustre of your glowing words,
the deep darkness that is seated in my heart.
27. Kumbha replied:--All that you say prince, is exact and
incontrovertible truth; the minds of the living liberated men are dead
in themselves, and like blocks of stone, never vegetate nor sprout
forth in the wishes.
28. The gross desire that germinates in its wishes, which become the
causes of the regeneration of men in some form or other, is known by
the name of mind; and which becomes altogether extinct in men, knowing
the truly knowable one.
29. The desire which guides the knowers of truth, in this life of
action (or the active life) in the world; is known by the name of
goodness (satva), and which is unproductive of future birth.
30. The great-souled and living liberated men, being placed in their
quality of goodness and having their organs under control; do not place
any reliance in their minds.
31. The darkened mind is called the mind, but the enlightened one is
known as the principle of goodness; the unenlightened rely in their
minds, but enlightened men of great understanding confide in their
goodness only.
32. The mind is repeatedly born with the body, but the nature of
goodness is never reborn any more; the unawakened mind is under
perpetual bondage, but the enlightened soul is under no restraint.
33. Now sir, you are become of the nature of goodness, and deserves the
title of the forsaker of all things; and I understand you to have quite
got rid of the propensities of your mind.
34. I find you today as brilliant as the full moon, freed from the
shadows of the eclipse; and your mind to have become as lucid as the
clear firmament, without any tinge in it.
35. You have got that equanimity, which is characteristic of the
consummate yogi; this is called that total renunciation of all, which
you exhibit in yourself.
36. The enlightened understanding is freed from the trammels, of its
desire of heaven and future rewards, and its observance of austerities
and charity, by means of its superior knowledge. (The divine knowledge
is called the superior or _parávidyá_ in opposition to the worldly or
_aparávidyá_).
37. All austerities and mortifications, serve but to procure a short
lived cessation of pain; but the happiness which is wholly free from
its decay, is to be found only in one's equanimity and indifference
under all circumstances of life. (The original word is _samatá_ or the
sameness or evenness of disposition at all times).
38. That thing must be truly good, which is different from the
enjoyment of temporary bliss of heaven, and altogether different from
an existent pleasure, which is both preceded as well as followed by
pain.
39. We are all doubtful of the happiness, that most await on us
hereafter in heaven; and what are our religious acts, but for the
purpose of procuring some happiness to those, who are unacquainted with
the consummate felicity of their souls, derived from their spiritual
knowledge.
40. Let them use their ornaments of brass, who have no gold ornaments
for their persons; so let the ignorant adhere to their ritual and not
the wise who are quite happy in their knowledge. But you, O prince,
have happily come both to your knowledge and happiness in the company
of Chúdálá and others.
41. Why therefore are you devoted in vain, to the observance of your
austerities; because the mortifications and penance of asceticism, are
prescribed for the expiation of the prior misdeeds of men (and neither
for their salvation or eternal felicity of the souls).
42. The beginning and end of asceticism are both attended with pain,
the middle alone promises a short and temporary happiness; and as
mortifications are mere preparatory to the purification of the soul.
(it is better to acquire this purity by divine knowledge, than by the
painful practices of hermitage).
43. Remain steady in that pure knowledge, which is said to be the
result of penitence; and the purity of the soul being had with the
clearness of the intellectual sphere, all things and thoughts will be
as perspicuous to view as in the clear light of the sky.
44. All things are seen to rise and disappear in the vacuous sphere of
the divine intellect, and the thoughts of our good and bad actions,
are as the drops of rain which mix with the waters of the immeasurable
ocean of the Divine soul.
45. Therefore, O Sikhidhwaja, abandon the barren soil (of rituals), and
resort to the abundant field (of divine knowledge); and ask of me to
know your best good, as men desire to know of their best friends.
46. As a wife that requires her husband, refrains from asking petty
things of him; so should you refrain from asking of trifling blessings
from thy God, if thou dost require thy communion with him. And know
the objects of thy desire, are not always for thy good. (Therefore let
his will be done and not theirs).
47. As no wise man runs to grasp the sun, in his reflexion in the
water; so should you never pursue after the pleasures of heaven or
felicity of liberation, after thou hast found him in thy own spirit.
(Better to posses the whole God than pray for a partial blessing).
48. Forsake what is unstable, though it may appear as stable to thee;
and thou always stable, by leaving the unstable to perish by itself.
(_i.e._ All adscititious properties are unstable).
49. Knowing the instability of things, preserve the stability of thy
mind, because the motionless mind perceives no fluctuation of its
thoughts, nor the changes and motions of things (as in sound sleep).
50. All our evils proceed from the acts of our bodies, as well as from
the thoughts and action of our minds; these two are main springs of the
miseries of men, in all places and times.
51. Curb the fickleness of your mind, and be ever calm and quiet; if
you desire to enjoy the happiness of quiet and rest.
52. Know all motions and its want to dwindle into perfect rest, in the
mind of the truly wise men; hold them therefore in equal light and be
happy forever.
53. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me sir, how can the motion and force of a
thing be one and the same with its immobility and rest; and you who are
the remover of my doubts, will I dare say quickly clear this point to
me.
54. Kumbha replied:--There is one thing only, which also the all and
whole of this universe; it is as the water of the sea, and is agitated
by its intelligence, as the sea water is agitated into billows.
55. The immensity of Brahma, which is named the only essence and is of
the form of the pure intellect; is beheld in the shape of the formal
world by the ignorant.
56. The agitation of the intellect is all in all in the world and
constitute the moving principle of the universe (or the main spring of
the cosmos).
57. The agitation of the intellect being concomitant with the divine
spirit, it is alike to its stillness, and the unity of these two forms
the spirit of God called Siva or Zeus.
58. The agitation of the divine spirit in the work of creation,
vanishes before the sight of perfect understandings; though it appears
to be in active operation to the ignorant, who view it as they do a
false snake in the rope.
59. The intellect is ever busy and active, from which it derives its
name (chit--intellect). But the inactive spirit which is all pervasive,
is both inexpressible as well as inconceivable, owing to its devoid of
all attributes (turíyátíta).
60. It is by long study of the sástras and association with the wise,
as also by continued practice of yoga, that the light of the supreme
spirit dawns in the inner soul, like the rising moon with her benign
beams.
61. The supreme spirit is only to be perceived by our understanding,
from the benign rays which it spreads over it; and this says by the
wise to be the light of the holy spirit.
62. You have now known the essence of your soul, which is without its
beginning, middle and end, and must for ever continue in it as your
real and true state; there is no other distinct form of the great
intellectual soul, wherefore know this as yourself, and remain from all
sorrow and pain.