RETURN OF KUMBHA TO THE HERMITAGE OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument.--Chúdálá's return after three days, and her rousing the
Prince from his trance.
Vasishtha said:--Now hear me relate to you about Sikhidhwaja, sitting a
block of wood on one side, and the reappearance of Chúdálá to him from
the other.
2. After Chúdálá had hypnotized her husband Sikhidhwaja, in her guise
of the sagely Kumbha; she disappeared from her, and traversed into the
regions of air.
3. She forsook her form of the son of the Divine sage in the empty
sky, and which she had took upon her by her magic spell. The enchanted
form melted away in the air, and she appeared in her female form of
beauteous fair.
4. She bent her airy course to her palace in the city, where she showed
herself as their queen, before her assembled attendants and courtiers,
and discharged the royal duties of her absent lord.
5. After three days she took again to her aerial journey, retook her
enchanted form of Kumbha, and advanced to the hermitage of Sikhidhwaja
in the forest.
6. She saw there the prince in his woodland retreat, and sitting in his
posture of deep meditation and resembling a figure carved in wood.
7. Seeing him thus, she exclaimed repeatedly in herself; O heyday! that
he is reposing here in his own soul, and is sitting quiet and tranquil
in himself.
8. I must now awaken him from his trance in the supreme Being, or else
his soul will soon forsake its mortal frame, owing to his disregard of
it, and the end of his worldly bondage by his excessive devotion.
9. It is desirable that he should live some time longer, either with
his royalty in the palace or with devotion in this forest; and then we
both of us will depart together, by shuffling our mortal coils.
10. It would be difficult to instruct him, in all (seven) stages of
devotion (saptama bhumi); and as there is no end of these things, I
will try to train him in the practical part of yoga only.
11. Thus pondering in herself she made a loud shout, which startled
the wild beasts; but did not rouse the entranced prince, though she
repeated her loud shouts before him.
12. When neither her shouts and shrieks could rouse him, who remained
unshaken as a stone in the rock; she shook him with her hands, to bring
him back to his sense.
13. Though shaken and moved and thrown down on the ground, yet the
prince neither awoke nor came to his senses; then Chúdálá thought on
another expedient in his guise of Kumbha.
14. She said, Ah! I see my lord is absorbed in his prophetic trance,
and I must find some expedient to rouse him to his sense.
15. Or why should I try to rouse him deified spirit back to its
sensation, when he so well absorbed in his state of disembodied or
abstract meditation (in which he enjoys himself and has forgotten his
embodiment in the material frame and become as the disembodied or
_videha_ spirit).
16. I also wish to get rid of my female form, and to reach that state
of supreme beatitude like him, which is free from further births and
transmigrations.
17. Thus thinking in herself, Chúdálá was about to abandon her own
body; when her better understanding recalled her undertaking that
attempt.
18. Let me feel the body of the prince at first, she said, whether
there is an end of his life, or there is any feeling or pulsation in
his heart.
19. Should he be alive, he must come back to his sense; as the juicy
root of trees, recalls the flowers in the flowering season of spring.
20. If he is alive he will walk about like myself, in his state of a
living liberated soul; but if he be found to be no longer living, then
I shall follow him to the next world.
21. With this mind Chúdálá felt his person, and examined it with her
eyes; and then perceiving him to be living, she thus said rejoicingly
to herself:
22. He has still the relic of his life, pulsating in his breast, the
beating of the pulse and the throbbing of his breast, show his life to
be not yet extinct.
23. Ráma said:--How can the little spark of the vital flame, be known
to reside in the body of the self distracted yogi; whose mind is as
cold as stone, and whose body becomes as callous as a clod of earth or
a block of wood.
24. Vasishtha replied:--The relic of life remains in the heart, as an
imperceptible atom and in the manner of sensibility; just as the future
fruits and flowers, are contained in their seeds.
25. The calm and cold yogi, who is devoid of his knowledge of unity and
duality, and views all things in the same light; who remains as quiet
as a rock and without the pulsation of his heart, has yet the vibration
of his intellect within him; (which keeps him alive).
26. The body of the temperate and tranquil minded man, never wastes
or swells in bulk; it never decays nor grows up in heights, but ever
remains in the same state.
27. The man whose mind vibrates with its thoughts of unity and duality
(_i.e._ which perceives the difference of things); has the change and
decay of his body, which is never the case with the yogi of unchangeful
mind. (The action of the mind impairs the body, but its inaction
preserves it entire).
28. The action of the heart, is the spring of the life of every body in
this world, just as the honey in the flower cup, is the cause of its
future fruit.
29. These frail bodies of mortals, are notwithstanding subject to the
fits of joy and anger, and of the quickness and dulness every moment;
and these, O Ráma! are the seeds of repeated births, and are hard to be
checked or subdued.
30. The mind being still and quiet, the body becomes as dull as it
were lifeless; when it is subject to no passion nor change whatever;
but remains as even as the still and clear firmament which nothing can
disturb.
31. The man of even and dispassionate mind, is never ruffled nor
tainted by any fault; but remains as calm as the waters of the
billowless and breezeless ocean.
32. The body is never lifeless, nor is its life ever imperceptible,
unless the mind is defunct in its action; and is in course of long
practice, that the mind becomes inexcitable and numb in itself.
33. The body which is without the action of its mind and vitality,
quickly melts away to rottenness; as the snow melts away under the
solar heat.
34. The body of Sikhidhwaja was felt to be hot, though it was without
its active mind; it was therefore known to be possessed of its
vitality, which prevented it from wasting and rotting away.
35. The noble lady, having perceived the body of her husband to be in
that plight; held it fastly with her hands, and began to consider what
to do with it.
36. She said, I will try to raise him by infusion of my intellection
into his mind; and this will no doubt bring him back to his senses.
37. If I do not raise him now, he must rise himself after sometime; but
why should I wait till then, and must remain alone all the while.
38. Having thought so, Chúdálá left her body--the frame work of the
senses; and entered into the body of the body and joined with the
intellectual essence of the same.
39. She then gave a vibration to the intellection of her living lord,
and after putting it in its action and motion, she returned to her own
body; as a bird flits on the twig of a tree which is shaken thereby,
it comes back to its own nest again.
40. She rose in her figure of the Bráhman boy Kumbha, and sat upon
a flowery bed, where she began to chaunt her hymns of the sáma veda
(psalmody); with her soft tunes resembling the melodious chime of
buzzing bees.
41. The prince felt an intellectual exhilaration, on hearing the
tuneful chime of the psalms; and his dormant life was awakened to its
sensibility, as the lotus bud comes to bloom by the breath of the
vernal season.
42. His eyelids oped to light, as the lotus bud blooms at the sunlight;
and the whole body of the prince, became vivid with his renewed life.
43. He beheld the Bráhman boy Kumbha, singing sáma psalms before him;
and appeared in his divinely fair form, as the divinity of music was
present in person.
44. O fortunate am I, said he, to have found my friendly Kumbha again
before me; and so saying, he picked up some flowers and offered them to
him.
45. O how great is my good fortune, said he to his guest, to be thus
recalled to your gracious memory; or what else is it, that could cause
a divine personage like yourself, to be so favourably disposed towards
me.
46. It is only the cause of my salvation, that has caused you to come
to and call at mine, or else what else can it be to bring a godson down
to revisit me.
47. Kumbha spoke:--O sinless prince, my mind was ever intent on thee,
ever since I departed from thee; and now it has come back to me, to
have found thee well in this place.
48. I do not reap so much delight in the ever delightful region of
heaven, as I do here in your presence; because I have the great work of
your redemption not pending before me.
49. I have no friend or companion, that is dearer to my soul than
yourself; nor have I any faithful pupil, nor confidential disciple like
you in this world.
50. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Ah! I see now that the arbours of this
mountain, are about to yield the fruits of my meritorious acts, that
have made a retired recluse like yourself to condescend to desire my
company.
51. If these woods and trees and myself who am so devoted to you,
should find favour in your sight than the bliss of your heavenly abode,
then may you please to take your residence with me in this lonely
forest.
52. For my part who am so blest with the gift of thy _samádhi_, that I
have always my perfect repose in God even in this place; have no desire
for heavenly delights (which cannot be better than my absorption in the
Divine spirit).
53. Reclining in that state of pure effulgence, I enjoy my fill of
heavenly bliss even in this earth below.
54. Kumbha interrogated:--Have you ever had your repose in the state of
supreme felicity, and were you ever freed from the infelicity, which is
ever attendant on the knowledge of duality.
55. Have you ever felt a disgust to all temporary enjoyments, and have
rooted out your taste for insipid pleasures of this earth.
56. Has your mind ever rested in that state of even indifference, which
has no liking for the desirable nor dislike to what is undesirable, but
is ever content with whatever awaits upon it at any time?
57. Sikhidhwaja replied:--It is by your favour sir, that I have seen
all what transcends human sights; that I have reached beyond the verge
of the universe, and obtained the best obtainable and most certain
bliss.
58. It is after long that I am freed from decay and disease, and gained
all which is to be gained, and wherewith I am quite content.
59. I require no further advice, from anyone for my edification; I feel
fully gratified with every thing in all places, and am quite at ease
and out of disease everywhere.
60. I have nothing to know that is unknown to me, and nothing to obtain
that is not obtained by one; I have forsaken whatever is not worth
having, and my soul has its reliance in the supreme essence.
61. I rest quite aloof of all, being devoid of my fear and error and
apathy at any thing; I am always manifest in the even and equal tenor
of my mind, and in the equality of my soul with all others; I am free
from all imagination, as the clear sky is free from all taint and
cloud.