QUERIES OF RÁMA.
Ráma said:—I have no reliance on the durability of life, which is as
transient as a drop of water that sticks to the point of a shaking
leaf on a lofty tree; and as short as the cusp of the moon on Siva’s
forehead.
2. I have no credit in the durability of life, which is transient as
the swelling that take place in the pouch of a frog while it croaks in
the meadow. Nor have I any trust in the company of friends, which are
as dangerous as the treacherous snare of hunters.
3. What can we do under the misty cloud of error (overhanging our
minds), and raising our tempestuous desires which flash forth in
lightnings of ambition, and burst out in the thunder claps of
selfishness?
4. How shall we save ourselves from the temptations of our desires
dancing like peacocks (and displaying their gaudy train) around us;
and from the bustle of the world breaking in upon us as thickly as the
blossoms of the _Kurchi_ plant.
5. How can we fly from the clutches of cruel Fate, who like a cat kills
the living as poor mice, and falls unwearied and unexpectedly upon his
prey in the twinkling of an eye.
6. What expedient, what course, what reflections, and what refuge must
we have recourse to, in order to avoid the unknown tracks of future
lives?
7. There is nothing so trifling in this earth below, or in the heavens
above, which ye gifted men cannot raise to consequence.
8. How can this accursed, troublesome and vapid world, be relished by
one unless he is infatuated by ignorance?
9. It is the fusion of desires, which produces the milky beverage of
contentment, and fills the earth with delights as the spring adorns it
with flowers.
10. Tell me O sage, how the mist of our desires, which darkens the moon
of our intellects, is to be dispelled from our minds, so as to make it
shine forth in its full brightness.
11. How are we to deal in this wilderness of the world, knowing well
that it is destructive both of our present and future interest?
12. What man is there that moves about in this ocean of the earth, who
has not to buffet in the waves of his passions and diseases, and the
currents of his enjoyments and prosperity.
13. Tell me, O thou best of sages, how one may escape unburnt like
mercury (in its chemical process), when fallen upon the furnace of the
earth.
14. (How can one get rid of the world) when it is impossible for him
to avoid dealing in it, in the same manner as it is not possible for
aquatic animals to live without their native element.
15. Our good deeds even are not devoid (of their motives) of affection
and hatred, pleasure and pain, similarly as no flame of fire is
unaccompanied by its power of burning.
16. As it is not possible to restrain the mind from thinking on worldly
matters, without the process of right reasoning, deign to communicate
to me therefore, the dictates of sound reason for my guidance.
17. Give me the best instruction for warding off the miseries (of the
world), either by my dealing with or renouncing (the affairs of life).
18. Tell me of that man of enlightened understanding who had attained
to the highest state of holiness and tranquility of his mind of yore,
and the deeds and manner by which he achieved the same.
19. Tell me good sir, how the saints (of old) fled out of the reach
of misery, that I may learn the same for suppression of my erroneous
conceptions.
20. Or if there be no such precept (as I am <in> need of) in existence,
or being _in esse_, it is not to be revealed to me by any body.
21. And should I fail of myself (by intuition) to attain that highest
state of tranquility, then I must remain inactive (as I am), and avoid
my sense of egoism altogether.
22. I will refrain from eating and drinking even of water, and from
clothing myself with apparels; I will cease from all my actions of
bathing and making my offerings, as also from my diet and the like.
23. I will attend to no duty, nor care about prosperity or calamity. I
will be free from all desires except that of the abandonment of this
body.
24. I must remain aloof from all fears and sympathies, from selfish
feelings and emulation, and continue to sit quietly as a figure in
painting.
25. I will gradually do away with the inspiration and respiration of my
breath and outward sensations; till I part with this trifle—the seat
all of troubles—this the so called body.
26. I do not belong to this body, nor does it belong to me, nor is any
thing else mine; I shall be null and void like the oil-less lamp, and
abandon every thing with this body.
27. Válmíki said:—Then Ráma who was as lovely as the moon, and
whose mind was well fraught with reasoning, became silent before the
assemblage of the eminent men, as the peacock ceases from his screaming
before the gathering clouds in awe.