TRANSMIGRATIONS OF SUKRA.
Argument. Sukra fancies his fall from heaven, and passing through many
imaginary births.
Vasishtha related:—Thus the son of Bhrigu, believed himself to be in
the enjoyment of heavenly pleasures, in his ideal reveries.
2. He thought of enjoying the company of his beloved, bedecked with
garlands of _mandara_ flowers, and inebriated with the drink of
ambrosial draughts, like the full-moon accompanied by the evening star.
3. He roved about the ideal lake of heaven (Mánas Sarovara), filled
with golden lotuses, and frequented by the giddy swans and gabbling
geese or hansas of heaven; and roamed beside the bank of the celestial
river (Mandákiní), in company with the choristers (cháranas, and
Kinnaras of paradise).
4. He drank the sweet nectarious juice beaming as moonbeams in company
with the gods; and reposed under the arbours of the groves, formed by
the shaking branches of _párijáta_ plants.
5. He amused himself with his favourite Vidyádharís, in swinging
himself in the hanging cradles, formed by the shady creepers of the
arbour, and screening him from the vernal sunbeams.
6. The parterres of Nandana gardens were trodden down under the feet of
the fellow followers of Siva, as when the ocean was churned by the
_Mandara_ mountain.
7. The tender weeds and willows growing as golden shrubberies, and
tangled bushes in the beach of the river, were trampled under the legs
of heated elephants, as when they infest the lotus lakes on Meru.
(_i.e._ Lotuses growing in the lakes of mountainous regions).
8. Associated by his sweet-heart, he passed the moonlight nights in the
forest groves of Kailása, attending to the songs and music of heavenly
choristers.
9. Roaming on the table-lands of Gandhamádana mountain, he decorated
his beloved with lotus-garlands from her head to foot.
10. He roved with her to the polar mountain which is full of wonders,
as having darkness on one side and lighted on the other. Here they
sported together with their tender smiles and fond caresses and embrace.
11. He thought he remained in a celestial abode beside the marshy lands
of Mandara, for a period of full sixty years; and passed his time in
the company of the fauna of the place.
12. He believed he passed half a _yuga_ with his helpmate, on the
border of the milky ocean, and associated with the maritime people and
islanders of that ocean.
13. He next thought to live in a garden at the city of the Gandharvas,
where he believed to have lived for an immeasurable period like the
genius of Time himself, who is the producer of an infinity of worlds.
14. He was again translated to the celestial seat of Indra, where he
believed to have resided for many cycles of the quadruple _yuga_ ages
with his mistress.
15. It was at the end of the merit of their acts that they were doomed
to return on earth, shorn of their heavenly beauty and the fine
features of their persons.
16. Being deprived of his heavenly seat and vehicle, and bereft of his
godlike form and features; Sukra was overcome by deep sorrow, like a
hero falling in the field of warfare.
17. His great grief at his fall from heaven to earth, broke his frame
as it were into a hundred fragments; like a waterfall falling on the
stony ground, and breaking into a hundred rills below.
18. They with their emaciated bodies and sorrowful minds, wandered
about in the air, like birds without their nest.
19. Afterwards their disembodied minds entered into the net-work of
lunar beams, and then in the form of molten frost or rain water, they
grew the vegetables on earth.
20. Some of these vegetables were concocted, and then eaten by a
Bráhman in the land of Dasárna or confluence of the ten streams. The
substance of Sukra was changed to the semen of the Bráhman, and then
conceived as a son by his wife.
21. The boy was trained up in the society of the munis to the practice
of rigorous austerities, and he dwelt in the forests of Meru for a
whole _manwantara_, observant of his holy rites.
22. There he gave birth to a male child of human figure in a doe (to
which his mistress was transformed in her next birth), and became
exceedingly fond of the boy, to the neglect of his sacred duties.
23. He constantly prayed for the long life, wealth and learning of his
darling, and thus forsook the constancy of his faith and reliance in
Providence. (Longevity, prosperity and capacity for learning, are the
triple blessings of civil life, instead of austerity, purity and
self-resignation of painful asceticism).
24. Thus his falling off from the thought of heaven, to those of the
earthly aggrandizement of his son, made his shortened life an easy prey
to death, as the inhaling of air by the serpent. (It is said that the
serpent lives upon air, which it takes in freely in want of any other
food).
25. His worldly thoughts having vitiated his understanding, caused him
to be reborn as the son of the Madra king, and succeed to him in the
kingdom of the Madras (Madura-Madras).
26. Having long reigned in his kingdom of Madras by extirpation of all
his enemies, he was overtaken at last by old age, as the lotus-flower
is stunted by the frost.
27. The king of Madras, was released of his kingly person by his desire
of asceticism; whereby he became the son of an anchorite in next-birth,
in order to perform his austerities.
28. He retired to the bank of the meandering river of the Ganges, and
there betook himself to his devotion; being devoid of all his worldly
anxieties and cares.
29. Thus the son of Bhrigu, having passed in various forms in his
successive births, according to the desires of his heart; remained at
last as a fixed arbour on the bank of a running stream.