DESCRIPTION OF SUKRA’S BODY.
Argument. The departed spirit of Sukra, remembers the state of its
former body.
Vasishtha related:—As Sukra was indulging his reveries in this manner,
he passed insensibly under the flight of a series of years, which
glided upon him in the presence of his father.
2. At last his arboraceous body withered away with age, under the
inclement sun and winds and rain; and it fell down on the ground as a
tree torn from its roots.
3. In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures
and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to
forest.
4. He underwent repeated births and deaths, in his wanderings in the
world in search of its enjoyments; and seemed as some thing whirled
about in a turning mill or wheel; till at last he found his rest in the
cooling beach of the rivulet.
5. Now the disembodied spirit of Sukra, remained to reflect on his past
transmigrations, in all the real and ideal forms of his imagination.
6. It thought of its former body on the Mandara mountain, and how it
was reduced to a skeleton of mere bones and skin by the heat of the sun
and his austerities (_i.e._ of the five fires _pancha-tapas_ of his
penance).
7. It remembered how the wind instrument of its lungs, breathed out the
joyous music of its exemption from the pain of action (to which all
other men were subjected). (It refers to the breathing of _so-ham
hamsah_ in yoga, which is the sweet music of salvation).
8. Seeing how the mind is plunged in the pit of worldly cares, the body
seems to laugh at it, by showing the white teeth of the mouth in
derision.
9. The cavity of the mouth, the sockets of the eyes, the nostrils and
ear-holes in the open face, are all expressive of the hollowness of
human and heavenly bodies (_i.e._ they are all hollow within, though
they seem to be solid without).
10. The body sheds the tears of its eyes in sorrow for its past pains
and austerities, as the sky rains after its excessive heat to cool the
earth.
11. The body was refreshed by the breeze and moon-beams, as the
woodlands are renovated by cooling showers in the rainy season.
12. It remembered how its body was washed on the banks of mountain
rills, by the water-falls from above, and how it was daubed by the
flying dust and the dirt of sin.
13. It was as naked as a withered tree, and rustling to the air with
the breeze; yet it withstood the keen blasts of winter as unshaken
devotion in person.
14. The faded face, the withered lungs and arteries, and the skinny
belly, resembled those of the goddess of famine, that cried aloud in
the forest, in the howlings of the wild beasts.
15. Yet the holy person of the hermit was unhurt by envious animals,
owing to its freedom from passions and feelings, and its fervent
devotion; and was not devoured by rapacious beasts and birds.
16. The body of Bhrigu’s son was thus weakened by his abstinence and
self-denial, and his mind was employed in holy devotion, as his body
lay prostrate on the bed of stones.