CONSOLATION OF BHRIGU.
Argument. Bhrigu being acquainted with the powers of the mind and
Death, rose to repair to the spot where the body of Sukra was lying.
Yama said:—Among these various species of living creatures, which
resemble the waves of the ocean, and are as numerous as the plants and
creepers of spring:—
2. There are some persons among the Yakshas, Gandharvas and Kinnaras,
who have overcome the errors of their minds, and have well considered
every thing before and after them; that have become perfect in their
lives, and passing as the living liberated persons in this world.
3. Others there are among the moving and unmoving, that are as
unconscious of themselves as wood and stone; and many that are worn out
with error, and are incapable of judging for themselves. (Worn out with
error, means hardened in their ignorance).
4. But those that are awakened to sense, have the rich mine of the
sástras, framed by the enlightened, for the guidance of their souls.
(Hence it is for the sensible only to benefit themselves by learning).
5. Those who are awakened to sense, and whose sins are washed off; have
their understandings purified by the light of the sástras. (Lit., by
investigation into the sástras).
6. The study of good works, destroys the errors of the mind; as the
course of the sun in the sky, destroys the darkness of the night.
7. Those who have not succeeded to dispel the errors of their minds,
have darkened their understandings by a mist of ignorance; like the
frosty sky of winter, and they find the phantoms of their error,
dancing as demons before their eyes.
8. All living bodies are subject to pain and pleasure; but it is the
mind which constitutes the body, and not the flesh (which is insensible
of either).
9. The body that is seen to be composed of flesh and bones and the five
elemental parts, is a creation of the imagination of the mind, and has
no substantiality in it.
10. What your son had thought of in his mental body (mánas-saríra), the
same he found in the same body; and was not accountable to any body for
aught or whatever passed in his mind. (We are responsible for every act
of the body; but not so for the thoughts or reveries of the mind).
11. Whatever acts a man wills to do in his own mind, the same comes to
take place in a short time; and there is no other (foreign) agency of
anybody else required to bring them about.
12. Whatever the mind doth in a moment and of its own accord, and
actuated by its own will or desire, there is no body in the world, who
has the power to do or undo the same at any time. (The mind is master
of the act, and not the body, nor any body besides. Or; whatever the
mind sets about to do, it does it sooner than by the help of another).
13. The suffering of hell torments and enjoyment of heavenly bliss, and
the thoughts of birth and death; are all fabrications of the mind;
which labours under these thoughts. (It is the mind that makes a heaven
of hell and a hell of heaven).
14. What need I to tell more in the manner of verbose writers (on this
subject), than go together at once, to the place where your son is
situated.
15. He (Sukra) having tasted the pleasure and pain of all these states
at a moment’s thought of his mind, is now seated as a devotee on the
bank of Samangá, under the spreading beams of the moon. (The Gloss
speaks here of Sukra’s passing into many births, before his betaking
himself to devotion).
16. His vital breath having fled from his heart, became as the moonbeam
sparkling in a dew drop, which entered the uterus in the form of _semen
virilis_.
17. Saying so, the lord of death smiled to think of the course of
nature, and taking hold of Bhrigu’s hand in his own, they both departed
as the sun and moon together.
18. O wonderful is the law of nature! said Bhrigu slowly to himself,
and then rose higher and higher, as the sun ascends above his rising
mountain.
19. With their luminous bodies, they arrived at the spot of Samangá,
and shone on high above the tamála trees below. Their simultaneous
rising in the clear firmament, made them appear as the sun rising with
the full-moon over the cloudy horizon.
20. Válmíki said:—As the _muni_ (Vasishtha) was telling these things,
the sun went down his setting mountain, and the day departed to its
evening service. The court broke with mutual salutations, to perform
their evening rites and observances, after which they joined the
assembly at the dawn of the next day.[1]