SUKRA’S REMINISCENCE OF HIS METEMPSYCHOSIS.
Argument. Bhrigu and Yama’s Expostulation with Sukra, and desiring him
to return to his former state.
Vasishtha said:—Now as Yama and Bhrigu departed from the cavern of the
Mandara mountain, and proceeded towards the bank of Samangá river:—
2. They beheld upon their descending from the mountain, a great light
below; proceeding from the bodies of the celestials, sleeping in the
arbours of aureate creepers.
3. The birds were sporting in their sprays, formed by the cradling
creepers under the canopy of heaven; and the lovely antelopes looking
face to face, with their eyes resembling the blue-lotuses.
4. They beheld the Siddhas, sitting on their stony seats upon the
elevated rocks; with their bodies full of vigour, and their eyes
looking on the spheres with defiance.
5. They saw the lords of the elephantine tribe, with their big trunks
as large as the palm trees, and plunging in the lakes covered with
flowers, falling incessantly from the beachening boughs, and branches
of flowering trees.
6. They saw the mountain bulls (Bos guavus) dozing in their giddiness,
and sitting as ebriety in person; while their bodies were reddened by
the red dust of flowers, and their tails flushed with the crimson
farina blown by the breeze.
7. There were the brisk and beautiful _chowri_ deer serving as flappers
of the mountain king, and dousing in the pools filled with falling
flowers.
8. They saw the Kinnara lads sitting on the tops of straight and
stately date trees, and sporting with pelting the date fruits upon one
another, which stuck to the reeds below as their fruits.
9. They beheld big monkeys, jumping about with their hideous reddish
cheeks, and hiding themselves in the coverts of widespreading creepers.
10. They saw the Siddhas, to be hit by the celestial damsels with
blossoms of mandara flowers, and clad with vests of the tawny clouds by
which they were shrouded.
11. The uninhabited skirts of the mountain, were as the solitary walks
of Buddhist vagrants; and the rivulets at its foot, were gliding with
their currents covered under the _kunda_ and _mandara_ flowers, as if
they were running to meet the sea, mantled in their yellow vests of the
spring season.
(It is well known that the vernal vesture of damsels, is of the yellow
colour of the farina of flowers, and the rivulets are poetically
figured as females hastening towards their lord the sea
(saritám-pathih)).
12. The trees decorated with wreaths of flowers, and shaken by the
breeze, seemed as bacchanals giddy with the honey of the flowers, and
rolling their dizzy eyes formed of the fluttering bees.
13. They walked about here and there, and looked at and admired the
grandeur of the mountain, till at last they alighted on the nether
earth, decorated with its cities and human habitations.
14. They arrived in a moment at the bank of Samangá, flowing with the
loosened flowers of all kinds, as if it were a bed of flowers by itself.
15. Bhrigu beheld his son on one of its banks, with his body changed to
another form, and his features quite altered from his former state.
16. His limbs were stiff, and his sense at a stand still, as he sat
with his mind fixed on steady meditation. He seemed to be long at rest,
in order to get his rest from the turmoils of the world.
17. He thought upon the course of the currents of the world, which are
continually gliding with successive joy and sorrow to man, who gets rid
of them after his long trial.
18. He became motionless as a wheel, after its long winded motion; and
found his rest after his prolonged whirling, in the whirlpool of the
ocean of the world.
19. He sat retired as a lover, solely reclined on the thought of his
beloved object in his retirement; and his mind was at rest, after its
long wanderings.
20. He sat in a state of uniform meditation, without a shadow of
biplicity in it; and was smiling with a cold apathy at all the pursuits
of mankind.
21. Liberated from all concerns, and released from the enjoyments of
life, and disenthralled from the snare of desires and fancies, he
rested in the supreme bliss of the soul.
22. His soul was at rest, in the everlasting rest of God; as the pure
crystal catches the colour of the gem, which is contiguous to it.
23. Bhrigu beheld his son in the calmly composed and awakened state of
his mind, and freed alike both from his thoughts of what was desirable,
as also from his hatred against what was disgusting. (God is said to be
eternally at rest the six days creation, but an act of his Mind, Will,
Word, Fiat, Logos or Brahmá).
24. Yama seeing the son of Bhrigu, said to the father in a voice,
hoarse as the sounding sea. ‘Lo there thy son.’
25. “Awake”, said he to Bhárgava, which startled him from his
meditation, as the roaring of a cloud, rouses the slumbering peacock
from his summer sleep.
26. Upon opening and lifting up his eyes, he beheld the god standing
with his father on one side, who being pleased at his sight, glowed in
their countenances like the disks of the sun and moon.
27. He rose from his seat of Kadamba leaves, and made his obeisance to
them, who appeared to have come to him like the gods Hari and Hara in
the disguise of a couple of Bráhmans.
28. After their mutual salutations, they were seated on a slab of
stone, and appeared as the venerable gods Vishnu and Siva, were seated
on the pinnacle of Meru.
29. The Bráhman boy, having ended the muttering of his mantras on the
bank of Samangá, accosted them with a voice distilling as the sweet
nectarine juice of ambrosia _amrita_ or water of life (_aqua-vitae_ or
_abi haiyát_).
30. “I am emancipated, my lords, at your sight this day (from all
earthly cares), as you have blessed me by your sights, resembling those
of the sun and moon, appearing together to view.” (Lit. as the orbs of
the cooling and dazzling beams. (_himánsu and ushnánsu_)).
31. The darkness, which reigned in my mind, and which no light of the
sástras or spiritual or temporal knowledge, nor even my austerities
could remove, is dispelled today by the light of your presence.
32. A kind look of the great, gives as much joy to the mind, as
draughts of pure ambrosia, serve to satisfy the heart.
33. Tell me who are you, whose feet have sanctified this place; as the
glorious orbs of the day and night, enlighten the firmament.
34. Being addressed in this manner, Bhrigu desired him to remember his
prior births, which he could well do, by his enlightened understanding.
35. Bhrigu made him acquainted with the state of his former birth, and
he remembered it instantly by the clairvoyance of his inward sight.
36. He was struck with wonder at the remembrance of his former state,
and smiled with a joyous face and gladsome heart, to ponder on what he
had been; and then uttered as follows.
37. Blessed is the law of the Supreme Being, which is without its
beginning or end, and is known as destiny here below; and by whose
power the world is revolving as a curricle.
38. I see my countless and unknown births, and the innumerable
accidents to which they were subject, for the period of a whole kalpa
or duration of the world from first to last. (The Soul being immortal,
has to pass into infinite births under various shapes and forms of
bodies. If it were to lie dormant in the grave for ever what is the
good of its being made or created to be immortal?)
39. I have undergone great hardships, and known prosperity also with
the toil of earning; have had my wanderings also in different lives,
and remember to have roamed for a long time, over the mountainous
regions of Meru.
40. I drank the water reddened with the pollen of mandara flowers, and
roved along the bank of the heavenly stream of Mandákiní filled with
lotuses.
41. I wandered about the Mandara groves, filled with flowering creepers
like gold, and under the shade of the kalpa arbors of Meru, and in the
flowery plains above and about it.
42. There is naught of good or evil, which I have not tasted or felt or
done myself; nor is there anything, which I have not seen and felt and
known in my past lives.
43. I have now known the knowable (that is to be known), and seen the
imperishable one in whom I have my repose. I have now rested after my
toils were over, and have passed beyond the domain of error and
darkness.
44. Now rise, O father! and let us go to see that body, lying on the
Mandara mount, and which is now dried as a withered plant.
45. I have no desire to remain in this place, nor go anywhere of my own
will; it is only to see the works of fate, that we wander all about.
46. I will follow you, with my firm belief in the one adored Deity of
the learned. Let that be the desirable object of my mind, and I will
act exactly in conformity with my belief.