STORY OF DÁSÚRA.
Argument. Description of the vanity of worldly enjoyments, illustrated
in the tale of Dásúra.
Vasishtha continued:—All worldly men that are engaged in a variety of
business, and are perverted in their understandings with a desire of
opulence and enjoyments; can never learn the truth, until they get rid
of their worldliness.
2. He only who has cultivated his understanding, and subdued his
sensual organs, can perceive the errors of the world, as one knows a
_bel_ fruit held in his hand (_i.e._ as one knows the places on earth
in a small globe).
3. Any rational being, who scans well the errors of the world, forsakes
his delusion of egoism, as a snake casts off his slough.
4. Being thus paralysed (unconscious) of his selfishness, he has no
more to be born; as a fried grain can never germinate, though it is
sown in the field, and lies for ever in it.
5. How pitiable is it that ignorant men take so much pains for the
preservation of their bodies, which are ever subject to diseases and
dangers; and liable to perish to-day or to-morrow at the expense of
their souls.
6. Do not therefore, O Ráma! take so much care for the dull body like
the ignorant; but regard only for the welfare of thy soul.
7. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, the story of Dásúra, which is illustrative
of the visionary and air-drawn form of this rotatory universe, which is
all hollow within.
8. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me rehearse to you, O Ráma! the narrative of
Dásúra, in illustration of the delusive form of the world, which is no
more than the air-built utopia of our brains.
9. There is on the surface of this land, the great and opulent province
of Magadha, which is full of flower trees of all kinds.
10. There is a forest of wide extending kadamba groves, which was the
pleasant resort of charming birds of various sorts and hues.
11. Here the wide fields were full of corns and grains, and the skirts
of the land were beset by groves and arbours; and the banks of rivulets
were fraught with the lotuses and water lilies in their bloom.
12. The groves and alcoves resounded with the melodious strains of
rustic lasses, and the plains were filled with blades of blossoms,
bedewed by the nightly frost, and appearing as arrows of the god of
love, _Káma_.
13. Here at the foot of a mountain, decked with _karnikara_ flowers,
and beset by rows of plantain plants and kadamba trees, was a secluded
spot over-grown with moss and shrubs.
14. It was sprinkled over with the reddish dust of crimson flowers
borne by the winds, and was resonant to the warblings of water fowls,
singing in unison with the melodious strains of aquatic cranes.
15. On the sacred hill overhanging that spot, there rose a kadamba
arbor, crowded by birds of various kinds; and there dwelt on it a holy
sage of great austerity.
16. He was known by the name of Dásúra, and was employed in his austere
devotion; sitting on a branch of his kadamba tree with his exalted
soul, and devoid of passions.
17. Ráma said:—I want to know Sir, whence and how that hermit came to
dwell in that forest, and why he took his seat on that high _kadamba
tree_.
18. Vasishtha replied:—He had for his father, the renowned sage
_Saraloman_, residing in the same mountain, and resembling the great
Brahmá in his abstract meditation.
19. He was the only son of that sire, like Kacha the only progeny of
Brihaspati, the preceptor of the gods, with whom he came to dwell in
the forest from his boyhood.
20. Saraloma having passed many years of his life in this manner, left
his mortal frame for his heavenly abode, as a bird quits its nest to
fly into the air.
21. Dásúra being left alone in that lonely forest, wept bitterly and
lamented over the loss of his father, with as loud wailings as the
shrieks of a heron upon separation from its mate.
22. Being bereft of both his parents, he was full of sorrow and grief
in his mind; and then he began to fade away as the lotus blossom in
winter.
23. He was observed in this sad plight by the sylvan god of that wood,
who taking compassion on the forlorn youth, and accosted him unseen in
an audible voice and said:—
24. O sagely son of the sage! why weepest thou as the ignorant, and why
art thou so disconsolate, knowing the instability of worldly things?
25. It is the state of this frail world, that everything is unstable
here; and it is the course of nature that all things are born to live
and perish afterwards into nothingness.
26. Whatever is seen here from the great Brahmá down to the meanest
object, is all doomed to perish beyond a doubt.
27. Do not therefore wail at the demise of thy father, but know like
the rising and falling sun, every thing is destined to its rise and
fall. (Here sun—the lord of the day—_ahah-pati_, is spelt _aharpati_ by
a _várttika_ of Kátyáyna).
28. Hearing this oracular voice, the youth wiped his eyes red hot with
weeping; and held his silence like the screaming peacock at the loud
sound of the clouds. (The pea-cock is said to cry at the sight, but to
be hushed at the sound of a rainy cloud).
29. He rose up and performed the funeral ceremonies of his sire, with
devoutness of his heart; and then set his mind to the success of his
steady devotion.
30. He was employed in the performance of his austerities according to
the Bráhmanic law, and engaged himself in discharging his ceremonial
rites by the Srauta ritual, for the accomplishment of his sundry vows.
31. But not knowing the knowable (Brahma), his mind could not find its
rest in his ceremonial acts, nor found its purity on the surface of the
stainless earth. (The earth appears sullied to the tainted soul, but it
is all unstained to the taintless soul, which views it full with the
holy spirit of God).
32. Not knowing the fulness of the world with divine spirit, and the
holiness of the earth in every place, he thought the ground polluted
(by the original sin), and did not find his repose any where.
33. Therefore he made a vow of his own accord, to take his seat on the
branch of a tree, which was untainted with the pollution of the earth.
(Because the Lord said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake”; but not so
the trees growing upon it).
34. Henceforth said he, “I will perform my austerities on these
branching arbours, and repose myself like birds and sylvan spirits, on
the branches and leaves of trees.”
35. Thus sitting on high, he kindled a flaming fire beneath him, and
was going to offer oblations of living flesh on it, by paring bits of
his shoulder blade (mixed with blood).
36. When the god of fire thought in himself that, as fire is the mouth
whereby the gods receive their food, the offering of a Bráhman’s flesh
to it, would wholly burn down their faces. (Fire is the mouth of gods,
says Veda, because the gods of early Aryans were distinguished from the
savages for their taking cooked food and meat, while the latter took
them raw for want of their knowledge of kindling fire. Again all flesh
was palatable to the gods, except that of their brotherhood—Bráhmans).
37. Thinking so, the god of fire appeared before him in his full blaze,
as the luminous sun appeared before the lord of speech—Brihaspati or
Jupiter.
38. He uttered gently and said, “Accept young Bráhman your desired boon
from me, as the owner of a store, takes out his treasure from the chest
in which it is deposited”.
39. Being thus accosted by the god, the Bráhman boy saluted him with a
laudatory hymn; and after adoring him with suitable offerings of
flowers, addressed him in the following manner.
40. “Lord! I find no holy place upon earth, which is full of iniquity
and sinful beings; and therefore pray of thee to make the tops of
trees, the only places for my abode.”
41. Being thus besought by the Bráhman boy, the god pronounced “Be it
so” from his flaming mouth, and vanished from his sight.
42. As the god disappeared from before him, like the day-light from the
face of the lotus-flower; the son of the sage being fully satisfied
with his desired boon, shone forth in his face like the orb of the full
moon.
43. Conscious of the success of his desire, his gladdened countenance
brightened with his blooming smiles; just as the white lotus blushes
with its smiling petals, no sooner it perceives the smiling moonbeams
falling upon it.