here as one supremely-rich; and knowing all that is to be known, I see
the sights that are invisible to others.
47. I have now got that in which nothing can be wanting, and wherein
there is no want besides; it is by my good fortune that I am freed from
all evils, and the venomous serpents of worldly cares.
48. My chill and frigid ignorance is melted down, by the light of
knowledge; and the hot mirage of my desires, is now quenched and cooled
by my quietude: I see the clear sky on all sides without any mist or
dust and I rest under the cooling umbrage of the tranquility of my
soul.
49. It is by my glorification of God, and my thanksgivings to Vishnu,
my holy rites and also by my divine knowledge and quietism; that I have
obtained by grace of my God, a spacious room and elevated position in
spirituality.
50. I have got that god in my spirit, and have seen and known him also
in his spiritual form. He is beyond my own ego, and I remember him
always in this manner.
51. I remember Vishnu as the great Spirit, and eternal Brahma in his
nature; while my egoism or selfishness is confined as a snake, in the
holes of my organic frame, which is wholly the land of death. (The
animal soul is born to die with the mortal body).
52. It is entangled in the bushes of its pricking desires, resembling
the prickly _karanja_ ferns; and amidst the tumults of raging passions,
and a thousand other broils of this world.
53. It is placed amidst the conflagration of calamities, and is
encircled by the flames of smart pain at all times; it is subjected
to continual ups and downs of fortune, and repeated risings and
fallings in its journey in this world.
54. It has its repeated births and deaths, owing to its interminable
desires; and thus I am always deceived by this great enemy—my own
egoism.
55. The animal soul is powerless at night, as if it were caught in the
clutches of a demon in the forest; so I feel it now to be deprived of
its power and action, while I am in this state of my meditation. (The
animal spirit is dormant in its states of physical and spiritual
trance).
56. It is by grace of Vishnu, that the light of my understanding is
roused; and as I see my God by means of this light, I lose the sight of
my demoniac egoism (_i.e._ I become unconscious of my existence at the
sight of my Lord).
57. The sight of the demoniac egoism dwelling in the cavity of my mind,
disappears from my view in the like manner; as the shadow of darkness
flies from the light of a lamp, and as the shade of night is dispersed
by day light.
58. As you know not where the flame of the lighted lamp is fled, after
it is extinguished; so we know not where our lordly egoism is hid, at
the sight of our God before us.
59. My rich egoism flies at the approach of reason, as a heavy loaded
robber, flies before the advance of day light; and our false egoism
vanishes as a demon, at the rising of the true Ego of God.
60. My egoism being gone, I am set at ease like a tree, freed from a
poisonous snake rankling in its hollow cavity. I am at rest and in my
insensibleness in this world, when I am awakened to my spiritual light.
61. I have escaped from the hand of my captor, and gained my permanent
ascendency over others; I have got my internal coldness _sang froid_,
and have allayed the mirage of my thirst after vain glory.
62. I have bathed in the cold bath of rain water, and am pacified as a
rock after the cooling of its conflagration; I am cleansed of my
egoism, by my knowledge of the true meaning of the term.
63. What is ignorance and what are our pains and affliction? what are
our evil desires, and what are our diseases and dangers? All these with
the ideas of heaven and liberation, together with the hope of heaven
and the fear of hell, are but false conceptions proceeding from our
egoism or selfishness (or the cravings and loathings of our hearts).
64. As a picture is drawn on a canvas and not in empty air, so our
thoughts depend on our selfish principle and upon its want. And as it
is the clear linen, that receives the yellow colour of saffron; so it
is the pure soul that receives the image of God. It is egoism which
vitiates the soul with the bilious passions of the heart, as a dirty
cloth vitiates a goodly paint, with its inborn taint.
65. Purity of the inward soul, is like the clearness of the autumnal
sky; it is devoid of the cloudiness of egoism, and the drizzling drops
of desires. (_i.e._ A pure soul is as clear as the unclouded sky).
66. I bow down to thee, O my soul inmost! that art a stream of bliss to
me, with pure limpid waters amidst, and without the dirt of egoism
about thee.
67. I hail thee, O thou my soul! that art an ocean of joy to me,
uninfested by the sharks of sensual appetites, and undisturbed by the
submarine fire of the latent mind.
68. I prostrate myself before thee, O thou quick soul of mine! that art
a mountain of delight to me, without the hovering clouds of egoistic
passions, and the wild fires of gross appetites and desires.
69. I bow to thee, O thou soul in me! that art the heavenly lake of
Manas to me, with the blooming lotuses of delight, and without the
billows of cares and anxieties.
70. I greet thee my internal spirit! that floatest in the shape of a
swan (hansa) in the lake of the mind (manas) of every individual, and
residest in the cavity of the lotiform cranium (Brahmárandhra), with
thy outstretched wings of consciousness and standing.
71. All hail to thee, O thou full and perfect spirit! that art the
undivided and immortal soul, and appearest in thy several parts of the
mind and senses; like the full-moon containing all its digits in its
entire self.
72. Obeisance to the sun of my intellect! which is always in its
ascendency and dispels the darkness of my heart; which pervades
everywhere, and is yet invisible or dimly seen by us.
73. I bow to my intellectual light, which is an oilless lamp of benign
effulgence, and burns in full blaze within me and without its wick. It
is the enlightener of nature, and quite still in its nature.
74. Whenever my mind is heated by cupid’s fire, I cool it by the
coolness of my cold and callous intellect coolness; as they temper the
red-hot iron with a cold and hard hammer.
75. I am gaining my victory over all things, by killing my egoism by
the Great Ego; and by making my senses and mind to destroy themselves.
76. I bow to thee, O thou all subduing faith, that dost crush our
ignorant doubt by thy wisdom; dispellest the unrealities by thy
knowledge of the reality, and removest our cravings by thy
contentedness.
77. I subsist solely as the transparent spirit, by killing my mind by
the great Mind, and removing my egoism by the sole Ego, and by driving
the unrealities by the true Reality.
78. I rely my body (_i.e._ I depend for my bodily existence), on the
moving principle of my soul only; without the consciousness of my
self existence, my egoism, my mind and all its efforts and actions.
79. I have obtained at last of its own accord, and by the infinite
grace of the Lord of all, the highest blessing of cold heartedness and
_insouciance_ in myself.
80. I am now freed from the heat of my feverish passions, by subsidence
of the demon of my ignorance; from disappearance of the goblin of my
egoism.
81. I know not where the falcon of my false egoism has fled, from the
cage of my body, by breaking its string of desires to which it was fast
bound in its feet.
82. I do not know whither the eagle of my egotism is flown, from its
nest in the arbor of my body, after blowing away its thick ignorance
as dust.
83. Ah! where is my egoism fled, with its body besmeared with the dust
and dirt of worldliness, and battered by the rocks of its insatiable
desires? It is bitten by the deadly dragons of fears and dangers, and
pierced in its hearts by repeated disappointments and despair.
84. O! I wonder to think what I had been all this time, when I was
bound fast by my egoism in the strong chain of my personality.
85. I think myself a new born being to-day, and to have become
highminded also, by being removed from the thick cloud of egoism, which
had shrouded me all this time.
86. I have seen and known, and obtained this treasure of my soul, as it
is presented to my understanding, by the verbal testimonies of the
sástras, and by the light of inspiration in my hour of meditation
(samádhi).
87. My mind is set at rest as extinguished fire, by its being released
from the cares of the world; as also from all other thoughts and
desires and the error of egoism. I am now set free from my affections
and passions, and all delights of the world, as also my craving after
them.
88. I have passed over the impassable ocean of dangers and
difficulties, and the intolerable evils of transmigration; by the
disappearance of my internal darkness, and sight of the One Great God
in my intellect.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
HYMN TO THE SOUL.
Argument. Prahláda getting the light of his internal soul, delights
himself as one in the company of his sweet-heart.
Prahláda continued:—I thank thee, O lord and great spirit! that art
beyond all things, and art found in myself by my good fortune.
2. I have no other friend, O my Lord, in the three worlds except thee;
that dost vouchsafe to embrace and look upon me, when I pray unto thee.
3. It is thou that preservest and destroyest all, and givest all things
to every body; and it is thou, that makest us move and work, and praise
thy holy name. Now art thou found and seen by me, and now thou goest
away from me.
4. Thou fillest all being in the world with thy essence; thou art
present in all places, but where art thou now fled and gone from me?
5. Great is the distance between us, even as the distance of the places
of our birth, it is my good fortune of friend! that has brought thee
near me today, and presented thee to my sight (so fleeting is spiritual
vision).
6. I hail thee, thou felicitous one! that art my maker and preserver
also; I thank thee that art the stalk of this fruit of this world, and
that art the eternal and pure soul of all.
7. I thank the holder of the lotus and discus, and thee also that
bearest the crescent half moon on thy forehead—great Siva. I thank the
lord of gods—Indra, and Brahmá also, that is born of the lotus.
8. It is a verbal usage that makes a distinction betwixt thee and
ourselves (_i.e._ between the Divine and animal souls); but this is a
false impression as that of the difference between waves and their
elemental water.
9. Thou showest thyself in the shapes of the endless varieties of
beings, and existence and extinction are the two states of thyself from
all eternity.
10. I thank thee that art the creator and beholder of all, and the
manifester of innumerable forms. I thank thee that art the whole nature
thyself.
11. I have undergone many tribulations in the long course of past
lives, and it was by thy will that I became bereft of my strength, and
was burnt away at last.
12. I have beheld the luminous worlds, and observed many visible and
invisible things; but thou art not to be found in them. So I have
gained nothing (from my observations).
13. All things composed of earth, stone and wood, are formations of
water (the form of Vishnu), there is nothing here, that is permanent, O
god, beside thyself. Thou being obtained there is nothing else to
desire.
14. I thank thee lord! that art obtained, seen and known by me this
day; and that shalt be so preserved by me, as never to be obliterated
(from my mind).
15. Thy bright form which is interwoven by the rays of light, is
visible to us by inversion of the sight of the pupils of our eyes, into
the inmost recesses of our heart.
16. As the feeling of heat and cold is perceived by touch, and as the
fragrance of the flower is felt in the oil with which it is mixed; so I
feel thy presence by thy coming in contact with my heart.
17. As the sound of music enters into the heart through the ears, and
makes the heart strings to thrill, and the hairs of the body to stand
at an end; so is thy presence perceived in our hearts also.
18. As the objects of taste are felt by the tip of the tongue, which
conveys their relish to the mind; so is thy presence felt by my heart,
when thou touchest it with thy love.
19. How can one slight to look and lay hold on his inner soul which
shoots through every sense of his body; when he takes up a sweet
scenting flower, perceptible by the sense of smelling only, and finally
decorating his outer person with it.
20. How can the supreme spirit, which is well known to us by means of
the teachings of the Vedas, Vedánta, Sidhántas and the Puránas, as also
by the Logic of schools and the hymns of the Vedas, be any way
forgotten by us?
21. These things which are pleasant to the bodily senses, do not
gladden my heart, when it is filled by thy translucent presence.
22. It is by thy effulgent light, that the sun shines so bright; as it
is by thy benign lustre also, that the moon dispenses her cooling beams.
23. Thou hast made these bulky rocks, and upheld the heavenly bodies;
thou hast supported the stable earth, and lifted the spacious firmament.
24. Fortunately thou hast become myself, and I have become one with
thyself, I am identic with thee and thou with me, and there is no
difference between us.
25. I thank the great spirit, that is expressed by turns by the words
myself and thyself; and mine and thine.
26. I thank the infinite God, that dwells in my unegoistic mind; and I
thank the formless Lord, that dwells in my tranquil soul.
27. Thou dwellest, O Lord! in my formless, tranquil, transparent and
conscious soul, as thou residest in thy own spirit, which is unbounded
by the limitations of time and space.
28. It is by thee that the mind has its action, and the senses have
their sensations; the body has all its powers, and the vital and
respirative breaths have their inflations and afflations.
29. The organs of the body are led by the rope of desire to their
several actions, and being united with flesh, blood and bones, are
driven like the wheels of a car by the charioteer of the mind.
30. I am the consciousness of my body, and am neither the body itself
nor my egoism of it; let it therefore rise or fall, it is of no
advantage or disadvantage to me.
31. I was born in the same time with my ego (as a personal, corporeal
and sensible being); and it was long afterwards that I had the
knowledge of my soul; I had my insensibility last of all, in the manner
of the world approaching to its dissolution at the end.
32. Long have I travelled in the long-some journey of the world; I am
weary with fatigue and now rest in quiet, like the cooling fire of the
last conflagration. (_i.e._ Of the doomsday).
33. I thank the Lord who is all (_to pan_), and yet without all and
everything; and thee my soul! that art myself likewise. I thank thee
above those sástras and preceptors, that teach the ego and tu (_i.e._
the subjective and objective).
34. I hail the all witnessing power of that providential spirit, that
has made these ample and endless provisions for others, without
touching or enjoying them itself.
35. Thou art the spirit that dwellest in all bodies in the form of the
fragrance of flowers, and in the manner of breath in bellows; and as
the oil resides in the sesamum seeds.
36. How wonderful is this magic scene of thine, that thou appearest in
everything, and preservest and destroyest it at last, without having
any personality of thy own.
37. Thou makest my soul rejoice at one time as a lighted lamp, by
manifesting all things before it; and thou makest it joyous also, when
it is extinguished as a lamp, after its enjoyment of the visibles.
38. This universal frame is situated in an atom of thyself, as the big
banian tree is contained in the embryo of a grain of its fig.
39. Thou art seen, O lord, in a thousand forms that glide under our
sight; in the same manner as the various forms of elephants and horses,
cars and other things are seen in the passing clouds on the sky.
40. Thou art both the existence and absence of all things, that are
either present or lost to our view; yet thou art quite apart from all
worldly existences, and art aloof from all entities and non-entities in
the world.
41. Forsake, O my soul! the pride and anger of thy mind, and all the
foulness and wiliness of thy heart; because the highminded never fall
into the faults and errors of the common people.
42. Think over and over on the actions of thy past life, and the long
series of thy wicked acts; and then with a sigh blush to think upon
what thou hadst been before, and cease to do such acts anymore.
43. The bustle of thy life is past, and thy bad days have gone away;
when thou wast wrapt in the net of thy tangled thoughts on all sides.
44. Now thou art a monarch in the city of thy body, and hast the desire
of thy mind presented before thee; thou art set beyond the reach of
pleasure and pain, and art as free as the air which nobody can grasp.
45. As thou hast now subdued the untractable horses of thy bodily
organs, and the indomitable elephant of thy mind; and as thou hast
crushed thy enemy of worldly enjoyment, so dost thou now reign as the
sole sovereign, over the empire of thy body and mind.
46. Thou art now become as the glorious sun, to shine within and
without us day by day; and dost traverse the unlimited fields of air,
by thy continued rising and setting at every place in our meditation of
thee.
47. Thou Lord! art ever asleep, and risest also by thy own power; and
then thou lookest on the luxuriant world, as a lover looks on his
beloved.
48. These luxuries like honey, are brought from great distances by the
bees of the bodily organs; and the spirit tastes the sweets, by looking
upon them through the windows of its eyes. (The spirit enjoys the
sweets of offerings, by means of its internal senses).
49. The seat of the intellectual world in the cranium is always dark,
and a path is made in it by the breathings of inspiration and
respiration (pránápána), which lead the soul to the sight of Brahmá
(_lit._: to the city of Brahmá. This is done by the practice of
_pránáyáma_).
50. Thou Lord! art the odor of this flower-like body of thine, and
thou art the nectarious juice of thy moonlike frame, the moisture of
this bodily tree, and thou art the coolness of its cold humours: phlegm
and cough.
51. Thou art the juice, milk and butter, that support the body, and
thou being gone (O soul!), the body is dried up and become as full to
feed the fire.
52. Thou art the flavour of fruits, and the light of all luminous
bodies; it is thou that perceivest and knowest all things, and givest
light to the visual organ of sight.
53. Thou art the vibration of the wind, and the force of our
elephantine minds; and so art thou the acuteness of the flame of our
intelligence.
54. It is thou that givest us the gift of speech, and dost stop our
breath, and makest it break forth again on occasions. (Speech—Vách—vox
in the feminine gender, is made Váchá by affix á according to Bhaguri).
55. All these various series of worldly productions, bear the same
relation to thee, as the varieties of jewelleries (such as the
bracelets and wristlets); are related to the gold (of which they are
made).
56. Thou art called by the words I, thou, he &c., and it is thyself
that callest thyself such as it pleaseth thee. (The impersonal God is
represented in different persons).
57. Thou art seen in the appearances of all the productions of nature,
as we see the forms of men, horses and elephants in the clouds, when
they glide softly on the wings of the gentle winds. (But as all these
forms are unreal, so God has no form in reality).
58. Thou dost invariably show thyself in all thy creatures on earth,
the blazing fire presents the figures of horses and elephants in its
lambent flames. (Neither has God nor fire any form at all).
59. Thou art the unbroken thread, by which the orbs of worlds are
strung together as a rosary of pearls; and thou art the field that
growest the harvest of creation, by the moisture of thy intellect. (The
divine spirit stretches through all, and contains the pith of creation).
60. Things that were inexistent and unproduced before creation, have
come to light from their hidden state of reality by thy agency, as the
flavour of meat-food, becomes evident by the process of cooking.[18]
61. The beauties of existences are imperceptible without the soul; as
the graces of a beauty are not apparent to one devoid of his eyesight.
62. All substances are nothing whatever without thy inherence in them;
as the reflection of the face in the mirror (or a picture in painting),
is to no purpose without the real face or figure of the person.
63. Without thee the body is a lifeless mass, like a block of wood or
stone; and it is imperceptible without the soul, as the shadow of a
tree in absence of the sun.
64. The succession of pain and pleasure, ceases to be felt by one who
feels thee within himself; as the shades of darkness, the twinkling of
stars, and the coldness of frost, cease to exist in the bright sunlight.
65. It is by a glance of thy eye, that the feelings of pain and
pleasure rise in the mind; as it is by the beams of the rising sun,
that the sky is tinged with its variegated hues.
66. Living beings perish in a moment, at the privation of thy presence;
as the burning lamp is extinguished to darkness, at the extinction of
its light. (Light and life are synonymous terms, as death and darkness
are homonyms).
67. As the gloom of darkness is conspicuous at the want of light; but
coming in contact with light, it vanishes from view.[19]
68. So the appearances of pain and pleasure, present themselves before
the mind, during thy absence from it; but they vanish into nothing at
the advance of thy light into it.
69. The temporary feelings of pleasure and pain, can find no room in
the fulness of heavenly felicity (in the entranced mind); just as a
minute moment of time, is of no account in the abyss of eternity.
70. The thoughts of pleasure and pain, are as the short-lived fancies
of the fairy land or castles in air; they appear by turns at thy
pleasure, but they disappear altogether no sooner thy form is seen in
the mind.
71. It is by thy light in our visual organs, that things appear to
sight at the moment of our waking, as they are reproduced into being;
and it is by thy light also poured into our minds, that they are seen
in our dream, as if they are all asleep in death.
72. What good can we derive from these false and transient appearances
in nature? No one can string together the seeming lotuses that are
formed by the foaming froth of the waves.
73. No substantial good can accrue to us from transitory mortal things;
as no body can string together the transient flashes of lightning into
a necklace. (This is in refutation of the usefulness of temporary
objects maintained by the Saugatas).
74. Should the rationalist take the false ideas of pain and pleasure
for sober realities; what distinction then can there be between them
and the irrational realists (Buddhists).
75. Should you, like the Nominalist, take everything which bears a name
for a real entity; I will tell you no more than that, you are too fond
to give to imaginary things a fictitious name at your own will.
(Gloss:—according to the ideas and desires of one’s own mind, or giving
a name to airy nothing).
76. But the soul is indivisible and without its desire and egoism, and
whether it is a real substance or not we know nothing of, yet its
agency is acknowledged on all hands in our bodily actions.
77. All joy be thine! that art boundless in thy spiritual body, and
ever disposed to tranquility; that art beyond the knowledge of the
Vedas, and art yet the theme of all the sástras.
78. All joy to thee! that art both born and unborn with the body, and
art decaying undecayed in thy nature; that art the unsubstantial
substance of all qualities, and art known and unknown to every body.
79. I exult now and am calm again, I move and am still afterwards; I am
victorious and live to win my liberation by thy grace; therefore I hail
thee that art myself.
80. When thou art situated in me, my soul is freed from all troubles
and feelings and passions; and is placed in perfect rest. There is no
more any fear of danger or difficulty or of life and death, nor any
craving for prosperity, when I am absorbed in everlasting bliss with
thee.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
DISORDER AND DISQUIET OF THE ASURA REALM.
Argument. As Prahláda was absorbed in Meditation, his dominions were
infested by robbers for want of a Ruler, and the reign of terror.
Vasishtha said:—Prahláda the defeater of inimical hosts, was sitting in
the said manner in divine meditation, and was absorbed in his entranced
rapture, and undisturbed _anaesthesia_ or insensibility for a long time.
2. The soul reposing in its original state of unalterable _ecstatis_,
made his body as immovable as a rock in painting or a figure carved on
a stone (_in bas relief_).
3. In this manner a long time passed upon his hybernation, when he was
sitting in his house in a posture as unshaken as the firm Meru is fixed
upon the earth.
4. He was tried to be roused in vain, by the great Asuras of his
palace; because his deadened mind remained deaf to their calls like a
solid rock, and was as impassive as a perched grain to the showers of
rain.
5. Thus he remained intent upon his God, with his fixed and firm gaze
for thousands of years; and continued as unmoved, as the carved sun
upon a stone (or sundial).
6. Having thus attained to the state of supreme bliss, the sight of
infelicity disappeared from his view, as it is unknown to the supremely
felicitous being. (So the Sruti: In Him there is all joy and no woe can
appear before Him).
7. During this time the whole circuit of his realm, was overspread by
anarchy and oppression; as it reigns over the poor fishes.[20]
8. For after Hiranyakasipu was killed and his son had betaken himself
to asceticism, there was no body left to rule over the realms of the
Asura race.
9. And as Prahláda was not to be roused from his slumber, by the
solicitations of the Daitya chiefs, or the cries of his oppressed
people:—
10. They—the enemies of the gods, were as sorry not to have their
graceful lord among them; as the bees are aggrieved for want of the
blooming lotus at night (when it is hid under its leafy branches).
11. They found him as absorbed in his meditation, as when the world is
drowned in deep sleep, after departure of the sun below the horizon.
12. The sorrowful Daityas departed from his presence, and went away
wherever they liked; they roved about at random, as they do in an
ungoverned state.
13. The infernal regions became in time the seat of anarchy and
oppression; and the good and honest dealings bade adieu to it all at
once.
14. The houses of the weak were robbed by the strong, and the
restraints of laws were set at naught; the people oppressed one another
and robbed the women of their robes.
15. There were crying and wailing of the people on all sides, and the
houses were pulled down in the city; the houses and gardens were robbed
and spoiled, and outlawry and rapacity spread all over the land.
16. The Asuras were in deep sorrow, and their families were starving
without food or fruits; there were disturbance and riot rising every
where, and the face of the sky was darkened on all sides.
17. They were derided by the younglings of the gods, and invaded by
vile robbers and envious animals; the houses were robbed of their
properties, and were laid waste and void.
18. The Asura realm became a scene of horror, by lawless fighting for
the wives and properties of others; and the wailings of those that were
robbed of their wealth and wives, it made the scene seem as the reign
of the dark Kali age, when the atrocious marauders are let loose to
spread devastation all over the earth.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
SCRUTINY INTO THE NATURE OF GOD.
Argument. Hari’s care for preservation of the order of the world, and
his advice to Prahláda.
Vasishtha continued:—Now Hari who slept on his couch of the snake, in
his watery mansion of the Milky ocean, and whose delight it was to
preserve the order of all the groups of worlds;—
2. Looked into the course of world in his own mind, after he rose from
his sleep at the end of the rainy season for achieving the objects of
the gods. (Vishnu rises after the rains on the eleventh day of moon
उत्थानैकादशी ।).
3. He surveyed at a glance of his thought the state of the triple
world, composed of the heaven, the earth and the regions below; and
then directed his attention to the affairs of the infernal regions of
the demons.
4. He beheld Prahláda sitting there in his intense hypnotic meditation,
and then looked into the increasing prosperity of Indra’s palace.
5. Sitting as he was on his serpentine couch in the Milky Ocean, with
his arms holding the conch-shell, the discus, and the club and lotus in
his four hands;—
6. He thought in his brilliant mind and in his posture of _padmásana_,
about the states of the three worlds, as the fluttering bee inspects
into the state of the lotus.
7. He saw Prahláda immerged in his hypnotism, and the infernal regions
left without a leader; and beheld the world was about to be devoid of
the Daitya race.
8. This want of the demons, thought he, was likely to cool the military
ardour of the Devas; as the want of clouds serves to dry up the waters
on earth.
9. Liberation which is obtained by privation of dualism and egoism,
brings a man to that state of asceticism; as the want of moisture tends
to dry up and deaden the promising plant.
10. The Gods being at rest and contented in themselves, there will be
no need of sacrifices and offerings to please and appease them; and
this will eventually lead to the extinction of the gods (for want of
their being fed with the butter and fat of the sacrifices).
11. The religious and sacrificial rites, being at an end among mankind,
will bring on (owing to their impiety), the destruction of human race,
which will cause the desolation of the earth (by wild beasts).
13. What is the good of my providence, if were I to allow this
plenteous earth to go to ruin by my neglect? (It would amount to
Vishnu’s violation of duty to preserve the world).
14. What can I have to do in this empty void of the world, after the
extinction of these created beings into nothing, than to charge my
active nature to a state of cold inactivity, and lose myself into the
_anaesthesia_ of final liberation or insensibility.
15. I see no good in the untimely dissolution of the order of the
world, and would therefore have the Daityas live to its end.
16. It is owing to the struggles of the demons, that the deities are
worshipped with sacrifices and other religious rites for their
preservation of the earth; therefore they are necessary for the
continuation of these practices in it.
17. I shall have therefore to visit the nether world, and restore it to
its right order; and appoint the lord of the demons to the observance
of his proper duties; in the manner of the season of spring returning
to fructify the trees.
18. If I raise any other Daitya to the chieftainship of the demons, and
leave Prahláda in the act of his meditation; it is sure that he will
disturb the Devas, instead of bearing obedience to them. Because no
demon can get rid of his demoniac nature like Prahláda.
19. Prahláda is to live to old age in his sacred person, and to reside
therein to the end of the kalpa age, with this very body of his
(without undergoing the casualties of death and transmigration).
20. So it is determined by Destiny, the divine and overruling goddess;
that Prahláda will continue to reign to the end of the _kalpa_, in this
very body of his.
21. I must therefore go, and awaken the Daitya chief from his trance,
as the roaring cloud rouses the sleepy peacocks, on the tops of hills
and banks of rivers.
22. Let that self ridden (_swayam-mukta_) and somnolent (_samádhistha_)
prince, reign unconcerned (_amanaskára_) over the Daitya race; as the
unconscious pearl reflects the colours of its adjacent objects.
23. By this means both the gods and demigods, will be preserved on the
face of the earth; and their mutual contention for superiority, will
furnish occasion for the display of my prowess.
24. Though the creation and destruction of the world, be indifferent to
me; yet its continuation in the primordial order, is of much concern to
others, if not to my insusceptible self.
25. Whatever is alike in its existence and inexistence, is the same
also in both its gain and loss (to the indifferent soul). Any effort
for having any thing is mere foolishness; since addition and
subtraction presuppose one another. (Gain is the supplying of want, and
want is the privation of gain).
26. I shall therefore hasten to the infernal region, and awaken the
Daitya prince to the sense of his duty; and then will I resume my
calmness, and not play about on the stage of the world like the
ignorant. (The sapient God is silent; but foolish souls are turbulent).
27. I will proceed to the city of the Asuras amidst their tumultuous
violence, and rouse the Daitya prince as the sunshine raises the
drooping lotus; and I shall bring the people to order and union, as the
rainy season collects the fleeting clouds on the summits of mountains.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
ADMONITIONS OF HARI TO PRAHLÁDA.
Argument. Hari enters into the Daitya city, blows his conch-shell,
and directs Prahláda to reign and rule over his realm.
Vasishtha continued:—Thinking thus within himself, Hari started from
his abode in the Milky Ocean with his companions, and moved like the
immovable Mandara mountain with all its accompaniments.
2. He entered the city of Prahláda resembling the metropolis of Indra,
by a subterranean passage lying under the waters of the deep. (This
passage, says the gloss, leads to the _sweta dwípa_ or white island of
Albion—Britain; but literally it means the underground passage of
waters).
3. He found here the prince of the Asuras, sitting under a golden dome
in his hypnotic trance, like Brahmá sitting in his meditative mood in a
cavern of the Sumeru mountain. (This shows Brahmá the progenitor of
mankind or of the Aryan Brahmanic race, to have been a mountaineer of
the Altai or N. polar ranges, called Sumeru _contra_ Kumeru—the S.
pole).
4. There the Daityas being tinged in their bodies, by the bright rays
of Vishnu’s person, fled far away from him, like a flock of owls from
the bright beams of the rising sun. (The Daityas are night rovers or
_nisa charas_, and cannot maintain their ground at sun rise).
5. Hari then being accompanied by two or three Daitya chiefs entered
the apartment of Prahláda, as the bright moon enters the pavilion of
the sky at eve, in company with two or three stars beside her. (Moon in
Sanskrit is the male consort of the stars, and called _Tará-pati_).
6. There seated on his eagle and fanned with the flapper of Lakshmí,
and armed with his weapons, and beset by the saints hymning his praise:—
7. He said, O great soul! rise from thy trance; and then blew his
_pánchajanya_ shell, which resounded to the vault of heaven.
8. The loud peal of the Conch, blown by the breath of Vishnu, roared at
once like the clouds of the sky, and the waves of the great deluge with
redoubled force.
9. Terrified at the sound, the Daityas fell flat and fainting on the
ground; as when the flocks of swans and geese, are stunned at the
thundering noise of clouds.
10. But the party of Vaishnavas, rejoiced at the sound without the
least fear; and they flushed with joy like the _Kurchi_ flowers,
blooming at the sound of the clouds. (Kurchi buds are said to blossom
in the rains).
11. The lord of the Dánavas, was slowly roused from his sleep; in the
manner of the kadamba flowers, opening their florets by degrees at the
intervals of rain.
12. It was by an act of the excretion of his breathing, that he brought
down his vital breath, which was confined in the vertical membrane of
the cranium; in the manner that the stream of Ganges gushes out from
the high-hill, and mixes and flows with the whole body of waters into
the ocean. (So it is with our inspiration and respiration, which carry
up and down our vital breath, to and from the sensory of the brain).
13. In a moment the vital breath circulated through the whole body of
Prahláda; as the solar beams spread over the whole world soon after
they emanate from the solar disk at sun rise.
14. The vital breath, having then entered into the cells of the nine
organs of sense; his mind became susceptible of sensations, received
through the organs of the body like reflexions in a mirror.
15. The intellect desiring to know the objects, and relying in the
reflexions of the senses, takes the name of the mind; as the reflexion
of the face in the mirror, refracts itself again to the visual organ.
16. The mind having thus opened or developed itself, his eyelids were
about to open of themselves; like the petals of the blue lotus, opening
by degrees in the morning.
17. The breathings then, by conveying the sensations to the body,
through the veins and arteries, give it the power of motion; as the
current breeze moves the lotuses.
18. The same vital breath, strengthened the powers of his mind in a
short time; as the billows of a river, become more powerful when it is
full of water.
19. At last his eyes being opened, his body shone forth with vivacity,
by its mental and vital powers; as the lake blushes with blooming
lotuses at the sun’s rising above the horizon.
20. At this instant, the lord bade him awake instantly at his word; and
he rose as the peacock is awakened, at the roar of a cloud.
21. Finding his eyes shining with lustre, and his mind strong with its
past remembrance; the lord of the three worlds, spoke to him in the
manner, as he had formerly addressed the lotus-born Brahmá himself.
22. O holy youth! remember your large (dominions), and bring to your
mind your youthful form and figure; then think and ponder, why you
causelessly transform yourself to this torpid state.
23. You who have no good to desire nor any evil to shun, and look on
want and plenty in the same light; you must know that what is destined
by God, is all for your good.
25. You shall have to live here, in the living liberated state of your
mind, and in full possession of your dominions, for a kalpa period; and
shall have to pass your time with this body of yours, and without any
anxiety or earthly trouble whatever.
26. The body being decayed by this time, you shall have still to abide
with your greatness of soul to the end; till the body being broken down
like an earthen vessel, the vital life like the contained air of the
pot, come to mix with the common air of vacuum.
27. Your body which is liberated in its life time, is to endure in its
purity to the end of the kalpa, and will witness generations passing
before it without any diminution of itself.
28. The end of the kalpa or dooms day, is yet too far when the twelve
suns will shine together; the rocks will melt away, and the world will
be burnt down to ashes. Why then do you waste away your body even now?
29. Now the winds are not raging with fury, nor is the world grey with
age and covered with ashes over it. The marks on the foreheads of the
immortals are still uneffaced, why then waste your body before its time?
30. The lightnings of the deluging clouds, do not now flash nor fall
down like asoka flowers, why then do you vainly waste your precious
body so prematurely?
31. The skies do not pour out their showers of rain-water on earth, so
as to overflood the mountain tops, nor do they burst out in fire and
burn them down to ashes; why then do you waste away your body in vain?
32. The old world is not yet dissolved into vapour, nor fused to fumes
and smoke; neither are the deities all extinct, after leaving Brahmá,
Vishnu and Siva to survive them; why then do you waste yourself in
vain? (If they are all alive, you should learn to live also).
33. The earth on all sides is yet so submerged under the water, as to
present the sight of the high mountains only on it, why then waste you
away your body in vain (before the last doom and deluge of the earth?).
34. The sun yet does not dart his fiery rays, with such fury in the
sky, as to split the mountains with hideous cracks; nor do the diluvian
clouds rattle and crackle in the midway sky; (to presage the last day,
why then in vain waste you your body, that is not foreboded to die?).
35. I wander everywhere on my vehicle of the eagle, and take care of
all animal beings lest they die before their time, and do not therefore
like your negligence of yourself.
36. Here are we and there the hills, these are other beings and that is
yourself; this is the earth and that the sky, all these are separate
entities and must last of themselves; why then should you neglect your
body, and do not live like the living?
37. The man whose mind is deluded by gross ignorance, and one who is
the mark of afflictions, is verily led to hail his death. (So the
Smriti says:—Very sick and corpulent men have their release in death).
38. Death is welcome to him, who is too weak and too poor and grossly
ignorant; and who is always troubled by such and similar thoughts in
his mind. (The disturbed mind is death and hell in itself).
39. Death is welcomed by him, whose mind is enchained in the trap of
greedy desires and thrills between its hopes and fears; and who is
hurried and carried about in quest of greed, and is always restless
within himself.
40. He whose heart is parched by the thirst of greed, and whose better
thoughts are choked by it, as the sprouts of corn are destroyed by
worms; is the person that welcomes his death at all times.
41. He who lets the creeping passions of his heart, grow as big as palm
trees, to overshadow the forest of his mind, and bear the fruits of
continued pain and pleasure, is the man who hails his death at all
times.
42. He whose mind is festered by the weeds of cares, growing as rank as
his hair on the body; and who is subject to the incessant evils of
life, is the man that welcomes death for his relief.
43. He whose body is burning under the fire of diseases, and whose
limbs are slackened by age and weakness, is the man to whom death is a
remedy, and who resorts to its aid for relief.
44. He who is tormented by his ardent desires and raging anger, as by
the poison of snake biting, is as a withered tree, and invites instant
death for his release.
45. It is the soul’s quitting the body that is called death; and this
is unknown to the spiritualist, who is quite indifferent about the
entity and nonentity of the body.
46. Life is a blessing to him, whose thoughts do not rove beyond the
confines of himself; and to the wise man also who knows and
investigates into the true nature of things.
47. Life is a blessing to him also, who is not given to his egotism,
and whose understanding is not darkened by untruth, and who preserves
his evenness in all conditions of life.
48. His life is a blessing to him, who has the inward satisfaction and
coolness of his understanding, and is free from passions and enmity;
and looks on the world as a mere witness, and having his concern with
nothing.
49. He is blest in his life, who has the knowledge of whatever is
desirable or detestable to him, and lives aloof from both; with all his
thoughts and feelings confined within himself; (literally, within his
own heart and mind).
50. His life is blest, who views all gross things in the light of
nothing, and whose heart and mind are absorbed in his silent and
conscious soul. (_i.e._ Who witnesses and watches the emotions and
motions of his heart and mind).
51. Blessed is his life, who having his sight represses it from viewing
the affairs of the world, as if they are entirely unworthy of him.
52. His life is blessed, who neither rejoices nor grieves at what is
desirable or disadvantageous to him; but has his contentment in every
state of his life whether favourable or not.
53. He who is pure in his life, and keeps company with pure minded men;
who spreads the purity of his conduct all about, and shuns the society
of the impure; is as graceful to behold, as the hoary swan with its
snow white wings, in the company of the fair fowls of the silvery lake.
54. Blessed is his life, whose sight and remembrance, and the mention
of whose name, give delight to all persons.
55. Know the life of that man, O lord of demons, to be truly happy,
whose lotus-like appearance is as delightsome to the bee-like eyes of
men, as the sight of the full moon is delightful to the world.
CHAPTER LX.
RESUSCITATION OF PRAHLÁDA.
Argument. On the necessity of the observance of duty, both in the
secular as well as Religious Life.
The Lord continued:—It is the soundness of the body, which men call
life; and it is the quitting of the present body for a future one,
which they call death. (Activity is the life of the body).
2. You are released from both these states, O high minded youth! and
have nothing to do with your life or death any more. (Because the
living liberated are freed from the cares of life, and future
transmigrations also).
3. It is for your acquaintance, that I relate to you the components of
life and death; by knowledge of which you will not have to live nor
die, like other living beings on earth (in pain and misery).
4. Though situated in the body, yet you are as unembodied as the
disembodied spirit; and though embosomed in vacuity, yet are you as
free and fleet as the wind, on account of your being unattached to
vacuum. (Unattachment of the soul to the body and vital spirit,
constitutes its freedom).
5. Your perception of the objects of the touch, proves you to be an
embodied being; and your soul is said to be the cause of that
perception; as the open air is said to be the cause of the growth of
trees, for its putting no hindrance to their height. But neither the
soul is cause of perception, nor the air of the growth of trees. (It is
the mind which is the cause of the one, as moisture of the other).
6. But the perception of outward things, is no test of their
materiality to the monoistic immaterialist; as the sight of things in a
dream, is no proof of their substantiality, nor of the corporeality of
the percipient soul. (All external perceptions, are as those in a
dream).
7. All things are comprehended, in yourself, by the light of your
intellect; and your knowledge of the only One in all, comprehends every
thing in it. How then can you have a body either to take to yourself or
reject it from you?
8. Whether the season of the spring appears or not, or a hurricane
happens to blow or subside; it is nothing to the pure soul, which is
clear of all connection whatever. (The soul is unconnected with all
occurrences).
9. Whether the hills fall headlong to the ground, or the flames of
destruction devour all things; or the rapid gales rend the skies, it is
no matter to the soul which rests secure in itself.
10. Whether the creation exists or not, and whether all things perish
or grow; it is nothing to the soul which subsists of itself. (The
increate soul is self existent and ever lasting).
11. The Lord of this body, does not waste by waste of its frame, nor he
is strengthened by strength of the body; neither does it move by any
bodily movement, nor sleep when the body and its senses are absorbed in
sleep.
12. Whence does this false thought rise in your mind, that you belong
to the body, and are an embodied being, and that you come to take,
retain and quit this mortal frame at different times?
13. Forsake the thought, that you will do so and so after doing this
and that; for they that know the truth, have given up such desires and
vain expectations. (Since God is the disposer of all events).
14. All waking and living persons, have something or other to do in
this world, and have thereby to reap the results of their actions; but
he that does nothing, does not take the name of an active agent, nor
has anything to expect (but lives resigned to the will of Providence).
15. He who is no agent of an action, has nothing to do with its
consequence; for he who does not sow the grains, does not reap the
harvest. (For as you sow, so you reap).
16. Desinence of action and its fruition, brings on a quiescence, which
when it has become habitual and firm, receives the name of liberation
(which is nothing to have or crave, save what God gave of his own will,
agreeably to the prayer, “Let not mine, but thy will be done”).
17. All intellectual beings and enlightened men, and those that lead
pure and holy lives, have all things under their comprehension,
wherefore there is nothing for them left to learn anew or reject what
they have learnt. (The gods and sages are all knowing, and have nothing
to know or unknow any more).
18. It is for limited understandings and limited powers of the body and
mind, to grasp or leave out some thing; but to men of unbounded
capacities, there is nothing to be received or left out. (Fulness can
neither be more full, nor wanting in any thing).
19. When a man is set at ease after cessation of his relation of the
possessor or possession of any external object, and when this sense of
his irrelation becomes a permanent feeling in him, he is then said to
be liberated in his life time. (Total unconnection is perfect freedom).
20. Great men like yourself, being placed in this state of perpetual
unconcern and rest; conduct themselves in the discharge of their
duties, with as much ease as in their sleep. (Here is the main precept
of the combination of internal torpitude with bodily action in the
discharge of duties).
21. When one’s desires are drowned in his reliance on God, he views the
existing world—shining in his spiritual light.
22. He takes no delight in the pleasing objects about him, nor does he
regret at the afflictions of others; all his pleasure consisting in his
own soul (at its total indifference).
23. With his wakeful mind, he meets all the affairs of his concern with
his spiritual unconcern; as the mirror receives the reflexions of
objects, without being tainted by them.
24. In his waking he reposes in himself, and in his sleep he reclines
amidst the drowsy world; in his actions he turns about as frolicsome
boys, and his desires lie dormant in his soul.
25. O thou, great soul, thus continue to enjoy thy supreme bliss, for
the period of a Kalpa (a day of Brahmá), by relying your mind in the
victorious Vishnu, and with enjoying the prosperity of thy dominions by
exercise of your virtues and good qualities. (The ultimate lesson is,
to be observant of the duties which are paramount on every body, with
relinquishment of all personal desire for oneself).
CHAPTER XLI.
INSTALLATION OF PRAHLÁDA IN HIS REALM.
Argument. Hari’s Inauguration of Prahláda with blessings, and
appointment of him to the Government.
Vasishtha said:—After Hari the receptacle of the three worlds, and
observer of everything that passes in them; had spoken in the aforesaid
manner in his lucid speech, shedding the coolness of moon beams:
2. Prahláda became full blown in his body, and his eyes shone forth as
blooming lotuses; he then spoke out with full possession of his mental
powers.
3. Prahláda said:—Lord! I was much tired with very many state affairs,
and in thinking about the weal and woe of my people. I have now found a
little rest from my labour.
4. It is by thy grace, my lord! that I am settled in myself; and
whether I am in my trance or waking state, I enjoy the tranquility of
my mind at all times.
5. I always see thee seated in my heart, with the clear sightedness of
my mind; and it is by my good luck, that I have thee now in my presence
and outside of it.
6. I had been all this time, sitting without any thought in me; and was
mixed up as air in air, in my mind’s internal vision of thee.
7. I was not affected by grief or dulness, nor infatuated by my zeal of
asceticism or a wish of relinquishing my body (that I remained in my
torpid trance).
8. The One All being present in the mind, there is no room for any
grief in it, at the loss of anything besides; nor can any care for the
world, or caution of the body or life, or any fear of any kind, abide
in his presence.
9. It is simply by pure desire of holiness, rising spontaneously of
itself in me; that I had been situated in my saintlike and holy state.
10. Yes my Lord, I am disgusted with this world, and long to resign its
cares; together with all the mutations of joy and grief, which rise
alternate in the minds of the unenlightened.
11. I do not think that our embodied state is subject to misery, and
that our being freed from the bonds of the body is the cause of our
release: it is worldliness that is a venomous viper in the bosom, and
torments the ignorant only and not the sage. (Because it is mind and
not the body, that is addicted to pleasure, and feels the stings of
pain).
12. It is the ignorant and not the learned, whose minds fluctuate with
the thoughts, that this is pleasure and the other is pain, and that I
have this and am in want of another. (The more they have, the more they
crave).
13. The ignorant man thinks himself, to be a person distinct from
another; and so all living beings devoid of the knowledge of truth,
entertain and exult in their egoistic thoughts.
14. The erroneous idea that, such things are acceptable to me, and
others are not so; serves only to delude the ignorant, and not the wise
(who acquiesce to whatever occurs to them).
15. All things being contained by and situated in my all-pervading
spirit, how can we accept one and reject another thing, as distinct
from and undesirable to the selfsame One? (Shall we desire only good
from God, and not the evil also? Job).
16. The whole universe whether real or unreal (or composed of its
substantiality and vacuity), is a manifestation of Omniscience; we know
not what is desirable or detestable in it to be accepted or rejected by
us. (But must submit to the wise ordinance of providence).
17. It is only by discrimination of the natures of the viewer and the
view (_i.e._ of the subjective soul, and the objective world); and by
reflecting the Supreme Soul in one’s self, that the mind receives its
rest and tranquility.
18. I was freed during my trance, of the consciousness of my being or
not being, and of whatever is desirable or detestable to any one; and I
continue also, in the same state of my mind even after I am awakened.
19. This state being familiar to me, I see every thing in the spirit
within myself; and I act according as it pleaseth thee. (_i.e._ Not by
mine but thy will).
20. O lotus-eyed Hari! thou art adored in all the three worlds;
wherefore it behoveth thee to receive my adoration also, offered in the
proper form.
21. Saying so, the lord of Dánavas, presented his platter of presents
(arghya) before the god, as the lord of hills pays his offerings to the
full-moon. (This hill is the mount of moon rising, which is hailed and
welcomed by it).
22. He worshipped Hari first of all, together with his weapons and his
Vehicle Garuda; and then he adored the bands of the gods and Apsaras
that accompanied him and the three worlds contained in him.
23. After he had done worshipping the lord of the worlds, with the
worlds situated within and without him; the Lord of Laxmí spoke to him
saying:—
24. Rise, O lord of Dánavas! and sit upon your throne, until I perform
your inauguration this very moment.
25. Hari then blew his _pánchajanya_ shell summoning the five races, of
the gods, siddhas, sádhyas and men and Daityas, to attend at the
ceremony.
26. After this the lotus-eyed god placed him on the throne which he
deserved, and whereon he caused him to sit as cloud rests on the summit
of a mountain.
27. Hari then caused him to make his sacred ablution, with the waters
of the milky and other oceans; and those of the Ganges and other holy
rivers, which were presented before him.
28. All bodies of Bráhmans and Rishis, and all groups of Siddhas and
Vidyádharas; with the Loka-pálas or regents of the quarters, attended
and assisted at the ceremony.
29. Then Hari the immeasurable Spirit, anointed the great Asura in the
kingdom of the Daityas; and the Maruta winds lauded his praise, as they
do the hymns of Hari in heaven.
30. Then blessed by the gods and applauded by Asuras, Prahláda greeted
them all in his turn; and was thus addressed at last by the slayer of
Madhu—the demoniac Satan.
31. The Lord said:—Do thou reign here as sole monarch, as long as the
mount Meru stands on the earth, and the sun and moon shine in the sky;
and be fraught with all praiseworthy virtues of thine own.
32. Govern thy realm without any interested motive of thy own, and
without showing any symptom of anger or fear on your part; but preserve
your moderation and a tolerant spirit in all your affairs.
33. May you never have any disquiet, in this realm of excellent soil
and plenteous provisions; nor do you create any disturbance to the gods
in heaven, or to men on earth below.
34. Conduct yourself in your proper course at all events, which may
occur to you at any time or place; and never allow yourself to be led
astray, by the caprice of your mind or the freaks of fancy.
35. Keep in mind your spiritual being, and abandon your egoism and
selfish views altogether; and then by managing your affairs in one even
tenor, both in your want and prosperity, you will evade all the
vicissitudes of fortune.
36. You have seen both the ways and dealings of this world, and
measured also the immeasurable depth of spiritual knowledge. You know
the state of every thing in every place, and require no advice of any
body.
37. As you are now perfectly devoid of your anger, passions and fears,
there is no more any chance of further broils between the gods and
Asuras, under your rule over them in future.
38. No more will the tears of Asura females, wash the decorations on
their faces; nor will the currents of rivers rise as high as lofty
trees, with floods of tears from their weeping eyes.
39. The cessation of hostilities between the gods and demons, will
render the earth as quiet from this day, as the unruffled ocean after
its churning by the Mandara mountain.
40. The wives of the gods and demigods, will no more be led away in
captivity by one another; but will rest fearless under the marital
roofs of their husbands in future.
41. Let thy expectations now rise from their dormancy, of many long
nights of dismal darkness, and be crowned with success and prosperity;
and do thou, O progeny of Danu! enjoy thy unconquerable royal fortune,
as in the company of thy charming consort.
CHAPTER XLII.
SPIRITUALITY OF PRAHLÁDA.
Argument. The merit of hearing the narrative of Vishnu, and the cause
of Prahláda’s awaking from his trance.
Vasishtha continued:—The lotus-eyed Hari, having said thus much to
Prahláda, departed with the whole concourse of the assembled gods,
Kinnaras and men, from the abode of the Asura.
2. Then did Prahláda and his associates throw handfuls of flowers on
the departing god, as he was mounted on the back of the king of birds
(Garuda—the eagle or bird of heaven).
3. The god crossed the heavenly Ganges and reached at the milky ocean,
where he took his serpent couch as the black bee sits on the lotus-leaf.
4. The God Vishnu sat on his serpent seat with as much ease, as Indra
sits in heaven in the assembly of the gods; and as the lord of the
demons, was made to sit in the infernal region wholly devoid of all his
cares.
5. I have now related to you, Ráma! the whole narrative of Prahláda’s
coming to his sense, from the state of his insensibility; and this
account is as charming to the holy hearer, as the cooling moon-beams
are refreshing to the tired traveller.
6. The man that ponders in his mind, the manner of Prahláda’s
resuscitation to life; is regenerated in that felicitous state, from
the sinfulness of his former condition.
7. A cursory rehearsal of his narration, wipes off the sins of men;
while the deep consideration of its spiritual sense, leads one to his
eternal salvation.
8. The ignorant are released from their ignorance, and the deep thinker
is released from his sins; therefore do not neglect to ponder well on
it, for the remission of all your sins.
9. The man who considers well the manner of Prahláda’s gaining his
proficiency, gets a remission of all the sins committed by him in his
repeated previous states of life.
10. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how the sound of the _pánchajanya_ conch
shell, roused the mind of the devout Prahláda from its immersion in
holy meditation.
11. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are two states of
liberation attending on sinless persons, the one is the emancipation of
one in his embodied state in this life, and the other is after his
departure from here.
12. The embodied liberation means one’s continuance in his living body,
but with a state of mind freed from its attachment to worldly things,
and liberated from the desire of fruition and reward of all his
meritorious acts.
13. The disembodied liberation is obtained after the soul is released
from the body, and is settled in the Supreme Spirit. It is an
enfranchisement from the recurrence of future life and birth in this
mortal world.
14. The living liberated man is like a fried grain, whose regerminating
power is parched within itself, and the desire of whose heart is
purified from every expectation of future reward or regeneration.
15. He remains in the pure, holy and magnanimous state of his mind, who
resigns himself solely to the meditation of the Great soul, and
continues as if he were asleep in his living and waking states.
16. Being thus entranced in his inward meditation, he continues in a
torpid state for a thousand years, and wakes again to his senses, if he
is allowed to live long ever after that period.
17. Prahláda remained thus with his holy thoughts suppressed within
himself, until he was roused from his trance by the shrill sound of the
conch-shell.
18. Hari is the soul of all beings, and he who assimilates himself to
that god in his thought; becomes identified with the supreme soul,
which is the cause of all.
19. No sooner the god thought that Prahláda should come to his sense,
than his sensation came immediately to him at the divine will.
20. The world has no other cause, but the divine spirit; which with the
assistance of the causal elements, takes different forms on itself at
the time of creation; and therefore it is the spirit of Hari that
constitutes the world.
21. The worship of God in spirit, presents Hari to the spiritual sight;
and the worship of Hari in his outward form, represents the figure to
the soul and the inner mind.
22. Do you, O Ráma! put out the visible sights from your view, and look
at the inmost soul within yourself; being thus accustomed to spiritual
meditation, you will soon have the sight of your God.
23. The world presents a scene of the gloomy rainy weather, with
showers of woes falling on all sides; it is likely to freeze us in
ignorance, unless we look to the sun of our reason (or, unless we abide
under the sunshine of reason).
24. It is by grace of God that we can avoid the delusions of the world,
as we may escape from a goblin by means of a spell.
25. It is at the will of the spirit, that the thick darkness of the
mind, is dispersed and cleared off in time; the world is a net-work of
delusion, which is scattered like a smoke by the breeze of reason.
CHAPTER XLIII.
REST AND REPOSE OF PRAHLÁDA.
Argument. All knowledge is derived by one’s own attention and personal
exertion, joined with his reliance on the grace of God.
Ráma said:—Sir, your knowledge of all truths, and the light of your
holy discourses, have gratified me as much, as the cooling moon-beams
gratify the medicinal plants (whence the moon is called _oshadhísa_ or
lord of medicinal drugs).
2. Your gentle and purifying words are as gratifying to my ears, as the
beautiful and sweet flowers delight the external senses (by their
colours and odours). (Sweet words are often compared with flowers by
Persian and Urdu poets: as, _guleazrouzeijaved. Elahikar sakhur meriko
up phol_.)
3. Sir, if the exertions of men, as you said, be the causes of their
success, how was it that Prahláda came to be enlightened without his
effort or attempt? (in obtaining his divine knowledge without his
learning or help of a preceptor).
4. Vasishtha replied:—Yes Ráma, it was by his manly exertion, that the
highminded Prahláda had acquired his divine knowledge; and there was no
other cause (of his knowing and having whatever he knew and possessed).
5. The soul of man is the same as the spirit of Náráyana, (which means
abiding in man); and there is no difference between them, as there is
none between the oil and the sesamum seed; and as the cloth and its
whiteness, and the flower and its fragrance are not distinct things.
(Because the spirit of God was breathed into the nostrils of man.
Náráyana and Purusha both mean the spirit dwelling in man).
6. And Vishnu is the same with his spirit or the soul of man, and the
human soul is the same with Vishnu (which means the inherent spirit);
Vishnu and the soul are synonymous terms as the plant and the vegetable.
7. Prahláda came at first to know the soul by himself (of his own
intuition), it was afterwards by means of his intellectual power, that
he was led to the persuasion and made many proselytes after his own
example.
8. It was by his own desert, that Prahláda obtained his boon from
Vishnu; and it was by the exercise of his own reasoning, that he came
to the knowledge of the eternal Mind.
9. Sometimes the soul is awakened of itself by one’s own intuition, and
at others it is roused by the grace of the personal god Vishnu, owing
to one’s faith in his person. (As it is said: “Thy faith will save
thee”).
10. And though this god may be pleased with his prolonged service and
devout worship, yet he is unable to confer spiritual knowledge to one
devoid of his reasoning faculty. (Or to one who has no understanding.
Hence gross idolators can have no salvation, which is to be had by
spiritual knowledge only. Blind faith is of no good, without the light
of reason).
11. Hence the primary cause of spiritual light is the intelligence of a
man and which is gained by exertion of his mental powers only; the
secondary causes may be the blessing and grace of a deity, but I wish
you to prefer the former one for your salvation. (So it is knowledge
and intrinsic merit which exalt a man, and not the mere favour of a
patron, is ever able to raise the unworthy).
12. Exert therefore your manliness at first, to keep the quintuple
organs of sense under proper control; and habituate yourself with all
diligence to cultivate your understanding, and the power of reasoning.
13. For know whatever gain any one makes at any time, it is owing to
his own endeavours only that he gains the same, and not by any other
means whatever.
14. It is only by dependence on your manly powers, that you can
surmount the insuperable barriers of your sensual appetites; and then
by crossing over the ocean of this world, reach to the other shore of
supreme felicity.
15. It requires no exertion or manly effort to see the figure of
Vishnu; but the mere sight of the image is not sufficient to save you,
or else the birds and beasts would all be saved by looking at it.
16. If it were in the power of the spiritual guide also to save his
foolish followers by his preachings; it would be possible also to the
leaders of camels and kine, to save their herds in their future lives.
(This figure is set in many temples, and in stones also).
17. It is in the power of the mind only to acquire anything good for
one’s self, and not the favour of Hari or that of Hara, or the
influence of money, that is able to effect anything.
18. It is by means of constant practice, accompanied by
self-resignation and self-controul, that one is enabled to effect
anything; and whatever he is unable to do by these means, is impossible
for him to do by any other in the three worlds.
19. Look to the spirit in the spirit, and adore the spirit in your own
soul; behold the supreme soul in yourself, and have the universal soul
in your own soul, and thus remain with it.
20. Fools flying from attending to the sástras, or practising their
self-devotion and exercise of reason, have adopted to themselves the
Vaishnava faith as a path leading to their better being (or a means
towards the great object of final beatitude).
21. Practice and diligence are said to be steps to self-edification,
and rites and ceremonies are represented as secondary courses resorted
to for want of the former!
22. The senses being refractory what is the good of ceremonial
observances, and these being under control, it is useless to observe
the ritual. (In both ways the rituals are useless to men of virtuous
and vicious habits; the former being in no need, of them and the latter
not benefiting by them).
23. Without rationality and dispassionateness of his spirit, it is hard
to have Hari (or spiritual felicity); and when there is the cool and
calm reasoning of the mind, it is as useless to have the idol of Hari,
as to place a lotus in the hand of the dead and liberated.
24. When you have the qualities of abstraction and composure in your
mind, think you have every thing in yourself; for these being in your
possession, you become an adept, or else you are an ass of the forest.
(that is good for nothing).
25. Men are eager to find favour in the sight of the gods (and great
men); but they do not seek the favour of their hearts and minds (which
can give them whatever blessing is derived from any other).
26. Vishnu the indwelling spirit of the body, is situated in the inmost
soul of every individual; it is the ignorant fool only that forsake the
innermost Vishnu, and seek the outer form for its leading to the other
(which is more closely allied to us than the latter).
27. The consciousness dwelling in the cavity of the heart, is the true
body of the everlasting spirit; and the outward form of Vishnu, holding
the conchshell, cudgel, lotus and the discus, is but a false
representation of it. (A fabrication of the ignorant for the immaterial
spirit, in a material form).
28. He who forsakes the real form, and follows the fictitious one, lets
off the ambrosia pass from his hand, in pursuit of some promised
confectionary.
29. He who is not settled amidst the charming scenery of his spiritual
meditation, lets his frantic mind to rove at large, after every object
that presents itself before him.
30. He who has not the abstract knowledge of the soul in himself, is
under the subjection of his infatuated mind; and worships the image
bearing the conch, discus, club and lotus in its hands, as the supreme
Lord and God.
31. It is by practice of continued austerity, and a prolonged worship
of this deity, that the mind of the devotee becomes purified in process
of time, and gets rid of its turbulent passions at last.
32. But the daily practice of self-control and abstract meditation,
gives the mind the same purity, and like the ámra or mango fruit, it
gets its accompanying virtues one by one. (The virtues of the mango are
its flavour, colour &c.).
33. So the soul is said to get in itself the virtues of peace,
contentment and the rest, by means of the external adoration of Hari;
and it is for this reason that the practice of idol worship is
prescribed in the sástras. (As a preparatory step to holiness and
spiritual worship).
34. He who obtains his boon from the all-powerful god, gets it in
reward of his merit; as a fruit of the tree of his long practice.
35. It is mental labour (lit.: painstaking), which is the foundation of
every improvement, and of all lasting good in life; just as the
cultivated soil is the cause of the good condition of the harvest.
36. Even the digging of the ground, and the pulling of the hill (by
bodily labour), is productive of no good without application of the
mind. (Gloss. The digging of the ground alludes to the mining of the
earth by the sons of Sagara; and the pulling of the hill refers to the
churning of the sea with Mandara by the gods and demons. Both these
hardy works were for the sake of obtaining the gems hid under them
which required knowledge (of geology)).
37. Men may undergo a thousand transmigrations, and wander about the
earth in various births and shapes, and yet find no rest composure of
their minds.
38. They may worship Brahmá, Vishnu and the Rudras for ever, and gain
their favour also, and yet can have no salvation owing to the perturbed
state of their minds.
39. Leave off worshipping the visible form or image of Vishnu (or any
other god), either internally or externally in your mind or before your
sight; and put an end to your transmigration, by meditating on your
consciousness alone.
40. Behold the unsullied form of One infinite God in your conscious
self, and by forsaking all whatever it is conscious of. Relish the
sweet essence of the one real entity, and go over the ocean of repeated
births in the mortal world.
CHAPTER XLIV.
NARRATIVE OF GÁDHI AND HIS DESTRUCTION.
Argument. Narrative of Gádhi in illustration of the Adoration of Vishnu.
Vasishtha said:—Ráma; it is the government of the restless mind alone,
that is able to destroy the delusion, which causes the interminable
transmigrations in this mortal world. There is no other means to this
end.
2. Hear attentively, O sinless Ráma! this story which I am going to
relate to you, in order to show you the intricacy of understanding the
nature of worldly delusions.
3. There is the large district of Kosala on the surface of this land,
which is full of forests and fruitful trees, forming as groves of Kalpa
arbors; and abounding with minerals like the Sumeru mountain.
4. There lived a learned Bráhman, known by the name of Gádhi; who was
intelligent and versed in the Vedas, and remained as an image of virtue.
5. From his youth he continued with the calmness of his mind, and
abstracted from and indifferent to worldly affairs; and was of
as pure and unsullied a soul as the clear sky above.
6. Then intent on some fixed purpose of his mind, he left the company
of his friends, and went out to a forest to perform his austere
devotion.
7. He found there a lake filled with full blown lotuses, and the moon
shining in the sky with the scattered stars about her; and all shedding
their lustre like showers of rain.
8. He went down into the lake, and stood in the midst of the waters up
to his neck; his body was below water, and his head floated over it as
a lotus; and he stood upon his devotion, intent with a view to have the
sight of Vishnu present before him.
9. He thus passed full eight months, continuing with his body immerged
in the water of the lake; and his face was shrivelled and wan, like the
lotuses of his lake for want of sun shine.
10. When he was emaciated by his austerities, his god Hari appeared
before him, in the manner of a dark cloud of the rainy weather,
appearing over the parched earth of the hot season.
11. The Lord said:—Rise O Bráhman! from amidst the water, and receive
thy desired blessing of me; because the tree of thy vow, is now
pregnant with its expected fruit.
12. The Bráhman replied:—I bow to thee, O my lord Vishnu! thou art the
receptacle of the three worlds, and the reservoir of innumerable starry
worlds, which rise as lotuses in the lake of thy heart, and whereon
thou sittest like the black bee (to behold their beauty).
13. I want to behold my lord, the spiritual delusion which thou hast
ordained to blind fold this world, and known as Vishnu Máyá.
14. Vasishtha said:—To this the god replied:—you shall verily behold
this delusion, and get rid of it afterwards, by virtue of thy devotion.
Saying so, the god disappeared from his sight as an aerial castle.
15. Vishnu being gone, the good Bráhman got up from his watery bed, in
the manner of the fair and humid moon, rising from amidst the cool and
white milky ocean.
16. He was glad in his soul at the sight of the lord of world, and his
heart was as full blown with joy; as the Kumuda (selenian) lotuses
unfold at the sight of the moon.
17. He then passed some days in that forest, overjoyed in his mind by
the sight of Hari, and employed himself in discharge of his Bráhmanical
duties.
18. Once on a time as he had been bathing in the lake, overspread with
full-blown lotuses, he thought upon the words of Vishnu, as the great
sages reflect in their minds the sense of texts of Vedas.
19. Then in the act of his discharging his sacerdotal functions in the
midst of sacred water, he made his mental prayer for the expurgation of
his sins. (This is the ceremony agha-marshna).
20. As he was performing this act in the midst of the water, he chanced
to forget his sacred mantras (texts), and was drowned in deep water in
the confusion of his mind.
21. He thought that his body had fallen down like a mountain tree, in
the dale below by a blast of wind; and that his dead corpse was taken
up and mourned over by his friends.
22. He thought that his vital breath had fled away from his being, and
the members of his body were as motionless as the shrubs of sugar cane;
laid down on the ground by a hurricane.
23. He thought his countenance to have faded away, and grown as pale as
the withered leaf of a tree; and that his body now turned to a carcass,
was lying on the ground like a lotus-bud torn from its stalk.
24. His eye balls were as dull and dim, as the stars of the morning are
shorn of their beams; and the ground seemed to be as dry to him as in a
drought of rain water, and filled with flying dust on all sides.
25. He believed his dead body was beset all about by his kind friends,
weeping upon it with their sad and sorrowful countenances, and loudly
lamenting and crying over it like birds upon trees.
26. He thought his faithful wife sitting at his feet as handsome
lotus flower, and weeping as profusely with a shower of tears from
her lotus-like eyes, as the rushing of waters at the breaking of an
embankment.
27. His sorrowing mother with her loud wailing and mournful ditties,
was buzzing like the humming bee; and holding the chin newly over grown
with whiskers in her tender hand.
28. His friends were sitting by his side with their dejected looks, and
with trickling tears dropping down their faces and cheeks; and these
washed his dead body, as the melting dews on withered leaves, bedew the
parent tree.
29. The members of his body now ceased to befriend him, like strangers
who decline to become friends for fear of future separation, or turning
unfriendly ever afterwards in life.
30. The open lips leaving the teeth bare, seemed to deride at the
vanity of human life; as the white and bony teethed ascetics and cynics
do on fickleness of worldly events.
31. His mouth was as speechless, as that of a devotee in his
meditation; and the body was as motionless, as it was made of mud and
clay; it slept to wake no more, like a sage absorbed in his hypnotism.
32. It remained quiet with its lifted ears, as if to listen to the
cries and wailings of the mourning friends; in order to judge the
degrees of their affection and grief for him.
33. Then the relatives raised their loud lamentations, with the sobbing
and beating of their breasts, swooning and rising, and shedding floods
of tears from their leaky eyes.
34. Afterwards the sorrowful relations, removed the disgusting corpse
with their bitter cries for its funeral, seeing it no more in future in
this passing world.
35. Then they bore the body to the funeral ground with its rotten flesh
and entrails, and daubed all over with mud and dust, and placed it on
the ground, strewn over with unnumbered bones and skeletons, and dried
and rotten carcasses.
36. Flights of flying vultures shaded the sunbeams on high, and the
burning piles drove the darkness below; the fearful glare of open
mouthed jackals flashed on all sides, as they were flames of living
fire.
37. There the ravens were bathed in floods of blood, and the crows
dipping their wings in it; ravenous birds were tearing the entrails,
and the old vultures were entrapped in those strings.
38. The friends of the dead burnt the corpse in the funeral flame and
reduced to ashes; and the moisture of the body flew in fumes, as the
waters of the ocean are evaporated by the marine fire.
39. The burning wood of the funeral pile, consumed the dead body with
loud cracking noise; and the dry fuel of the pile, flashed in ambient
flames with curling smoke over them.
40. The devouring fire gnawed down the bones with crackling noise, and
filled the atmosphere with the filthy stink and stench. It gorged up
all that was soft or hard, as the elephant devours the reeds with the
moisture contained in their cellular vessels.
CHAPTER XLV.
GÁDHI REBORN AS A CHANDÁLA, AND MADE
KING OVER THE KIR TRIBE.
Argument. Gádhi reborn in a Chandalí, His Life and Election as King of
Kir.
Vasishtha said:—Then Gádhi, standing as he was amidst the water with
his sorrowful heart, saw many other occurrences in the clearness of his
mind.
2. He saw a village in the vicinity of Bhuta mandala (Butan) full of
its inhabitants, and that he was reborn there in the womb of a Chandála
woman, in which he remained with great pain.
3. Confined in the cavity of the womb, he felt his body pressed by the
pressure of the intestines, while his senses were sorely annoyed by
being constrained to abide the stink of the ordure and filth in the
intestinal parts of Chandála woman.
4. After the foetus was matured, he was born in proper time, with its
black complexion like a dark cloud of the rainy season, and soiled with
filth all over its body.
5. It grew up to childhood and then to boyhood in the Chandála’s house,
and moved about here and there like a pebble thrown up by the current
of the Yamuna stream.
6. It reached its twelfth and then its sixteenth year of age, and had
its body fully developed like a rainy cloud increasing in its size.
7. Then accompanied by a pack of hounds, the lad roved from one forest
to another, and continued to hunt after and kill the wild deer, in his
occupation of a huntsman.
8. He was then joined with a Candáli spouse, as black as the leaf of a
tamála plant, and who with her budding breasts, and palms, resembled
the newly sprouting stalks and leaves of trees.
9. She was black and swarthy in her whole complexion, except her two
rows of milk white teeth, and had all her limbs as brisk and supple as
the tender creepers of the forest.
10. They sported together in the skirts of the forest in their youthful
dalliance, and wandered about the flowery meadows, like a couple of
nigrescent bees.
11. When tired they took their seats on beds of leaves and creepers,
which were spread over the plains, like those strewn over the skirts of
the Vindhya hills, by the driving winds.
12. They reposed in woodland groves, and slept in the caverns of
mountains; they sat on heaps of leaflets, and had their abode under
shrubberies and bowers of creeping plants.
13. They decorated their heads with _kinkirata_ flowers, and their
necks and bosoms with blossoms of various kinds. They hung _ketaka_
flowers in their earholes, and made necklaces of _amra_ florets.
14. They rolled on beds of flowers and roved about the foot of the
mountain; they knew all the arbours where to resort, and were skilled
in archery and hunting the deer.
15. They begot many children as the offshoots of their race in the
hilly region; and they were as rude and rough as the prickly thorns of
the _khadira_ plant.
16. After passing their youth in family life, they came gradually to
their decay and decline; till at last they were overtaken by decrepit
old age, which was as dry of pleasure as the parched ground of the
desert.
17. Then returning to their native village in the Bhuta or _Bhota_
district, they built for themselves a poor hut of leaves and straws,
and there lived as recluse hermits (passing their lives in holy
devotion).
18. Gádhi found his body worn out with age, and grown as thin and lean
as a dry leaf, and as a withered tamála tree growing in a mountain
cave; which for want of moisture soon dwindles into decrepitude.
19. He saw his Chandála family increasing in its members, and himself
becoming cramped in his means and crabbed in his speech in his extreme
old age.
20. As Gádhi found himself to be the oldest man alive among the
Chandálas, and had his comfort in the members of his family in his
dotage:—
21. He came to see at last all his family to be swept away by the cruel
hand of death, as the rain water carries away the fallen leaves of the
forest.
22. He continued to lament over their loss, with his heart rent with
sorrow; and his eyes were suffused in tears, like those of a stag deer
separated from its companions.
23. Thus passing some days in that forest with his heart overflown with
grief, he left at last his natal land, as the aquatic fowls quit their
native lake, when its waters and the lotus plants are dried up.
24. He travelled through many countries with his sad and sickly heart,
without finding a spot of rest and repose; and was driven to and fro,
as a cloud is carried by contrary winds.
25. On one time he entered the opulent city of the Kirs, and observed
the birds flying over it, like so many balloons hanging in the air.
26. There he saw rows of trees on both sides of the road, waving their
variegated leaves and clusters of flowers like enamelled cloths and
gems; and the path strewn over with beautiful flowers of various kinds
up to the heels.
27. He then came to the royal road, resembling the milky path of
heaven; and found it filled by soldiers and citizens, and their women
without number.
28. He saw there the auspicious royal elephant decorated with its
gemming and embroidered trappings; and appearing as the golden mountain
of the gods moving on the earth.
29. He learnt it to be rambling about in search of a new king, to be
elected in lieu of the last king who was lately dead. The royal
elephant was employed as a jeweller to select the best gem to be placed
on the royal throne.
30. The Chandála remained to look steadfastly on the elephant with his
curious eye, and found it to be no other than a hill in motion.
31. As he was looking on it with amazement, the elephant came to him
and lifted him with his trunk; then setting him on his head with
respect, bore him as the mount Meru bears the sun on its top.
32. Seeing him to be sitting on the animal’s head, the people sounded
their trumpets; the noise whereof was as loud as that of the resounding
ocean, to the roaring of the diluvian clouds in the sky.
33. Then the acclamation of ‘Victory to the king,’ rose from the
assembled throng and filled the air around; and seemed as it were the
united cry of matutinal birds over the waking (or rising) world.
34. Next rose the loud voices of the panegyrists, which, moved in the
air like the dashing waves of the sea.
35. Then the matrons joined to anoint him as their king, and moved
about him like the waves of the sea; surrounding the Mandara mountain
after its labour of churning.
36. The respectable ladies adorned him afterwards with many ornaments
of various gems, as the sea laves the rock on its shore; with the many
coloured waves under the beams of the rising sun.
37. Youthful maidens poured cooling ointments on him, as the raining
clouds pour down their waters, on the tops of mountains.
38. Other women decorated his person with wreaths of fragrant flowers,
with their tender hands; as the season of spring adorns the forest with
variety of flowers, with her hands of the tender stalks and branches.
39. They put a great many paints and pastes upon his person, which
decorated it, as the rays of the sun, paint the mountain with the many
colours of its minerals.
40. His body being decorated with ornaments made of gems and gold,
attracted all hearts unto him; as the mount Meru is attractive of all
hearts, by the variegated clouds of evening shining upon it.
41. He was adorned by beauteous maids, with shoots of creeping plants;
which gave him the appearance of the kalpa tree, entwined by its
creepers.
42. Being thus anointed and decorated, he was attended to by all the
royal family and subjects; as a shady and flowering tree, is resorted
to by the travellers.
43. They all assembled and installed him on the throne, as the gods
join together, to place Indra on the throne, after he is borne on the
back of the Airávata elephant.
44. In this manner, was the Chandála made a king in the city of the
Kirs; and he was as much overjoyed at his unexpected good fortune, as a
raven is delighted to find a stout dead deer in the forest.
45. His feet were rubbed by the lotus-like hands of the Kiri queen, and
his body daubed with odorous powder of frankincense, which gave it the
brightening appearance of the evening with the crimson clouds.
46. He flaunted in the Kir city and in the midst of their women, as a
lion struts in the company of lionesses in the flowery forest.
47. He now forgot his former pains and sorrows; and his person was as
much cooled, as by wearing a necklace of pearls, dropped from the heads
of elephants killed by lions. And he was as much delighted at the
enjoyment of the luxuries in company with these good people, as a
sun-burnt elephant is refreshed, in a lake full of water and forage.
48. He reigned here for sometime in his self-gotten kingdom, having
extended his power and mandates on all sides; he ruled the state
through the medium of the ministers, and was himself known by the name
of Gávala throughout his dominions.
CHAPTER XLVI.
GÁDHI’S LOSS OF HIS VISIONARY KINGDOM.
Argument. Continuation of Gádhi’s Vision:—
Vasishtha continued:—Thus was Gádhi surrounded by his courtiers, and
attended by his ministers; the chiefs paid their homage to him, and the
royal umbrella was raised above his head and the chouri flapped about
him.
2. He attained great dignity on seeing his mandates were carried out on
every side. He was delighted to learn the state affairs, and to be
informed that his subjects were happy and lived fearless within his
dominion.
3. The pæans of the panegyrists, made him forget himself and his
former state; and the excess of his delight, made him as giddy as if by
intoxication.
4. He reigned for full eight years over the Kiri kingdom, and managed
himself in an honourable manner all along that time.
5. He was once sitting at his pleasure and without his regal attire in
the open air; and was looking at the clear firmament, which was devoid
of clouds and darkness, and without the light of the sun, moon and
stars.
6. His heart was full with the enjoyment of royal dignity, and did not
think much of the trinkets and ornaments, which were loaded upon him.
7. He went abroad at one time in this naked state of his body, and
beheld the setting sun bending his course below the horizon from his
wonted path of glory. (The setting sun refers to his present state and
his impending fall).
8. He saw there a band of chandálas of black complexions and big
bodies, singing like melodious cuckoos the approach of the vernal
season.
9. They were striking the strings of their wired instruments—lyre, with
the strokes of their trembling fingers; as the swarm of sweet sounding
bees, shake the tremulous leaves of trees with their fluttering and
buzzing.
10. There stood an old man among them, who seemed to be the leader of
the band; and appeared with his grey head and ruby eyes, like the mount
Meru with his snow covered top and gemming caverns.
11. He accosted the king saying:—How is it, O Kálanjaka! that you came
to be here, has the king of this place taken you for his associate on
account of your skill in music?
12. Does he take a liking for sweet songsters, as they do for the
musical kokilas, and does he load upon them his favours, with presents
of household cloths and seats?
13. I am as much glad to see you here today (in this happy condition of
yours), as men are pleased to see the mango tree, fraught with its
fruits and flowers in spring.
14. I am as glad in my heart as the budding lotus at the sight of the
rising sun, and the selenian or medicinal plants at moon rise; and as
great men are pleased with all their best gains, so am I pleased at
seeing thee here, because the highest limit of joys is the sight of a
friend.
15. As the Chandála was addressing the king in the said manner, he
acquainted him of the manner in which the wheel of time turned to his
favour. (Here is a misprint of avadhírana for avadhárana, which would
alter the meaning and express, that he felt ashamed at the speech).
16. At this instant his consorts and servants that were standing at the
window, overheard their conversation, and were in deep sorrow to learn
that he was a Chandála by birth.
17. They were as sick at heart as the lotus-flowers under a shower of
frost, and as a tract of land under a draught; and the citizens were as
cheerless upon learning this, as upon seeing the conflagration of a
mountain wood.
18. He hurled his defiance at these words of the old Chandála, as the
lion lying on the ground, shows his teeth at the sneering of a cat on
the top of a tree.
19. He fled in haste into the inner apartment, and among its sorrowful
inmates, with as much palpitation of his heart, as the reluctant swan
enters a lake of withering lotuses, in the dry season.
20. His limbs grew stiff, and his countenance became pale with fear;
and his knees tottered with inward rage, as the trunks of trees shake
with the burning fire in their hollows. (The _sami_ or _sáin_ tree is
an instance of it. Gloss).
21. He beheld all persons there sitting in a melancholy mood, with
their downcast looks and drooping heads; like the bending tops of
plants, eaten up at the root by mice and rats.
22. The ministers, the ladies of the harem and all people of the city,
refrained from touching his person, as they avoid the touch of a dead
body lying in the house.
23. The servants ceased to minister unto him, and the ladies with all
their love and sorrow for him, loathed his company.
24. They looked upon his cheerless face and dark complexion with its
departed lustre, as the funeral ground which every one loathes to look
upon.
25. Though the people sorrowed for his darksome body, now smoking with
fumes of his grief; yet they durst not approach his person, which
appeared to burn as a volcano amidst its smoke.
26. The courtiers left him with the heavings of their hearts, nor were
his orders obeyed any more, than those of quenching the cool ashes with
water.
27. The people fled from him as from a heinous Rákshasa, who is the
cause of evil and danger only.
28. Thus was he shunned by all, and left lonesome amidst the populous
city; and became as an unbefriended traveller passing through a foreign
country, without money or skill to support him.
29. Though he called and accosted every body, yet he got no answer from
any one; as the hollow sounding reed, is never returned with a reply by
any of the passers by.
30. They all said to one another, that the guilt of their long
association with the Chandála, cannot be expiated by any other penance,
than by the act of burning themselves alive on the funeral pile in the
form of self-immolation.
31. Being so resolved, the ministers and citizens all joined together,
and raised for themselves piles with heaps of dry wood.
32. These being lighted, blazed all about the ground like stars in the
sky, and the city was filled with loud wailings of the people all
around.
33. The wailing wives were shedding showers of tears with their loud
and piteous cries; and the weeping people were heaving their heavy
groans with their choked voices, all about the burning furnaces.
34. The plaintive cries of the dependants of the self-cremating
ministers, rose as the swell of whistling winds amidst the forest trees.
35. The bodies of great Bráhmans, that were burnt on the piles, sent
forth their fatted fumes in the air; which were scattered about by the
winds, and overcast the landscape as with a portentous mist.
36. The winds bore aloft and spread far and wide in the open sky, the
stench of the burning fat and flesh of men; which invited flocks of the
flying fowls of the air to the feast, and the disk of the sun was hid
under the wide extending shadow of the winged tribe.
37. The flame of the burning pile, borne by the winds to the sky,
burned as a conflagration on high; and the flying sparks of fire
scattered in the air, appeared as falling meteors blazing in the
horizon.
38. Here the helpless boys were crying for their ornaments being robbed
by atrocious robbers, owing to their want of guardians; and there the
citizens were threatened with the loss both of their lives and
properties by the dacoits.
39. On one side the people were seen to lament the loss of their
relatives (in the destructive fire); on the other were the bands of
thieves, lurking and prying unobserved about the houses for plunder and
booty.
40. As adverse fate brought on this direful change on the devoted city;
its horrified inhabitants remained in mute amazement; as on the last
doom of nature.
41. Gavala, the Chandála prince, whose mind was purified and whose
manners were refined in the society of the great men of the palace;
witnessed the sad catastrophe of the state, and mourned in himself with
a pensive heart.
42. It is all owing to me, said he, that all this woe has befallen on
this state; and that time has brought on the untimely dissolution of
the doomsday; both on this realm and the royal family and its
ministerial officers.
43. What is the good of this miserable life of mine? My death is a
blessing to me than living in this wretched state. It is better for the
mean and base to die away, than live to be reviled by others.
44. Thus resolved, Gavala prepared a pile for himself, and made an
offering of his body in the burning furnace, like the poor moth
dropping on fire, without betraying a sigh.
45. As Gavala cast his body (nick named as Gavala) amidst the flame, and
was pulling his limbs singed by the fire; their violent motion and his
painful emotion, roused the dreaming Gádhi from his reverie amidst the
water.
46. Válmíki said:—As the sage was saying these things, the day departed
with the setting sun to its evening devotion; the congregation broke
with mutual salutations, for the performance of their evening
ablutions, and assembled again with the rising sun after dispersion of
the gloom of night.
CHAPTER XLVII.
VERIFICATION OF GÁDHI’S VISION.
Argument. Gádhi learns from a guest the report of the Keri people, and
goes out to inquire into the fact on the spot.
Vasishtha resumed:—Gádhi was soon afterwards relieved from the
perturbation of his mind at the delusions of the world; and he was
set at rest from his perturbed state, like the disturbed sea after
subsidence of its waves.
2. His mind being freed from its painful thoughts, regained its repose
after the troublesome dream, had passed away, and he resumed his
calmness, as the god Brahmá had his rest, after the labour of his
creation was over at the end of the kalpa (the time of his creative
will or the duration of creation).
3. He regained his senses slowly, as a man upon waking from his sleep;
and as one gains his sobriety after the passing off of his ebriety.
4. He then said to himself, I am the same Gádhi and in the same
function (of my sacred ablution in the water). All this is nothing that
I had been seeing so long, and this I see as clearly as men see things
after dispersion of the shade of night.
5. Remembering himself what he was (_i.e._ coming to himself), he
lifted his feet from amidst the water (_i.e._ got out of it); as the
lotus-bud lifts its head above the water, after the frost is over in
spring.
6. He said again, this is the same water, sky and earth (where I stood
before); but what I was just seeing, is quite astonishing to me.
7. What am I and what do I see now, and what was I and had been doing
all this time? With these thoughts he remained a long time with his
knitted brows and staring eyes.
8. It was my weakness, said he, that showed me this delusion; and
knowing it for certain, he came out of the water, as the rising sun
appears above the horizon.
9. Then rising on the bank, he said:—Ah! where is that mother and wife
of mine, who attended on me at the moment of my death.
10. Or were my parents dead in the ignorant state of my boyhood, like
the parent plant of a young shoot, cut off by the sword of death?
11. I am unmarried and know not the form of a wife, and am as ignorant
of conjugal love, as a Bráhman is stranger to the pernicious taste of
forbidden liquors.
12. I am too far from my country and know none of my friends and
relatives; unto whom I shall return and there to die.
13. Therefore all these scenes that I have come to see, are no more
than the forms of the fairy land pictured in my fancy.