ANECDOTE OF INDRA, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE
ATOMIC WORLD.
Argument:—The acts of Delusion, and Deception of senses, and
Indra’s Vision of the World in an Atom.
Bhusunda Said:—The universe which contains the totality of existence,
and appears as a wide extended sphere; is not in need of any
pre-existent place or time as recipients of its substance just as the
etherial light (of the twilight), requires no prop or pillar in the
heavens for its support. (The simultaneity of the seeming
containers—time and space, and their apparent contents—the wide world
and the broad light, disproves the priority of the receptacles with
regard to their occupants, as it is commonly understood to be. So the
verse:—Here there is no container or contained, nothing first or last;
But all is one that fills and contains this all. Gloss).
2. The fabrication of this triple world (containing the celestial,
terrestrial and infernal regions), is the mere thought or working of the
mind; and all this is more quiet and calm, more minute and light, and
much more translucent than the odor residing in the air.
3. The world is a wondrous phenomenon of the intellect, which though it
is as minute as a particle of fragrance borne by the wind; appears yet
as big as a mountain to the sensation of the outward organs of sense.
(This is the effect of the deception of the senses).
4. Every one (animal being) views and thinks the world, in the same form
and light as it presents unto him; just as the operations of the mind
and visions in a dream, appear as they occur to their recipients and to
no other besides. (The deceptive senses and dreams, depict objects in
different aspects to different persons).
5. Here I will instance an old legend, of what happened to Indra—the
lord of Gods, when he was confined in a minute particle in times of
yore.
6. It came to pass once upon a time, that this world grew up as a small
fig fruit on a branch of the Yuga tree, in the great arbour of a kalpa
age. (The periods of a Yuga and kalpa are represented as a tree and
forest by metaphor).
7. The mundane fruit was composed of the three compartments of the
earth, sky and infernal regions, containing the gods and demigods of
heaven, the hills and living creatures on earth, the marshy lands below,
with troops of gnats and flies (fluttering about the fig tree of the
world, and representing the diseases and dangers that hover over it).
8. It is a wondrous production of the intellect (which is its
architect); and is as high as handsome full-blown buds with the juice of
desire (_i.e._ it is full of all delights, that the heart can desire).
It is odorous with all kinds of flavourous fragrances, that we can feel
and tempting to the mind by the variety of its savours that are sweet to
taste. (Does it allude to the forbidden fruit which was enticing to
sight and sweet to taste, and meant the world itself that was to be
avoided)?
9. This tree grew upon the Brahma tree (otherwise called the udumvara or
fig tree), which was over hung by millions of creepers and orchids;
egoism is the stalk of the fruit, which appeared beautiful to sight.
10. It is encompassed around with oceans, seas and arteries, and whose
face-light is the principal door. It is salvating the starry heaven
above and the moist earth below.
11. It is ripened at the end of the Kalpa age, when it becomes the food
of black crows and cuckoos (messengers of darksome death); or if it
falls below there is an end of it, by its absorption in the indifferent
Brahma.
12. There lived at one time the lord of Gods—the great Indra in that
fruit, just as a big mosquito resides in an empty pot in company with
the small gnats as their great leader.
13. But this great lord was weakened in his strength and valour by his
study of and the lectures of his preceptor on spiritualism; which made
him a spiritualist, and seer in all past and future matters.
14. It happened once on a time, when the valiant god Náráyana and his
heavenly host, had been reposing in their rest; and their leader Indra
was so debilitated in his arms; that the demigods rose in open rebellion
against God.
15. Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire, and fought with the
fighting Asuras for a long time; but being at last defeated by the
superior strength, he fled away in haste from the field.
16. He ran in all the ten directions, and was pursued by the enemy
wherever he fled; he could get no place of rest, as a sinner has no
resting place in the next world (but continues to rove about in never
ending transmigrations of his soul).
17. Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, he availed to
himself of that opportunity; he compressed the thought of his big body
in his mind, and became of a minute form on the out-side of himself. (It
is the inner thought that moulds the outer body, according to the inner
type).
18. He then entered into the womb of an atom, which was glittering
amidst the expanse of solar rays; as a bee enters into the cup or seed
vessel of a lotus bud, by means of the consciousness of his personal
minuteness.
19. He had his instant rest in that state, and then his hope of final
bliss in the next; by utter forgetfulness of the warfare, and attainment
of the ultimate beatitude of the _nirvána_ torpitude in the end. (All
action is warfare, and cessation from it gives peace and rest).
20. He instantly conceived in his imagination, his royal palace in that
lotus, and he sat upon his lotiform seat (padmásana) within it, as if he
was resting on his own bed.
21. Then Indra otherwise called Hari, being seated in that mansion, saw
an imaginary city in it, containing a grand edifice in the midst; with
its walls studded with gems, pearls and corals.
22. Hari (the Indra) beheld from within the city, a large country
extending about it, and containing many hills and villages, pasture
grounds for kine, forests and human habitations.
23. Indra then felt the desire of enjoying that country, with all the
lands and hills, the seas to their utmost boundaries, as he had formed
in his imagination.
24. Shakra (Indra) afterwards conceived the desire, of possessing the
three worlds to himself, together with all the earth and ocean, sky and
the infernal regions, the heavens, planetary spheres above and the
ranges of mountains below.
25. Thus did Indra remain there as the lord of gods, and in possession
of all abundance for his enjoyments; and there was born to him
afterwards, a son named Kunda of great strength and valour.
26. Then at the end of his life time, this Indra of unblemished
reputation, forsook his mortal frame, and became extinct in his
_nirvána_ dissolution, as when a lamp is extinguished for want of oil.
27. Kunda reigned over the three worlds (of and like his father), and
then having given birth to a boy he departed to his ultimate state of
bliss, after expiration of the term of his life.
28. That son also reigned in his time (like the sire), and then departed
at the end of his life time, to the holy state of supreme felicity, by
leaving a son after him.
29. In this manner a thousand generations of the grandsons of the first
Indra, have reigned and passed away in their time; and there is still a
prince by name of Ansaka, reigning over the state of the lord of gods.
30. Thus the generations of the lord of immortals, still hold their
sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra; in that sacred particle
of sunbeam in empty air, although that atomic particle is continually
going to decay and waste in this long course of time (yet the
imagination of its existence has laid a firm hold on the minds of their
posterity for ever).