LIFE AND CONDUCT OF THE ETHERIAL NYMPH.
Argument:—How nymph has come to approach before Vasishtha, her
statement of facts of her life.
After the lapse of a long time, I found my passions subsiding, and I
grew as callous to my susceptibilites, as the tender greens become
juiceless and dry after the autumn is over.
2. Seeing my husband grown old, and shorn of all his susceptivity and
vivaciousness; and sitting quietly in his steadfast devotion with an
unwavering mind, I thought my life to be useless to me.
3. And methought that early widowhood, and even premature death, or
rather a lingering disease or lasting misery, are preferable to a
female’s living without a loving husband.
4. It is the boon of life, and the greatest good fortune of a woman, to
have a young and loving husband, who is of good and pleasant humour, and
pliant in his manners.
5. A woman is given for lost, who has not a sweet and lovely spouse; as
the understanding is lost which is not fraught with learning. In vain is
prosperity when she favours the wicked, and in vain is a woman that is
lost to shame. (Because modesty is the best quality of women).
6. She is the best of women, who is obedient to her husband; and that is
the best fortune, which falls in the hands of the virtuous and good.
That understanding is praised which is clear and capacious; and that
goodness is good, which has a fellow feeling and equal regard for all
mankind.
7. Neither disease nor calamity, nor dangers nor difficulties, can
disturb the minds, or afflict the hearts of a loving pair, (bound
together by mutual affection).
8. The prospect of the blossoming garden of Eden, and the flowery paths
of paradise, appear as desert lands to women, that have no husbands, or
such as wicked and unmannerly in their behaviour.
9. A woman may forsake all her worldly possessions, as of little value
to her; but she can never forsake her husband, even for any fault on his
part.
10. You see, O chief of sages, all these miseries to which I am
subjected these very many years of my puberty.
11. But all this fondness of mine, is gradually turning to indifference;
and I am pining and fading away as fast, as the frost beaten lotus
flower, is shrunken and shrivelled for want of its sap and juice.
12. Being now indifferent to the pleasure of my enjoyment of all things,
I come to seek the felicity of my _nirvána_-extinction; and stand in
need of your advice for my salvation.
13. Otherwise it is better for them to die away than live in this world,
who are unsuccessful in desires and ever restless and perplexed in their
minds; and such as are buffeting and borne by the waves of deadly
troubles.
14. He my husband being desirous of obtaining his nirvána liberation, is
now intent both by day and night upon the subduing of his mind by the
light of his reason, as a prince is roused to conquer his foe in company
with his princess.
15. Now sir, please to dispel both his as well as mine ignorance, by your
reasonable advice, which may revive our remembrance of the soul (which
may destroy our faith in the body).
16. Because my lord sitting solely upon the meditation of the soul,
without the company or any thought about me; has created in me an
indifference and distaste to all worldly things _in toto_.
17. I am now set free from the influence of worldly desires, and have
girt myself fast with the amulet of aeronautic expedition, for
journeying through the regions of air. (This amulet is called the
_khechari mudra_).
18. I have acquired the power of locomotion amidst the air, by means of
this amulet of mine; and it is by virtue of this power, that I am
enabled to associate with the siddha spirits, and to converse with you.
19. Having girt myself with this charm, I have acquired such potency,
that though remaining in my dwelling house on earth, which is the basis
and centre of all the worlds, I can see all its past and future events
(by means of my intuition and yoga meditation).
20. Having then beheld within my mind, all and everything relating to
this world; I have come out to survey the outward world, and seen as far
as the gigantic polar mountain (which has perpetual light and darkness
on either side of it).
21. Before this, O sage, neither I nor my husband, had ever any desire
of seeing anything beyond our own habitation. (_i.e._ Or the internal
world contained within the world).
22. My husband being solely employed in meditating on the meanings
(doctrines) of the vedas; has no desire whatever, to know anything
relating the past or unpassed (_i.e._ the present and future) time.
23. It is for this reason (of unacquaintance with the world), that my
lord has not been able to succeed to any station in life; and it is
today only, that both of us are desirous to be blest with the best state
of humanity (the knowledge of the Deity).
24. We therefore beseech you, O venerable sir, to grant our request, as
it is never in the nature of noble persons to refuse the prayer of their
suppliants.
25. I who have been wandering in the etherial regions, among hosts of
the perfected spirits of siddhas; do not find any one except yourself, O
honourable sir, who may put fire to the thick gloom of ignorance as a
conflagration.
26. And as it is the nature of good people to do good to others, even
without the knowledge of any cause of pity in their suppliants; so
should you, O venerable sir, do to your suppliant one without refusing
her suit.