DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT AIR, AS THE
UNIVERSAL SPIRIT.
Argument:—Vasishtha’s assuming the form of Air, and his finding
its pervasion all over the world as its vital spirit.
Vasishtha continued:—Now in my curiosity to know the world, I thought
myself as transformed to the form of the current air; and by degrees
extended my essence, all over the infinite extent of the universe.
2. I became a breeze with a desire, to view the beauty of the lovely
plants all about me; and to smell the sweetness of the fragrant blossoms
of kunda, jessamine as lotuses.
3. I bore about the coolness of the falling rains and snows and dew
drops, with a view to restore freshness to the languid limbs of the
tired and weary labourer.
4. My spirit in the form of the current winds, bore about the essences
of medicinal plants and the fragrance of flowers; and carried away the
loads of grass, herbs, creepers and the leaves of plants all around.
5. My spirit travelled as the gentle zephyr, in the auspicious hours of
morn and eve; to awaken and lull to sleep the lovely maids; again it
takes the tremendous shape of a tornado in tempest, to break down and
bear away the rocks.
6. In paradise it is florid, with the reddish dust of _mandára_ flowers;
in the mountains it is hoary with hoar frost and snows; and in hell it
burns in the infernal fires.
7. In the sea it has a curvilinear motion, with the curling waves and
revolving whirlpools; and in heaven it bears aloft and moves the clouds,
both to cover and uncover the mirror of moon hid under them.
8. In heaven it has the name of the prabáha air, to hold aloft the
starry frame; and guide the course of the starry legions and the cars of
their commanding generals—the post of Gods.
9. It is accounted as the younger brother of thought, owing to its great
velocity; it is formless but moveth over all forms; and though
intangible, yet its touch is as delightsome, as the cooling paste of
sandal wood.
10. It is hoary old with the hoar frost, it bears on its head; it is
youthful with wafting the fragrance of vernal flowers, and it is young
when it is quiet and still.
11. Here it roves at large, loaded with the fragrance of the garden of
Eden; and there it moves freely bearing the perfumes of the grove of the
Gandharva Chitra-ratha, to tired persons and worn out lovers.
12. Though fatigued with its toil, of raising and moving the incessant
waves, of the cooling and purifying stream of Ganges; yet it is ever
alert to lull the toil of others, being quite forgetful of its own
weariness.
13. It gently touches its brides of vernal plants, bending down under
the load of their full blown flowers; which are ever shaking their leafy
hands, and flitting eyes of fluttering bees, to resist its touch.
14. The fleeting air buried its weariness in its soft bed of clouds;
after drinking dew drops exuding from the disc of the moon; and being
fanned by the cooling breath of lotuses (growing in lakes of heaven).
15. Like the swiftest steed of Indra, he bears the farina of all flowers
to him in heaven; and becomes a compeer with Indra’s elephant, who is
giddy with the fragrance of his ichor.
16. Then blew the winds, with the soft breath of the shepherd’s horns;
and drove away the clouds like cattle, and blasted the showering rain
drops; that served to set down the dust of the earth.
17. It is perfumed with the fragrance of flowers flying in the air, and
is the uterine brother of all sounds which proceed from the womb of
vacuum (which is the common source of wind and sound). It runs in the
blood and humours, within the veins and arteries of bodies; and is the
mover of the limbs of persons.
18. It dwells within the hearts of human bodies as their life, and is
the soul and sole cause of all their vital functions. It is ever on its
wing, and being ubiquitous throughout the world, it is acquainted with
the secrets of all the works of Brahmá.
19. It is the plunderer of the rich treasure of odours, and the
supporter of etherial cities; it is the destroyer of heat and darkness
as the moon, and this air is the milky ocean, that produces the fair and
cooling moon.
20. It forms the islands (by undulation of waves and collection of
sands); and is the preserver of the machine of animal bodies, by means
of its conducting the vital airs.
21. It is ever present before us, and yet invisible in itself, like an
imaginary palace; or as oil in the pods of palm trees, or fetters on the
legs of infuriate elephants.
22. It blows away in a moment, all the mountains at the end of the
world; it marks the waves with their curls, and collects the sands of
rivers (to large beaches and coasts).
23. It is false in appearance, as water in a cloud of smoke, or a
whirlpool in it; it is as invisible as the streams above the firmament,
and the lotuses growing in the lakes of the blue etherial sky.
24. It is covered with bits of rotten grass, in its form of the gusts of
wind; it opens the lotus blossoms by its gentle breeze, and showers down
the rains in its form of sounding blasts.
25. Its body is as a wind instrument at home, and as an elephant in the
forest of the sky; it is a friend to the dust of the earth, and a wooer
of flowers in woods and gardens.
26. It is ever busy in its several acts, of congealing and drying, of
upholding and moving, and of cooling the body and carrying the perfumes;
and is incessantly employed in these six fold functions to the end of
the world.
27. It is as fleet as light, and adroit in extracting juices as the
absorbent heat; and is ever employed in the acts of contraction and
distension of the limbs of bodies, at the will of every body.
28. It passes unobstructed through the avenues, of every part of the
city of the body; and by its circulation in the heart, and distribution
of the bile and chyle through blood vessels, it preserves the functions
of life.
29. It is expert in repairing the losses, of the great citadel of the
living body; by removing its excrements and replacing its gastric juices
(_i.e._ the six humours of the body), and the formation of its blood and
fat, and the flesh, bones, and skin.
30. I looked through every particle of the body, by means of the
circulating air; as I viewed every part of the universe by means of the
circumambient air; and it is by means of my vital airs, that I conduct
this body of mine.
31. The winds bear innumerable particles on their back, as if they were
so many worlds in the air, while in fact there is nothing borne by them,
when there is naught but an utter negative vacuity every where.
32. I viewed all bodies including those of the gods, as those of Hari
and Brahmá, and the Gandharvas and Vidyádharas; and I saw the bright sun
and moon, of fire and Indra and others.
33. I saw the seas and oceans, the islands and mountains, stretching as
far as the visible horizon; I beheld also the other worlds, and the
natures and actions of their inhabitants.
34. I saw the heaven and earth and the infernal regions also, and marked
their peoples and their lives and deaths likewise.
35. So I beheld various kinds of beings, composed of the five elements;
and traversed in the form of air, throughout all parts of the universe,
as a bee enters the foliage of a lotus flower.
36. In my aerial form, I passed through the bodies of all corporeal
beings, which are composed of earth, water, air and fire; I sucked the
juice of all animal bodies, and drank the moisture of trees drawn by
their roots.
37. I passed over all cold and solid bodies, and the liquid paste of
sandal wood; I rested in the cool lunar disk, and lulled myself on beds
of snows and ice.
38. I have tasted the sweets of all season fruits and flowers in the
arbours of every part of this earth; I have drunk my fill in the
flower-cups of spring; and left the lees and leavings for the beverage
of bees.
39. Then I rolled on the high and soft beds of clouds, which are spread
out in the wide fields of the firmament; and I slept on soft and downy
wings of clouds, as in a place bedded by heaps of butter.
40. I reposed on the petals of flowers, and on the green leaves of
trees; and rested on the soft bodies of heavenly nymphs, without any
concupiscence on my part.
41. I played with the blossoms of lilies and lotuses, in their beds and
bushes; and I joined with the cackling geese and swans in their pleasure
lakes.
42. I moved with the course of streams, and with the rippling waters of
lakes and rills; and I bore the orb of the earth on my back, and carried
about me all her mountains, as hairs upon my body.
43. The wide extending hills and mountains, the lengthening rills
falling from them, together with all the seas and oceans, are all as
pictures represented in the mirror of my body.
44. All the terrestrials and celestials, that live and move at large
upon my body; appear to be moving and flying about me as lice and flies.
45. It is by my favor, that the sun receives the various colours with
which he shines; and which he diffuses to the leaves of trees, in the
sundry hues of red and black, of white, yellow and green.
46. The earth is situated with the seven seas, surrounding the seven
great islands (continents); as so many wristlets are encircled about the
wrists of men.
47. I was delighted at the sight of the celestial nymphs, also, as I see
with gladness myself within.
48. The earth with its rivers of pure water and its solid hills and
rocks, were as the veins and blood, and flesh and bones of my body.
49. I beheld innumerable elephantine clouds, and countless suns and
moons in the starry frame on the sky; as I see the flights of gnats and
flies in the vacuum of my mind.
50. In my minute form of the intellect, I held, O Ráma, the earth with
its footstools of the nether regions upon my head (because the vacuous
intellect is capable of containing and upholding all things).
51. I remained in my sole vacuous and spiritual state, in all places and
things at all times, and as the free agent of myself; and yet without my
connection with any thing whatsoever.
52. In this state of my spirituality, I had the knowledge of both the
intellectual and material worlds; and of all finite and infinite,
visible and invisible and formal as well as formless things.
53. I beheld in my own spirit, a thousand worlds and mountains and seas;
and they appeared as carved statues and engravings in the vacuous tablet
of my mind.
54. I bore in my spiritual body, many occult and visible worlds; and
they showed themselves as clearly to my inmost soul, as if they were the
reflexions of real objects in a mirror.
55. So I perceived the four elemental bodies of earth and air, and of
fire and water, in my vacuous soul; in same manner as we see the
delusive objects of our dream in the vacuity of our intellect.
56. I saw also in that state of my hypnotism, innumerable worlds rising
before me in each particle of matter; as it appeared to fly before me in
the hollow space of vacuum.
57. I beheld a world in every atom, which was flying in empty air; just
as we see the many creations of our dreams, and the many creatures in
those dreams.
58. I myself have become the orb of the earth, and the clusters of
islands (as their pervading spirit (adhyásikátma); though my spirit
never comes in contact with anything at all).
59. With my earthly body, I suck the rain water and the waters of the
seas; in order to supply the moisture of the moisture of trees, on
account of their producing the juicy fruits, for the food of living
beings.
60. At the time of my coming to pure understanding, and the clair-voyance
of my intellectual sight; I find the millions of worlds and all worldly
things, disappearing from my view and all uniting in One sole unity.
61. This is a miracle of the intellect, and it strikes with wonder in
ourselves; that the miracles of the inner mind, manifest themselves as
external sights before our eyes. (_i.e._ The subjective appearing as
the objective).
62. I felt it painful to think of the existence of nothing any where;
but I found out the truth, that there is nothing in reality except one
spiritual substance, which displays all these wonders in itself.
63. There is but One universal soul, which is the ever undecaying cause
of all; and produces and lives through out the whole. (This is called the
_visva rúpa_ hypostasis of God, as it is expressed by the poet “These as
they change, are but the varied God,” and the world is full of Him). And
as my soul was awakened to knowledge, I saw this whole in the soul of
Brahma.
64. Being awakened to the knowledge of the universal soul, as the all
and every where, ubiquitous and all supporting; I became insensible of
all objects, and was myself lost in the all subjective unity.
65. It is in the vacuous convexity of the pure divine spirit, that the
continuous creations appear to rise in the intellect; but it is the
extinction of these, which extinguishes the burning flame (of
worldliness) in the mind, and exterminates the knowledge of all these
ideal particulars, into that of One infinite and ever existent entity.