The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER XLIV.
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION.
1.Vasishtha said:—At this instant the great queen, who
was in the bloom
of youthful beauty, entered the camp of Vidūratha, as the
goddess of
grace pops upon the lotus flower.
2. She was decorated with pendant wreaths of flowers and
necklaces, and
accompanied by a train of her youthful companions and
handmaids, all
terrified with fear.
3. With her face as bright as the moon and her form as
fair as the lily,
she appeared as a luminary of heaven, with her teeth
shining as sets of
stars, and her bosom throbbing with fear.
4. Then the king was informed by one of her companions
about the fate of
the warfare, which resembled the onset of demons upon the
Apsarā tribe.
5. Lord! this lady, said she, has fled with us from her
seraglio, to
take refuge under thy arms, as a tender creeper seeks the
shelter of a
tree, from a rude gust of wind.
6. Behold! the ravishers ravishing the wives of the
citizens with their
uplifted arms, like the swelling waves of the sea
carrying away the
arbours of the bank in their rapid current.
7. The guards of the royal harem are all crushed to death
by the haughty
marauders, as the sturdy trees of the forest are broken
down by the
furious tornado.
8. Our armies frightened by the enemy from afar, dare not
approach the
falling city, as nobody ventures to rescue the lotus beds
from a flood,
under the threatening thunders of a rainy night.
9. The hostile force have poured upon the city in terrible
numbers, and
having set it on fire, are shouting loudly under the
clouds of smoke,
with their weapons brandishing on all sides.
10. The handsome ladies are dragged by the hair from
amidst their
families, in the manner of screaming cranes, caught and carried
away by
the cruel fowlers and fishermen.
11. Now we have brought this exuberant tender creeper to
thee, that thou
mayst save her from similar fate by thy might.
12. Hearing this, he looked at the goddesses and said,
now will I go to
the war from here, and leave this my lady as an humble
bee at your lotus
feet.
13. Saying so, the king rose in a rage from his seat and
sprang like the
enraged lion from the den, when pierced and pressed by
the tusk of a
furious elephant.
14. The widowed Līlā beheld the queen Līlā to be exactly
of her form and
features, and took her for a true inflexion of herself in
a mirror.
15. Then said the enlightened Līlā to Sarasvatī:—Tell me,
O goddess!
how this lady here is exactly as myself, she is what I
have been before,
and how she came to be as myself.
16. I see this prime minister with all these soldiers and
citizens,
these forces and vehicles, to be the same as mine, and
situated in the
same place and manner as before.
17. How is it then, O goddess! that they came to be placed
in this
place. I see them as Images situated within and without
the mirror of my
mind, and know not whether these be living beings (or the
false chimeras
of my imagination).
18. Sarasvatī replied:—All our external perceptions of
things, are the
immediate effects of our internal conceptions of them.
The intellect has
the knowledge of all the intelligibles in it, as the mind
has the
impressions of mental objects in itself. (Or in other
words:—the
intellect is possessed of all intelligence, like the mind
of its
thoughts, as they present themselves in dreams. Gloss).
19. The external world appears in an instant in the same
form and manner
to one, as he has its notion and impression in his intellect
and mind;
and no distance of time or place, nor any intermediate
cause can create
any difference in them.
20. The inward world is seen on the outside, as the
internal impressions
of our minds, appear to be seen without us in our dreams.
Whatever is
within us, the same appears without us, as in our dreams
and desires,
and in all our imaginations and fancies of objects.
21. It is the constant habitude of your mind, that
presented these
things as realities to your sight, and you saw your
husband in the same
state in which you thought him to be, when he died in
that city of
yours.
22. It is the same place wherein he exists at present,
and is presented
with the same objects of his thought at present as he had
at that
moment. Any thing that appears to be different in this
state, proceeds
from the turn of his mind of thinking it so before.
23. All that appears real to him, is as unreal as his
dream or desire,
and the creation of his fancy; for every thing appears to
be the same as
it is thought of in the mind. (All external objects are
representations
of their prototypes in the mind).
24. Say therefore what truth can there be in these
visionary objects,
which are altogether unsubstantial as dreams, and vanish
in the end into
airy nothing.
25. Know then every thing to be no better than nothing;
and as a dream
proves to be nothing upon waking, so is waking also a
dream and equally
nothing at death.
26. Death in life time is a nullity, and life in death
becomes null and
extinct; and these extinctions of life and death, proceed
from the
fluctuating nature of our notions of them.
27. So there is neither any entity nor nonentity either,
but both appear
to us as fallacies by turns. For what neither was before,
nor will be,
after a Kalpa=creation or dissolution,
the same cannot exist to-day or
in any Yuga=age, whether gone before
or coming afterwards.
28. That which is never inexistent, is the ever existent
Brahma, and the
same is the world. It is in him that we see everything to
rise and fall
by our fallacy, and what we falsely term as the creation
or the created.
29. As phantoms appearing in the vacuum, are all vacant
and void, and as
the waves of the sea, are no other than its water; so do
these created
things exist and appear in Brahma only.
30. As the minutiae appearing in the air, vanish in the
air; and as the
dust driven by the winds, are lost in the winds; so the
false notions of
yourself and myself, are lost in that Supreme self, in
which all things
rise and fall like waves of the ocean.
31. What reliance can there be in this dust of creation,
which is no
more than the water of the mirage? The knowledge of
individualities is
mere fallacy, when every thing is united in that sole
unity.
32. We see apparitions in the dark, though the darkness
itself is no
apparition; so our lives and deaths are the false notions
of our error,
and the whole existence is equally the production of
gross error (māyā).
33. All this is Himself, for He is the great Kalpa or
will which
produces every thing; it is He that exists when all
things are extinct
in Him; and therefore these appearances, are neither real
nor unreal of
themselves.
34. But to say both (the real and unreal) to be Brahma,
is a
contradiction; therefore it is He, who fills the infinity
of space, and
abides equally in all things and their minutest
particles.
35. Wherever the spirit of Brahma abides, and even in the
minute
animalcule, it views the whole world in itself; like one
thinking on the
heat and cold of fire and frost, has the same sensation
within himself
at that moment. (Vide Hume).
36. So doth the pure intellect perceive the Holy Spirit
of God within
itself, just as one sees the particles of light flying in
his closet at
sunrise.
37. So do these multitudes of worlds, move about as
particles in the
infinite space of the Divine mind, as the particles of
odoriferous
substances oscillate in the empty air.
38. In this manner does this world abide in its
incorporeal state in the
mind of God, with all its modifications of existence and
inexistence,
emanation and absorption, of its condensation and
subtilization and its
mobility and rest.
39. But you must know all these modes and these
conditions of being to
belong to material bodies only and not to the spirit,
which is
unconditioned and indivisible; (i. e. without attributes and parts).
40. And as there is no change or division of one's own
soul, so there is
no partition or variation of the Supreme Spirit. It is
according to the
ideas in our minds, that we view things in their
different aspects
before us.
41. Yet the word world—visva—all, is not a meaningless term; it
means the all as contained in Brahma (who is to pan). Therefore it is
both real and unreal at the same time like the fallacy of
a snake in a
rope.
42. It is the false notion (of the snake), that makes the
true (rope) to
appear as the untrue snake to us, which we are apt to
take for the true
snake itself, so we take the Divine Intellect, which is
the prime cause
of all, as a living soul (like ours), by mistake.
43. It is this notion (of the living soul), that makes us
to think
ourselves as living beings, which whether it be false or
true, is like
the appearance of the world in empty air.
44. Thus these little animals delight themselves with
their own
misconceived idea of being living beings, while there are
others who
think themselves so, by their preconceived notions as
such.
45. Some there are that have no preconceived notions, and
others that
retain the same as or somewhat different notions of
themselves than
before. Somewhere the inborn notions are predominant, and
sometimes they
are entirely lost.
46. Our preconceived notions of ourselves, represent
unrealities as
realities to our minds, and present the thoughts of our
former family
and birth, and the same occupations and professions
before us (as also
the enjoyments we had before and no more existent at
present).
47. Such are the representations of your former ministers
and citizens,
imprinted as realities in your soul, together with the
exact time and
place and manner of their functions, as before.
48. And as the intelligence of all things, is present in
the omniscient
spirit of God, so is the idea of royalty inherent in the
soul of the
prince (i. e. like the ex-king Lear, he
thinks himself every inch a
king).
49. This notion of his goes before him as his shadow in the
air, with
the same stature and features, and the same acts and
movements as he had
before.
50. In this manner, Līlā! Know this world to be but a
shadowy reflexion
of the eternal ideas of God; and this reflection is
caught by or
refracted in the consciousness of all animal souls as in
a prismatic
mirror.
51. Everything shows itself in every place in the form in
which it is;
so whatever there is in the living soul, casts out a
reflexion of
itself, and a shadow of it is caught by the intellect,
which is situated
without it. (The mind is a mirror of the images in the
soul).
52. Here is the sky containing the world, which contains
this earth,
wherein you and myself and this prince are situated, as
reflexions of
the One Ego only. Know all these to be contained within
the vacuous womb
of the Intellect, and to remain as tranquil and
transparent as vacuity
itself.
CHAPTER XLV.
THEISM CONSISTING IN TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
Sarasvatī continued:—Know Līlā! this Vidūratha, thy
husband, will lose
his life in this battle-field; and his soul will repair
to the sepulchre
in the inner apartment, where it will resume its former
state.
2. Upon hearing these words of the goddess, the second
Līlā, who was
standing by, bent herself lowly before the goddess, and
addressed her
with her folded palms.
3. The second Līlā's speech. Goddess! the genius of
intelligence is ever
adored by me, and she gives me her visits in my nightly
dreams.
4. I find thee here exactly of her likeness; therefore
give me thy
blessing, thou goddess with the beauteous face.
5. Vasishtha said:—The goddess being thus addressed by
the lady,
remembered her faith and reliance in her, and then spake
with
complacence to the lady standing suppliant before her.
6. The goddess said:—I am pleased my child, with thy
unfailing and
unslakened adoration of me all thy lifetime; now say what
thou askest of
me.
7. The second Līlā said:—Ordain O goddess, that I may
accompany my
husband with this body of mine to whatever place he is
destined to go,
after his death in the war.
8. The goddess replied:—Be it so my child; that hast
worshipped me with
all diligence and without fail, with flowers, incense and
offerings.
9. Vasishtha said:—The second Līlā being gladdened by
this blessing of
the goddess, the first Līlā, was much puzzled in her mind
at the
difference of their states.
10. The first Līlā said:—Those who are desirous of truth,
and they
whose desires lean towards godliness, have all their
wishes fulfilled
without delay and fail.
11. Then tell me, goddess! why could I not keep company
with my Brāhmana
husband with my body of the Brāhmanī, but had to be taken
to him in the
hilly mansion after my death, (and reproduction in the
present form).
12. The goddess answered saying:—Know O excellent lady!
that I have no
power to do anything; but every thing happens to pass
according to the
desire of the living being.
13. Know me only as the presiding divinity of wisdom, and
I reveal
everything according to my knowledge of it. It is by
virtue of the
intellectual powers as exhibited in every being, that it
attains its
particular end.
14. It is according to the development of the mental
powers of living
beings in every state, that it obtains its object in the
manner and in
the same state as it aims at.
15. You had attained the powers of your understanding by
your
devotedness to my service, and have always desired of me
for being
liberated from flesh.
16. I have accordingly awakened your understanding in
that way, whereby
you have been able to arrive at your present state of
purity.
17. It was by cause of your constant desire of
liberation, that you have
gained the same state, by enlargement (of the powers) of
your intellect.
18. Whoever exerts his bodily powers according to the
dictates of his
understanding, is sure to succeed in gaining his object
sooner or later.
19. Performance of austerities and adoration of gods, are
as vain
without cultivation of the intellect, as to expect the
falling of fruits
from the sky.
20. Without cultivation of the intellect and exertion of
manly powers,
there is no way to success; do therefore as you may
choose for yourself.
21. It is verily the state of one's mind, that leads his
internal soul
to that state which it thinks upon, and to that
prosperity which it
attempts to obtain.
22. Now distinguish between what is desirable or
disagreeable to you,
and choose that which is holy and perfect, and you will
certainly arrive
to it.
CHAPTER XLVI.
ONSLAUGHT OF VIDﾚRATHA.
Rāma said:—Relate to me the acts of Vidūratha, after he
went out
enraged from the camp, and left the ladies and the
goddess talking in
that manner.
2. Vasishtha said:—Vidūratha left his camp in company
with a large body
of his companions like the bright moon beset by a host of
stars.
3. He was in armour and girt by laces and girdles, and
thus attired in
his martial habit, he went forth amidst the loud war cry
of vae
victis, like the god Indra going to battle.
4. He gave orders to the soldiers and was informed of the
battle array;
and having given directions to his captains, he mounted
his chariot.
5. It was adorned with mountings resembling the pinnacles
of mountains
and beset by five flags fringed with strings of pearls
and gems,
resembling a celestial car.
6. The iron hoops of its wheels flashed with their golden
pegs, and the
long and beautiful shaft of the car, rang with the
tinkling of pearls
which were suspended to it.
7. It was drawn by long necked, swift and slender horses
of the best
breed and auspicious marks; that seemed to fly in the air
by their
swiftness and bearing aloft a heavenly car with some god
in it.
8. Being impatient of the swiftness of the winds, they
spurred them with
their hinder heels and left them behind, and sped the
forepart of their
bodies as if to devour the air, impeding their course.
9. The car was drawn by eight coursers with their manes
hanging down
their necks like flappers, and white spots or circlets
resembling the
disks of moon on their foreheads, and filling the eight
sides around
with their hoarse neighing.
10. At this time there rose a loud noise of the
elephants, resounding
like drums from the hollows of the distant hills.
11. Loud clamours (kala-kalas) were raised by the
infuriate soldiers,
and the tinkling of their belted trinkets (kinkini), and
clashing of
their weapons, rang afar in the open air.
12. The crackling (chatachata) of the bows, and the
wheezing (shitkara)
of the arrows, joined with the jangle (jhanjhana) of
armours, by their
clashing against one another, raised a confused hubbub
all around.
13. The sparkling (kanatkara) of blazing fire, and the
mutual challenge
of the champions; the painful shrieks of the wounded and
the piteous cry
of captives, were seen and heard on all sides.
14. The mingled sounds thickened in the air, and filled
its cavity and
its sides as with solid stones and capable of being
clutched in the
hands.
15. Clouds of dust flew as fast and thick into the air,
that they seemed
to be the crust or strata of the earth, rising upward to
block the path
of the sun in the sky.
16. The great city was hid in the dark womb of the
overspreading dust
(rajas), as the ignorant state of man is covered in
darkness by the
rising passion (rajas) of juvenescence.
17. The burning lights became as dim, as the fading stars
of heaven by
day light, and the darkness of night became as thick, as
the devils of
darkness gather their strength at night.
18. The two Līlās saw the great battle with the virgin
daughter of the
minister from the tent; and they had their eyes
enlightened with
farsightedness by favour of the goddess.
19. Now there was an end of the flashing and clashing of
the hostile
arms in the city, as the flash and crash of submarine
fires were put to
an end by the all-submerging floods of the universal
deluge.
20. Vidūratha collected his forces and without
considering the
superiority of the hostile power pressed himself forward
amidst them, as
the great Meru rushed into the waters of the great
deluge.
21. Now the twanging of the bow strings emitted a
clattering
(Chatachata) sound; and the forces of the enemy advanced
in battle
array, like bodies of clouds with rainbows amidst them.
22. Many kinds of missiles flew as falcons in the air;
and the black
steel waved with a dark glare owing to the massacres they
made.
23. The clashing swords flashed with living flames of
fire by their
striking against one another; and showers of arrows
whistled like
hissing rainfalls in the air.
24. Two edged saws pierced the bodies of the warriors;
and the flinging
weapons hurtled in the air by their clashing at and
crashing of each
other.
25. The darkness of the night was put to flight by the
blaze of the
weapons; and the whole army was pierced by arrows,
sticking as the hairs
on their bodies.
26. Headless trunks moved about as players in the horrid
solemnity of
the god of death (Yama); and the furies fled about at the
dint of war,
like the raving lasses at Bacchanal revelries.
27. Elephants fighting with their tusks, sent a
clattering noise in the
air; and the stones flung from the slings, flew as a
flowing stream in
the sky.
28. Bodies of men were falling dead on the ground, like
the dried leaves
of forests blown away by blasts; and streams of blood
were running in
the field of battle, as if the heights of war were
pouring down the
floods of death below.
29. The dust of the earth was set down by the floods of
blood, and the
darkness was dispelled by the blaze of weapons; all
clamour ceased in
intense fighting, and the fear for life, was lost under
the stern
resolution of death.
30. The fighting was stern without a cry or noise, like
the pouring of
rain in the breezeless sky, and with the glitter of
swords in the
darkened air, like the flashes of forky lightnings amidst
the murky
clouds.
31. The darts were flying about with a hissing noise
(khad-khada); and the crow-bars hit one another with a
harsh (taktaka)
sound; large weapons were struck upon one another with a
jarring noise
(jhanjhana), and the dreadful war raged direfully in the
dim darkness
(timitimi) of the night.
CHAPTER XLVII.
ENCOUNTER OF SINDHU AND VIDﾚRATHA.
Vasishtha said:—As the war was waging thus furiously
between the two
armies, the two Līlās addressed the goddess of knowledge
and said:—
2. "Tell us, O goddess! what unknown cause prevents
our husband to gain
the victory in this war, notwithstanding your good grace
to him, and his
repelling the hostile elephants in the combat".
3. Sarasvatī replied:—Know ye daughters, that I was ever
solicited by
Vidūratha's enemy to confer him victory in battle, which
your husband
never craved of me.
4. He lives and enjoys his life as it was desired by him,
while his
antagonist gains the conquest according to his aim and
object.
5. Knowledge is contained in the consciousness of every
living being,
and rewards every one according to the desire to which it
is directed.
6. My nature like that of all things is as unchangeable
as the heat of
fire (which never changes to cold). So the nature of Vidūratha's
knowledge of truth, and his desire of liberation lead him
to the like
result (and not to victory).
7. The intelligent Līlā also will be liberated with him,
and not the
unintelligent one, who by her nature is yet unprepared
for that highest
state of bliss.
8. This enemy of Vidūratha, the king of Sinde, has long
worshipped me
for his victory in war; whereby the bodies of Vidūratha
and his wife
must fall into his hands.
9. Thou girl wilt also have thy liberation like hers in
course of time;
but ere that, this enemy of yours,—the king of Sinde,
will reign
victorious in this earth.
10. Vasishtha said:—As the goddess was speaking in this
manner, the
sun appeared on his rising hill to behold the wondrous
sight of the
forces in fighting.
11. The thick mists of night disappeared like the hosts
of the enemy
(Sinde); and left the forces of Vidūratha to glitter as
stars at the
approach of night.
12. The hills and dales and the land and water gradually
appeared to
sight, and the world seemed to reappear to view from
amidst the dark
ocean of the (deluge).
13. The bright rays of the rising sun radiated on all
sides like the
streams of liquid gold, and made the hills appear as the
bodies of
warriors besmeared with (blood).
14. The sky seemed as an immense field of battle,
stretched over by the
radiant rays of the sun (Karas), likening the shining arms
(Karas) of
the warriors, shaking in their serpentine mood.
15. The helmets on their heads raised their lotus-like
tops on high, and
the rings about their ears blazed with their gemming
glare below.
16. The pointed weapons were as fixed as the snouts of unicorns,
and the
flying darts fled about as butterflies in the air. The
bloody field
presented a picture of the ruddy dawn and dusk, and the
dead bodies on
the ground, represented the figures of motionless saints
in their Yoga.
17. Necklaces like snakes overhung their breasts, and the
armours like
sloughs of serpents covered their bodies. The flags were
flying like
crests of creepers on high, and the legs of the warriors
stood as
pillars in the field.
18. Their long arms were as branches of trees, and the arrows
formed a
bush of reeds; the flash of weapons spread as a verdant
meadow all
around, while their blades blazed with the lustre of the
long-leaved
ketaka flowers.
19. The long lines of weapons formed as rows of bamboos
and bushes of
brambles, and their mutual clashing emitted sparks of
fire like clusters
of the red asoka flowers.
20. The bands of Siddhas were flying away with their
leaders from the
air, to avert the weapons which were blazing there with
the radiance of
the rising sun, and forming as it were, a city of gold on
high.
21. The sky re-echoed to the clashing of darts and
discuses, of swords
and spears and of mallets and clubs in the field; and the
ground was
overflown by streams of blood, bearing away the dead
bodies of the
slain.
22. The land was strewn with crowbars, lances and spears,
and with
tridents and stones on all sides; and headless bodies
were falling
hideously, pierced by poles and pikes and other
instruments of death.
23. The ghosts and goblins of death were making horrible
noise above,
and the shining cars of Sindhu and Vidūratha, moved with
a loud rumbling
below.
24. They appeared as the two luminaries of the sun and
moon in heaven,
and equipped with their various weapons of disks and
rods, of crowbars
and spears, and other missiles besides.
25. They were both surrounded by thousands of soldiers,
and turned about
as thy liked, with loud shouts of their retinues.
26. Crushed under heavy disks, many fell dead and wounded
with loud
cries; and big elephants were floating lightly on the
currents of blood.
27. The hairs on the heads of dead bodies, floated like
weeds in the
stream of blood, and the floating discuses glided like
the disks of the
moon, reflected in the purple streamlet.
28. The jingling (jhanat) of gemming ornaments, and the
tinkling (ranat)
bells of war carriages, with the flapping (patat) of
flags by the wind,
filled the field with a confused noise.
29. Numbers of valiant as well as dastardly soldiers
followed their
respective princes, some bleeding under the spears of Kuntas
and others
pierced by the arrows of bowyers.
30. Then the two princes turned round their chariots in
circling rings
over the ground, and amidst phalanxes armed with all
sorts of
destructive weapons.
31. Each confronted the other with his arms, and having
met one another
face to face, commenced showering forth his arrows with
the pattering
sound of hailstones.
32. They both threatened one another with the roaring of
loud surges and
clouds, and the two lions among men, darted their arrows
upon one
another in their rage.
33. They flung their missiles in the air in the form of
stones and
malls, and some faced like swords, and others headed as
mallets.
34. Some were as sharp edged disks, and some as curved as
battle axes;
some were as pointed as pikes and spears, and others as
bars and rods in
their forms, and some were of the shape of tridents, and
others as bulky
as blocks of stones.
35. These missives were falling as fully and as fast as
blocks of
stones, which are hurled down from high and huge rocks,
by gusts of
blustering hurricanes. And the meeting of the two
armigerent powers, was
as the confluence of the Indus
and the sea, with tremendous roaring, and
mutual collision and clashing.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF DAIVﾁSTRAS OR SUPERNATURAL WEAPONS.[23]
[23] I have always thought the Daivāstras or superhuman
arms, described
in the Ramāyana and Mahābhārata epics, as a display of
pyrotechnic
contrivances much in use in early warfare. Or they may
have been some
kinds of electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and steam engines
emitting gusts
of fire, water, wind and smoke in the field of war.
Halhead in his
Gentoo Laws, tells them to be shot from a kind of
cross-bow used by the
Crusadiers of old.
Vasishtha said:—Rājā Vidūratha, finding the high
shouldered Sindhu-rāja
before him, was enraged like the raging sun, in his
mid-day fury.
2. The twanging of his bow resounded in the air on all
sides, and
growled as loudly as the howling of winds in the caverns
of mountains.
3. He drew his arrows from the dark quiver, and darted
them like the
rays of the sun rising from the womb of night.
4. Each arrow flung from the bowstring, flew as thousands
in the air,
and fell as millions on the ground. (The arrow or bāna is a name given
to bombs which burst out into unnumbered shells).
5. The king Sindhu was equally expert in his bowmanship,
as both of
these bowyers owed their skill in archery to the favour
of Vishnu.
6. Some of these darts were called bolts, which blocked
the aerial
passages as with bolts at their doors, and fell down on
the ground with
the loud roar of thunderbolts.
7. Others begirt with gold, flew hissing as if blown by
the winds in the
air, and after shining as stars in the sky, fell as
blazing meteors on
the ground.
8. Showers of shafts poured forth incessantly from the
hands of
Vidūratha, like the ceaseless torrents of rivers or
billows of the sea,
and the endless radiation of solar rays.
9. Shells and bullets were flying about as sparks of fire
struck out of
the balls of red-hot iron, and falling as flowers of
forests, blown away
by gusts of wind.
10. They fell as showers of rainwater, and as the rush of
water-falls;
and as plentifully as the sparks of fire which flew from
the burning
city of Vidūratha.
11. The jarring sound (chatchat) of their bowstrings,
hushed the clamour
of the two armies, as a calm quiets the roaring of the
raging sea.
12. The course of the arrows, was as the stream of Ganges
(the milky
path) in heaven, running towards the king Sindhu, as the
river runs to
meet the sea (Sindhu).
13. The shower of arrows flying from the golden bow of
the king, was as
the flood of rain falling under the variegated rainbow in
the sky.
14. Then Līlā the native of that city, saw from the
window the darts of
her husband, rushing like the currents of Ganges, against the forces of
Sindhu resembling a sea.
15. She understood the flight of those darts to promise
victory to her
lord, and then spoke gladly to Sarasvatī, with her lotus
like face
(Lit.—by opening her lotus like mouth).
16. Be victorious O goddess! and behold victory waiting
on the side of
my lord, whose darts are piercing the rocks, and breaking
them to
pieces.
17. As she was uttering these words full of affection (to
her lord), the
goddesses eyed her askance, and smiled at her womanish
tenderness of
heart.
18. The flaming (Agastian) fire of Sindhu swallowed the
raging sea of
Vidūratha's arrows, as the submarine fire consumes the
water, and as
Jahnu drank the stream of Ganges.
19. The missive weapons of Sindhu, thwarted the
thickening arrows of his
adversary, and drove them back broken and flying as dust
in the empty
air.
20. As an extinguished lamp loses its light in the air,
so the flashes
of the fire arms disappeared in the sky, and nobody knew
where they
fled.
21. Having thus dispelled the shower of arrows, he sent a
thick cloud of
his weapons, appearing as hundreds of dead bodies flying
in the air.
22. Vidūratha repelled them quickly by means of his
better bolts, as a
hurricane disperses the frightening clouds in the air.
23. Both the kings being thus baffled in their aims by
the opposing
arms, which were indiscriminately let loose against one
another, laid
hold on more potent missiles (which they had got as gifts
of their gods
to them).
24. Sindhu then let fly his magic missile the gift of a
Gandharva to
him, which kept his hostile army all spell-bound except
Vidūratha's
self.
25. Struck with this weapon, the soldiers became as mute
as moonstruck,
staring in their looks, and appearing as dead bodies or
as pictures in a
painting.
26. As the soldiers of Vidūratha remained exorcised in
their files, the
king employed his instruments of a counter-charm to
remove the spell.
27. This awakened the senses of Vidūratha's men as the
morning twilight
discloses the bed of lotuses, and the rising sun opens
their closed
petals to light; while Sindhu like the raging sun darted
his rage upon
them.
28. He flung his serpentine weapons upon them, which
bound them as fast
as a band all about their bodies, and encircled the
battle ground and
air, like snakes twining round the crags and rocks.
29. The ground was filled with snakes as the lake with
the spreading
stalks of lotuses, and the bodies of gigantic warriors
were begirt by
them, like hills by huge and horrible hydras.
30. Everything was overpowered by the poignant power of
the poison, and
the inhabitants of the hills and forests were benumbed by
the venomous
infection.
31. The smart poison spread a fiery heat all around, and
the frozen
snows like fire-brands sent forth their burning particles
which were
wafted by the hot winds in the air.
32. The armigerous Vidūratha who was equally skilled in
arms, had then
recourse to his Garuda or serpivorous weapons, which fled
like
mountainous eagles to all sides.
33. Their golden pinions spread in the sky on all sides,
and embroidered
the air with purple gold; and the flapping of their wings
wheezed like a
breeze, which blew away the poisonous effluvia afar in
the air.
34. It made the snakes breathe out of their nostrils with
a hissing,
resembling the gurgling (ghurghur) of waters in a
whirlpool in the sea.
35. The flying Garuda weapons devoured the creeping
terrene serpents
with a whistling noise (salsala), like that of the rising
waters
(water-spouts), in the act of their suction by
Agastya—the sun.
36. The face of the ground delivered from its covering of
these
reptiles, again appeared to view, as the surface of the
earth
re-appeared to light, after its deliverance from the
waters of the
deluge.
37. The army of Garudas disappeared afterwards from
sight, like a line
of lamps put out by the wind, and the assemblage of
clouds vanishing in
autumn.
38. They fled like flying mountains for fear of the bolts
of the
thundering Indra; and vanished like the evanescent world
seen in a
dream, or as an aerial castle built by fancy.
39. Then king Sindhu shot his shots of darkness (smoke),
which darkened
the scene like the dark cave under the ground.
40. It hid the face of the earth and sky, like the
diluvian waters
reaching to the welkin's face; making the army appear as
a shoal of
fishes, and the stars as gems shining in the deep.
41. The overspreading darkness appeared as a sea of ink
or dark
quagmire, or as the particles of Anjanagiri (Inky
mountain) wafted by
the breeze over the face of nature.
42. All beings seemed to be immersed in the sea or
darkness, and to lose
their energies as in the deep gloom of midnight.
43. Vidūratha the best of the most skilful in ballistics,
shot his
sun-bright shot which like the sun illumined the vault of
the sky.
44. It rose high amidst the overspreading darkness like
the sun
(Agastya) with his effulgent beams, and dispelled the
shades of
darkness, as autumn does the rainy clouds.
45. The sky being cleared of its veil of darkness,
manifested itself
with its reddish clouds, resembling the blowzy bodices of
damsels before
the king. (Here is a pun upon the word payodhara which means both a
cloud and the breast of a woman).
46. Now the landscape appeared in full view, like the
understanding
(good sense) of men coming in full play after the
extinction of their
avarice.
47. The enraged Sindhu then laid hold on his dreadful
Rākshasa weapon,
which he instantly flung on his foe with its bedeviled
darts.
48. These horrid and destructive darts flew on all sides
in the air, and
roared as the roaring sea and elephantine clouds
(dighastis) of heaven.
49. They were as the flames of lambent fire, with their
long licking
tongues and ash-coloured and smoky curls, rising as hoary
hairs on the
head, and making a chat-chat sound like that of moist fuel set up on
fire.
50. They wheeled round in circles through the air, with a
horrible
tangtang noise, now flaming as fire and now fuming as smoke, and
then
flying about as sparks of fire.
51. With mouths beset by rows of sprouting teeth like
lotus stalks, and
faces defaced by dirty and fusty eyes, their hairy bodies
were as
stagnate pools full of moss and weeds.
52. They flew about and flashed and roared aloud as some
dark clouds,
while the locks of hairs on their heads glared as
lightnings in the
midway sky.
53. At this instant Vidūratha the spouse of Līlā, sent
forth his
Nārāyana weapon, having the power of suppressing wicked
spirits and
demons.
54. The appearance of this magic weapon, made the bodies
of the
Rākshasas, disappear as darkness at sun rise.
55. The whole army of these fiends was lost in the air,
as the sable
clouds of the rainy season, vanish into nothing at the
approach of
autumn.
56. Then Sindhu discharged his fire arms which set fire
to the sky, and
began to burn down every thing, as by the all destroying
conflagration
of the last day.
57. They filled all the sides of air with clouds of
smoke, which seemed
to hide the face of heaven under the darkness of hell.
58. They set fire to the woods in the hills, which burned
like mountains
of gold; while the trees appeared to bloom with yellow champaka
flowers all around.
59. All the sides of the sky above, and the hills, woods
and groves
below, were enveloped in the flames, as if they were
covered under the
red powder of huli, with which Yama was
sporting over the plain.
60. The heaven-spreading flame burnt down the legions in
one heap of
ashes, as the submarine fire consumes whole bodies of the
fleet and navy
in the sea.
61. As Sindhu continued to dart his firearms against his
vanquished
adversary, Vidūratha let off his watery arms with
reverential regard.
62. These filled with water, flew forward as the shades
of darkness from
their hidden cells; and spread up and down and on all
sides, like a
melted mountain gushing in a hundred cataracts.
63. They stretched as mountainous clouds or as a sea in
the air, and
fell in showers of watery arrows and stones on the
ground.
64. They flew up like large tamāla trees, and being gathered in groups
like the shades of night, appeared as the thick gloom
beyond the
lokāloka or polar mountains.
65. They gave the sky the appearance of subterraneous
caves, emitting a
gurgling sound (ghurghura) like the loud roaring of
elephants.
66. These waters soon drank (cooled) the spreading
furious fire, as the
shades of the dark night swallow (efface) the surrounding
red tints of
the evening.
67. Having swallowed the fires above, the waters
overflooded the ground
and filled it with a humidity which served to enervate
all bodies, as
the power of sleep numbs every body in death-like torpidity.
68. In this manner both the kings were throwing their
enchanted weapons
against each other, and found them equally quelling and
repelling one
another in their course.
69. The heavy armed soldiers of Sindhu and the captains
of his regiments
were swept away by the flood, together with the warcars
which floated
upon it.
70. At this moment, Sindhu thought upon his anhydrous
weapons
(soshanāstre—thermal arms), which possessed the
miraculous power of
preserving his people from the water, and hurled them in
the air.
71. These absorbed the waters as the sun sucks up the
moisture of the
night, and dried up the land and revived the soldiers,
except those that
were already dead and gone.
72. Their heat chased the coldness as the rage of the
illiterate enrages
the learned, and made the moist ground as dry, as when
the sultry winds
strew the forest land with dried leaves.
73. It decorated the face of the ground with a golden
hue, as when the
royal dames adorn their persons with a yellow paint or
ointment.
74. It put the soldiers on the opposite side to a state
of feverish (or
blood heated) fainting, as when the tender leaves of
trees are scorched
by the warmth of a wild fire in summer heat.
75. Vidūratha in his rage of warfare laid hold on his bow
(kodanda), and
having bent it to a curve, let fly his cloudy arms on his
antagonist.
76. They sent forth columns of clouds as thick as the
sable shades of
night, which flying upward as a forest of dark tamāla trees, spread an
umbrage heavy with water on high.
77. They lowered under the weight of their water, and
stood still by
their massive thickness; and roared aloud in their
circles all over the
sky.
78. Then blew the winds dropping the dewdrops of the icy
store they bore
on their pinions; and showers of rain fell fast from the
collections of
the clouds on high.
79. Then flashed the fiery lightnings from them like
golden serpents in
their serpentine course or rather like the aslant glances
of the eyes of
heavenly nymphs.
80. The roarings of the clouds rebounded in the mountainous
caverns of
the sky, and the quarters of heaven re-echoed to the same
with the
hoarse noise of elephants and the roaring of lions and
growling of
tigers and bears.
81. Showers of rain fell in floods with drops as big as musalas—malls
or mallets, and with flashes of lightnings threatening as
the stern
glancings of the god of death.
82. Huge mists rising at first in the form of vapours of
the earth, and
then borne aloft by the heated air into the sky, seemed
like titans to
rise from the infernal regions (and then invade heaven
with their gloomy
armament).
83. The mirage of the warfare ceased after a while; as
the worldly
desires subside to rest upon tasting the sweet joys
attending on divine
knowledge.
84. The ground became full of mud and mire and was impassable
in every
part of it; and the forces of Sindhu were overflown by
the watery
deluge, like the river Sinde or the sea.
85. He then hurled his airy weapon which filled the vault
of heaven with
winds, and raged in all their fury like the Bhairava-Furies
on the last
day of resurrection.
86. The winds blew on all sides of the sky, with darts
falling as
thunder bolts, and hailstones now piercing and then
crushing all bodies
as by the last blast of nature on the dooms-day.
CHAPTER XLIX.
DESCRIPTION OF OTHER KINDS OF WEAPONS.
Then blew the icy winds of winter, blasting the beauty of
the foliage of
forest trees, and shaking and breaking the beautiful
arbors, and
covering them with gusts of dust.
2. Then rose the gale whirling the trees like birds
flying in the air,
dashing and smashing the soldiers on the ground, and
hurling and
breaking the edifices to dust.
3. This fearful squall blew away Vidūratha and his force,
as a rapid
current carries away the broken and rotten fragments of
wood.
4. Then Vidūratha who was skilled in ballistics hurled
his huge and
heavy arrows, which stretched themselves to the sky, and
withstood the
force of the winds and rain.
5. Opposed by these rock-like barriers, the airy weapons
were at a stand
still, as the animal spirits are checked by the firm
stoicity of the
soul.
6. The trees which had been blown up by the winds and
floating in the
breezy air, now came down and fell upon the dead bodies,
like flocks of
crows upon putrid carcasses.
7. The shouting (shitkāra) of the city, the distant hum
(dātkāra) of the
village, the howling (bhānkāra) of forests, and the
rustling (utkāra) of
the trees, ceased on all sides like the vain verbiology
of men.
8. Sindhu saw burning rocks (rockets?) falling from above
like leaves of
trees, and flying about as the winged Mainākas or moving
rocks of the
sea or Sinde (sindhu).
9. He then hurled his thundering weapons, falling as
flaming
thunderbolts from heaven, which burnt the rocks away as
the flaming fire
destroys the darkness.
10. These falling bolts broke the stones with their
pointed ends, and
hewed down the heads (tops) of the hills, like a
hurricane scattering
the fruits of trees on the ground.
11. Vidūratha then darted his Brahmā weapon to quell the
thunderbolts,
which jostling against one another, disappeared in their
mutual
conflict.
12. Sindhu then cast his demoniac weapons (Pisāchāstras)
as black as
darkness, which fled as lines of horrid Pisācha demons on
all sides.
13. They filled the firmament with the darkness of their
bodies, and
made the daylight turn to the shade of night, as if it
were for fear of
them.
14. They were as stalwart in their figures as huge
columns of smoke, and
as dark in their complexion as the blackest pitch, and
tangible by the
hand.
15. They were as lean skeletons with erect hairs on their
heads and
bearded faces, with looks as pale as those of beggars,
and bodies as
black as those of the aerial and nocturnal fiends.
16. They were terrific and like idiots in their looks,
and moved about
with bones and skulls in their hands. They were as meagre
as churls, but
more cruel than either the sword or thunderbolt.
17. The Pisāchas lurk about the woods, bogs and highways,
and pry into
empty and open door houses. They hunt about as ghosts in
their dark
forms, and fly away as fast as the fleeting lightning.
18. They ran and attacked with fury the remaining forces
of the enemy,
that stood weaponless in the field, with their broken and
sorrowful
hearts.
19. Frightened to death they stood motionless, and
dropped down their
arms and armours, and stood petrified as if they were
demon-struck, with
staring eyes, open mouths, and unmoving hands and feet.
20. They let fall both their lower and upper garments,
loosened their
bowels and slakened their bodies through fear, and kept
shaking as fixed
trees by the winds.
21. The line of the Pisāchas then advanced to frighten
Vidūratha out of
his wits, but he had the good sense to understand them as
the mere
Mumbo-jumbos of magic.
22. He knew the counter charm to fight out the Pisāchas
from the field,
and employed his charmed weapons against the Pisācha army
of his enemy.
23. He darted in his ire the Rūpikā weapon, which gave
comfort to his
own army, and deluded the Pisācha force of his adversary.
24. These Rūpikās flew in the air with erect hairs on
their heads; their
terrific eyes were sunk in their sockets, and their
waists and breasts
moved as trees with bunches of fruit.
25. They had past their youth and become old; and their
bodies were
bulky and worn out with age; they had deformed backs and
hips, and
protuberant navels and naves.
26. They had dark dusky bodies, and held human skulls in
their hands all
besmeared with blood. They had bits of half devoured
flesh in their
mouths, and pouring out fresh blood from their sides.
27. They had a variety of gestures, motions and
contortions of their
bodies, which were as hard as stone, with wry faces,
crooked backs and
twisted legs and limbs.
28. Some had their faces like those of dogs, crows, and
owls, with broad
mouths and flat cheek-bones and bellies, and held human
skulls and
entrails in their hands.
29. They laid hold of the Pisāchas as men catch little
boys, and joined
with them in one body as their consorts. (i. e. the Rūpikā witches
bewitching the demoniac Pisāchas, got the better of
them).
30. They joined together in dancing and singing with
outstretched arms
and mouths and eyes, now joining hand in hand and now
pursuing one
another in their merry sport.
31. They stretched their long tongues from their horrid
mouths, and
licked away the blood exuding from the wounds of the dead
bodies.
32. They plunged in the pool of blood with as much
delight, as if they
dived in a pond of ghee, and scrabbled in the bloody
puddle with
outstretched arms and feet, and uplifted ears and nose.
33. They rolled and jostled with one another in the
puddle of carrion
and blood, and made it swell like the milky ocean when
churned by the
Mandara mountain.
34. As Vidūratha employed his magic weapon against the
magic of Sindhu,
so he had recourse to others from a sense of his
inferiority.
35. He darted his Vetāla weapon, which made the dead
bodies, whether
with or without their heads, to rise up in a body in
their ghastly
shapes.
36. The joint forces of the Vetālas, Pisāchas and Rūpikās
presented a
dreadful appearance as that of the Kavandhas, and seemed
as they were
ready to destroy the earth.
37. The other monarch was not slow to show his magical
skill, by hurling
his Rākshasa weapon, which threatened to grasp and devour
the three
worlds.
38. These with their gigantic bodies rose as high as
mountains, and
seemed as hellish fiends appearing from the infernal
regions in their
ghostly forms.
39. The ferocious body of the roaring Rākshasas,
terrified both the gods
and demigods (surāsuras), by their loud martial music and
war dance of
their headless trunks (Kavandhas).
40. The giddy Vetālas, Yakshas and Kushmāndas, devoured
the fat and
flesh of dead bodies as their toast, and drank the gory
blood as their
lurid wines in the coarse of their war dance.
41. The hopping and jumping of the Kushmāndas, in their
war dance in
streams of blood, scattered its crimson particles in the
air, which
assembled in the form of a bridge of red evening clouds
over the
sparkling sea.
CHAPTER L.
DEATH OF VIDﾚRATHA.
Vasishtha said:—As the tide of war was rolling violently
with a general
massacre on both sides, the belligerent monarchs thought
on the means of
saving their own forces from the impending ruin.
2. The magnanimous Sindhurāja, who was armed with
patience, called to
his mind the Vaishnava weapon, which was the greatest of
arms and as
powerful as Siva (Jove) himself.
3. No sooner was the Vaishnava weapon hurled by him with
his best
judgement (mantra), than it emitted a thousand sparks of
fire from its
flaming blade on all sides.
4. These sparks enlarged into balls, as big and bright as
to shine like
hundreds of suns in the sky, and others flew as the
lengthy shafts of
cudgels in the air.
5. Some of them filled the wide field of the firmament
with thunderbolts
as thick as the blades of grass, and others overspread
the lake of
heaven, with battle axes as a bed of lotuses.
6. These poured forth showers of pointed arrows spreading
as a net-work
in the sky, and darted the sable blades of swords,
scattered as the
leaves of trees in the air.
7. At this time, the rival king Vidūratha, sent forth
another Vaishnava
weapon for repelling the former, and removing the
reliance of his foe in
his foible.
8. It sent forth a stream of weapons counteracting those
of the other,
and overflowing in currents of arrows and pikes, clubs
and axes and
missiles of various kinds.
9. These weapons struggled with and justled against one
another. They
split the vault of heaven with their clattering, and
cracked like loud
thunder claps cleaving the mountain cliffs.
10. The arrows pierced the rods and swords, and the
swords hewed down
the axes and lances to pieces. The malls and mallets
drove the missiles,
and the pikes broke the spears (saktis).
11. The mallets like Mandāra rocks, broke and drove away
the rushing
arrows as waves of the sea, and the resistless swords
broke to pieces by
striking at the maces.
12. The lances revolved like the halo of the moon,
repelling the black
sword-blades as darkness, and the swift missiles flashed
as the
destructive fires of Yama.
13. The whirling disks were destroying all other weapons;
they stunned
the world by their noise, and broke the mountains by
their strokes.
14. The clashing weapons were breaking one another in
numbers, and
Vidūratha defeated the arms of Sindhu, as the steadfast
mountain defies
the thunders of Indra.
15. The truncheons (Sankus) were blowing away the
falchions (asis); and
the spontoons (sūlas) were warding off the stones of the
slings. The
crow bars (bhusundis) broke down the pointed heads of the
pikes
(bhindhipālas).
16. The iron rods of the enemy (parasūlas) were broken by
tridents
(trisūlas) of Siva, and the hostile arms were falling
down by their
crushing one another to pieces.
17. The clattering shots stopped the course of the
heavenly stream, and
the combustion of powder filled the air with smoke.
18. The clashing of dashing weapons lightened the sky
like lightnings,
their clattering cracked the worlds like thunderclaps,
and their shock
split and broke the mountains like thunderbolts.
19. Thus were the warring weapons breaking one another by
their
concussion, and protracting the engagement by their
mutual overthrow.
20. As Sindhu was standing still in defiance of the
prowess of his
adversary, Vidūratha lifted his own fire-arm, and fired
it with a
thundering sound.
21. It set the war chariot of Sindhu on fire like a heap
of hay on the
plain, while the Vaishnava weapons filled the etherial
sphere with their
meteoric blaze.
22. The two Kings were thus engaged in fierce fighting
with each other,
the one darting his weapons like drops of raging rain,
and the other
hurling his arms like currents of a deluging river.
23. The two Kings were thus harassing each other like two
brave
champions in their contest, when the chariot of Sindhu
was reduced to
ashes by its flame.
24. He then fled to the woods like a lion from its cavern
in the
mountain, and repelled the fire that pursued him by his
aqueous weapons.
25. After losing his car and alighting on the ground, he
brandished his
sword and cut off the hoofs and heels of the horses of
his enemy's
chariot in the twinkling of an eye.
26. He hacked every thing that came before him like the
lean stalks of
lotuses; when Vidūratha also left his chariot with his asi (ensis) in
hand.
27. Both equally brave and compeers to one another in
their skill in
warfare, turned about in their rounds, and scraped their
swords into
saws by mutual strokes on one another.
28. With their denticulated weapons, they tore the bodies
of their
enemies like fishes crushed under the teeth, when Vidūratha
dropt down
his broken sword, and darted his javelin against his
adversary.
29. It fell with a rattling noise on the bosom of Sindhu
(the king), as
a flaming meteor falls rumbling in the breast of the sea
(Sindhu).
30. But the weapon fell back by hitting upon his breast
plate, as a
damsel flies back from the embrace of a lover deemed an
unfit match for
her.
31. Its shock made Sindhu throw out a flood of blood from
his lungs,
resembling the water spout let out from the trunk of an
elephant.
32. Seeing this, the native Līlā cried with joy to her
sister Līlā: see
here the demon Sindhu killed by our lion-like husband.
33. Sindhu is slain by the javelin of our lion-like lord,
like the
wicked demon by the nails of the lion-god Nrisinha, and
he is spouting
forth his blood like the stream of water, thrown out by
the trunk of an
elephant from a pool.
34. But alas! this Sindhu is trying to mount on another
car, although
bleeding so profusely from his mouth and nostrils, as to
raise a
wheezing (chulchulu) sound.
35. Lo there! our lord Vidūratha breaking down the golden
mountings of
his car with the blows of his mallet, as the thundering
clouds—Pushkara
and ﾁvarta break down the gold peaks of Sumeru.
36. See this Sindhu now mounting on another carriage,
which is now
brought before him, and decorated as the splendid seat of
a Gandharva.
37. Alack! our lord is now made the mark of Sindhu's
mallet darted as a
thunder bolt against him; but lo! how he flies off and
avoids the deadly
blow of Sindhu.
38. Huzza! how nimbly he has got up upon his own car; but
woe is to me!
that Sindhu has overtaken him in his flight.
39. He mounts on his car as a hunter climbs on a tree,
and pierces my
husband, as a bird-catcher does a parrot hidden in its
hollow, with his
pointed arrow.
40. Behold his car is broken down and its flags flung
aside; his horses
are hurt and the driver is driven away. His bow is broken
and his armour
is shattered, and his whole body is full of wounds.
41. His strong breast-plate is broken also by slabs of
stone and his big
head is pierced by pointed arrows. Behold him thrown down
on earth, all
mangled in blood.
42. Look with what difficulty he is restored to his
senses, and seated
in his seat with his arm cut off and bleeding under
Sindhu's sword.
43. See him weltering in blood gushing out profusely from
his body, like
a rubicund stream issuing from a hill of rubies. Woe is
me! and cursed
be the sword of Sindhu that hath brought this misery on
us.
44. It has severed his thighs as they dissever a tree
with a saw, and
has lopped off his legs like the stalks of trees.
45. Ah! it is I that am so struck and wounded and killed
by the enemy. I
am dead and gone and burnt away with my husband's body.
46. Saying so, she began to shudder with fear at the
woeful sight of her
husband's person, and fell insensible on the ground like
a creeper cut
off by an axe.
47. Vidūratha though thus mutilated and disabled, was
rising to smite
the enemy in his rage, when he fell down from his car
like an uprooted
tree, and was replaced there by his charioteer ready to
make his
retreat.
48. At this instant, the savage Sindhu struck a sabre on
his neck, and
pursued the car in which the dying monarch was borne back
to his tent.
49. The body of Padma (alias Vidūratha), was placed like
a lotus in the
presence of Sarasvatī, shining with the splendour of the
sun; but the
elated Sindhu was kept from entering that abode, like a
giddy fly from a
flame.
50. The charioteer entered in the apartment, and placed
the body in its
death-bed, all mangled and besmeared with blood, exuding
from the pores
of the severed neck, in the presence of the goddess, from
where the
enemy returned to his camp.
(Gloss). Here Padma fighting in
the person of Vidūratha, and falling
bravely in the field, obtained his redemption by his
death in the
presence of the goddess; but the savage Sindhu, who slew
his foiled foe
in his retreat, proved a ruffian in his barbarous act,
and could have no
admittance into the presence of the goddess and to his
future
salvation.
CONCLUSION.
The whole vision of Līlā, like that of Mirza, shows the
state of human
life, with its various incidents and phases to its last
termination by
death. It is not so compact and allegorical as that of
the western
essayist; but as idle effusions of those ideal reveries
or loose
vagaries which are characteristic of the wild imagination
of eastern
rhapsodists. The discontented Brāhmana longs for royal
dignity, imagines
to himself all its enjoyments in the person of Padma, and
sees at last
all its evils in the character of Vidūratha; which serves
as a lesson to
aspirants from aiming at high worldly honours which end
in their
destruction.
Līlā by her wisdom sees in her silent meditation, the
whole course and
vicissitudes of the world, and the rise and fall of human
glory in the
aspirations of her husband. These parables serve to show
the nature of
Yoga philosophy to be no other, than an absolute idealism
or mental
abstraction, consisting in the abstract knowledge of all
things
appertaining to our temporal as well as Spiritual
concerns.
The knowledge is derived either by intuition as that of
the Brāhmana and
Padma, or by inspiration like that of the genius of
wisdom to her votary
Līlā. It may also be had by means of communication with
others, as in
the discourse of Rāma and his preceptor; as also from the
attentive
perusal of such works as the present one, treating both
of temporal and
spiritual subjects, and reviewing them with the eye of
the mind.
The Yogi is said to know all things through the medium of
his
intellectual eye (jnāna chakshu), apart from his
connection with every
thing in the world called nissanga, as it is expressed by the Persian
sophist;—"amokhteh Oniamekhteh az harche hast."—Knowing and not
mixing with all that is."
From this view of Yoga, it will appear that, all kinds of
knowledge,
whether as it existed among the ancients, or is in the
course of its
improvement in modern times, forms a subject of the Yoga
or meditative
philosophy, which embraces and comprehends in itself a
knowledge of all
practical arts and sciences, as the military art and
other things
treated of in this work. Hence it is evident, that a
large fund of
learning forms the greatest Yoga, and the most learned
among men, were
the greatest thinkers or Yogis amongst mankind in all
ages. No rational
being therefore can either refrain from thinking, or
employing his mind
to the acquisition of knowledge, both of which are termed
Yoga in Indian
philosophy.
But the yogi is commonly believed to be an inspired sage
or seer,
viewing all things appearing before him in his dream and
vision. These
are sometimes retrospective, and resultants of the
vibrations of waking
feelings and imagination, as in the case of the
Brāhmana's anticipation
of royalty as a coming reality.
In many instances they are believed as prospective and
prophetic of
future events, as in Padma's dread of his future life and
fate. In
Līlā's case however they were "no dreams but visions
strange" of
supernatural sights, and prophetical of the future state
of her husband,
as it was revealed to her by the goddess.
But as there are few that rely any faith "in the
baseless fabric of a
vision", they require to be told that the books of
revelation in all
religions are based upon these dreams and visions, which
are believed to
be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the souls of
saints, in the
sacred records of all nations.
The holy scriptures furnish us with many texts on the
divine origin of
dreams and visions as the following.
"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel. And it shall
come to pass in the last days, saith God. I shall pour
out of my spirit
upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and
your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams.
And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out
in those days
of my spirit, and they shall prophesy;
And I will shew wonders, in heaven above, and signs in
the earth
beneath; blood, and fire and vapour of smoke:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood &c."
The Book of Acts, Chap II. v. 16-20.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
GENEALOGY
I. Kālī Mitra.[24]
II. Srīdhara Mitra.
III. Sukti Mitra.
IV. Sauveri Mitra.
V. Hari Mitra.
VI. Soma Mitra.
VII. Kesava Mitra.
VIII. Mrityunjaya Mitra.
IX. Dhui Mitra.[25]
X. Nīsāpati Mitra.
XI. Lambodara Mitra Alias Kuvera.
XII. Parameswara Mitra.[26]
XIII. Dānapati Mitra.
XIV. Jayadeva Mitra.
XV. Shashthivara Mitra.
XVI. Srīkānta Mitra.
XVII. Sivarāma Mitra.
XVIII. Krishnarāma Mitra.
XIX. Sītārāma Mitra.[27]
XX. Gocula Chandra Mitra.
XXI. Jagamohana Mitra.
XXII. Rasika Lāla Mitra
XXIII. Vihāri Lāla Mitra.
[24] He was formerly an inhabitatnt of Kānya Kubjya,
North Western
Provinces, India. He being invited on an occasion of a
ceremony (yajna)
by ﾁdisura, Rājā of Gour Bengal, paid a visit at his
court on Thursday
12th Kartick (October-November) Sakābda 994 (Tenth-Eleventh
Century
A.D.), and on his request he settled there and became the
founder of
Gour Mitra Family, at Maldah in Bengal.
[25] Barisā, Twenty four Pargannahs, District Alipur,
Bengal.
[26] Bāli. Boro Pargunah, District Hugli.
[27] Bāgbāzar, Calcutta.
Transcriber's Notes.
Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.
Spelling of Sanskrit words normalized to some extent. The
accented
characters ā, ī and ū are used by the translator to
denote long vowels.
In some cases these accents are important, e.g. Brahmā
(the Creator, the
Cosmic Mind) versus Brahma (the Absolute, elsewhere often
spelled
Brahman), and Brāhmana (priest).
Another case of 'puzzling' accents: "Vasishtha"
when it occurs alone (as
in "Vasishtha said:") has no accent (long
vowel), whereas "Yoga
Vāsishtha" (the work) does have a long vowel.
There are a few cases of Devanagari script. These have
been attempted
transliterated whenever possible (the print quality is
sometimes too bad
to enable transliteration).
The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this
ebook, is of poor
quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where
possible, the
missing/unclear text has been supplied from another
edition, which has
the same typographical basis (both editions are
photographical reprints
of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the
other): Bharatiya
Publishing House, Delhi
1978.
A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an
OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has only
been consulted a
few times.
The term "Gloss." or "Glossary"
probably refers to the extensive
classical commentary to Yoga Vāsishtha by Ananda
Bodhendra Saraswati
(only available in Sanskrit).
End of Volume 1
Om Tat Sat
(End of Voluma -1)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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