The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER XX.
VITUPERATION OF YOUTH.
Rāma continued:—
The boy having passed his state of blemishes,
gladly steps to his youth
with hopes of gaining his objects that tend
only to his ruin.
2. The insensible youth feels at this time
the wanton inclinations of
his loose mind, and goes on falling from one
tribulation to another.
3. He is overcome as one subdued by the power
of delusive cupid, lying
hidden in the cavity of the heart (hence
called Monoja).
4. His ungoverned mind gives rise to loose
thoughts like those of
voluptuous women, and these serve to beguile
him like the magic
collyrium (in the hand) of boys (called Siddānyana).
5. Vices of the most heinous kind betake
persons of such (perverse)
minds in their youth, and lead them to their
ruin.
6. The paths of youth lead them to the gate
of hell through a maze of
errors. Those that have been left uncorrupt
by their youth, are not to
be corrupted by anything else.
7. Whoso has passed the dreadfully enchanted
coast of youth, fraught
with various flavours and wonders, are said
to be truly wise.
8. I take no delight in our unwelcome youth,
which appears to us in the
form of a momentary flash of lightning, and
soon succeeded by the loud
roaring of the clouds (of manhood).
9. Youth like rich wine is sweet and
delicious (at first), but becomes
bitter, insipid and noxious in a short time.
Hence it is not delectable
to me.
10. Youth appearing (at first) as a reality,
is found to be a false,
transient thing, as deceptive as a fairy
dream by night. Hence I like it
not.
11. It is the most charming of all things to
men, but its charm is soon
lost and fled. Therefore the phantasmagoria
of youth is not pleasing to
me.
12. Youth as an arrow shot is pleasant to
see, but painful to feel its
smart. Hence I do not like youth that
produces blood heat (in the
veins).
13. Youth as a harlot is charming at first
sight, but turning heartless
soon after. Hence it is not to my liking.
14. As the efforts of a dying man are all for
his torment, so the
exertions of the young are portentous of his
destruction.
15. Puberty advances as a dark night
spreading the shadow of
destruction. It darkens the heart and mind by
its hedious appearance,
and intimidates even the god (Siva himself).
16. Errors growing in youth, cause copious
mistakes in life, by
upsetting good sense and setting at naught
the approved good manners (of
society).
17. The raging fire in the hearts of the
young, caused by separation of
their mates, burns them down like trees by a
wild fire.
18. As a clear, sacred and wide stream,
becomes muddy in the rains, so
doth the mind of man however clear, pure and
expanded it may be, gets
polluted in his youth.
19. It is possible for one to cross over a
river made terrible by its
waves, but no way possible to him to get over
the boisterous expanse of
his youthful desires.
20. O how (lamentably) is one's youth worn
out with the thoughts of his
mistress, her swollen breasts, her beautiful
face and her sweet
caresses.
21. The young man afflicted with the pain of
soft desire, is regarded by
the wise in no better light than a fragment
of (useless) straw.
22. Youth is the stake of haughty
self-esteem, as the rack is for the
immolation of the elephant giddy with its
frontal pearl.
23. Youth is a lamentable forest, where the
mind as the root of all,
gives growth to jungles of (love sick) groans
and sighs, and tears of
sorrow. The vices of this time, are as
venomous snakes of the forest.
24. Know youthful bloom of the person to
resemble the blooming lotus of
the lake:—the one is full of affections, bad
desires and evil intents,
as the other is fraught with bees, filaments,
petals and leaves.
25. The new bloom of youth is the resort of
anxiety and disease, which
like two birds with their (black and white)
plumage of vice and virtue,
frequent the fountain of the young man's
heart.
26. Early youth resembles a deep sea,
disturbed by the waves of
numberless amusements, transgressing all
bounds, and regardless of death
and disease.
27. Youth is like a furious gust of wind,
over-loaded with the dust of
pride and vanity, and sweeps away every trace
of the good qualities
(early acquired by one).
28. The rude dust of the passions of youths,
disfigures their face, and
the hurricane of their sensualities cover
their good qualities (as
flying leaves overspread the ground).
29. Youthful vigour awakens a series of
faults, and destroys a group of
good qualities, by increasing the vice of
pleasures.
30. Youthful bloom confines the fickle mind
to some beauteous person, as
the bright moon-beams serve to shut the
flitting bee in the dust of the
closing lotus.
31. Youth like a delightsome cluster of flowers,
growing in the arbour
of human body, attracts the mind as the bee
to it, and makes it giddy
(with its sweets).
32. The human mind anxious to derive pleasure
from the youthfulness of
the body, falls into the cave of sensuality,
as a deer running after the
mirage of desert heat, falls down into a pit.
33. I take no delight in moony youth, which
guilds the dark body with
its beams, and resembles the stern mane of
the leonine mind. It is a
surge in the ocean of our lives (that tosses
us all about).
34. There is no reliance in youth, which
fades away as soon as summer
flowers in this desert of the body.
35. Youth is as a bird, and as soon flies
away from our bodily cage as
the philosopher's stone, which quickly
disappears from the hands of the
unfortunate.
36. As youth advances to its highest pitch,
so the feverish passions wax
stronger for our destruction only.
37. As long as the night (delusion) of youth
does not come to its end,
so long the fiends of our passion do not
cease to rage in the desert of
the body.
38. Pity me, O sage! in this state of youth,
which is so full of
perturbations, as to have deprived me of the
sight (light) of reason. O
pity me as thou wouldst for thy dying son.
39. The foolish man who ignorantly rejoices
at his transient youth, is
considered as a human beast.
40. The foolish fellow who is fond of his
youth which is flushed with
pride and fraught with errors, comes to
repent (of his folly) in a short
time.
41. Those great minded men are honoured on
earth, who have safely passed
over the perils of youth.
42. One crosses over with ease the wide ocean
which is the horrible
habitation of huge whales; but it is hard to
pass over our youth, that
is so full of vices and the billows (of our
passions).
43. It is very rare to have that happy youth
which is fraught with
humility, and spent in the company of
respectable men; which is
distinguished by feelings of sympathy, and is
joined with good qualities
and virtues.
CHAPTER XXI.
VITUPERATION OF WOMEN.
Rāma added:—
What beauty is there in the person of a
woman, composed of nerves, bones
and joints? She is a mere statue of flesh,
and a frame of moving
machinery with her ribs and limbs.
2. Can you find any thing beautiful in the
female form, separated from
its (component parts of the) flesh, skin,
blood and water, that is worth
beholding? Why then dote upon it?
3. This fairy frame consisting of hairs in
one part and blood in the
other, cannot engage the attention of a
high-minded man to its
blemishes.
4. The bodies of females, that are so covered
with clothing and
repeatedly besmeared with paints and
perfumes, are (at last) devoured by
carnivorous (beasts and worms).
5. The breasts of women decorated with
strings of pearl, appear as
charming as the pinnacles of Sumeru, washed
by the waters of Ganges
falling upon them.
6. Look at these very breasts of the woman
becoming at last a lump of
food, to be devoured by dogs in cemeteries
and on the naked ground.
7. There is no difference between a woman and
a young elephant that
lives in the jungle, both of them being made
of blood, flesh and bones.
Then why hunt after her.
8. A woman is charming only for a short time,
and does not long last to
be so. I look upon her merely as a cause of
delusion.
9. There is no difference between wine and a
woman, both of them tending
equally to produce high-flown mirth and
jollity, and creating revelry
and lust.
10. Uxorious men are like chained elephants
among mankind, that will
never come to sense however goaded by the
hooks of reason.
11. Women are the flames of vice, their
black-dyed eye and hairs are as
their smoke and soot. They are as intangible
as fire, though pleasing to
the sight. They burn the man as fire consumes
the straw.
12. They burn from afar (more than fire), and
are as dry as bones (in
their hearts), though appearing as soft and
juicy to sight. They serve
as fuel to the fire of hell, and are
dangerous with their charmingness.
13. The woman resembles a moon-light night,
veiled over by her loosened
locks, and looking through her starry eyes.
She shows her moon-like face
amidst her flowery smiles.
14. Her soft dalliance destroys all manly
energy, and her caresses
overpower the good sense of men, as the shade
of night does the sleeping
(world).
15. The woman is as lovely as a creeper in
its flowering time. Her palm
are the leaves and her eyes as the black-bees
(on the flower). Her
breasts are as the uplifted tops of the
plant.
16. The lovely damsel is like a poisonous
creeper, fair as the filament
of a flower but destructive of life, by
causing inebriation and
insensibility.
17. As the snake-catcher entices the snake by
his breath and brings it
out of its hole, so does the woman allure the
man by her officious
civilities, and gets him under her control.
18. Concupiscence as a huntsman, has spread
his nets in the forms of
women, for the purpose of ensnaring the
persons of deluded men like
silly birds.
19. The mind of man though as fierce as that
of a furious elephant, is
tied fast by the chain of love to the fulcrum
of women, just as an
elephant is fastened (by his leg) to the
post, where he remains dull and
dumb for ever.
20. Human life is as a pool in which the mind
moves about in its mud and
mire (as a fish). Here it is caught by the
bait of woman, and dragged
along by the thread of its impure desires.
21. The beauteous-eyed damsel is a bondage to
man, as the stable is to
the horse, the fastening post to the
elephant, and as spells are to the
snakes.
22. This wondrous world, with all its
delights and enjoyments, began
with woman and depends on women for its
continuance.
23. A woman is the casket of all gems of vice
(Pandora's box), she is
the cause of the chain of our everlasting
misery, and is of no use to
me.
24. What shall I do with her breast, her
eyes, her loins, her eyebrows,
the substance of which is but flesh, and
which therefore is altogether
unsubstantial.
25. Here and there, O Brāhman! her flesh and
blood and bones undergo a
change for the worse in course of a few days.
26. You see sir, those dearly beloved
mistresses, who are so much
fondled by foolish men, lying at last in the
cemetery, and the members
of their bodies all mangled and falling off
from their places.
27. O Brāhman! those dear objects of love—the
faces of damsels, so
fondly decorated by their lovers with paints
and pastes, are at last to
be singed on the piles (by those very hands).
28. Their braided hairs now hang as flappers
of chowry on the arbors
of the cemetery, and their whitened bones are
strewn about as shining
stars after a few days.
29. Behold their blood sucked in by the dust
of the earth, voracious
beasts and worms feeding upon their flesh,
jackals tearing their skin,
and their vital air wafted in the vacuum.
30. This is the state to which the members of
the female body must
shortly come to pass, you say all existence
to be delusion, tell me
therefore why do you allow yourselves to fall
into error?
31. A woman is no other than a form composed
of the five elements, then
why should intelligent men be fondly attached
to her (at the risk of
their ruin)?
32. Men's longing for women is likened to the
creeper called Suta,
which stretches its sprigs to a great length,
but bears plenty of bitter
and sour fruits.
33. A man blinded by avarice (for the
supportance of his mate) is as a
stray deer from its herd; and not knowing
which way to go, is lost in
the maze of illusion.
34. A young man under the control of a young
woman, is as much
lamentable as an elephant fallen into a pit
of the Vindhya mountain in
pursuit of his mate.
35. He that has a wife, has an appetite for
enjoyment on earth; but one
without her has no object of desire.
Abandonment of the wife amounts to
the abandoning of the world, and forsaking
the world is the path to true
happiness.
36. I am not content, O Brāhman! with these
unmanageable enjoyments
which are as flickering as the wings of bees,
and are as soon at an end
as they are born (like the ephemerids of a
day). I long only for the
state of supreme bliss, from my fear of
repeated births transmigration),
decay and death.
CHAPTER XXII.
OBLOQUY OF OLD AGE.
Boyhood has scarcely lost its boyishness when
it is overtaken by youth,
which is soon followed by a ruthless old age,
devouring the other two.
2. Old age withers the body like a frost
freezing the lake of lilies. It
drives away the beauty of the person as a
storm does the autumnal
clouds; and it pulls down the body, as a
current carries away a tree on
the bank.
3. The old man with his limbs slackened and
worn out by age, and his
body weakened by infirmity, is treated by
women as a useless beast.
4. Old age drives a man's good sense, as a
good wife is driven away by
her step dame.
5. A man in his state of tottering old age,
is scoffed at as a dotard by
his own sons and servants, and even by his wife,
and all his friends and
relations.
6. Insatiable avarice like a greedy vulture
alights on the heads of the
aged, when their appearance grows uncouth,
and their bodies become
helpless, and devoid of all manly qualities
and powers.
7. Appetite the constant companion of my
youth, is thriving along with
my age, accompanied with her evils of
indigence, and heart-burning cares
and restlessness.
8. Ah me! what must I do to remove my present
and future pains? It is
this fear which increases with old age, and
finds no remedy.
9. What am I that am brought to this
extremity of senselessness, what
can I do in this state. I must remain dumb
and silent. Under these
reflections there is an increased sense of
helplessness in old age.
10. How and when and what shall I eat, and
what is sweet to taste?
These are the thoughts which trouble the mind
of one when old age comes
upon him.
11. There is an insatiable desire for
enjoyments, but the powers to
enjoy them are lacking. It is the want of
strength which afflicts the
heart in old age.
12. Hoary old age sits and shrieks as a heron
on the top of the tree of
this body, which is infested within it by the
serpents of sickness.
13. As the grave owl—the bird of night,
appears unexpectedly to our
sight soon as the evening shades cover the
landscape, so does the solemn
appearance of death overtake us in the eve of
our life.
14. As darkness prevails over the world at
the eve of the day, so doth
death overtake the body at the eve of the
life.
15. Death overtakes a man in his hoary old
age, just as an ape alights
on a tree covered with pearly flowers.
16. Even a deserted city, a leafless tree and
parched up land may
present a fair aspect, but never does the
body look well that is pulled
down by hoary age.
17. Old age with its hooping cough lays hold
on a man, just as a vulture
seizes its prey with loud shrieks in order to
devour it.
18. As a girl eagerly lays hold on a lotus
flower whenever she meets
with one, and then plucks it from its stalk
and tears it to pieces, so
does old age overtake the body of a person
and break it down at last.
19. As the chill blast of winter shakes a
tree and covers its leaves
with dust, so does old age seize the body
with a tremor and fill all its
limbs with the rust of diseases.
20. The body overtaken by old age becomes as
pale and battered, as a
lotus flower beaten by frost becomes withered
and shattered.
21. As moon-beams contribute to the growth of
Kumuda flowers on the
top of mountains, so does old age produce
grey hairs resembling casla
flowers on the heads of men (with inward
phlegm and gout).
22. Death the lord of all beings, views the
grey head of a man as a ripe
pumpkin seasoned with the salt of old age,
and devours it with zest.
23. As the Ganges upsets a neighbouring tree
by its rapid course, so
does old age destroy the body, as the current
of our life runs fast to
decay.
24. Old age which preys on the flesh of the
human body, takes as much
delight in devouring its youthful bloom as a
cat does in feeding upon a
mouse.
25. Decrepitude raises its ominous hoarse
sound of hiccough in the body,
as the jackal sends forth her hideous cry
amidst the forest.
26. Dotage as an inward flame consumes the
living body as a wet log of
wood, which thereupon emits its hissing sounds
of hiccough and hard
breathing, and sends up the gloomy fumes of
woe and sighs.
27. The body like a flowering creeper, bends
down under the pressure of
age, turns to grey like the fading leaves of
a plant, and becomes as
lean and thin as a plant after its flowering
time is over.
28. As the infuriate elephant upsets the
white plantain tree in a
moment, so does old age destroy the body that
becomes as white as
camphor all over.
29. Senility, O sage! is as the standard
bearer of the king of death,
flapping his chowry of grey hairs before him, and bringing in his
train an army of diseases and troubles.
30. The monster of old age, will even
overcome those that were never
defeated in wars by their enemies, and those
that hide themselves in the
inaccessible caverns of mountains.
31. As infants cannot play in a room that has
become cold with snow, so
the senses can have no play in the body that
is stricken with age.
32. Old age like a juggling girl, struts on
three legs at the sound of
coughing and whiffing, beating as a tymbal on
both sides.
33. The tuft of grey hairs on the head of the
aged body, represents a
white flapper (chowry) fastened to the top of a handle of white sandal
wood, to welcome the despot of death.
34. As hoary age makes his advance like
moon-light on the site of the
body, he calls forth the hidden death to come
out of it, as the
moon-light makes the nilumbium to unfold its buds.
35. Again as the white wash of old age
whitens the outer body, so
debility, diseases and dangers become its
inmates in the inner typo
apartment.
36. It is the extinction of being that is
preceded by old age; therefore
I as a man of little understanding, can have
no reliance in old age
(though extolled by some)[1]
[1] Cicero "De senectute."
37. What then is the good of this miserable
life, which lives under the
subjection of old age? Senility is
irresistable in this world, and
defies all efforts to avoid or overcome it.
CHAPTER XXIII.
VICISSITUDES OF TIMES.
Men of little understandings are found to
fall into grave errors in this
pit of the world, by their much idle talk,
ever doubting scepticism, and
schisms (in religion).
2. Good people can have no more confidence in
the net work of their
ribs, than little children may have a liking
for fruits reflected in a
mirror.
3. Time is a rat that cuts off the threads of
all thoughts (prospects),
which men may entertain here about the
contemptible pleasures of this
world.
4. There is nothing in this world which the
all-devouring time will
spare. He devours all things as the submarine
fire consumes the
over-flowing sea.
5. Time is the sovran lord of all, and
equally terrible to all things.
He is ever ready to devour all visible
beings.
6. Time as master of all, spares not even the
greatest of us for a
moment. He swallows the universe within
himself, whence he is known as
the universal soul.
7. Time pervades all things, but has no
perceptible feature of his own,
except that he is imperfectly known by the
names of years, ages and
kalpas (millenniums).
8. All that was fair and good, and as great
as the mount of Meru, have
gone down in the womb of eternity, as the
snakes are gorged by the
greedy Garuda.
9. There was no one ever so unkind,
hard-hearted, cruel, harsh or
miserly, whom time has not devoured.
10. Time is ever greedy although he should
devour the mountains. This
great gourmand is not satiated with gorging
every thing in all the
worlds.
11. Time like an actor plays many parts on
the stage of the world. He
abstracts and kills, produces and devours and
at last destroys every
thing.
12. Time is incessantly picking up the seeds
of all the four kinds of
living beings from this unreal world, as a
parrot picks up the seeds
from under the cracked shell of a
pomegranate. (Viz. the
oviparous,
viviparous, vegetables and the ephemerids).
13. Time like a wild elephant uproots all
proud living beings in this
world, as the other pulls up the trees of the
forest with their tusks.
14. This creation of God is like a forest,
having Brahmā for its
foundation and its trees full of the great
fruits of gods. Time commands
it throughout its length and breadth.
15. Time glides along incessantly as a
creeping plant, composed of years
and ages as its parts, and the sable nights
as black bees chasing after
them.
16. Time, O sage, is the subtlest of all
things. It is divided though
indivisible, it is consumed though
incombustible, it is perceived though
imperceptible in its nature.
17. Time like the mind is strong enough to
create and demolish any thing
in a trice, and its province is equally
extensive with it.
18. Time is a whirlpool to men; and being
accompanied with desire his
insatiable and ungovernable mistress and
delighting in illicit
enjoyments, he makes them do and undo the
same thing over and over
again.
19. Time is prompted by his rapacity to
appropriate every thing to
himself, from the meanest straw, dust, leaves
and worms, to the greatest
Indra and the mount Meru itself.
20. Time is the source of all malice and
greediness, and the spring of
all misfortunes, and intolerable fluctuations
of our states.
21. As boys with their balls play about their
play-ground, so does time
in his arena of the sky, play with his two
balls of the sun and moon.
22. Time at the expiration of the kalpa age, will dance about with a
long chain of the bones of the dead hanging
from his neck to the feet.
23. The gale of desolation rising from the
body of this desolator of the
world at the end of a kalpa age, causes the fragments of mount Meru to
fly about in the air like the rinds of the bhoja-petera tree.
24. Time then assumes his terrific form of
fire ([Sanskrit:
pralayāgni]), to dissolve the world in empty
space, when the gods Brahmā
and Indra and all others cease to exist.
25. As the sea shows himself in a continued
series of waves rising and
falling one after another, so it is time that
creates and dissolves the
world, and appears to rise and fall in the
rotation of days and nights.
26. Time plucks the gods and demigods as ripe
fruits, from their great
arbor of existence, at the end of the world,
(to make them his food).
27. Time resembles a large fig tree (Ficus
religiosa), studded with all
the worlds as its fruits, and resonant with
the noise of living beings
like the hissing of gnats about them.
28. Time accompanied by Action as his mate,
regales himself in the
garden of the world, blossoming with the
moon-beams of the Divine
Spirit.
29. As the high and huge rock supports its
body upon the basis of the
earth, so does time rest itself in endless
and interminable eternity.
30. Time assumes to himself various hues of
black, white and red (at
night, day and midday) which serve for his
vestures.
31. As the earth is the great support of
hills which are fixed upon it,
so is time the support of all the innumerable
ponderous worlds that
constitute the universe.
32. Hundreds of great kalpa ages (of the creation and dissolution of
the world) may pass away, yet there is
nothing that can move eternity to
pity or concern, or stop or expedite his
course. It neither sets nor
rises (as time).
33. Time is never proud to think, that it is
he who without the least
sense of pain and labor, brings this world
into play and makes it to
exist.
34. Time is like a reservoir in which the
nights are as mud, the days as
lotuses, and the clouds as bees.
35. As a covetous man, with worn out broom
sticks in hand, sweeps over a
mountain to gather the particles of gold
strewn over it, so does time
with his sweeping course of days and nights,
collect in one mass of the
dead all living beings in the world.
36. As a miserly man trims and lights a lamp
with his own fingers, to
look into his stores at each corner of the
room; so does time light the
lamps of the sun and moon to look into the
living beings in every nook
and corner of the world.
37. As one ripens the raw fruits in sun and
fire in order to devour
them, so does time ripen men by their sun and
fire worship, to bring
them under his jaws at last.
38. The world is a dilapidated cottage and
men of parts are rare gems in
it. Time hides them in the casket of his
belly, as a miser keeps his
treasure in a coffer.
39. Good men are like a chaplet of gems,
which time puts on his head for
a time with fondness, and then tears and
tramples it down (under his
feet).
40. Strings of days, nights and stars,
resembling beads and bracelets of
white and black lotuses, are continually
turning round the arm of time.
41. Time (as a vulture) looks upon the world
as (the carcase of) a ram,
with its mountains, seas, sky and earth as
its four horns, and the stars
as its drops of blood which it drinks day by
day.
42. Time destroys youth as the moon shuts the
petals of the lotus. It
destroys life as the lion kills the elephant:
there is nothing however
insignificant that time steals not away.
43. Time after sporting for a Kalpa period in the act of killing and
crushing of all living beings, comes to lose
its own existence and
becomes extinct in the eternity of the Spirit
of spirits.
44. Time after a short rest and respite
reappears as the creator,
preserver, destroyer and remembrancer of all.
He shows the shapes of all
things whether good or bad, keeping his own
nature beyond the knowledge
of all. Thus doth time expand and preserve
and finally dissolve all
things by way of sport.
CHAPTER XXIV.
RAVAGES OF TIME.
Rāma rejoined:—Time is a self-willed
sportsman as a prince, who is
inaccessible to dangers and whose powers are
unlimited.
2. This world is as it were a forest and
sporting ground of time,
wherein the poor deluded worldlings are
caught in his snare like bodies
of wounded stags.
3. The ocean of universal deluge is a
pleasure-pond of time, and the
submarine fires bursting therein as lotus
flowers (serve to beautify
that dismal scene).
4. Time makes his breakfast of this vapid and
stale earth, flavoured
with the milk and curd of the seas of those
names.
5. His wife Chandi (Hecate) with her train of Mātris (furies),
ranges all about this wide world as a
ferocious tigress (with horrid
devastation).
6. The earth with her waters is like a bowl
of wine in the hand of time,
dressed and flavoured with all sorts of
lilies and lotuses.
7. The lion with his huge body and startling
mane, his loud roaring and
tremendous groans, seems as a caged bird of
sport in the hand of time.
8. The Mahākāla like a playful young Kokila (cuckoo), appears in the
figure of the blue autumnal sky, and warbling
as sweet as the notes of a
lute of gourd (in the music of the spheres).
9. The restless bow of death is found
flinging its woeful arrows (darts
of death) with ceaseless thunder claps on all
sides.
10. This world is like a forest, wherein
sorrows are ranging about as
playful apes, and time like a sportive prince
in this forest, is now
roving, now walking, now playing and now
killing his game.
CHAPTER XXV.
SPORTS OF DEATH.
Time stands the foremost of all deceitful
players in this world. He acts
the double parts of creation and destruction,
and of action and fate
(utility and fatality).
2. Time has no other character but those of
action and motion by which
his existence is known to us, and which bind
all beings (in the
succession of thoughts and acts).
3. Fate is that which frustrates (the
necessary consequences of) the
acts of all created beings, as the solar heat
serves to dissolve the
conglomeration of snows.
4. This wide world is the stage wherein the
giddy mob dance about (in
their appointed times).
5. Time has a third name of a terrifying
nature known as Kritāntah
(Fate), who in the form of a Kāpālika (one
holding human skulls in his
hand), dances about in the world.
6. This dancing and loving Kritāntah (Fate),
is accompanied by his
consort called Destiny to whom he is greatly
attached (as his
colleague).
7. Time (as Siva), wears on his bosom of the
world, the triplicate white
and holy thread composed of the serpent named
Ananta and the stream of
Ganges, and the digit of the moon on his
forehead (to measure his
course). (Viz:—the Zodiacal belt; the milky way, and the lunar
mansions).
8. The sun and the moon are the golden
armlets of time, who holds in his
palm the mundane world as the paltry
plaything of a nosegay.
9. The firmament with its stars appears like
a garment with coloured
spots in it; the clouds called Pushkara and Avarta are as
the skirts
of that garment, which are washed by Time in
the waters of the universal
deluge.
10. Before him, dances his beloved Destiny
with all her arts for ever,
to beguile the living that are fond of
worldly enjoyments.
11. People hurry up and down to witness the
dance of Destiny, whose
unrestrained motion keeps them at work, and
causes their repeated births
and deaths.
12. The people of all the worlds are studded
about her person as her
ornaments, and the sky stretching from the
heaven of gods to the
infernal regions, serves for the veil on her
head.
13. Her feet are planted in the infernal
regions, and the hell-pits ring
at her feet like trinkets, tied by the string
of evil deeds or sins (of
men).
14. She is painted all over from head to foot
by the god Chitra Gupta
with ornamental marks prepared by her
attendants (the deeds of men), and
perfumed with the essence of those deeds.
15. She dances and reels at the nod of her
husband at the end of the
Kalpas, and makes the mountains crack and crash at her
foot-falls.
16. Behind her dance the peacocks of the god
Kumāra; and Kāla the god of
death staring with his three wide open eyes,
utters his hideous cries
(of destruction).
17. Death dances about in the form of the
five headed Hara, with the
loosened braids of hair upon him; while
Destiny in the form of Gaurī,
and her locks adorned with Mandāra flowers keeps her pace with him.
18. This Destiny in her war-dance, bears a
capacious gourd representing
her big belly, and her body is adorned with
hundreds of hollow human
skulls jingling like the alms-pots of the
Kapāli mendicants.
19. She has filled (reached) the sky with the
emaciated skeleton of her
body, and gets terrified at her all
destructive figure.
20. The skulls of the dead of various shapes
adorn her body like a
beautiful garland of lotuses, which keep
hanging to and fro during her
dance at the end of a Kalpa age.
21. The horrible roaring of the giddy clouds
Pushkara and Avarta at the
end of the Kalpa, serves to represent the
beating of her Damaru drum,
and put to flight the heavenly choir of Tumburu.
22. As death dances along, the moon appears
like his ear-ring, and the
moon-beams and stars appear like his crest
made of peacocks' feathers.
23. The snow-capt Himālaya, appears like a
circlet of bones in the upper
loop of his right ear, and the mount Meru as a golden areola in that
of the left.
24. Under their lobes are suspended the moon
and the sun, as pendant
ear-rings glittering over his cheeks. The
mountain ranges called the
lokāloka are fastened like chains around his waist.
25. The lightnings are the bracelets and
armlets of Destiny, which move
to and fro as she dances along. The clouds
are her wrappers that fly
about her in the air.
26. Death is furnished with many weapons, as
clubs, axes, missiles,
spears, shovels, mallets and sharp swords,
all of which are sure weapons
of destruction.
27. Mundane enjoyments are no other than long
ropes dropped down by the
hand of death, and keeping all mankind fast
bound to the world; while
the great thread of infinity (ananta) is worn by him as his wreath of
flowers.
28. The belts of the seven oceans are worn
about the arms of Death as
his bracelets resplendent with the living
sea-animals, and the bright
gems contained in their depths.
29. The great vortices of customs, the
successions of joy and grief, the
excess of pride and the darkness of passions,
form the streaks of hair
on his body.
30. After the end of the world, he ceases to
dance, and creates anew all
things from the lowest animal that lives in
the earth, to the highest
Brahmā and Siva (when he resumes his dance).
31. Destiny as an actress, acts by turns her
parts of creation and
destruction, diversified by scenes of old
age, sorrow and misery.
32. Time repeatedly creates the worlds and
their woods, with the
different abodes and localities teeming with
population. He forms the
moveable and immovable substances,
establishes customs and again
dissolves them, as boys make their dolls of
clay and break them soon
afterwards.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE ACTS OF DESTINY.
Rāma said:—Such being the all destructive
conduct of time and others
(as already described), what confidence, O
great sage, can men like me,
have upon them?
2. We all remain here, O sage! as slaves sold
to Fate and Destiny, and
are deceived by their allurements as beasts
of the forest.
3. This Fate whose conduct is so very
inhuman, is always up to devour
all beings, and is incessantly throwing men
into the sea of troubles.
4. He is led by his malicious attempts to
inflame the mind with
inordinary desires, as the fire raises its
flames to burn down a
habitation.
5. Destiny the faithful and obedient wife of
Fate, is naturally fickle
on account of her being a female, and is
always bent on mischief and
disturbing the patience (even of the wisest
of men).
6. As the heinous serpent feeds upon the air,
so does cruel Death ever
swallow the living. He ripens the body with
old age to create his zest,
and then devours all animals warm with life.
7. Death is called a relentless tyrant,
having no pity even for the sick
and weak; nor any regard for any one in any
state of life.
8. Every one in this world is fond of
affluence and pleasures, not
knowing that these are only calculated to
lead him to his ruin.
9. Life is very unsteady. Death is very
cruel. Youth is very frail and
fickle, and boyhood is full of dullness and
insensibility.
10. Man is defiled by his worldliness, his
friends are ties to the
world, his enjoyments are the greatest of his
diseases in life, and his
avarice and ambition are the mirage that
always allures him (to ruin).
11. Our very senses are our enemies, before
which even truth appears as
falsehood; the mind is the enemy of the mind
and self is the enemy of
self. (i. e. they are all deceptive).
12. Self-esteem is stained (with the name of
selfishness), intelligence
is blamed for its fallaciousness, our actions
are attended with bad
results, and our pleasures tend only to
effeminacy.
13. All our desires are directed to
enjoyments; our love of truth is
lost; our women are the ensigns of vice, and
all that were once so
sweet, have become tasteless and vapid.
14. Things that are not real, are believed as
real, and have become the
cause of our pride, by hardening us in
untruth, and keeping us from the
light of truth.
15. My mind is at a loss to think what to do;
it regrets at its
increased appetite for pleasure, and for want
of that self-denial (which
I require).
16. My sight is dimmed by the dust of
sensuality: the darkness of
self-esteem prevails upon me: the purity of
mind is never reached to,
and truth is far off from me.
17. Life is become uncertain and death is
always advancing nigh; my
patience is disturbed, and there is an
increased appetite for whatever
is false.
18. The mind is soiled by dullness, and the
body is cloyed with surfeit
and ready to fall; old age exults over the
body, and sins are
conspicuous at every step.
19. Youth flies fast away with all our care
to preserve it; the company
of the good is at a distance; the light of
truth shines from no where;
and I can have recourse to nothing in this
world.
20. The mind is stupified within itself, and
its contentment has fled
from it: there is no rise of enlightened
sentiments in it, and meanness
makes its advance to it from a distance.
21. Patience is converted into impatience; man
is liable to the states
of birth and death; good company is rare, but
bad company is ever within
the reach of every body.
22. All individual existences are liable to
appear and disappear; all
desires are chains to the world, and all
worldly beings are ever seen
to be led away per force where no body can
tell.
23. What reliance can there be on human life,
when the points of the
compass become indistinct and undiscernible;
when the countries and
places change their positions and names, and
when mountains even are
liable to be dilapidated?
24. What reliance can there be on man, when
the heavens are swallowed in
infinity, when this world is absorbed in
nothingness, and the very earth
loses her stability?
25. What reliance can there be on men like
ourselves, when the very seas
are liable to be dried up, when the stars are
doomed to fade away and
disappear, and when the most perfect of
beings are liable to
dissolution?
26. What reliance can there be on men like
us, when even the demigods
are liable to destruction, when the polar
star is known to change its
place, and when the immortal gods are doomed
to mortality?
27. What reliance can there be on men like
us, when Indra is doomed to
be defeated by demons; when even death is
hindered from his aim, and
when the current air ceases to breathe?
28. What reliance can there be on men like
us, when the very moon is to
vanish with the sky, when the very sun is to
be split into pieces, and
when fire itself is to become frigid and
cold?
29. What reliance can there be on men like
us, when the very Hari and
Brahmā are to be absorbed into the Great One,
and when Siva himself is
to be no more.
30. What reliance can there be on men like
us, when the duration of time
comes to be counted, when Destiny is destined
to her final destiny, and
when all vacuity loses itself in infinity?
31. That which is inaudible, unspeakable,
invisible, and unknowable in
his real form, displays to us these wondrous
worlds by some fallacy (in
our conceptions).
32. No one conscious of himself (his egoism),
can disown his subjection
to that Being, that dwells in the hearts of
every one.
33. This sun—the lord of worlds, is impelled
(by that power) to run
over hills, rocks and fields, like an inert
piece of stone, hurled down
from a mountain and borne away by a current
stream.
34. This globe of earth, the seat of all the
Suras and Asuras, and
surrounded by the luminous sphere in the
manner of a walnut covered by
its hard crust, subsists under His command.
35. The Gods in the heavens, the men on earth
and the serpents in the
nether world, are brought into existence and
led to decay by His will
only.
36. Kāma (Cupid) that is arbitrarily
powerful, and has forcibly
overpowered on all the living world, has
derived his unconquerable might
from the Lord of worlds.
37. As the heated elephant regales the air
with his spirituous
exudation, so does the spring perfume the air
with his profusion of
flowers, unsettling the minds of men (at the
will of the Almighty).
38. So are the loose glances of loving
damsels directed to inflict deep
wounds in the heart of man, which his best
reason is unable to heal.
39. One whose best endeavour is always to do
good to others, and who
feels for others' woes, is really intelligent
and happy under the
influence of his cool judgement.
40. Who can count the number of beings
resembling the waves of the
ocean, and on whom death has been darting the
submarine fire of
destruction.
41. All mankind are deluded to entrap
themselves in the snare of
avarice, and to be afflicted with all evils
in life, as the deer
entangled in the thickets of a jungle.
42. The term of human life in this world, is
decreased in each
generation in proportion to (the increase of
their wicked acts). The
desire of fruition is as vain as the
expectation of reaping fruits from
a creeper growing in the sky: yet I know not
why men of reason would not
understand this truth.
43. This is a day of festivity, a season of
joy and a time of
procession. Here are our friends, here the
pleasures and here the
variety of our entertainments. Thus do men of
vacant minds amuse
themselves with weaving the web of their
desires, until they become
extinct.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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