The Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki ( Volume -4) -10





























The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki

The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala  Mitra (1891).




CHAPTER LXV.

LIFE AND CONDUCT OF THE ETHERIAL NYMPH.

Argument:--How nymph has come to approach before Vasishtha, her
statement of facts of her life.
After the lapse of a long time, I found my passions subsiding,
and I grew as callous to my susceptibilities, as
the tender greens become juiceless and dry after the autumn is
over.

2. Seeing my husband grown old, and shorn of all his susceptivity
and vivaciousness; and sitting quietly in his steadfast
devotion with an unwavering mind, I thought my life to
be useless to me.
3. And methought that early widowhood, and even premature
death, or rather a lingering disease or lasting misery, are
preferable to a femle's[**female's] living without a loving husband.
4. It is the boon of life, and the greatest good fortune of a
woman; to have a young and loving husband, who is of good
and pleasant humour, and pliant in his manners.
5. A woman is given for lost, who has not a sweet and lovely
spouse; as the understanding is lost which is not fraught with
learning. In vain is prosperity when she favours the wicked,
and in vain is a woman that is lost to shame. (Because modesty
is the best quality of women).
6. She is the best of women, who is obedient to her husband;
and that is the best fortune, which falls in the hands of
the virituous[**virtuous] and good. That understanding is praised which is
clear and capacious; and that goodness is good, which has a
fellow feeling and equal regard for all mankind.
7. Neither desease[**disease] nor calamity, nor dangers nor difficulties,
can disturb the minds, or afflict the hearts of a loving pair,
(bound together by mutual affection).
8. The prospect of the blossoming garden of eden[**Eden], and the
flowery paths of paradise; appear as desert lands to women,
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that have no husbands, or such as wicked and unmannerly in
their behaviour.
9. A woman may forsake all her worldly possessions, as of
little value to her; but she can never forsake her husband, even
for any fault on his part.
10. You see, O chief of sages, all these miseries to which I
am subjected these very many years of my puberty.
11. But all these[**this] fondness of mine, is gradually turning to
indifference; and I am pining and fading away as fast, as the
frost beaten lotus flower, is shrunken and shrivelled for want
of its sap and juice.
12. Being now indifferent to the pleasure of my enjoyment
of all things, I come to seek the felicity of my nirvána-extinction;
and stand in need of your advice for my salvation.
13. Otherwise it is better for them to die away than live in
this world, who are unsuccessful in desires and ever restless and
perplexed in their minds; and such as are buffeting and borne
by the waves of deadly troubles.
14. He my husband being desirous of obtaining his nirvána
liberation, is now intent both by day and night upon the subduing
of his mind by the light of his reason, as a prince is
roused to conquer his foe in company with his princess.
15. Now sir, please to dispel both his as well as mine[**my] ignorance,
by your reasonable advice, which may revive our remembrance
of the soul, (which may destroy our faith in the body).
16. Because my lord sitting solely upon the meditation of
the soul, without the company or any thought about me; has
created in me an indifference and distaste to all worldly things
in toto.
17. I am now set free from the influence of worldly desires,
and have girt myself fast with the amulet of aeronautic expedition,
for journeying through the regions of air. (This amulet is
called the khechari mudra).
18. I have acquired the power of locomotion amidst the air,
by means of this amulet of mine; and it is by virtue of this
power, that I am enabled to associate with the siddha spirits,
and to converse with you.
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19. Having girt myself with this charm, I have acquired
such potency, that though remaining in my dwelling house on
earth, which is the basis and centre of all the worlds, I can see
all its past and future events, (by means of my intuition and
yoga meditation).
20. Having then beheld within my mind, all and everything
relating to this world; I have come out to survey the outward
world, and seen as far as the gigantic polar mountain, (which
has perpetual light and darkness on either side of it).
21. Before this, O sage, neither I nor my husband, had ever
any desire of seeing anything beyond our own habitation. (i. e.
Or the internal world contained within the world).
22. My husband being solely employed in meditating on
the meanings (doctrines) of the vedas; has no desire whatever,
to know anything relating the past or unpassed (i. e. the present
and future) time.
23. It is for this reason (of unacquaintance with the world),
that my lord has not been able to succeed to any station in
life; and it is today only, that both of us are desirous to be
blest with the best state of humanity (the knowledge of the
Deity).
24. We therefore beseach[**beseech] you, O venerable sir, to grant our
request, as it is never in the nature of noble persons to refuse
the prayer of their suppliants.
25. I who have been wandering in the etherial regions,
among hosts of the perfected spirits of siddhas; do not find any
one except yourself, O honourable sir, who may put fire to the
thick gloom of ignorance as a conflagration.
26. And as it is the nature of good people to do good to
others, even without the knowledge of any cause of pity in their
suppliants; so should you, O venerable sir, do to your suppliant
one without refusing her suit.
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CHAPTER LXVI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INSIDE OF THE STONY MANSION
OF THE WORLD.
Argument:--The nymph's Relation of the manner of her habitation in
the womb of the solid stone.
Vasishtha said:--I then seated as I was, in my imaginary
seat in the sky, asked the lady who was also sitting
like myself in the visionary air: saying:--
2. Tell me, O gentle lady, how could an embodied being as
yourself, abide in the inside of a block of stone; how could
you move about within that imporous substance, and what was
the cause of your abode therein.
3. The Nymph replied:--Wonder not, O sage, at this kind
of our habitation, which is as habitable to us, and inhabited
by other creatures, as the open and spacious world which you
inhabit.
4. There are the snakes and reptiles, living in and moving
about the bowels of the earth; and there are huge rocks deeply
rooted in the subterranean cell; the waters are running within
the bosom of the ground, with as much freedom as the winds
are flying all about the open air.
5. The oceans are flowing with the fulness of their waters,
and the finny tribe moving slowly beneath and above their
surface; and there are infinite numbers of living creatures,
that are incessantly born and dying away in them.
6. It is in the cavity of the mundane stone, that the waters
are gliding below, as the winds are flying above; here the celestials
are moving and roving in the air, and the earth and the
planetary bodies, revolving with their unmoving mountains and
others immovables.
7. There are also the gods, demigods and human beings,
moving in their respective circles, within the womb of this
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stone; and it is from the beginning of creation, that the waters
of rivers are running as those of the oceans.
8. Again it is from the beginning of creation, that the sun
has been darting his beams from above; and strewing them
like lotuses on the lake like land, while the dark clouds of
heaven are hovering over them like a swarm of black bees, fluttering
upon those blooming blossoms.
9. The moon spreads her light like sandal paste on all sides,
and effaces thereby the darkness, which overspreads the bosom
of night, and covers the face of the evening star.
10. The sun light is the lamp of his light in heavenly mansion,
and scatters its rays on all the ten sides of the skies, by means
of their conductor of air. (It is believed that the circumambient
air is the medium, through which the pencils of solar light pass
in all directins[**directions]).
11. The wheel of the starry frame, is continually revolving
in the air by the will of God, like a threshing mill turning about
its central axle by means of a string.
12. This rotatory circle of celestial bodies, about its axis of
the pole, kills all things under its two valves of heaven and
earth, as the wheel of fate grinds them to dust. (So says Kabir
the saint of Julpa caste.[**:] "Every one is ground to dust, under
the two disks of earth and sky, as under the jaws of death").[**moved " inside the paren]
13. The surface of the earth is full of hills and mountains,
and the bosom of the sea is filled by rocks and islands; the
upper sky contains the celestial abodes, and the demons occupy
the lower regions below the ground.
14. The orbit of this earth, resembles the ear-ring of the
goddess of the three worlds; and the verdant orb of this planet,
is as the pendant gem of the ringlet, continually with the fluctuations
of its people.
15. Here all creatures are impelled by their desires to their
mental and bodily activities, as if moved to and fro by the flying
winds, and are thus led to repeated births and deaths (from
which they have no respite).
16. The silent sage sits in his sedate meditation, as the sky
is unmoved with its capacity of containing all things within
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itself; but the earth is shaken and wasted by the dashing
waves, and the fire is put down by its blazing flame, and every
thing is moved about as monkey by the wind of its desires.
17. All the living beings abounding in the earth and water,
and those flying in the air, as well as such as live in the hills
and on trees; together with the gods and giants, are alike
doomed to death and regeneration, as the ephemeral insects,
worms and flies.
18. Time--the greatest slaughterer, destroys the gods, giants,
gandharvas and all, with its many arms of ages and yugas, and
and[**delete extra 'and'] of years, months, days and nights, as a herdsman kills his
cattle, which he has reared up himself. (Time feeds upon what
it has fed himself).
19. All these rise and fall in the eventful ocean of time, and
having leapt and jumped and danced awhile, sink in the abyss
of the fathomless whirl of death, from which none can rise
again.
20. All sorts of beings living in the fourteen spheres of the
world, are carried away as dust and ashes by the gust of death,
to the hollow womb of air, where they disappear as empty
clouds in the autumnal sky.
21. The high heaven which is ever clad in the clean and
clear attire of the atmosphere, and wears the frame work of
the stars as a cap or crown on its head, holds the two lights of
the sun and moon in its either hand, and show us the works of
gods in the skies. (Heaven is the book of god, before thee set
&c. milton[**Milton]).
22. It remains unmoved for ever, and never changes its
sides composed of the four quarters of heaven, notwithstanding
vicissitudes of the sky, the rushing of the winds, the tremor of
the earth, the roaring of the clouds and the intense heat of the
sun: (All which it bears as patiently as the fixed trees and
stones on earth).
23. And all things continue in their destined course, whether
they that are conscious or those which are unconscious of these
changes in nature; such are the appearance of meteors and
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portents in the sky, the roaring of clouds, the eclipses of the
planets, and the trembling of the earth below.
24. The submarine fire sucks up the over flowing waters, of
the seven great basins or oceans on earth; in the same manner
as the all-destroying time, devours the creatures in all the
different worlds.
25. All things are continually going on in their course, in
the manner of the continued motion of the (sadágati) of the
current air: Namely; all earth born worms moving on and
returning into the bowels of the earth; the birds of the air are
moving in and flying on all sides of the sky; the fishes are
swimming and skimming all about the waters, the beasts returning
to their caverns in earth and the hills, and such is the case
with the inhabitants of all the continents and islands lying in
the womb of this world.
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CHAPTER LXVII.
PRAISE OF CONTINUED PRACTICE OR THE FORCE OF HABIT.
Argument:--The sage's visit to the stony-mansion and the nymph's relations
of the force of habit.
The Nymph continued:--If you, O sage, have any doubt in
any part of my narration; then please to walk with me
and see that mansion, and you will observe there many more
wonders than what I have related.
2. Vasishtha said:--Upon this "I said well"[** I said "well"] and went on
travelling with her in our aerial journey; as the fragrance of
flowers flies with the winds, to aerial nothing in which they are
both lost for ever.
3. As I passed far and afar, in the regions of air; I met
with multitudes, of etherial beings, and came to the sight of
their celestial abodes.
4. Passing over the regions traversed by the celstials[**celestials], in the
upper and higher sphere of heaven; I arrived at blank and
blanched sky, beyond the height and above the summit of the
polar mountain.
5. I then passed amidst this etiolate[**etiolated] vault and came out at
last of it, as the fair moon appears under the white canopy of
heaven; and beheld above me the bright belt of zodiac,
containing the seven-fold golden spheres of the seven planets.
Note. the hindu[**Hindu] astronomy does not reckon the earth as
one of the moving planets.
6. As I was looking at that belt of the zodiac, I found it as a
crystaline[**crystalline] marble, and burning with fire. I could not discern
any of the worlds that it encompassed: (they being all put to
shade by the zodical[**zodiacal] light).
7. I then asked my lovely companion, to tell me where were
the created worlds, together with the gods and planetary bodies
and stars, and the seven spheres of heaven.
8. Where were the oceans and the sky, with all its different
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sides (of the compass); where were the high and heavy bodies
of clouds, the starry heaven, and the ascension and descension
of the rolling planets.
9. Where are now, said I, the rows of the lofty mountain
peaks, and the marks of the seas upon the earth; where are the
circles and clusters of the islands, and where are the sunny
shores and dry and parched grounds of deserts.
10. There is no reckoning of time here, nor any account of
actions of men; nor is there any delusive appearance of a
created world or anything whatever, in this endless and empty
vacuum.
11. There is no name of the different races of beings, as the
Gods, demigods, vidyádharas, Gandharvas and other races of
mankind; there is no mention of a sage or prince, or of aught
that is good or evil, or of a heaven or hell, or day and night and
their divisions into watches, hours &c.
12. There is no calculation of the divisions of time (in this
extramundane space), nor any knowing of merit or demirit[**demerit] (in
this uninhabited place); it is free from the hostility of the gods
and demigods and the feelings of love and enmity (between
man and man).
13. Whilst I had been prating in this manner in my amazement,
that excellant[**excellent] lady who was my cicerone in this maze,
spake to me and said, with her eyeballs rolling as a couple of
fluttering black bees.
14. The Nymph said:--I neither see any thing here, in its
former state; but find everything presenting a picturesque
form in this crystal stone, as it does in its image appearing in a
mirror.
15. I see the figures of all things in this, by reason of my
preconceived ideas eternally engraven herein, while the want
of your preconceptions of them, is the cause of your over sight
or blindness of the same.
16. Moreover it is your habitual conversation, regarding
the unity or duality of the sole entity; and forgetfulness of our
pure spiritual and intellectual bodies, that you were blind to
the sight of the reality, and I had a dim glimpse of it.
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17. I have by my long habit of thinking, learnt to look upon
this world in the light of an etherial plant (which is nothing);
I never view it as you do to be a reality, but as a dim reflection
of the ideal reality.
18. The world that appeared before so conspicuous to my
sight, I find it now appearing as indistinct to me as a shadow
of the same cast upon a glass.
19. It is owing to our prejudice in favour[**space added] of the false doctrine
of old, regarding the personality of the body; that we
have missed the ease of our reliance in the spiritual body, and
thus fallen in the deep darkness of delusion.
20. Whatever we are habituated to think in our internal
minds, the same grows forth and takes a deep root in the heart,
under the moistening influence of the intellectual soul; and
mind becomes of the nature, as the force of early habit forms
the youth.
21. There is nothing which is likely to be effected, either
by the precepts of the best sástras, or the dictates of right
reason, unless they are made effectual by constant application
and practice of them. (Theoretical knowledge is useless without
practice).
22. Your erroneous speech regarding the nihility of the
world in this empty space, proceeded only from your constant
habit of thinking the reality of the false world, which was
about to mislead me also. Be now wise that you have overcome
your previous prejudice, and known the present truth.
23. Know, O sage, that it is your habitual thinking of a
thing as such, that makes it appear so to you; just as a mechanic
master's art is by his constant practice of the same
under the direction of its professor.
24. The erroneous conceptions of this thing and that, and
of the existance[**existence] of the material world, and the reality of one's
egoism and personality; are all obviated by culture of spiritual
knowledge, and by force of the constant habit of viewing all
things in their spiritual light.
25. I am but a weak and young desciple[**disciple] to thee, and yet
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see the stony world too well, which thou with thy all-knowingness[**added '-']
dost not perceive; and this is because of my habit of
thinking it otherwise than thou art practiced to do.
26. See the effect of practice, which makes a learned man
of a dunce, (by his habitude to study); and reduces a stone to
dust (by continued pounding). Look at the force of the inert
arrow, to hit at the distant mark (by impulsion of the practiced
archer).
27. In this manner the gloom of our ignorance, and the
malady of false knowledge, are both of them dispelled by right
reasoning and deep thinking, both of which are the effect of
habit.
28. It is habit that produces a zest, in the tests of particular
articles of food, as some have a relish for what is sour and
pungent, while there are others that luxuriate in what is sweet
and savoury. (Tastes differ).
29. A stranger becomes friendly, by his continuance in one's
company; and so is a friend alienated, by his living in an
alien and distant land.
30. Our spiritual body, which is perfectly pure, aerial and
full of intelligence, is converted to and mistaken for the gross
material body as soul, by our constantly thinking of our corporeality.
31. The impression of your being a material body, will fly
away as a bird flies off in the air, no sooner you come to know
yourself to be a spiritual and intellectual soul. But it is the
habit of thinking yourself as such, that makes you really so.
32. All our meritorious acts are destroyed, by a slight act
of demirit[**demerit]; and our prosperity flies away at the approach of
adversity; but there is nothing which can remove our habit
from us. (Habit being our second nature).
33. All difficult matters are facilitated by practice, and enemies
are conciliated into friendship, and even poison is made
as delectable as honey by virtue of habit.
34. He is reckoned as too mean and vile a person, who does
not accustom himself to practice, whatever is good and proper
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for him; he never acquires his object, but becomes as useless as
a barren woman in the family.
35. Whatever is disirable[**typo, desirable] and good for one, is to be gained
with assiduity all along one's life time, just as one's life, which
is his greatest good in the world, is to be preserved with care,
until the approach of death.
36. Whoso neglects to practice any act or art, which is
conducive to his welfare, is prone to his ruin and to the torments
of hell.
37. They who are inclined to the meditation of the spiritual
soul, cross over easily over the billowy rivulet of this world,
although they may be attached to it in their outward and
bodily practices. (The knowledge of the immortal soul, is the
healing balm of the turmoils of mortal life).
38. Practice is the light, that leads one in the path of his
desired object; just as the light of the lamp shows the place,
where the lost pot or cloth lies in the room. (So application to
the esoteric, enlightens the mysterious truths of nature).
39. The arbour of assuetude fructifies in its time, as the
kalpa tree yields all the fruits of our desire; and as the hoarded
capital of the rich, is attended with great profit and interest.
40. Habitual inquiry into spiritual truth, serves as the sunlight
to enlighten the nature of the soul (unto us); or it lies hid
in our very body as any part of it in the darkness of the sunless
night. (The inward soul is invisible to exoteric view).
41. All animal beings are in need of certain provisions, for
the supportance of their lives; and all these they have to obtain
by their continued search, and never without it. Therefore
the force of habit prevails in all places as the powerful
sunshine.
42. All the fourteen kinds of living beings, have to live by
the habit of their respective activities; and it is impossible for
any one to get its disired[**typo, desired] object, without its unfeigned activity.
43. It is the repitition[**typo: repetition] of same action, which takes the name
of habit, and which [**[is]] called one's personal effort or exertion; and
it is not possible for any body to do anything without any
effort.
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44. Constant habit of action, joined with bodily and mental
energy, is the only means of accomplishing anything and not
otherwise.
45. There is nothing which is impossible to the power of
habit, which is as powerful as the strong sun-beams which give
growth to everything on earth. It is habitual energy only that
gives prosperity and undauntedness to the brave, on earth and
water and mountains, and in forests and deserts.
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CHAPTER LXVIII.
THE FALLACY OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD.
Argument:--Exposition of the Erroneous conception of the Material
World.
The Nymph Continued[**continued]:--Now as it is the habit of long
practice, combined with the understanding and cogitation
of a subject, that makes one proficient in it; so these being
applied to the meditation of the spiritual and pure soul, will
cause the material world to vanish in the stone (we have been
talking of).
2. Vasishtha said:--After the celestial nymph had spoken
in this manner, I retired to the covern[**cavern] of a rock, where I sat in
my posture of Padmásana (or legs folded upon one another);
and became engaged in my samádhi-devotion (or abstract and
abstruse meditation).
3. Having given up all thoughts of corporeal bodies, and
continued to think only of the intellectual soul, according to
the holy dictate of the nymph as said before.
4. I then had the sight of an entellectual[**typo, intellectual] void in me, which
present a clear and fair prospect before me, resembling the
clearness of the vacuous vault of heaven in autumnal season.
5. It was at last by my intense application, to the meditation
of the true One (or the god in spirit);[**typo, ';' redundant] that my erroneous
view of the phenomenals, entirely subsided within me (or
disappeared from my mind).
6. The intellectual sphere of my mind, was filled by a
transcendant[**transcendent] light; which knew no rising or setting, but was
always shining with an uniform radiance.
7. As I was looking into and through the light, that shone in
me, I could find neither the sky nor that great stone, which I
sought to find.
8. I then found the clear and thick blaze of my spiritual
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light, to ravish my outward sight; as it had enrapt my inward
vision.
9. As a man sees in his dream a huge stone in his house, so
I beheld the vast vacuum as a crystaline[**crystalline] globe, situate in the
clear atmosphere of the intellect. (The stone is the mundane
egg or sphere of the universe).
10. A dreaming man, may think himself as another person;
but after he is awakened from his sleep, he comes to know himself.
(So we dream ourselves as this and that, but upon waking
to reason, we find ourselves as none of these, but the pure
spirit).
11. Those who dream themselves headless beings in their
sleep, and remain so in this world; they can be of no good or
use to themselves, though they have a little knowledge afterwards.
12. The man that is drowned in utter ignorance, comes to his
right understanding in course of time; and comes to know at
the end, that there is no real entity, except the essence of
god.
13. This when I beheld the solid and transparent light,
which appeared as crystal stone lying in the vacuity of Brahma;
I could observe no material thing as the earth and water, or
aught whatever in connection with it.
14. The pure and spiritual form, in which all things were
presented at their first creation; they bear the same forms still,
in our ideas of them.
15. All these bodies of created beings, are bed[**but] forms of
Brahma; being considered in their primordial and spiritual and
natural natures; and it is the mind which gives them the imaginary
shapes of materiality, in its fabricated dominion of the
visible world.
16. It is the spiritual form, which is the true essence of
all things; and all that is visible to us or perceptible to the
senses, is mere fabrication of the originally inventive mind.
17. The prime creation was in the abstract, or an abstract
idea of it, and imperceptible to the senses; (because the original
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prototype of the world, was co-eternal with the divine mind, and
existent with it from before the formation of the perceptive
senses of beings; but it was perceptible to the mind in the
form of the noumenal, which was converted to the concrete and
phenomenal by the ignorant[**)].
18. The yogi like the knowing minds, sees all things in the
abstract and in a general view; but the ignorant that are deprived
of the power of abstraction and generalization, fall into
the errors of concrete particulars and deceptive sensibles.
19. All sensation is but a temporary perception, and presents
a wrong impression in the mind; know all sensible perceptions
to be false and deluding, but their concepts in the mind of yogi
are the true realities. (Falsity of perception and reality of
noumenals according to the[**delete 'the'] Berkely[**Berkeley]).
20. O, the wonder of taking the sensibles for the invisible
verities! when it is ascertained that the concepts, which are
beyond the senses, are the true realities that come under our
cognizance.
21. It is the subtile form (or idea) of a thing, that appears
at first before the mind; which is afterwards represented in
various false shapes before us; and this is true of all material
things in the world. (As the general and abstract idea of heat,
which is at first imprinted in the mind, is manifested unto us
at last in the concrete and particular forms of the sun and fire
and all others hot bodies[**)]. (This passage supports the doctrine
of the eternity of general ideas innate in us, against Locke's
denial of inborn ideas).
22. Whatever there has not been before, has never been in
being afterwards; as the variety of the jewelery[**jewellery/jewelry] of gold, is
naught but gold itself; so the pristine subtile ideas, cannot
have any gross material form. (All which is but shadow and
fallacy).
23. O the great ignorance of men! that takes the error for
truth, and considered the falsehood as true; and there is no
way for the living soul to discern the true and false, except by
right reasoning.
24. The material body cannot be maintaind[**maintained] by correct rea-*
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*son, but the immaterial essence of it is indestructible, both in
this world as also in the next.
25. The error of materiality in the incorporeal or spiritual
body, which is presided over by the intellect--chit; is as
the fallacy of a vast sea, in the shining sands of a sandy
desert.
26. The consciousness of materiality, which one has in his
spiritual and intellectual form; is as his supposition of a human
body in the peak of a mountain, when it is viewd[**viewed] by his naked
eye sight.
27. The erroneous supposition of materiality, in the spiritual
entity of our being; is as the error of our taking the shells on
the sea shore for silver, the sunshines on sands for water, and
another moon in the mist.
28. O the wondrous efficacy or error! that represents the
unreal as real and the vice-versa; and O the great power of
delusion! which springs from the unreasonableness of living
beings.
29. The yogi finds the spiritual force and mental activity,
to be the two immaterial causes of all action and motion, that
actuate everything in both the physical and intellectual
worlds.
30. Therefore the yogi relies in his internal perception
only, by rejecting those of his external senses; while the common
sort are seen to run giddy, with drinking the vapours of
the mirage of senses.
31. That which is commonly[**typo?--P2:no] called pleasure or pain, is but
a fleeting feeling in the mind of men, and is of a short duration;
it is that unfeigned and lasting peace of mind, which has neither
its rise or fall, that is called true happiness; (and is felt by
yogis only).
32. Infer the hyper-sensible from the sensibles, and see the
true source of thy sensations manifest in thy presence. (Know
the Lord as the pattern of thy perceptions).
33. Reject the sight of this triple world (composed of the
upper, lower and midway spheres), which thy perception pre-*
-----File: 371.png---------------------------------------------------------
*sents to thy imagination; because there can be nothing more
foolish than taking a delusion for truth.
34. All these bodies and beings bear only, their immaterial
forms of mere ideas; and it is the goblin of delusion alone,
that causes us to suppose their materiality.
35. Whatever is not produced or thought of in the mind,
can not present its figure to our sight also; and that which is
no reality of itself, cannot be the cause of any else. (Nothing
comes from a nullity).
36. When the sensibles are null and unreal, what other thing
is there that may be real; and how can anything be said as real,
whose reality is by the unreal and delusive senses.
37. The sensibles being proved as unreal, there can be no
reality in their perceptions and thoughts also; it is impossible
for a spider to maintain its web before a storm, which blows
away an elephant.
38. So likewise the ocular evidence being proved as false,
there is no proof of there being any object of vision any where.
There is but One invariable entity in all nature, whose solidity
depends upon the consolidation of the divine intellect, as of the
sea salt on the solidified sea water.
39. As a dreamer dreams of a high hill in his house, and in
its ideal form, which is unknown to and unseen to others sleeping
with him in the same house; so we thought two of that
stone we have been talking of erewhile, and which is no other
than the intellect.
40. It is this intellectual soul, which exhibits a great many
ideal phenomena within itself, and all of which are as unsubstantial
as empty air; such as:--this is a hill, and this is the
sky; this is the world, and these are myself and thyself.
41. Men of enlightened souls only, can perceive these
phenomena of the intellect in themselves and not the unenlightened
soul; just as the hearer of a lecture understands
it purport, and not one who dozes upon the reading of a
sermon.
42. All these erroneous sights of the world, appear to be
-----File: 372.png---------------------------------------------------------
true to the unenlightened person; just as the unmoving trees
and mountains, seem to be dancing to [**[the]] inebriated man.
43. The yogi beholds one irrepressible form of God (Siva)
in all places, and manifest before him in the form of his intellect;
but the ignorant are biguiled[**beguiled] by their false guides, to
place their reliance in the objects of senses, notwithstanding
their frail nature.
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CHAPTER LXIX
ENTRANCE INTO THE COSMICAL STONE OF MUNDANE EGG.
Argument:--Creative energy of God is the cause of reminiscence, and
reminiscence is the cause of reproduction.
Vasishtha added:--The world is without any figure or
substance, though it presents the appearance of such;
it is seen in the light of the pure and imperishable essence of
god, by the keen sight of transcendental philosophy.
2. It is that quintessence which exhibits in itself the rare
show of the cosmorama, and the figures of hills and rivers are
seen in it as pictures in a panoroma[**panorama], or as spectres appearing in
the empty air.
3. The nymph then entered that cosmical block by the
resistless efforts, and I also penetrated in it after her, with my
curiosity (to know the contents thereof).
4. After that indefatiguable[**indefatigable] lady had made her way into the
cosmos of Brahmá, she took her seat before a Brahman, and
shone supremely bright in his presence.
5. She introduced me to him and said;[**:] "this is my husband
and supporter and with whom I have made my betrothal a long
time in my mind.
6. He is now an old man, and I too have attained my old
age; and as he has differed[**deferred?] his marriage with me till now,
I have become utterly indifferent about it at present.
7. He also has grown averse to his marriage at present, and
is desirous of attaining to that supreme state, of which there
is no view nor viewer, and which is yet no airy vacuity also.
8. The world is now approaching to its dissolution, and he
has been sitting in his meditation, in as silent a mood as a
stone and as immovable as a rock (in his yoga hypnotism).
9. Therefore do thou please, O lord of saints, to awaken
both himself and me also, and enlighten and confirm us in
-----File: 374.png---------------------------------------------------------
the way of supreme felicity, until the end of this creation and
the re-creation of a new one.
10. Having said so to me, she waked her husband and
spoke to him saying; Here my lord, is the chief of saints, that
has come today to our abode;
11. This sage is the progeny of Brahmá in another apertment[**apartment]
of this worldly dome, and deserves to be honoured with
the honors worthy of a guest, according to the proper rite of
hospitality.
12. Arise and receive the great sage with offering of his
honorarium, and the water (for washing his feet); because great
persons are deserving of the greatest regards and respects, that
one can offer unto them.
13. Being thus addressed by her, the holy devotee awoke
from his hypnotism, and his consciousness rose in himself, as a
whirlpool rises above the sea.
14. The courteous sage opened his eyes slowly, as flowers
open their petals in the vernal season after the autumn is over.
15. His returning senses slowly displayed the power of his
limbs, as the returning moisture of plants in spring, puts their
new sprouts and branches to shoot forth[**space added] anew.
16. Immediately there assembled about him the gods, and
demigods, siddhas and Gandharvas also from all sides; just as
the assemblage of swans and cranes, flock to the limpid lake,
blooming with the full-blown lotuses in it.
17. He looked upon all that were standing before him, together
with myself and the fair lady (that had brought me
thither); and then in the sweet tone of the parnava[**pranava] hymn, he
addressed me as the second Brahmá himself.
18. The Brahman said:--I welcome thee, O sage, to this
place, that dost view the world as in a globe placed in the
palm of thy hand; and resemblest the great ocean in the vast
extents of thy knowledge. (Lit[**.]:--the ambrosial waters of
knowledge).
19. You have come a great way, to this far distant place;
and as you must have been tired with your long journey, please
to sit yourself in this seat.
-----File: 375.png---------------------------------------------------------
20. As he said these words, I saluted him saying, I hail
thee my lord; and then sat on the jewelled seat, he pointed
out to me.
21. And then he was lauded by the assembled gods, and
holy spirits standing before him, and received their pújá presents
and adorations, according to the rules and rites of courtsey[**courtesy].
22. Then as the praises and prayers of the assembled host,
was all at an end in a moment; the venerable brahman was
accosted and bespoken unto me in the following manner.
23. How is it, O venerable sir, that this nymph has recourse
to me, and tells me to enlighten you both with true knowledge,
when you are acquainted whatever is past, and all that is to
take place in future.
24. You sir, are lord of all, and fully acquainted with all
knowledge; what is it then that this silly woman wants to
learn from me, and this is what I want to learn from you.
25. Why was she produced by you to become your spouse,
and was never taken to spousal by your indifference towards
her.
26. The Brahman replied:--Hear me saint to tell you, how
it came to be so with us; because it is right and fit to acquaint
everything in full to the wise and good.
27. There is an unborn and imperishable entity from all
eternity, and I am but a spark of that ever sparkling and effulgent
intellect.
28. I am of the form of empty air or vacuum, and situated
for ever in the supreme spirit; and am called the self-born in
all the worlds, that were to be created afterwards.
29. But in reality I am never born, nor do I ever see or do
anything in reality; but remain as the vacuous intellect in
the intellectual vacuty[**vacuity] of the selfsame entity.
30. These our addresses to one another in the first and
second persons, (lit[**.] as I, thou, mine, thine &c[**.]), are no other
than as the sounds of the waves of the same sea dashing
against each other.
31. I who was of this nature (of a clear wave in the sea of
-----File: 376.png---------------------------------------------------------
eternity), became turbed[**disturbed?] in time by feeling some desire rising
in me, and seeing that maid amidst the blaze of my intellect.
32. I thought her as myself, though she appears as another
person to you and other; and though she is manifest before
you, yet lies as hidden in me as my very self[**space added].
33. And I find myself as that imperishable entity, which
abides in me as I abide in the supreme soul; I find my soul
to be impeireshable[**imperishable] in its nature, and to be dilighted[**delighted] in itself
as if it were the lord of all.
34. Though I was thus absorbed in meditation, yet the
reminiscence of my former state (as the creative energy of god
or Brahmá); produced in me the desire of reproduction, and
yonder is the incarnate divinity presiding over my will.
35. She is the presiding divinity over my will, that is standing
here manifest before you; she is neither my wife nor have
I betrothed her as such.
36. It is from the desire of her heart, that she deems herself
the spouse of Brahmá; and it is for that reason that she
has undergone troubles, before she got rid of her desires.
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Chapter LXX.
THE WORDS OF THE CREATOR OF WORLDS IN THE
MANDANE[**MUNDANE] STONE.
Argument:--Relation of the desire of the Divine of Divinity as the
cause of her sorrow.
The Brahman related:--Now as the world is approaching
to its end, and I am going to take my rest in the formless
void of the intellect, (after dissolution of the material
world); it is for this reason that this divinity of worldly desires,
is drowned in deep sorrow.
2. And as I am about to forsake her forever, it is for this
very reason, O sage, that she is so very sorry and sick at her
heart.
3. Being myself of an aerial form, when I become one with
the supreme spirit (after my leaving the mental sphere); then
there takes place the great dissolution of the world with the
end of all my desire.
4. Hence she with deep sorrow pursues my way, for who is
there so senseless, that does not follow after the giver of her
being.
5. Now the time is come for the termination of the Kaliyuga,
and of the rotation of the four ages; and the dissolution of all
living beings, Manus, Indras, and the Gods, is near at hand.
6. Today is the end of the kalpa and great kalpa age, and
this day puts an end to my energy and will, and makes me
mix with the eternal and infinite vacuity.
7. It is now that this personification of my desire, is about
to breathe her last; just as the lake of lotuses being dried, the
breath of lotus flowers also is lost in the air.
8. The quiet soul like the calm ocean, is always at a state
of rest; unless it is agitated by its fickle desires, as the sea is
troubled by its fluctuating waves.
9. The embodied being (which is confined in the prison-*
-----File: 378.png---------------------------------------------------------
*house of the human body), has naturally a desire to know the
soul, and to [**[be]] freed from its dungeon.
10. Thus this lady being fraught with spiritual knowledge,
and long practiced in yoga meditation; has seen the world you
inhabit, and the four different states of its inhabitants. (The
gloss explains the four states to mean the four different pursuits
of men expressed by Dharmártha[**Dharma, Artha], Káma, Moksha).
11. She traversing through the regions of air, has come to
the sight of the aforesaid etherial stone above the polar mountain,
which is our celestial abode and the pattern of your world.
12. Both that world of yours and this abode of ours, rest on
a great mountain, which bears upon it many other worlds
(invisible to the naked eye).
13. We also do not[**space added] see them with our discriminating eye
sight, of descening[**?] them separately from one another; but we
behold them all commingled in one, in our abstract view of
yoga meditation, (i. e. The sight of particulars is lost in their
abstract meditation).
14. There are numberless worlds of creations, in earth, water
and air and in everything under the sky, as if they are compress[**compressed]
or carved in the body of a huge block of stone.
15. What you call the world is a mere fallacy, and resembles
your vision of a fairy city in dream; it is a false name
applied to an object, existing nowhere beyond the intellect (and
in the imagination of the mind).
16. They who have come to know the world, as no other
than an airy vision of the mind, are verily called as wise men,
and not liable to fall into error.
17. There [**[are]] others who by their application to and practice
of yoga contemplation, come to attain their desired object, as
this lady has succeeded to gain your company (for her edification).
18. Thus doth the illusory power of the intellect, display
these material worlds before us; and thus doth the everlasting
Divine omnipotence manifest itself (in all these various forms).
19. There is no action nor any creation, that is ever produced
from anything or ever reduced to nothing; but all things
-----File: 379.png---------------------------------------------------------
and actions are the spontaneous growth of the intellect only;
together with our ideas of space and time.
20. Know the ideas of time and space, of substance and
action, as well as of the minds and its faculties, are the lasting
figures and marks on the stone of the intellect, and are ever
salient in it, without their setting or being shaded at any time[**space added].
21. This intellect is the very stone (we have been talking
of), and is either at rest or rolling on as roller or wheel; the
worlds appertain to it as its appurtenances, and accompany it as
motion doth the wind.
22. The soul being replete with its full knowledge of all
things, is considered as the solid world itself; and though it is
infinite in time and space, yet it is thought as limited, owing to
its appearance in the form of the bounded and embodied
mind.
23. The unbounded intellect appears as bounded, by its
limited knowledge; and although it is formless, yet it appears
in the form of the mind, representing the worlds in it.
24. As the mind views itself in the form of aerial city in its
dream, so doth it find itself in the form of this stone, with the
worlds marked upon it in the daytime. (The world like the
dream, is a transformation or representation of the mind itself).
25. There is no rolling of the orbs in this world, nor the
running of streams herein, there is no object subsisting in
reality any where; but they are all mere representations of the
mind in empty air.
26. As there are no kalpa and great kalpa ages in eternity,
nor the substantiality of anything in the vacuity of our consciousness;
and as there is no difference of the waves and bubbles
from the waters of the sea; (So there is no difference of the
empty thoughts from the vacuous mind; whence they take
their rise).
27. The worlds appearing to be in esse[**space added], or existent in the
mind and before the eyes; are in reality utterly inexistent in
the intellect, which spreads alike as the all pervading and
empty vacuum every where. And as all empty space in every
place is alike and same with the infinite vacuity; so the forms
-----File: 380.png---------------------------------------------------------
of things appearing to the limited understanding, are all lost in
the unlimited intellect.
28. Now Vasishtha, go to your place in your own world;
and have your peace and bliss in your own seat of samádhi-devotion.
Consign your aerial worlds to empty air, while I myself
to the supreme Brahma do repair.
-----File: 381.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER LXXI.
DESCRIPTION OF FINAL DISSOLUTION.
Argument:--Conduct of kali age[**space added], and Termination of Brahmá's Creation
at the End.
Vasishtha added:--So saying, Brahmá--the personified
Brahman, sat in his posture of devotion--padmásana[**à-->á], and
resumed his intense meditation of the samádhi meditation;
and so did his celestial companions also.
2. He fixed his mind on the pause santa, which is placed
at the end of half syllable m--the final letter of the holy
mantra of omkara; and sat sedate with his steady attention
(on the Divine), as an unmoved picture in painting.
3. His concupiscent consort--vásana or desire, followed his
example also; and sat reclined at the end of all her endless
wishes, as an empty and formless vacuity. (The devotee must
became a nullity, for his union with the unity).
4. When I saw them growing thin for want of their desires,
I also reduced myself by means of my meditation, until I found
myself as one with all pervading Intellect; in the form of endless
vacuity: (and perceived every thing that was going on
everywhere).
5. I saw that as the desires of Brahmá were drying up in
himself, so I found all nature to be fading away, with the contraction
of the earth and ocean, together with the diminution of
their hills and islands.
6. I saw the trees and plants and all sorts of vegetables,
were fading away with the decay of their growth; and all
creation seemed to come to its end in a short time.
7. It seemed that the stupendous body of viráj[**Viráj], which
contained the whole universe, was sick in every part; and the
great earth which was borne in his body, was now fulling[**falling] insensibly
into decline and decay.
-----File: 382.png---------------------------------------------------------
[** png 382-391 compared to print]
8. She is now stricken with years, and grown dull and dry
without her genial moisture, and is wasting away as a withered
tree in the cold season (lit,[**.]--in the cold month of christmas[**Christmas],
when the icy breath of winter withers every green).
9. As the insensibility of our hearts, stupifies the members
of our bodies; so did the anesthesia of One produce the
obtuseness of all things in the world. (The creative power
failing, all creation dwindles away).
10. The world was threatened by many a portent and ill omen
on all sides, and men were hastening to hell-fire; and burning
in the flame of their sins. (The end of kali or sinful age, is the
precursor to its final doom of the dooms-day).
11. The earth was a scene of oppression and famine,
troubles, calamities and poverty, waited on mankind every
where; and as women trespassed the bounds of decorum, so did
men transgress the bounds of order and conduct.
12. The sun was obscured by mist and frost, resembling
gusts of ashes and dust; and the people were greatly and equally
afflicted by the excess of heat and cold, the two opposites
which they knew not how to prevent. (i. e. All beings were
tormented by the inclimencies[**inclemencies] of weather).
13. The Pamaras or Pariahs, were tormented by burning
fires on one side, and floods and draughts of rain water on the
other; while waging wars were devastating whole provinces
altogether.
14. Tremendous protents[**portents, cf. #10] were accompanied, with the falling
mountains and cities all around; and loud uproars of the
people rose around, for the destruction of their children and
many good and great men under them. (i. e. under the falling
rocks and edificies[**edifices]).
15. The land burst into deep ditches, where there was no
water course before; and the peoples and rulers of men, indulged
themselves in promiscuous marriages.
16. All men living as way-farers or pedlars, and all paths
full of tailor shops; all women dealing in their hairs and head-dressess[**-dresses],
and all rulers imposing head taxes on their people.
-----File: 383.png---------------------------------------------------------
17. All men living by hard labour, and the reyets living
upon litigatation[**litigation] only; women living in impiety and impurity,
and the rulers of men addicted to drinking.
18. The earth was full of unrighteousness, and its people
were misled by heretical doctrines and vicious sástras; all
wicked men were wealthy and fortunate, and good people all in
distress and misery.
19. The vile non-aryans, were the rulers of earth, and the
respectables and learned men had fallen into disrepute and
disregard; and the people all were guided by their evil passions
of anger, avarice and animosity, envy, malice and the
like.
20. All men were apostates from their religion, and inclined
to the faith of others; the Brahmans were furious in their
dehortation, and the vile borderers were persecutors of others.
(i. e. they robbed themselves).
21. Robbers infested the cities and villages, and robbed the
temples of gods and the houses of good people; and there were
parasites, pampered with the dainties of others, but short lived
and sickly with their gluttony.
22. All men indulging themselves in their idleness and
luxury, and neglecting their rituals and duties; and all the
quarters of the globe, presented a scene of dangers and difficulties,
woe and grief.
23. Cities and villages were reduced to ashes, and the districts
were laid waste on all sides; the sky appeared to be
weeping with its vaporous clouds, and the air disturbed by its
whirling tornadoes.
24. The land resounded with the loud crying and wailing of
widows and unfortunate women, and they who remained at last,
compelled to live by beggary.
25. The country was dry and anhydrous, and lying bare and
barren in all parts; the seasons were unproductive of season-fruits
and flowers; so every part of this earthly body of
Brahmá, was out of order and painful to him.
26. There was a great dearth on earth, upon her approaching
dissolution, and the body of Brahmá grew senseless, owing
-----File: 384.png---------------------------------------------------------
to the loss of the watery element, in all its canals of rivers and
seas.
27. The spirit of Brahmá being disturbed, there occured[**occurred] a
disorder in the course of nature; and it brought on a transgression
of good manners, as when the waters of rivers and
seas overflew[** overflowed?] their boundaries.
28. Then the furious and sounding surges begin to break
down their bounds, and run mad upon the ground; and the
floods overflow the land, and lay waste the woodlands.
29. There were whirlpools, whirling with hoarse noise,
and turning about on every side, with tremendous violence;
and huge surges rose as high, as to wash the face of the heavy
clouds in the sky.
30. The mountain caverns, were resounding to the loud roars
of huge clouds on high, and heavy showers of rain fell in torrents
from the sky, and overflooded the mountain tops afar and
nigh.
31. Gigantic whales, were rolling along with the whirling
waves of the ocean; and the bosom of the deep appeared as a
deep forest, with the huge bodies of the whales floating upon
the upheaving waves.
32. The mountain caves were strewn over with the bodies of
marine animals, which were killed there by rapacious lions and
tigers; and the sky glittered with marine gems, which were
borne on high by the rising waters.
33. The dashing of the rising waves of the sea, against the
falling showers of the sky; and the dashing of the uplifted
whales with elephantine clouds on high, raised a loud uproar in
the air.
34. The elephants floating on the deluvian[**diluvian] waters, washed
the faces of the luminaries, with the waters spouted out of their
nozzles; and their jostling against one another; hurled the
hills aground. (Or they clashed on one another, as two hills
dashed over against the other).
35. The sounding surges of the sea, dashed against the
rocks on the shore, emitted a noise like the loud roar of elephants,
contending in the caverns of mountains.
-----File: 385.png---------------------------------------------------------
36. The nether sea invaded the upper sky, and its turbulent
waves drove the celestials from their abode; as an earthly
potentate attacks another, and his triumphant host, dispossesses
the inhabitants with loud outcry.
37. The overflowing waters covered the woods, both in the
earth and air; and the overspreading waves filled the skies
like the winged mountains of yore.
38. High sounding winds were breaking the breakers of the
sea, and driving them ashore as fragments of mountains; while
their splashing waters, dashed against the rocks on the shore,
and washed the fossile shells on the coast.
39. Whirling whirlpools, were hurling the huge whales into
them; and ingulphing the falling rocks in their fathomless
depth.
40. Big water elephants or whales were carried with the
torrents, and drowned in the depths of the caverns on the mountain
tops; and these they attempted to break, with their
hideous teeth or tusks.
41. The tortoise and crocodile hang suspended on the trees,
and extended their full length and breadth theron[**thereon?]; and the
vihicles[**vehicles] of yama[**Yama] and Indra (i. e. the buffalo and elephant),
stood aghast with their erect ears.
42. They listened [**missing "to"?] the fragments of rocks, falling with hideous
noise on the sea-shore; and beheld fishes with their broken
fins, tossed up and down by the falling stones.
43. The forests shook no more in their dancing mood, and
the waters on earth were all still and cold; but the marine
waters were flaming with the submarine fire, smitting[**emitting] a dismal
glare.
44. The sea elephants or whales being afraid of the extinction
of marine fire, by the primeval waters, (which were the seat
of Náráyana); fell upon the waters on the mountain tops, and
contented[**contended?] with the earthly and mountainous elephants.
45. The rocks carried away by the rapid current, appeared
as dancing on the tops of the waves; and there was a loud
concussion of the swimming and drowned rocks (mainákas), as
they dashed against the mountains on land.
-----File: 386.png---------------------------------------------------------
46. Large mountains and woods, were now resorted to by
men and wild animals; and the driving droves of wild elephant,
were roaring as loud, as the high sounding trumpets at a distance.
47. The infernal regions were disturbed by the torrents of
water, as by the infernal demons; and the elephants of the
eight quarters, raised loud cries with their uplifted trunks
and nozzles.
48. The nether world emitted a growling noise, from their
mouths of infernal caverns; and the earth which is fastened
to its polar axis, turned as a wheel upon its axle.
49. The over flowing waters of the ocean, broke their bounds
with as much ease, as they tear asunder the marine plants;
and the breathless skies resounded to the roaring of the clouds
all around.
50. The sky was split into pieces, and fell down in fragments;
and the regents of the skies fled afar with loud cries.
And comets and meteors were hurled from heaven, in the forms
of whirlpools.
51. There were fires and firebrands, seen to be burning on
all sides of the skies, earth and heaven; and flaming and flashing
as liquid gold and luminous gems, and as snakes with colour
of vermileon[**vermilion].
52. My flaming and flying portents, with their burning
crests and tails, were seen to be flashing all about, and flung by
the hands of Brahmá, both in the heaven above and earth
below.
53. All the great elementary bodies, were disturbed and
put out of order; and the sun and moon and the regents of
air and fire, with the gods of heaven and hell, (name by
Pavana and Agni, and Indra and Yama), were all in great
confusion.
54. The gods seated even in the abode of Brahmá, were
afraid of their impending fall; when they heard the gigantic
trees of the forests falling headlong, with the tremendous crash
of pata-pata noise.
-----File: 387.png---------------------------------------------------------
55. The mountains standing on the surface of the earth,
were shaking and tottering on all sides; and a great earth-*quake
shook the mountains of Kailása, and meru[**Meru], to their very
bottom and caverns and forests.
56. The ominous tornados[**tornadoes] at the end of the kalpa period,
overthrew the mountains and cities and forests, and overwhelmed
the earth and all in a general ruin and confusion.
 




Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(Continued...) 




( My humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the collection)


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