The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER XXIX.—Bali's Resuscitation To Sensibility.
Argument. Self-confinement of the Living-liberated Bali in the
Infernal Regions.
Vasishtha related:—After the thousand years of the
celestials, had
rolled on in Bali's
unconsciousness; he was roused to his sensibility,
at the beating of heavenly drums by the gods above (the
loud peal of
clouds).
2. Bali being awake, his city (Mavalipura) was renovated
with fresh
beauty, as the lotus-bed is revivified by the rising sun
in the eastern
horizon (Vairincha or Brahma-loka, placed at the
sunrising points).
3. Bali not finding the demons before him after he was
awaked, fell to
the reflecting of the reveries during his state of
entrancement
(Samādhi).
4. O how charming! said he, was that cooling rapture of
spiritual
delight, in which my soul had been enrapt for a short
time.
5. O how I long to resume that state of felicity! because
these outward
enjoyments which I have relished to my fill, have ceased
to please me
any more.
6. I do not find the waves of those delights even in the
orb of the
moon, as I felt in the raptures which undulated in my
soul, during the
entranced state of my insensibility.
7. Bali was again attempting to resume his state of
inexcitability, when
he was interrupted by the attendant demons, as the moon
is intercepted
by the surrounding clouds.
8. He cast a glancing look upon them, and was going to
close his eyes in
meditation; after making his prostration on the ground;
but was
instantly obtruded upon by their gigantic statures
standing all around
him.
9. He then reflected in himself and said: The intellect
being devoid of
its option, there is nothing for me to desire; but the
mind being fond
of pleasures vainly pursues after them: (which it cannot
fully gain,
enjoy or long retain).
10. Why should I desire my emancipation, when I am not
confined by or
attached to anything here: it is but a childish freak to
seek for
liberation, when I am not bound or bound to anything
below. (The soul is
perfectly free of itself, but it is the mind that
enchains it to earth).
11. I have no desire of enfranchisement nor fear for
incarceration,
since the disappearance of my ignorance; what need have I
then of
meditation, and of what good is meditation to me?
12. Meditation and want of meditation are both mistakes
of the mind
(there being no efficacy or inefficacy of either). We
must depend on our
manliness, and hail all that comes to pass on us without
rejoicing or
shrinking (since all good and evil proceed from God).
13. I require neither thoughtfulness nor thoughtlessness,
nor enjoyments
nor their privation, but must remain unmoved and firm as
one sane and
sound.
14. I have no longing for the spiritual, nor craving for
temporal
things; I have neither to remain in the meditative mood,
nor in the
state of giddy worldliness.
15. I am not dead (because my soul is immortal); nor can
I be living
(because the soul is not connected with life). I am not a
reality (as
the body), nor an unreality (composed of spiritual
essence only); nor I
am a material or aerial body (being neither this body nor
Vital air).
Neither am I of this world or any other, but self-same
ego—the Great.
16. When I am in this world, I will remain here in quiet;
I am not here,
I abide calmly in the solace of my soul.
17. What shall I do with my meditation, and what with all
my royalty;
let any thing come to pass as it may; I am nothing for
this or that, nor
is anything mine.
18. Though I have nothing to do (because I am not a free
agent; nor
master of my actions); yet I must do the duties
appertaining to my
station in society. (Doing the duties of one's station in
life, is
reckoned by some as the only obligation of man here below.
So says the
poet: "Act well thy part, there all the honour
lies.").
19. After ascertaining so in his mind, Bali the wisest of
the wise,
looked upon the demons with complacence, as the sun
looketh upon the
lotuses.
20. With the nods and glancings of his eyes, he received
their homages;
as the passing winds bear the odours of the flowers along
with them
(meaning to say: His cursory glances bore their regards,
as the fleet
winds bear the fragrance of flowers the rose).
21. Then Bali ceasing to think on the object of his
meditation; accosted
them concerning their respective offices under him.
22. He honoured the devas and his gurus with due respect,
and saluted
his friends and officers with his best regards.
23. He honoured with his largesse, all his servants and
suitors; and he
pleased the attendant maidens with various persons.
24. So he continued to prosper in every department of his
government,
until he made up his mind to perform a great sacrifice
(yajna) at one
time.
25. He satisfied all beings with his great gifts, and
gratified the
great gods and sages with due honour and veneration. He
then commenced
the ceremony of the sacrifice under the guidance of Sukra
and the chief
gurus and priests.
26. Then Vishnu the lord of Lakshmī, came to know that
Bali had no
desire of earthly fruition; and appeared at his sacrifice
to crown him
with the success of his undertaking, and confer upon him
his desired
blessing.
27. He cunningly persuaded him, to make a gift of the
world to Indra his
elder brother, who was insatiably fond of all kinds of
enjoyment. (Indra
was elder to Vishnu, who was thence called Upendra or the
junior Indra).
28. Having deceived Bali by his artifices of
dispossessing him of the
three worlds, he shut him in the nether world, as they
confine a monkey
in a cave under the ground. (This was by Vishnu's
incarnation in the
form of a dwarf or puny man, who was considered to be the
most cunning
among men; multum in parvo; or a
man in miniature).
29. Thus Bali continues to remain in his confinement to
this day, with
his mind fixed in meditation, for the purpose of his
attainment of
Indraship again in a future state of life.
30. The living liberated Bali, being thus restrained in
the infernal
cave, looks upon his former prosperity and present
adversity in the same
light.
31. There is no rising or setting of his intelligence, in
the states of
his pleasure or pain; but it remained one and the same in
its full
brightness, like the disk of the sun in a painting.
32. He saw the repeated flux and reflux of worldly
enjoyments, and
thence settled his mind in an utter indifference about
them.
33. He overcame multitudes of the vicissitudes of life
for myriads of
years, in all his transmigrations, in the three worlds,
and found at
last, his rest in his utter disregard of all mortal
things.
34. He felt thousands of comforts and disquiets, and
hundreds of
pleasures and privations of life, and after his long
experience of
these, he found his repose in his perfect quiescence.
35. Bali having forsaken his desire of enjoyments,
enjoyed the fulness
of his mind in the privation of his wants; and rejoiced
in
self-sufficiency of his soul, in the loneliness of his
subterranean
cave.
36. After a course of many years, Bali regained his
sovereignty of the
world, and governed it for a long time to his heart's
content.
37. But he was neither elated by his elevation to the
dignity of
Indra—the lord of gods; nor was he depressed at this
prostration from
prosperity.
38. He was one and the same person in every state of his
life, and
enjoyed the equanimity of his soul, resembling the
serenity of the
etherial sphere.
39. I have related to you the whole story of Bali's
attainment of true
wisdom, and advise you now, O Rāma! to imitate his
example for your
elevation, to the same state of perfection.
40. Learn as Bali did by his own discernment, to think
yourself as the
immortal and everlasting soul; and try to reach to the
state of your
oneness or solity with the Supreme Unity, by your
manliness (of
self-control and self-resignation).
41. Bali the lord of the demons, exercised full authority
over the three
worlds, for more than a millennium; but at last he came
to feel an utter
distaste, to all the enjoyments of life.
42. Therefore, O Victorious Rāma, forego the enjoyments
of life, which
are sure to be attended with a distaste and nausea at the
end, and
betake yourself to that state or true felicity, which
never grows
insipid at any time.
43. These visible sights, O Rāma! are as multifarious as
they are
temptations to the soul; they appear as even and charming
as a distant
mountain appears to view; but it proves to be rough and
rugged as you
approach to it. (The pleasant paths of life, cannot
entice the wise;
they are smooth without, but rugged within).
44. Restrain your mind in the cavity of your heart, from
its flight in
pursuit of the perishable objects of enjoyment, either in
this life, or
in the next, which are so alluring to all men of common
sense.
45. Know yourself, as the self-same intellect, which
shines as the sun
throughout the universe; and illumines every object in
nature, without
any distinction of or partiality to one or the other.
46. Know yourself O mighty Rāma! to be the infinite
spirit, and the
transcendent soul of all bodies; which has manifested
itself in manifold
forms, that are as the bodies of the internal intellect.
47. Know your soul as a thread, passing through, and
interwoven with
every thing in existence; and like a string connecting
all the links of
creation, as so many gems of a necklace or the beads of a
rosary. (This
hypostasis of the supreme spirit, is known as the sūtrātmā or the
all-connecting soul of the universe; as the poet
expresses it: Breathes
in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as
perfect, in a hair as
heart. Pope).
48. Know yourself as the unborn and embodied soul of virāj, which is
never born nor ever dies; and never fall into the mistake
of thinking
the pure intellect, to be subject to birth or death. (The
embodied soul
of virāj, is the universal soul as
what the poet says: "Whose body
Nature is, and God the soul").
49. Know your desires to be the causes of your birth,
life, death and
diseases; therefore shun your cupidity of enjoyments, and
enjoy all
things in the manner of the all witnessing intellect. (I.e. indulge
yourself in your intellectual and not corporeal
enjoyments).
50. If you remain in the everlasting light of the sun of
your intellect,
you will come to find the phenomenal world to be but a
phantom of your
dream.
51. Never regret nor sorrow for any thing, nor think of
your pleasures
and pains, which do not affect your soul; you are the
pure intellect and
the all pervading soul, which manifests itself in every
thing.
52. Know the desirables (or worldly enjoyments) to be
your evils, and
the undesirable (self-mortification) to be for your good.
Therefore shun
the former by your continued practice of the latter.
53. By forsaking your views of the desirables and
undesirables, you will
contract a habit of hebetude; which when it takes a deep
root in your
heart, you have no more to be reborn in the world.
54. Retract your mind from every thing, to which it runs
like a boy
after vain baubles; and settle it in yourself for your
own good.
55. Thus by restraining the mind by your best exertions,
as also by your
habit of self-control, you will subdue the rampant
elephant of your
mind, and reach to your highest bliss afterwards.
56. Do not become as one of those ignorant fools, who
believe their
bodies as their real good; and who are infatuated by
sophistry and
infidelity, and deluded by impostors to the gratification
of their
sensual appetites.
57. What man is more ignorant in this world and more
subject to its
evils, than one who derived his Spiritual knowledge from
one who is a
smatterer in theology, and relies on the dogmas of
pretenders and false
doctors in divinity.
58. Do you dispel the cloud of false reasoning from the
atmosphere of
your mind, by the hurricane of our right reasoning, which
drives all
darkness before it.
59. You can not be said to have your right reasoning, so
long as you do
not come to the light and sight of the soul, both by your
own exertion
and grace of the Supreme Spirit.
60. Neither the Veda nor Vedānta, nor the science of
logic or any other
sāstras, can give you any light of the soul, unless it
appears of itself
within you.
61. It is by means of your self-culture, aided by my
instruction and
divine grace, that you have gained your perfect
knowledge, and appear to
rest yourself in the Supreme Spirit.
62. There are three causes of your coming to spiritual
light. Firstly
your want of the knowledge of a duality, and then the
effulgence of your
intellectual luminary (thy soul) by the grace of God and
lastly the wide
extent of your knowledge derived from my instructions.
63. You are now freed from your mental maladies, and have
become sane
and sound by abandonment of your desires, by removal of
your doubts and
errors, and by forsaking the mist of your fondness for
external objects.
64. O Rāma! as you get rid of the faults (errors) of your
understanding,
so you advance by degrees in gaining your knowledge, in
cherishing your
resignation, in destroying your defects, in imbibing the
bliss of
ecstacy, in wandering with exultation, and in elevating
your soul to the
sixth sphere. But all this is not enough unless you
attend to Brahmahood
itself. (These are called the Sapta bhūmikā or seven stages of the
practice of Yoga).
CHAPTER XXX.—Fall of Hiranyakasipu and Rise of Prahlāda.
Argument. Slaughter of Demons by Hari.
Vasishtha continued:—Attend Rāma, to the instructive
narrative of
Prahlāda—the lord of demons; who became an adept by his
own intuition.
2. There was a mighty demon in the infernal regions,
Hiranyakasipu by
name; who was as valiant as Narāyana himself, and had
expelled the gods
and demigods from their abodes.
3. He mastered all the treasures of the world, and
wrested its
possession from the hands of Hari; as the swan encroaches
upon the right
of the bee, on the large folia of the lotus.
4. He vanquished the Gods and Asuras, and reigned over
the whole earth,
as the elephant masters the lotus-bed, by expulsion of
the drove of
swans from it.
5. Thus the lord of the Asuras, having usurped the
monarchy of the three
worlds, begot many sons in course of time, as the spring
brings forth
the shoots of trees.
6. These boys grew up to manhood in time, with the
display of their
manly prowess; and like so many brilliant suns, stretched
their thousand
rays on all sides of the earth and skies.
7. Among them Prahlāda the eldest prince became the
regent, as the
Kaustubha diamond has the pre-eminence among all other
precious gems.
(The Kaustubha gem was set in the breast-plate of
Vishnu).
8. The father Hiranyakasipu delighted exceedingly in his
fortunate son
Prahlāda, as the year rejoices in its flowering time of
the spring
(i.e. the father delights in his
promising lad, as the year in its
vernal season).
9. Supported by his son on one hand, and possessed of his
force and
treasures on the other; he became puffed up with his
pride, as the
swollen elephant emitting his froth from his triangular
mouth. (Composed
of the two sides of the tusks, and the lower part).
10. Shining with his lustre and elated by his pride, he
dried and drew
up the moisture of the earth, by his unbearable taxation;
as the
all-destroying suns of universal dissolution, parch up
the world by
their rays. (Here is a play of the word Kara, in its triple sense of
the hand, tax and solar rays).
11. His conduct annoyed the gods and the sun and moon, as
the behaviour
of a haughty boy, becomes unbearable to his fellow
comrades.
12. They all applied to Brahmā, for destruction of the
archdemon;
because the repeated misdemeanours of the wicked, are
unbearable to the
good and great.
13. It was then that the leonine Hari-Narasingha,
clattered his nails
resembling the tusks of an elephant; and thundered aloud
like the
rumbling noise of the Dig-hastes (the regent elephants of all the
quarters of heaven), that filled the concave world as on
its last
doomsday.
14. The tusk-like nails and teeth of Vishnu, glittered
like flashing
lightnings in the sky; and the radiance of his earrings
filled the
hollow sphere of heaven, with curling flames of living
fire. (The word
dvija or twice-born is applied to the nails and teeth, as
to the moon
and a twice-born Brāhman).
15. The sides and caverns of mountains presented a
fearful aspect; and
the huge trees were shaken by a tremendous tempest; that
rent the skies
and tore the vault of heaven. (This is the only place
where the word
dodruma occurs for the Greek dendron in Sanskrit, shortened to dru
a tree, the root of Druid a woodman).
16. He emitted gusts of wind from his mouth and entrails,
which drove
the mountains before them; and his eyeballs flashed with
the living fire
of his rage, which was about to consume the world.
17. His shining mane shook with the glare of sun-beams,
and the pores of
the hairs on his body, emitted the sparks of fire like
the craters of a
volcano.
18. The mountains on all sides, shook with a tremendous
shaking, and the
whole body of Hari, shot forth a variety of arms in every
direction.
19. Hari in his leoantheopic form of half a man and half
a lion, killed
the gigantic demon by goring him with his tusks, as when
an elephant
bores the body of a horse with a grating sound.
20. The population of the Pandemonium, was burnt down by
the gushing
fire of his eye balls; which flamed as the all devouring
conflagration
of the last doomsday.
21. The breath of his nostrils like a hurricane; drove
everything before
it; and the clapping of his arms (bahwasphota), beat as
loud surges on
the hollow shores.
22. The demons fled from before him as moths from the
burning fire, and
they became extinct as extinguished lamps, at the blazing
light of the
day.
23. After the burning of the Pandemonium, and expulsion
of the demons,
the infernal regions presented a void waste, as at the
last devastation
of the world.
24. After the Lord had extirpated the demoniac race, at
the end of the
Titanic age, he disappeared from view with the grateful
greetings of the
synod of gods.
25. The surviving sons of the demon, who had fled from
the burning of
their city, were afterwards led back to it by Prahlāda;
as the migrating
fowls are made to return to the dry bed of a lake by a
shower of rains.
26. There they mourned over the dead bodies of the
demons, and lamented
at the loss of their possessions, and performed at last
the funeral
ceremonies of their departed friends and relatives.
27. After burning the dead bodies of their friends, they
invited the
relics of the demons; that had found their safety by
flight, to return
to their deserted habitations again.
28. The Asuras and their leaders, now continued to mourn
with their
disconsolate minds and disfigured bodies, like lotuses
beaten down by
the frost. They remained without any effort or attempt as
the figures in
a painting; and without any hope of resuscitation, like a
withered tree
or an arbour stricken by lightning.
CHAPTER XXXI.—Prahlāda's Faith in Vishnu.
Argument. Prahlāda's Lamentations at the slaughter of the
demons, and his conversion to Vishnuism.
Vasishtha continued:—Prahlāda remained disconsolate in
his subterranean
region, brooding over the melancholy thoughts of the
destruction of the
Dānavas and their habitations.
2. Ah! what is to become of us, said he, when this Hari
is bent to
destroy the best amongst us, like a monkey nipping the
growing shoots
and sprouts of trees.
3. I do not see the Daityas anywhere in earth or in the
infernal
regions, that are left in the enjoyment of their
properties; but are
stunted in their growth like the lotuses growing on
mountain tops.
4. They rise only to fall like the loud beating of a
drum, and their
rising is simultaneous with their falling as of the waves
in the sea.
(I.e. no sooner they rise, than
they are destined to fall).
5. Woe unto us! that are so miserable in both our inward
and outward
circumstances; and happy are our enemies of light
(Devas), that have
their ascendency over us. O the terrors of darkness!
6. But our friends of the dark infernal regions, are all
darkened in
their souls with dismay: also their fortune is as
transitory as the
expansion of the lotus-leaf by day, and its contraction
at night.
7. We see the gods, who were mean servants at the feet of
our father, to
have usurped his kingdom; in the manner of the timid
deer, usurping the
sovereignty of the lion in the forest. (So said the sons
of Tipu Sultan,
when they saw the English polluting his library with
their hands).
8. We find our friends on the other hand, to be all
disfigured and
effortless; and sitting melancholy and dejected in their
hopelessness,
like lotuses with their withered leaves and petals.
9. We see the houses of our gigantic demons, filled with
clouds of dusts
and frost, wafted by gusts of wind by day and night; and
resembling the
fumes of fire which burnt them down.
10. The inner apartments are laid open without their
doors and
enclosures, and are overgrown with the sprouts of barley,
shooting out
as blades of sapphires from underneath the ground.
11. Ah! what is impossible to irresistible fate, that has
so reduced the
mighty demons; who were this while used to pluck the
flowers from the
mountain tops of Meru like big elephants, and are now
come to the sad
plight of the wandering Devas of yore.
12. Our ladies are lurking like the timorous deer, at the
rustling of
the breeze amidst the leaves of trees, for fear of the
darts of the
enemy whistling and hurling in the open air.
13. O! the gemming blossoms of the guluncha arborets, with which our
ladies used to decorate their ears, are now shorn and
torn and left
forlorn (desolate) by the hands of Hari, like the lorn
and lonesome
heaths of the desert.
14. They have robbed us of the all-producing kalpa-trees,
and planted
them in their mandana pleasure gardens now
teeming with their shooting
germs and verdant leaflets in the etherial sphere.
15. The eyes of haughty demons, that formerly looked with
pity on the
faces of their captured gods; are now indignantly looked
upon by the
victorious gods, who have made captives of them.
16. It is known, that the water (liquid ichor) which is
poured from the
mouths of the spouting elephants of heaven on the tops of
the mountains,
falls down in the form of cascades, and gives rise to
rivers on earth.
(It means the water spouts resembling the trunks of
elephants, which
lifted the sea water to the sky, and let them fall on
mountain tops to
run as rivers below).
17. But the froth exuding from the faces of our
elephantic giants, is
dried up to dust at the sights of the Devas, as a channel
is sucked up
in the dry and dreary desert of sand.
18. Ah! where have those Daityas fled, whose bodies were
as big as the
peaks of mount Meru once, and were fanned by the fragrant
breeze,
breathing with the odorous dust of Mandāra flowers.
(Mandāra is the name
of a flower of the garden of Paradise).
19. The beauteous ladies of the gods and Gandharvas, that
were once
detained as captives in the inner apartments of demons,
are now snatched
from us, and placed on Meru (the seat of the gods), as if
they are
transplanted there to grow as heavenly plants.
20. O how painful is it to think! that the fading graces
of our captured
girls, are now mocked by the heavenly nymphs, in their
disdainful dance
over their defeat and disgrace.
21. O it is painful to think! that the attending damsels,
that fanned my
father with their chowry flappers, are now waiting upon the
thousand-eyed Indra in their servile toil.
22. O! the greatest of our grief is, this sad and
calamitous fall of
ours at the hands of a single Hari, who has reduced us to
this state of
helpless impotency.
23. The gods now reposing under the thick and cooling
shades of trees,
are as cool as the rocks of the icy mountain (Himālaya);
and do not burn
with rage nor repine in grief like ourselves.
24. The gods protected by the power of Sauri (Hari), are
raised to the
pinnacle of prosperity, have been mocking and restraining
us in these
caves, as the apes on trees do the dogs below. (The
enmity of dogs and
apes is proverbial, as obstructing one another from
alighting on or
rising above the ground).
25. The faces of our fairies though decked with
ornaments, are now
bedewed with drops of their tears; like the leaves of
lotuses with the
cold dews of night.
26. The old stage of this aged world, which was worsted
and going to be
pulled down by our might, is now supported upon the azure
arms of Hari,
like the vault of heaven standing upon the blue arches of
the cerulean
sky.
27. That Hari has become the support of the celestial
host, when it was
about to be hurled into the depth of perdition; in the
same manner as
the great tortoise supported the mount
Mandara, as it was sinking in
the Milky ocean in the act of churning it. (Samudra
manthana). This was
the act of the post-diluvians reclaiming from the sea all
that had been
swept into it at the great deluge.
28. This our great father, and these mighty demons under
him, have been
laid down to dust like the lofty hills, that were
levelled with the
ground by the blasts of heaven at the end of the Kalpa.
29. It is that leader of the celestial forces, the
peerless destroyer of
Madhu (Satan), that is able to destroy all and every
thing by the fire
in his hands (the flaming lightnings preceding the
thunder-bolts of
Indra). (The twin gods, the thundering (vajrapani) Indra
and the flaming
(analapani) Upendra, bear great affinity to Jupiter
tonitruous or the
thundering Jove, and his younger brother the
trident-bearer Neptune).
30. His elder brother Indra baffled the battle axes in
the hands of the
mighty demons, by the force of the thunder-bolts held by
his mightier
arms, as the big male monkeys kill their male offspring.
(These passages
prove the early invention of fire arms by the Aryans, to
have been the
cause of their victory over Daityas or the demigods).
31. Though the missive weapons (lightnings), which are
let fly by the
lotus-eyed Vishnu be invincible; yet there is no weapon
or instrument
which can foil the force of the thunder: (lit. break the
strong
thunderbolt). (Vishnu the leader of Vishas or the first foreign
settlers
of the land, overpowered the earth-born Daityas by his
fire and fire
arms, and dispossessed them of their soil, and reduced
them to slavery.
The descendants of the Vishas are the Vaishyas, who
settled in India
long before the Aryans).
32. This Hari is inured in warfare, in the previous
battles fought
between him and our forefathers; in which they uprooted
and flung great
rocks at him, and waged many dreadful campaigns.
33. It cannot be expected that he will be afraid of us,
who stood
victorious in those continuous and most dreadful and
destructive
warfares of yore.
34. I have thought of one expedient only to oppose the
rage of Hari,
beside which I find no other way for our safety (lit.
remedy).
35. Let us therefore with all possible speed, have
recourse to him, with
full contriteness of our souls and understanding; because
that god is
the true refuge of the pious and the only resort of every
body.
36. There is no one greater than him in all the three
worlds; for I come
to know, that it is Hari only, who is the sole cause of
the creation,
sustentation and destruction or reproduction of the
world.
37. From this moment therefore, I will think only of that
unborn
(increate) Nārāyana for ever more; and I must rely on
that Nārāyana, who
is present in all places, and is full in myself and
filling all space.
38. Obeisance to Nārāyana forms my faith and profession,
for my success
in all undertakings; and may this faith of mine ever
abide in my heart,
as the wind has its place in the midst of empty air.
39. Hari is to be known as filling all sides of space and
vacuum, and
every part of this earth and all these worlds; my ego is
the
immeasurable Spirit of Hari, and my inborn soul is full
of Vishnu.
40. He that is not full with Vishnu in himself, does not
benefit by his
adoration of Vishnu; but he who worships Vishnu by
thinking himself as
such, finds himself assimilated to his god, and becomes
one with him.
(Or rather he loses himself in his God and perceives
nought besides).
41. He who knows Hari to be the same with Prahlāda, and
not different
from him, finds Hari to fill his inward soul with his
spirit. (So says
the Sruti:—Prahlāda was the incarnate Hari himself).
42. The eagle of Hari (son of Vinatā) flies through the
infinite space
of the sky as the presence of Hari fills all infinity,
and his golden
body-light, is the seat of my Hari also. (Here the bird
of heaven means
the sun, which is said to be the seat of Hari).
43. The claws, of this bird,—- Kara (or rays) serve for
the weapons of
Vishnu; and the flash of his nails, is the flash of the
Vishnu's
weapons. (Here Garuda bird of heaven, serves for a
personification of
the sun, and his claws and nails represent the rays of
solar light).
44. These are the four arms of Vishnu and their armlets,
which are
represented by the four gemming pinnacles of mount
Mandara which were
grappled by the hands of Hari, at his churning of the
milky ocean with
it.
45. This moonlike figure with the chowry flapper in her
hand and rising
from the depth of the milky ocean, is the goddess of
prosperity (Laksmi)
and associating consort of Vishnu.
46. She is the brilliant glory of Hari, which was easily
acquired by
him, and is ever attendant on his person with undiminished
lustre, and
illuminates the three worlds as a radiant medicinal tree—mahaushadhi.
47. There is the other companion of Vishnu called Māyā or
illusion,
which is ever busy in the creation of worlds upon worlds,
and in
stretching a magical enchantment all about them.
48. Here is the goddess Victory (Jayā), an easy earned
attendant on
Vishnu, and shines as a shoot of the kalpa tree, extending
to the three
worlds as an all-pervading plant.
49. These two warming and cooling luminaries of the sun
and moon, which
serve to manifest all the worlds to view, are the two
eyes situated on
the forehead of my Vishnu.
50. This azure sky is the cerulean hue of the body of my
Vishnu, which
is as dark as a mass of watery cloud; and darkens the
sphere of heaven
with its sky blue radiance. The meaning of the word
Vishnu was afterward
changed to the residing divinity in all things from the
root vish.
51. Here is the whitish conch in the hand of my Hari,
which is sonant
with its fivefold notes (panchajanya), and is as bright
as the
vacuum—the receptacle of sound, and as white as the milky
ocean of
heavens (the milky path).
52. Here I see the lotus in the hand of Vishnu,
representing the lotus
of his navel the seat of Brahmā, who rose from and sat
upon it, as a bee
to form his hive of the world.
53. I see the cudgel of my Vishnu's hand (the godā)
studded with gems
about it, in the lofty peak of the mountain of Sumeru,
beset by its
gemming stones, and hurling down the demons from its
precipice.
54. I see here the discus (chakra) of my Hari, in the
rising luminary of
the sun, which fills all sides of the infinite Space,
with the radiant
beams emanating from it.
55. I see there in the flaming fire, the flashing
sword—nandaka of
Vishnu, which like an axe hath cut down the gigantic
bodies of Daityas
like trees, while it gave great joy to the gods.
56. I see also the great bow of Vishnu (Sāranga), in the
variegated
rainbow of Indra; and also the quiver of his arrows in
the Pushkara and
Avarta clouds, pouring down their rains like piercing
arrows from above.
57. The big belly (Jathara) of Vishnu, is seen in the
vast vacuity of
the firmament, which contains all the worlds and all the
past, present,
and future creations in its spacious womb.
58. I see the earth as the footstool of Virāj, and the
high sky as the
canopy on his head; his body is the stupendous fabric of
the universe,
and his sides are the sides of the compass.
59. I see the great Vishnu visibly manifest to my view,
as shining under
the cerulean vault of heaven, mounted on his eagle of
mountain, and
holding his conch-shell, discus, cudgel and the lotus in
his hands (in
the manner described above).
60. I see the wicked and evil minded demons, flying from
me in the
manner of the fleeting straws, which are blown and borne
away after by
the breath of the winds. (Lit.: as the heaps of straw or
hay tarna).
61. This sable deity with his hue of the blue sapphire
and mantle
yellow, holding the club and mounted on the eagle and
accompanied by
Lakshmī; is no other than the selfsame Imperishable One.
(Vishnu
latterly called (Krishna) is the queller of demons, like
Christ in the
battle of the gods and Titan, and is believed to be the
only begotten
Son of God).
62. What adverse Spirit can dare approach this
all-devouring flame,
without being burnt to death, like a flight of moths
falling on a vivid
fire?
63. None of these hosts of gods or demigods that I see
before me, is
able to withstand the irresistible course of the
destination of Vishnu.
And all attempts to oppose it, will be as vain as for our
weak-sighted
eyes to shut out the light of the sun.
64. I know the gods Brahmā, Indra, Siva and Agni
(Ignis—the god of
fire), praise in endless verses and many tongues, the god
Vishnu as
their Lord.
65. This Lord is ever resplendent with his dignity, and
is invincible in
his might; He is the Lord beyond all doubt, dispute and
duality, and is
joined with transcendent majesty.
66. I bow down to that person, who stands as a firm rock
amidst the
forest of the world, and is a defence from all fears and
dangers. It is
a stupendous body having all the worlds situated in its
womb, and
forming the essence and substance of every distinct
object of vision.
(Here Vishnu is shown in his microcosmic form of Virāj
(Virat murti)).
CHAPTER XXXII.—The Spiritual and Formal Worship of Vishnu.
Argument. Prahlāda's Worship of Vishnu both in spirit and
his
Image. Witnessed by the gods, as the Beginning of Hero
and Idol
Worship.
Vasishtha continued:—After Prahlāda had meditated on
Vishnu in the
aforesaid manner, he made an image of him as Nārāyana
himself, and
thought upon worshipping that enemy of the Asura race.
(Here Vishnu—the
chief of Vishas and destroyer of Asuras, is represented
as the spirit of
Nārāyana, and worshipped in that form).
2. And that this figure might not be otherwise than the
form of Vishnu
himself, he invoked the Spirit of Vishnu to be settled in
this his
outward figure also. (This was done by incantation of
Pranpratishthā, or
the charm of enlivening an idol in thought).
3. It was seated on the back of the heavenly bird Garuda,
arrayed with
the quadruple attributes (of will, intelligence, action
and mercy), and
armed with the fourfold arms holding the conchshell,
discus, club and a
lotus. (This passage shows the fictitious representation
of the person
of Vishnu, with his fourfold arms of these, the two
original arms with
the cudgel and discus were in active use, while the two
fictitious and
immovable ones, with the conchshell and lotus, were
clapped on for mere
show).
4. His two eyeballs flashed, like the orbs of the sun and
moon in their
outstretched sockets; his palms were as red as lotuses,
and his bow
saranga and the sword nandaka hang on his two shoulders
and sides.
5. I will worship this image, said he, with all my
adherents and
dependants, with an abundance of grateful offerings
agreeable to my
taste. Gloss. Things delectable to one's taste, are most
acceptable to
the gods.[12]
[12] The former figure of meditation was that of Virāj,
the god who with
his thousand heads, hands and legs and feet
"[Sanskrit:
sahasrāsīrshah purāsam sahas bāhja sahas pād],"
shows the Daitya
Titan Briareus with his hundred heads and hands; but the
figure of
worship in this chapter is that of Vishnu, with his four
arms, one
head and two legs only, as a more compendious form for
common and
practical worship.
6. I will worship this great god always, with all kinds
of offering of
precious gems and jewels, and all sorts of articles for
bodily use and
enjoyment.
7. Having thus made up his mind, Prahlāda collected an
abundance of
various things, and made offerings of them in his mind,
in his worship
of Mādhava—the lord of Lakshmī. (Mā and Rāma are titles
of Lakshmī).
8. He offered rich gems and jewels in plates of many
kinds, and
presented sandal pastes in several pots; he burnt incense
and lighted
lamps in rows, and placed many valuables and ornaments in
sacred
vessels.
9. He presented wreaths of Mandāra flowers, and chains of
lotuses made
of gold, together with garlands of leaves and flowers of
kalpa plants,
and bouquets and nosegays studded with gems and pearls.
10. He hung hangings of leaves and leaflets of heavenly
arbors, and
chaplets and trimmings of various kinds of flowers, as vakas and
kundas, kinkiratas and white, blue and red
lotuses.
11. There were wreaths of kahlara, Kunda, Kāsa and Kinsuka
flowers; and clusters of Asoka, Madana, Bela and kānikāra
blossoms likewise.
12. There were florets of the Kadamba, Vakala, nimba, Sindhuvāra
and Yūthikas also; and likewise heaps of
pāribhadra, gugguli and
Venduka flowers.
13. There were strings of priyangu, pātala, pāta and pātala
flowers; and also the blossoms of āmra, āmrataka and gavyas; and
the bulbs of haritaki and vibhitaki myrabolans.
14. The flowers of Sāla and tamāla trees, were strung together
with
their leaves; and the tender buds of Sahakāras, were fastened together
with their farinaceous pistils.
15. There were the ketakas and centipetalous flowers, and the shoots
of ela cardamums; together with
everything beautiful to sight and the
tender of one's soul likewise.
16. Thus did Prahlāda worship his lord Hari in the inner
apartment of
his house, with offerings of all the richest things in
the world, joined
with true faith and earnestness of his mind and
spirit.[13]
[13] The flowers and offerings mentioned in this place,
are all of a
white hue, and specially sacred to Vishnu, as there are
others
peculiar to other deities, whose priests and votaries
must
carefully distinguish from one another. The adoration of
Vishnu
consists, in the offering of the following articles, and
observance
of the rites as mentioned below: viz. Fumigation of incense and
lighting of lamps, presentation of offerings, of food,
raiment, and
jewels suited to the adorer's taste and best means, and
presents of
betel leaves, umbrellas, mirrors and chowry flappers. Lastly,
scattering of handfuls of flowers, turning round the idol
and
making obeisance &c.
17. Thus did the monarch of Dānavas, worship his lord
Hari externally in
his holy temple, furnished with all kind of valuable
things on earth.
(The external worship followed that of his internal
worship in faith and
spirit. These two are distinctly called the mānasa and bājhya pujas
and observed one after the other by every orthodox Hindu,
except the
Brahmos and ascetics who reject the latter formality).
18. The Dānava sovereign became the more and more
gratified in his
spirit, in proportion as he adored his god with more and
more of his
valuable outer offerings.
19. Henceforward did Prahlāda continue, to worship his
lord god day
after day, with earnestness of his soul, and the same
sort of rich
offerings every day.
20. It came to pass that the Daityas one and all turned
Vaishnavas;
after the example of their king; and worshipped Hari in
their city and
temples without intermission.
21. This intelligence reached to heaven and to the abode
of the gods,
that the Daityas having renounced their enmity to Vishnu,
have turned
his faithful believers and worshippers in toto.[14]
[14] [Sanskrit: sarbbeghupadāma naivedyatamvu
sardapanaccaprachāmara
nīrājana pushyānjali pradātdana namaskārādih]
Brahmā was the god of Brāhmanas, and Vishnu was
worshipped by the
early Vaisya colonists of India; while Siva or Mahādeva
was the
deity of the aboriginal Daityas. These peoples after long
contention came to be amalgamated into one great body of
the
Hindus, by their adoption of the mixed creed of the said
triality
or trinity, under the designation of the Triune duty.
Still there
are many people that have never been united under this
triad, and
maintain their several creeds with tenacity. See Wilson's
Hindu
Religion.
22. The Devas were all astonished to learn, that the
Daityas had
accepted the Vaishnava faith; and even Indra marvelled
with the body of
Rudras about him, how the Daityas came to be so at once.
23. The astonished Devas then left their celestial abode,
and repaired
to the warlike Vishnu, reposing on his serpent couch in
the milky ocean.
24. They related to him the whole account of the Daityas,
and they asked
him as he sat down, the cause of their conversion,
wherewith they were
so much astonished.
25. The gods said:—How is it Lord! that the demons who
had always been
averse to thee, have now come to embrace thy faith, which
appears to us
as an act of magic or their hypocrisy.
26. How different is their present transformation to the
Vaishnava
faith, which is acquired only after many transmigrations
of the soul,
from their former spirit of insurrection, in which they
broke down the
rocks and mountains.
27. The rumour that a clown has become a learned man, is
as gladsome as
it is doubtful also, as the news of the budding of
blossoms out of
season.
28. Nothing is graceful without its proper place, as a
rich jewel loses
its value, when it is set with worthless pebbles. (The
show of goodness
of the vile, is a matter of suspicion).
29. All animals have their dispositions conforming with
their own
natures; how then can the pure faith of Vishnu, agree
with the doggish
natures of the Daityas?
30. It does not grieve us so much to be pierced with
thorns and needles
in our bodies, as to see things of opposite natures, to
be set in
conjunction with one another.
31. Whatever is naturally adapted to its time and place,
the same seems
to suit it then and there; hence the lotus has its grace
in water and
not upon the land.
32. Where are the vile Daityas, prone to their misdeeds
at all times;
and how far is the Vaishnava faith from them that can
never appreciate
its merit?
33. O lord! as we are never glad to learn a lotus-bed to
be left to
parch in the desert soil; so we can never rejoice at the
thought, that
the race of demons will place their faith in Vishnu—the
lord of gods.
CHAPTER XXXIII.—Prahlāda's Supplication To Hari.
Argument. Hari's Visit to Prahlāda, and his Adoration of
him.
Vasishtha said:—The lord of Lakshmī, seeing the gods so
clamorous in
their accusation of the demons, gave his words to them in
sounds as
sonorous as those of the rainy clouds, in response to the
loud noise of
screaming and thirst-stricken peacocks.
2. The Lord Hari said:—Don't you marvel ye gods! at
Prahlāda's faith in
me; as it is by virtue of the virtuous acts of his past
lives, that
pious prince is entitled to his final liberation in this
his present
life.
3. He shall not have to be born again in the womb of a
woman, nor to be
reproduced in any form on earth; but must remain aloof
from
regeneration, like a fried pea which does not germinate
any more.
4. A virtuous man turning impious, becomes of course the
source of evil;
but an unworthy man becoming meritorious, is doubtless a
step towards
his better being and blessedness.
5. You good gods that are quite happy in your blessed
seats in heaven,
must not let the good deserts of Prahlāda be any cause of
your
uneasiness.
6. Vasishtha resumed:—The Lord having thus spoken to the
gods, became
invisible to them, like a feather floating on the surface
of waves.
7. The assemblage of the immortals then repaired to their
heavenly
abodes after taking their leave of the god; as the
particles of sea
water are borne to the sky by the zephyrs, or by the
agitation of the
Mandara mountain.
8. The gods were henceforth pacified towards Prahlāda;
because the mind
is never suspicious of one who has the credit of his
superiors.
9. Prahlāda also continued in the daily adoration of his
god, with the
contriteness of his heart, and in the formulas of his
spiritual, oral
and bodily services.
10. It was in the course of his divine service in this
manner, that he
attained the felicity proceeding from his right
discrimination,
self-resignation and other virtues with which he was
crowned.
11. He took no delight in any object of enjoyment, nor
felt any pleasure
in the society of his consorts, all which he shunned as a
stag shuns a
withered tree, and the company of human beings.
12. He did not walk in the ways of the ungodly, nor spent
his time in
aught but religious discourses. His mind did not dwell on
visible
objects, as the lotus never grows on dry land.
13. His mind did not delight in pleasures, which were all
linked with
pain; but longed for its liberation, which is as entire
of itself and
unconnected with anything, as a single grain of
unperforated pearl.
14. But his mind being abstracted from his enjoyments,
and not yet
settled in its trance of ultimate rest; had been only
waving between the
two states, like a cradle swinging in both ways.
15. The god Vishnu, who knew all things by his
all-knowing intelligence;
beheld the unsettled state of Prahlāda's mind, from his
seat in the
milky ocean.
16. Pleased at Prahlāda's firm belief, he proceeded by
the subterranean
route to the place of his worship, and stood confessed
before him at the
holy altar.
17. Seeing his god manifest to his view, the lord of the
demons
worshipped him with two-fold veneration, and made many
respectful
offerings to his lotus-eyed deity more than his usual
practice.
18. He then gladly glorified his god with many swelling
orisons, for his
deigning to appear before him in his house of worship.
19. Prahlāda said:—I adore thee, O my lord Hari! that art
unborn and
undecaying; that art the blessed receptacle of three
worlds; that
dispellest all darkness by the light of thy body; and art
the refuge of
the helpless and friendless.
20. I adore my Hari in his complexion of blue-lotus
leaves, and of the
colour of the autumnal sky; I worship him whose body is
of the hue of
the dark bhramara bee; and who holds in his
arms the lotus, discus,
club and the conch-shell.
21. I worship the god that dwells in the lotus-like
hearts of his
votaries, with his appearance of a swarm of sable bees;
and holding a
conch-shell as white as the bud of a lotus or lily, with
the earrings
ringing in his ears with the music of humming bees.
22. I resort to Hari's sky-blue shade, shining with the
starry light of
his long stretching nails; his face shining as the
full-moon with his
smiling beams, and his breast waving as the surface of
Ganges, with the
sparkling gems hanging upon it.
23. I rely on that godling that slept on the leaf of the
fig tree (when
his spirit floated on the surface of the waters); and
that contains the
universe in himself in his stupendous form of Virāj; that
is neither
born nor grown, but is always the whole by himself; and
is possest of
endless attributes of his own nature.
24. I take my refuge in Hari, whose bosom is daubed with
the red dust of
the new-blown lotus, and whose left side is adorned by the
blushing
beauty of Lakshmī; whose body is mantled by a coloured
red coverlet; and
besmeared with red sandal paste like liquid gold.
25. I take my asylum under that Hari who is the
destructive frost to the
lotus-bed of demons; and the rising sun to the opening
buds of the
lotus-bed of the deities; who is the source of the
lotus-born Brahmā,
and receptacle of the lotiform seat (cranium) of our
understanding.
26. My hope is in Hari—the blooming lotus of the bed of
the triple
world, and the only light amidst the darkness of the
universe; who is
the principle of the intellect—chit, amidst the gross
material world
and who is the only remedy of all the evils and troubles
of this
transient life.
27. Vasishtha continued:—Hari the destroyer of demons,
who is graced on
his side by the goddess of prosperity; being lauded with
many such
graceful speeches of the demoniac lord, answered him as
lovingly in his
blue lotuslike form, as when the deep clouds respond to
the peacocks'
screams.
CHAPTER XXXIV.—Prahlāda's Self knowledge of Spiritualism.
Argument. Prahlāda's meditations and attainment of
spiritual
knowledge by the blessing of Vishnu.
The Lord said:—O thou rich jewel on the crown of the
Daitya race!
Receive thy desired boon of me for alleviation of thy worldly
afflictions.
2. Prahlāda replied:—What better blessing can I ask of
thee, my Lord!
than to instruct me in what thou thinkest thy best gift,
above all other
treasures of the world, and which is able to requite all
our wants in
this miserable life.
3. The Lord answered:—Mayst thou have a sinless boy! and
may thy right
discrimination of things, lead thee to thy rest in God,
and the
attainment of thy Supreme felicity, after dispersion of
thy earthly
cares, and the errors of this world.
4. Vasishtha rejoined:—Being thus bid by his god, the
lord of demons
fell into a profound meditation, with his nostrils
snoring loudly like
the gurgling waters of the deep.
5. As the lord Vishnu departed from his sight, the chief
of the demons
made his oblations after him; consisting of handfuls of
flowers and rich
gems and jewels of various kinds.
6. Then seated in his posture of padmāsana, with his legs folded over
one another, upon his elevated and elegant seat; and then
chaunted his
holy hymn and reflected within himself.
7. My deliverer from this sinful world, has bade me to
have my
discrimination, therefore must I betake myself to
discriminate between
what is true and falsehood.
8. I must know that I am in this darksome world, and must
seek the light
of my soul as also what is that principle (Ego), that
makes me speak,
walk and take the pains to earn myself.
9. I perceive it is nothing of this external world, like
any of its
verdant trees or hills; the external bodies are all of a
gross nature,
but my ego is quite a simple and pure
essence.
10. I am not this insensible body, which is both dull and
dumb, and is
made to move for a moment by means of the vital airs. It
is an unreal
appearance of a transitory existence.
11. I am not the insensible sound, which is a vacuous substance
and
produced in vacuity. It is perceptible by the ear-hole,
and is as
evanescent and inane as empty air.
12. I am neither the insensible organ of touch, or the
momentary feeling
of taction; but find myself to be an inward principle
with the faculty
of intellection, and the capacity of knowing the nature
of the soul.
13. I am not even my taste, which is confined to the
relishing of
certain objects, and to the organ of the tongue; which is
a trifling and
ever restless thing, sticking to and moving in the cavity
of the mouth.
14. I am not my sight, that is employed in seeing the
visibles only; it
is weak and decaying and never lasting in its power, nor
capable of
viewing the invisible Spirit.
15. I am not the power of my smelling, which appertains
to my nasal
organ only, and is conversant with odorous substances for
a short moment
only. (Fragrance is a fleeting thing).
16. I am pure intelligence, and none of the sensations of
my five
external organs of sense; I am neither my mental faculty,
which is ever
frail and fruit; nor is there any thing belonging to me
or participating
of my true essence. I am the soul and an indivisible
whole.
17. I am the ego or my intellect, without the objects of
intellection;
(i.e. the thinking principle
freed from its thoughts). My ego
pervades internally and externally over all things, and
manifests them
to the view. I am the whole without its parts, pure
without foulness and
everlasting.
18. It is my intellection that manifests to me this pot
and that
painting, and brings all other objects to my knowledge by
its pure
light; as the sun and a lamp show everything to the
sight.
19. Ah! I come to remember the whole truth at present,
that I am the
immutable and all pervading Spirit, shining in the form
of the intellect
(Gloss. The internal and intellectual Soul, is the Spirit
of God).
20. This essence evolves itself into the various
faculties of sense; as
the inward fire unfolds itself into the forms of its
flash and flame,
and its sparks and visible light.
21. It is this principle which unfolds itself, into the
forms of the
different organs of sense also; as the all-diffusive heat
of the hot
season, shows itself in the shape of mirage in sandy
deserts.
22. It is this element likewise which constitutes the
substance of all
objects; as it is the light of the lamp which is the
cause of the
various colours of things; as the whiteness or other of a
piece of cloth
or any other thing. (The intrinsic perceptivity of the
soul, causes the
extrinsic senses and their separate organs).
23. It is the source of the perception of all living and
waking beings,
and of everything else in existence; and as a mirror is
the reflector of
all outward appearances, so is the Soul the reflective
organ of all its
internal and external phenomena.
24. It is by means of this immutable intellectual light
alone, that we
perceive the heat of the sun, the coldness of the moon,
solidity of the
rock and the fluidity of water.
25. This one is the prime cause of every object of our
continuous
perceptions in this world; this is the first cause of all
things,
without having any prior cause of its own. (The soul
produces the body,
and not the body brings forth the soul).
26. It is this that produces our notions of the
continuity of objects
that are spread all around us, and take the name of
objects from their
objectivity of the soul; as a thing is called not from
the heat which
makes it such.
27. It is this formless cause, that is the prime cause of
all plastic
and secondary causes (such as Brahmā the creative agent
and others). It
is from this that the world has its production, as
coldness is the
produce of cold and the like.
28. The gods Brahmā, Vishnu, Rudra and Indra, who are
causes of the
existence of the world, all owe their origin to this
prime cause, who
has no cause of himself.
29. I hail that Supreme soul which is imprest in me, and
is apart from
every object of thought of the intellect, and which is
self-manifest in
all things and at all times.
30. All beings besides, stand in the relation of modes
and modalities to
this Supreme Being; and they immerge as properties in
that intellectual
Spirit.
31. Whatever this internal and intelligent Soul wills to
do, the same is
done every where; and nothing besides that self-same soul
exists in
reality any where.
32. Whatever is intended to be done by this intellectual
power, the same
receives a form of its own; and whatever is thought to be
undone by the
intellect, the same is dissolved into nought from its
substantiality.
33. These numberless series of worldly objects (as this
pot, these
paintings and the like), are as shades cast on the
immense mirror of
vacuum (or as air-drawn pictures represented on the
canvas of empty
Space).
34. All these objects increase and decrease in their
figures under the
light of the soul, like the shadows of things enlarging
and diminishing
themselves in the sun shine.
35. This internal Soul is invisible to all beings, except
to those whose
minds are melted down in piety. It is seen by the
righteous in the form
of the clear firmament.
36. This great cause like a large tree, gives rise to all
these visible
phenomena like its germ and sprouts; and the movements of
living beings,
are as the flitterings of bees about this tree.
37. It is this that gives rise to the whole creation both
in its ideal
and real and mobile or quiescent forms; as a huge rock
gives growth to a
large forest with its various kinds of big trees and
dwarf shrubberies.
(To him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he
bounds,
connects, and equals all! Pope).
38. It is not apart from anything, existing in the womb
of this triple
world; but is residing alike in the highest gods, as in
the lowest grass
below; and manifests them all full to our view.
39. This is one with the ego, and the all-pervading soul;
and is
situated as the moving spirit, and unmoving dullness of
the whole.
40. The universal soul is beyond the distinction, of my,
thy or his
individual spirit; and is above the limits of time, and
place, of number
and manner, of form or figure or shape or size.
41. It is one intelligent soul, which by its own
intelligence, is the
eye and witness of all visible things; and is represented
as having a
thousand eyes and hands and as many feet. (Wherewith he
sees and grasps
everything, and stands and moves in every place).
42. This is that ego of my-self, that wanders about the
firmament, in
the body of the shining sun; and wanders in other forms
also, as those
of air in the current winds. (The first person I is used
for supreme
Ego).
43. The sky is the azure body of my Vishnu with its accompaniments
of
the conchshell, discus, club and the lotus, in the
clouds, all which are
tokens of prosperity in this world by their blissful
rains. (Vishnu is
the lord of Lakshmī or prosperity, which is another name
for a plenteous
harvest. Her other name Srī the same with Ceres—the
goddess of corn and
mother of Prosperine in Grecian mythology).[15]
[15] The history of Sanskrit words derives the name
Lakshmī from the
appellation of king Dilipa's queen, who was so called
from her
luckiness. Thus the words lucky and luckhy (valgs), are
synonymous and same in sound and sense.
44. I find myself as identic with this god, while I am
sitting in my
posture of padmāsana and in this state of Samādhi—hypnotism, and when
I have attained my perfection in quietism. (which is the
form of Vishnu
in the serene sky).
45. I am the same with Siva—the god with his three eyes,
and with his
eye-balls rolling like bees, on the lotus face of Gaurī;
and it is I
that in the form of the god, Brahmā, contain the whole
creation in me,
as a tortoise contracts its limbs in itself. (The soul in
rapture, seems
to contain the macrocosm in itself).
46. I rule over the world in the form of Indra, and as a
monk I command
the monastery which has come down to me. I.e. I am an Indra, when I
reign over my domain; and a poor monk, when I dwell in my
humble cell.
47. I (the Ego) am both the male and female, and I am
both the boy and
girl; I am old as regards my soul, and I am young with
regard to my
body, which is born and ever renewed.
48. The ego is the grass and all kinds of vegetables on
earth; as also
the moisture wherewith it grows them, like its thoughts
in the ground of
the intellect; in the same manner as herbs are grown in
holes and wells
by their moisture, i.e. The ego or soul is the pith and marrow of all
substance.
49. It is for pleasure that this ego has stretched out
the world; like a
clever boy who makes his dolls of clay in play. (God
forms the world for
his own amusement).
50. This ego is myself that gives existence to all being,
and it is I in
whom they live and move about; and being at last forsaken
by me, the
whole existence dwindles into nothing. (The ego is the
individual as
well the universal soul).
51. Whatever image is impressed in the clear mirror or
mould of my
intellect, the same and no other is in real existence,
because there is
nothing that exists beside or apart from myself.
52. I am the fragrance of flowers, and the hue of their
leaves; I am the
figure of all forms, and the perception of perceptibles.
53. Whatever movable or immovable thing is visible in
this world; I am
the inmost heart of it, without having any of its desires
in my heart.
54. As the prime element of moisture, is diffused in
nature in the form
of water; so is my spirit overspread in vegetables and
all things at
large in the form of vacuum. (Which is in the inside and
outside of
every thing).
55. I enter in the form of consciousness, into the
interior of
everything; and extend in the manner of various sensation
at my own
will.
56. As butter is contained in milk and moisture is
inherent in water; so
is the power of the intellect spread in all beings, and
so the ego is
situated in the interior of all things.
57. The world exists in the intellect, at all times of
the present, past
and future ages; and the objects of intelligence, are all
inert and
devoid of motion; like the mineral and vegetable
productions of earth.
58. I am the all-grasping and all-powerful form of Virāt,
which fills
the infinite space, and is free from any diminution or
decrease of its
shape and size. I am this all-pervading and
all-productive power, known
as Virāt mūrti or macrocosm (in distinction from the sūkshma-deha or
microcosm).
59. I have gained my boundless empire over all worlds,
without my
seeking or asking for it; and without subduing it like
Indra of old or
crushing the gods with my arms. (Man is the lord of the
world of his own
nature, or as the poet says:—"I am monarch of all I
survey; my right
there is none to dispute").
60. O the extensive spirit of God! I bow down to that
spirit in my
spirit; and find myself lost in it, as in the vast ocean
of the
universal deluge.
61. I find no limit of this spirit; as long as I am
seated in the
enjoyment of my spiritual bliss; but appear to move about
as a minute
mollusk, in the fathomless expanse of the milky ocean.
62. This temple of Brahmānda or mundane world, is too
small and
straitened for the huge body of my soul; and it is as
impossible for me
to be contained in it, as it is for an elephant to enter
into the hole
of a needle.
63. My body stretches beyond the region of Brahmā, and my
attributes
extend beyond the categories of the schools, and there is
no definite
limitation given of them to this day.
64. The attribute of a name and body to the unsupported
soul is a
falsehood, and so is it to compress the unlimited soul
within the narrow
bounds of the body.
65. To say this is I, and this another, is altogether
wrong; and what is
this body or my want of it, or the state of living or
death to me?
(Since the soul is an immortal and etherial substance and
my true self
and essence).
66. How foolish and short-witted were my forefathers, who
having
forsaken this spiritual domain, have wandered as mortal
beings in this
frail and miserable world.
67. How great is this grand sight of the immensity of
Brahma; and how
mean are these creeping mortals, with their high aims and
ambition, and
all their splendours of royalty. (The glory of God,
transcends the glory
of glorious sun).
68. This pure intellectual sight of mine, which is
fraught with endless
joy, accompanied by ineffable tranquillity, surpasses all
other sights
in the whole world. (The rapture of heavenly peace and
bliss, has no
bounds).
69. I bow down to the Ego, which is situated in all
beings; which is the
intelligent and intellectual soul, and quite apart from
whatever is the
object of intellection or thought (i.e. the unthinkable spirit).
70. I who am the unborn and increate soul, reign
triumphant over this
perishing world; by my attainment to the state of the
great universal
spirit, which is the chief object of gain—the summum bonum of mortal
beings, and which I live to enjoy. (This sublimation of
the human soul
to the state of the supreme spirit, and enjoyment of
spiritual
beatification or heavenly rapture, is the main aim and
end of Yoga
meditation).
71. I take no delight in my unpleasant earthly dominion,
which is full
of painful greatness; nor like to lose my everlasting
realm of good
understanding, which is free from trouble and full of
perpetual delight.
72. Cursed be the wicked demons that are so sadly
ignorant of their
souls; and resort for the safety of their bodies, to
their strongholds
of woods and hills and ditches, like the insects of those
places.
73. Ignorance of the soul leads to the serving of the
dull ignorant
body, with articles of food and raiment; and it was thus
that our
ignorant elders pampered their bodies for no lasting
good.
74. What good did my father Hiranyakasipu reap, from his
prosperity of a
few years in this world; and what did he acquire worthy
of his descent;
in the line of the great sage Kasyapa?
75. He who has not tasted the blissfulness of his soul,
has enjoyed no
true blessing, during his long reign of a hundred years
in this world.
76. He who has gained the ambrosial delight of his
spiritual bliss, and
nothing of the temporary blessings of life; has gained
something which
is ever full in itself, and of which there is no end to
the end of the
world.
77. It is the fool and not the wise, who forsakes this
infinite joy for
the temporary delights of this world; and resembles the
foolish camel
which foregoes his fodder of soft leaves, for browzing
the prickly
thorns of the desert.
78. What man of sense would turn his eyes from so
romantic a sight, and
like to roam in a city burnt down to the ground: and what
wise man is
there that would forsake the sweet juice of sugarcane, in
order to taste
the bitterness of Nimba?
79. I reckon all my forefathers as very great fools, for
their leaving
this happy prospect, in order to wander in the dangerous
paths of their
earthly dominion.
80. Ah! how delightful is the view of flowering gardens,
and how
unpleasant is the sight of the burning deserts of sand;
how very quiet
are these intellectual reveries, and how very boisterous
are the
cravings of our hearts!
81. There is no happiness to be had in this earth, that
would make us
wish for our sovereignty in it; all happiness consists in
the peace of
the mind, which it concerns us always to seek.
82. It is the calm, quiet and unaltered state of the
mind, that gives us
true happiness in all conditions of life; and the true
realm of things
in all places and at all times, and under every
circumstance in life.
83. It is the virtue of sunlight to enlighten all
objects, and that of
moonlight to fill us with its ambrosial draughts; but the
light of
Brahma transcends them both, by filling the three worlds
with its
spiritual glory; which is brighter than sun-beams, and
cooler than
moon-light.
84. The power of Siva stretches over the fulness of
knowledge, and that
of Vishnu over victory and prosperity (Jayas-Lakshmī).
Fleetness is the
character of the mental powers, and force is the property
of the wind.
85. Inflammation is the property of fire, and moisture is
that of water;
taciturnity is the quality of devotees for success of
devotion, and
loquacity is the qualification of learning.
86. It is the nature of the aerials to move about in the
air, and of
rocks to remain fixed on the ground; the nature of water
is to set deep
and run downwards; and that of mountains to stand and
rise upwards.
87. Equanimity is the nature of Saugatas or Buddhists,
and carousing is
the penchant of winebibbers; the spring
delights in its flowering, and
the rainy season exults in the roaring of its clouds.
88. The Yakshas are full of their delusiveness, and the
celestials are
familiar with cold and frost, and those of the torrid
zone are inured in
its heat. (This passage clearly shows the heaven of the
Hindus, to have
been in the northern regions of cold and frost).
89. Thus are many other beings suited to their respective
climes and
seasons, and are habituated to the very many modes of
life and varieties
of habits; to which they have been accustomed in the past
and present
times.
90. It is the one Uniform and Unchanging Intellect, that
ordains these
multiform and changing modifications of powers and
things, according to
its changeable will and velocity.
91. The same unchanging Intellect presents these hundreds
of changing
scenes to us, as the same and invariable light of the
sun, shows a
thousand varying forms and colour to the sight.
92. The same Intellect sees at a glance, these great
multitudes of
objects, that fill the infinite space on all sides, in
all the three
times of the present, past and future.
93. The selfsame pure Intellect knows at once, the
various states of all
things presented in this vast phenomenal world, in all
the three times
that are existent, gone by and are to come hereafter.
94. This pure Intellect reflects at one and the same
time, all things
existent in the present, past and future times; and is
full with the
forms of all things existing in the infinite space of the
universe.
95. Knowing the events of the three times, and seeing the
endless
phenomena of all worlds present before it, the divine
intellect
continues full and perfect in itself and at all times.
96. The understanding ever continues the same and
unaltered,
notwithstanding the great variety of its perceptions of
innumerables of
sense and thought: such as the different tastes of sweet
and sour in
honey and nimba fruit at the same time. (I.e. the varieties of
mental perception and conception, make no change in the
mind), as the
reflexion of various figures makes no change in the
reflecting glass.
97. The intellect being in its state of arguteness, by
abandonment of
mental desires, and knowing the natures of all things by
reducing their
dualities into unity:—
98. It views them alike with an equal eye and at the same
time;
notwithstanding the varieties of objects and their great
difference from
one another. (I.e. all the varieties blend
into unity).
99. By viewing all existence as non-existence, you get
rid of your
existing pains and troubles, and by seeing all existence
in the light of
nihility, you avoid the suffering of existing evils.
100. The intellect being withdrawn from its view of the
events of the
three tenses (i.e. the occurrences of the
past, present and future
times), and being freed from the fetters of its fleeting
thoughts, there
remains only a calm tranquillity.
101. The soul being inexpressible in words, proves to be
a negative idea
only; and there ensues a state of one's perpetual
unconsciousness of his
soul or self-existence. (This is the state of
anaesthesia, which is
forgetting oneself to a stock and stone).
102. In this state of the soul it is equal to Brahma,
which is either
nothing at all or the All of itself; and its absorption
in perfect
tranquilness is called its liberation (moksha) or
emancipation from all
feelings (bodhas).
103. The intellect being vitiated by its volition, does
not see the soul
in a clear light, as the hoodwinked eye has naught but a
dim and hazy
sight of the world.
104. The intellect which is vitiated by the dirt of its
desire and
dislike, is impeded in its heavenly flight, like a bird
caught in a
snare. (Nor love nor hate of aught, is the best state of
thought).
105. They who have fallen into the snare of delusion by
their ignorant
choice of this or that, are as blind birds falling into
the net in
search of their prey.
106. Entangled in the meshes of desire, and confined in
the pit of
worldliness, our fathers were debarred from this unbarred
sight of
spiritual light and endless delight.
107. In vain did our forefathers flourish for a few days
on the surface
of this earth; only to be swept away like the fluttering
flies and
gnats, by a gust of wind into the ditch.
108. If these foolish pursuers after the painful
pleasures of the world,
had known the path of truth they would never fall into
the dark pit of
unsubstantial pursuits.
109. Foolish folks being subjected to repeated pains and
pleasures by
their various choice of things; follow at last the fate
of ephemeral
worms, that are born to move and die in their native
ditches and bogs
(i.e. as they are born of earth
and dust so do they return to dust and
earth again).
110. He is said to be really alive who lives true to
nature, and the
mirage of whose desires and aversion, is suppressed like
the fumes of
his fancy, by the rising cloud of his knowledge of truth.
111. The hot and foul fumes of fancy, fly afar from the
pure light of
reason, as the hazy mist of night, is dispersed by the
bright beams of
moon-light.
112. I hail that soul which dwells as the inseparable
intellect in me;
and I come at last to know my God, that resides as a rich
gem
enlightening all the worlds in myself.
113. I have long thought upon and sought after thee, and
I have at last
found thee rising in myself; I have chosen thee from all
others; and
whatever thou art, I hail thee, my Lord! as thou
appearest in me.
114. I hail thee in me, O lord of gods, in thy form of
infinity within
myself, and in the shape of bliss within my enraptured
soul; I hail
thee, O Supreme Spirit! that art superior to and
supermost of all.
115. I bow down to that cloudless light, shining as the
disk of the full
moon in me; and to that self-same form, which is free
from all
predicates and attributes. It is the self-risen light in
myself, and
that
felicitous self-same soul, which I find in myself alter ego
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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