Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.

Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations have not been modified.

[Page 412, section 15] and the other to that of the learned -> and the other to that of the unlearned [Page 413, section 19] in mountainous -> in the mountainous [Page 437, section 66] favourite females -> favourite of females [Page 634, section 40] full of inequity -> full of iniquity [Page 680, section 22] the like -> like the [Page 715, section 53] unvisionary -> visionary [Page 816, section 16] bring though -> even though [Page 930, section 29] very thick and lean -> very thin and lean

Also, some of the shortcomings of the LPP edition have been corrected by referencing other printings:

Page [434] Missing line "remove it by your subjection to ignorance and idleness" was inserted. Page [687] in the printed book is a copy of page 887 (where it belongs). The missing page 687 has been supplied from the Bharatiya edition. (It is the start of chapter LXI: On Birth, Death and Existence (verse 1-9)). This error has been reproduced in the Parimal ed. because this is based on a scanning of an edition with this error. Page [688] and [888] were switched in the printed book. Page [886] verse 17-18 were missing. Page [918] verse 8 was missing.

Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate light editing of the text to insert missing words.

The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.

The third Devanagari character in [footnote 7] is illegible in the text. It has been inserted from an alternate text, although it appears that the original of this text may in fact have included a typo.

The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya Publishing House, Delhi 1978.

A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.

The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati (only available in Sanskrit).

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

VOL. II (part 2)

THE YOGA-VÁSISHTHA MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI

THE

YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA

OF

VÁLMÍKI

in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)

Vol. 2 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.

Containing
Utpatti Khanda, Sthiti Prakarana and
Upasama Khanda to Chapter LIII.

Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI-LALA MITRA

YOGA VASISHTHA

BOOK IV.
STHITI PRAKARANA
ON ONTOLOGY OR EXISTENCE.

CONTENTS
OF
STHITI PRAKARANA.

(ON ONTOLOGY OR EXISTENCE).

BOOK IV.

CONTENTS
OF
UPASAMA KHANDA.
(ON QUIETISM.)
BOOK V.

YOGA VASISHTHA

BOOK IV.
STHITI PRAKARANA
ON ONTOLOGY OR EXISTENCE.

CHAPTER I.
JANYA-JANI-NIRÚPANA.

On Genesis and Epigenesis.

Argument. The variety of creation is described as the working of the mind, and the existence of one Brahma only, is established in refutation of the Atomic and Materialistic doctrines of Nyáya and Sánkhya philosophy.

Vasishtha said:—Attend now Ráma, to the subject of Existence, which follows that of Production: a knowledge of this, is productive of nirvána or utter annihilation of the self or soul.

2. Know then the phenomenal world which is existent before you, and your knowledge of egoism or self-existence, to be but erroneous conceptions of the formless inexistence or inanity.

3. You see the tints of various hues painting the vacuous sky, without any paint (colouring substance), or their cause (the painter). This is but a conception of the mind without its visual perception, and like the vision in a dream of one, who is not in a state of sound sleep. (The world is a dream).

4. It is like an aerial city built and present in your mind; or like the warming of shivering apes beside the red clay, thinking it as red hot fire; and as one’s pursuing an unreality or (grasping a shadow).

5. It is but a different aspect of the self same Brahma, like that of a whirlpool in water, and as the unsubstantial sunlight, appearing as a real substance in the sky.

6. It is like the baseless fabric of gold of the celestials on high; and like the air-built castle of Gandharvas in the midway sky. (The gods and Gandharvas are believed to dwell in their golden abodes in heaven).

7. It is as the false sea in the mirage, appearing true at the time; and like the Elysian and Utopian cities of imagination in empty air, and taken for truth.

8. It is like the romantic realms with their picturesque scenes in the fancies of poets, which are no where in nature but it seems to be solid and thick within, without any pith or solidity in it, as thing in an empty dream.

9. It is as the etherial sphere, full of light all around, but all hollow within; and like the blue autumnal sky, with its light and flimsy clouds without any rain-water in them.

10. It is as the unsubstantial vacuum, with the cerulean blue of solid sapphire; and like the domes and dames appearing in dreams, fleeting as air and untangible to touch.

11. It is as a flower garden in a picture, painted with blooming blossoms; and appearing as fragrant without any fragrance in them. It is lightsome to sight, without the inherent heat of light, and resembles the orb of the sun or a flaming fire represented in a picture.

12. It is as an ideal domain—the coinage of the brain, and an unreal reality or a seeming something; and likens a lotus-bed in painting, without its essence or fragrance.

13. It is as the variegated sky, painted with hues which it does not possess; and is as unsolid as empty air, and as many-hued as the rain-bow without any hue of its own.

14. All its various colourings of materiality, fade away under the right discrimination of reason; and it is found in the end to be as unsolid a substance as the stem of a plantain tree; (all coated without, and nothing solid in the inside).

15. It is like the rotation of black spots, before the eyes of a purblind man; and as the shape of a shadowy inexistence, presented as something existent before the naked eye.

16. Like the bubble of water, it seems as something substantial to sight; but in reality all hollow within; and though appearing as juicy, it is without any moisture at all.

17. The bubbling worlds are as wide spread as the morning dews or frost; but take them up, and you will find them as nothing, it is thought as gross matter by some, and as vacuum by others. It is believed as a fluctuation of thought or false vision by some, and as a mere compound of atoms by many. (It is the dull matter of Sánkhyas; mere vacuity of Vedántists; fluctuation of error—avidyá spanda of the Sánkaras; empty air of Mádhyamikas; fortuitous union of atoms of Acháryas; different atomisms of Sautrántas, and Vaibháshikas; and so likewise of Kanáda, Gotama and Arhatas; and so many more according to the theories of others). (Gloss).

18. I am partly of a material frame, on my body and mind, but spiritually I am an empty immaterial substance; and though felt by the touch of the hand, I am yet as intangible as a nocturnal fiend:—(an empty shadow only).

19. Ráma said:—It is said Sir, that at the end of a great Kalpa age, the visible world remains in its seed; after which it developes again in its present form, which I require to be fully explained to me.

20. Are they ignorant or knowing men, who think in these various ways? Please Sir, tell me the truth for removal of my doubts, and relate to me the process of the development.

21. Vasishtha replied:—Those who say that the mundane world existed in the form of a seed at the final sleep (of Brahmá), are altogether ignorant of the truth, and talk as children and boys: (from what they think themselves, or hear from others).

22. Hear me tell you, how unaccordant it is to right reason and how far removed from truth. It is a false supposition, and leading both the preacher and hearer of such a doctrine to great error and egregious mistake.

23. Those who attempt to show the existence of the world, in the form of a germ in the mundane seed; maintain a very silly position, as I shall now explain unto you.

24. A seed is in itself a visible thing, and is more an object of sense than that of the mind; as the seeds of paddy and barley, are seen to sprout forth in their germs and leaves.

25. The mind which is beyond the six organs of sense, is a very minute particle; and it cannot possibly be born of itself, nor become the seed of the universe.

26. The Supreme Spirit also, being more rarefied than the subtile ether, and undefinable by words, cannot be of the form of a seed.

27. That which is as minute as a nil and a zero, is equivalent to nothing; and could never be the mundane seed, without which there could be no germ nor sprout.

28. That which is more rare and transparent than the vacuous and clear firmament; cannot possibly contain the world with all its mountains and seas; and the heavens with all their hosts, in its transcendent substratum.

29. There is nothing, that is in any way situated as a substance, in the substantiality of that Being; or if there is anything there, why is it not visible to us?

30. There is nothing that comes of itself, and nothing material that comes but of the immaterial spirit; for who can believe a hill to proceed from the hollowness of an earthen pot?

31. How can a thing remain with another, which is opposed to it in its nature? How can there be any shadow where there is light, and how does darkness reside in the disc of the sun, or even coldness in fire?

32. How can an atom contain a hill, or anything subsist in nothing? The union of a similar with its dissimilar, is as impossible as that of shadow with the light of the sun.

33. It is reasonable to suppose that the material seeds of the fig and paddy, should bring forth their shoots in time; but it is unreasonable to believe the big material world to be contained in an immaterial atom.

34. We see the same organs of sense and their sensations, in all men in every country; but there is not the same uniformity in the understandings of men in every place, nor can there be any reason assigned to this difference.

35. Those who assign a certain cause to some effect or event, betray their ignorance of the true cause; for what is it that produces the effect, except the very thing by some of its accessory powers. (Every production is but a transformation of itself, by some of its inherent powers and properties).

36. Throw off at a distance, the doctrine of cause and effect invented by the ignorant; and know that to be true, which is without beginning and end, and the same appearing as the world. (An increate everlasting prototype in the mind of God).

CHAPTER II.
THE RECEPTACLE OF THE MUNDANE EGG.

Argument.—Refutation of the doctrine of the separate Existence of the world, and establishment of the tenet of the “One God as All in All.”

Vasishtha said:—Now Ráma! that best knowest the knowable, I will tell thee in disparagement of thy belief in the separate existence of the world; that there is one pure and vacuous principle of the Intellect only, above all the false fabrications of men.

2. If it is granted, that there was the germ of the world in the beginning; still it is a question, what were the accompanying causes of its development.

3. Without co-operation of the necessary causes, there can be no vegetation of the seed, as no barren woman is ever known or seen to bring forth an offspring, notwithstanding the seed is contained in the womb.

4. If it was possible for the seed to grow without the aid of its accompanying causes, then it is useless to believe in the primary cause, when it is possessed of such power in its own nature.

5. It is Brahmá himself who abides in his self, in the form of creation at the beginning of the world. This creation is as formless as the creator himself, and there is no relation of cause and effect between them.

6. To say the earth and other elements, to be the accompanying causes of production, is also wrong; since it is impossible for these elements to exist prior to their creation.

7. To say the world remained quiescent in its own nature, together with the accompanying causes, is the talk proceeding from the minds (mouths) of boys and not of the wise.

8. Therefore Ráma! there neither is or was or ever will be a separate world in existence. It is the one intelligence of the Divinity, that displays the creation in itself.

9. So Ráma! there being an absolute privation of this visible world, it is certain that Brahma himself is All, throughout the endless space.

10. The knowledge of the visible world, is destroyed by the destruction of all its causalities; but the causes continuing in the mind, will cause the visibles to appear to the view even after their outward extinction (like objects in the dream).

11. The absolute privation of the phenomenal, is only effected by the privation of its causes, (i.e. the suppression of our acts and desires); but if they are not suppressed in the mind, how can you effect to suppress the sight?

12. There is no other means of destroying our erroneous conception of the world, except by a total extirpation of the visibles from our view.

13. It is certain that the appearance of the visible world, is no more than our inward conception of it, in the vacuity of the intellect; and the knowledge of I, thou and he, are false impressions on our minds like figures in paintings.

14. As these mountains and hills, these lands and seas and these revolutions of days and nights, and months and years and the knowledge that this is a Kalpa age, and this is a minute and moment, and this is life and this is death, are all mere conceptions of the mind.

15. So is the knowledge of the duration and termination of a Kalpa and Mahákalpa (millenniums &c.) and that of the creation and its beginning and end, are mere misconceptions of our minds.

16. It is the mind that conceives millions of Kalpas and billions of worlds, most of which are gone by and many as yet to come. (Or else there is but an everlasting eternity, which is self-same with the infinity of the Deity).

17. So the fourteen regions of the planetary spheres, and all the divisions of time and place, are contained in the infinite space of the Supreme Intellect.

18. The universe continues and displays itself as serenely in the Divine mind, as it did from before and throughout all eternity; and it shines with particles of the light of that Intellect, as the firmament is as full with the radiance of solar light.

19. The ineffable light, which is thrown into the mind by the Divine Intellect, shows itself as the creation, which in reality is a baseless fabric by itself.

20. It does not come to existence nor dissolves into nothing, nor appears or sets at any time; but resembles a crystal glass with certain marks in it, which can never be effaced.

21. The creations display of themselves in the clear Intellect of God, as the variegated skies form portions of the indivisible space of endless vacuum.

22. These are but properties of the Divine Intellect, as fluidity is that of water, motion of the wind, the eddies of the sea, and the qualities of all things. (Creation is cœternal with the Eternal Mind).

23. This creation is but a compact body of Divine wisdom, and is contained in the Divinity as its component part. Its rising and setting and continuance, are exhibited alike in the tranquil soul.

24. The world is inane owing to its want of the accompaniment of secondary (i.e. material and instrumental) causes and is selfborn: and to call it as born or produced, is to breathe the breath (of life) like a madman (i.e., it is foolish to say so).

25. Ráma! purify your mind from the dross of false representations, and rise from the bed of your doubts and desires; drive away your protracted sleep of ignorance (avidyá), and be freed from the fears of death and disease with every one of your friends in this Court.

CHAPTER III.
ETERNITY OF THE WORLD.

Ráma said:—But it is related, that Brahmá—the lord of creatures, springs up by his reminiscence at the end of a kalpa, and stretches out the world from his remembrance of it, in the beginning of creation.

2. Vasishtha answered:—So it is said, O support of Raghu’s race! that the lord of creatures rises at first by his predestination, after the universal dissolution, and at the commencement of a new creation.

3. It is by his will, that the world is stretched out from his recollection, and is manifested like an ideal city, in the presence of Brahmá—the creative power.

4. The supreme being can have no remembrance of the past at the beginning of a new creation, owing to his want of a prior birth or death. Therefore this aerial arbour of reminiscence has no relation to Brahma. (Who being an ever living being, his cognizance of all things is also everlasting).

5. Ráma asked:—Does not the reminiscence of the past, continue in Brahmá at his recreation of the world; and so the former remembrance of men upon their being reborn on earth? Or are all past remembrances effaced from the minds of men by the delirium of death in their past life?

6. Vasishtha replied:—All intelligent beings, including Brahmá and all others of the past age, that obtain their nirvána or extinction, are of course absorbed in One Brahma (and have lost their remembrance of every thing concerning their past lives).

7. Now tell me, my good Ráma, where do these past remembrances and remembrancers abide any more, when they are wholly lost, at the final liberation (or extinction) of the rememberers?

8. It is certain that all beings are liberated, and become extinct in Brahma at the great dissolution; hence there cannot be remembrance of anything in the absence of the persons that remember the same.

9. The remembrance that lives impressed of itself in the empty space of individual Intellects, is verily the reservoir of the perceptible and imperceptible worlds. This reminiscence is eternally present before the sight of God, as a reflexion of his own Intellect.

10. It shines with the lustre of his self-consciousness, from time without beginning and end, and is identic with this world, which is therefore called to be self-born (because it is immanent in the mind of God).

11. The spiritual body which is the attribute of God from time without beginning (that God is a spirit); is the same with Viráta or manifestation of himself, and exhibits the form of the world or the microcosm (i.e. God—spirit—Virát or cosmos).

12. But the world is said to be composed of atoms, which compose the land and woods, the clouds and the firmament. But there are no atoms to form time and space, actions and motions and revolutions of days and nights. (All which are shaped by the spirit and not by atoms).

13. Again the atoms (of matter) which fill the world, have other incipient atoms (of spirit), which are inherent in them, and cause them to take and appear in the forms of mountains and the like.

14. But these forms seeming to be conglomerations of atomic particles, and showing themselves to our vision as lightsome objects, are in reality no substantial things.

15. Thus there is no end of the real and unreal sights of things; the one presenting itself to the view of the learned, and the other to that of the unlearned. (i.e. All things are viewed in their spiritual light by the learned, and in their material aspect by the ignorant).

16. The cosmos appears as the immutable Brahma only to the intelligent, and as the mutable visible world to the unintelligent.

17. As these bright worlds appear to roll about as eggs in their spheres, so there are multitudes of other orbs, shining in every atom in the universe.

18. As we see curved pillars, consisting of figures under figures, and those again under others; so is the grand pillar of the universe, composed of systems under systems to no end.

19. As the sands on a rock, are separably attached to it, and are countless in their number; so the orbs in the three worlds, are as particles of dust in mountainous body of Brahmá.

20. It may be possible to count the particles of ray scattered in the sun-beams; but it is impossible to number the atoms of light, which are emanating from the great sun of Brahmá.

21. As the sun scatters the particles of his light, on the sparkling waters and sands of the sea; so does the Intellect of God, disperse the atoms of its light all over the vacuity of the universe.

22. As the notion of vacuity fills the mind, with the idea of the visible firmament; so the thought of creation, as self-same with Brahmá, gives us the notion of his intellectual sphere.

23. To understand the creation as something different from Brahma, leads man apart from Him; but to take it as synonymous with Brahma, leads him to his felicity.

24. The enlightened soul, freed from its knowledge of the mundane seed, and knowing Brahma alone as the plenum filling the vacuum of intellect; knows the knowable (God) in his inward understanding, as the same with what has proceeded from him.

CHAPTER IV.
TREATING OF THE GERM OF EXISTENCE.

Argument. Sensations and Perceptions, as the Roots of the knowledge of Existence: suppression of these annuls all existence, and removes the visibles from view.

Vasishtha said:—It is the overthrow of the battery of the senses, that supplies us with a bridge over the ocean of the world; there is no other act, whereby we may cross over it (to the other shore of truth).

2. Acquaintance with the sástras, association with the good and wise, and practice of the virtues, are the means whereby the rational and self-controlled man, may come to know the absolute negation of the visibles.

3. I have thus told you, O handsome Ráma! of the causes of the appearance and disappearance of the creation, resembling the heaving and resting of the waves of the sea of the world.

4. There is no need of a long discourse to tell you that, the mind is the germ of the arbour of acts, and this germ being nipped in the beginning, prevents the growth of the tree, and frustrates the doing of acts, which are the fruits thereof.

5. The mind is all (i.e. the agent of all actions); therefore it is, that by the healing of your heart and mind, you can cure all the troubles and diseases, you may incur in the world.

6. The minds of men are ever troubled, with their thoughts of the world and bodily actions; but these being deadened and defunct, we see neither the body nor the outer world.

7. The negation of the outer world, and the suppression of the inner thoughts, serve to curb the demon of the mind, by practice of self-abnegation for a long period of time.

8. It is possible to heal the inward disease of the internal mind, by administration of this best and only medicine of negation of the external world. (Ignoring the outer world, is the only way to restore the peace of the mind).

9. It is because of its thoughts, that the mind is subjected to the errors of its birth and death; and to those of its being bound to or liberated from, the bonds of the body and this world.

10. The mind being deluded by its thoughts, sees the worlds shining before it; as a man sees in his delusion, the imaginary city of the Gandharvas, drawn before him in empty air.

11. All these visible worlds consist in the mind, wherein they seem to exist as the fragrance of the air, consists in the cluster of flowers containing the essence.

12. The little particle of the mind contains the world, as a small grain of sesamum contains the oil, and as an attribute is contained in its subject, and a property abiding in the substance.

13. The world abides in the mind in the same manner, as the sun-beams abide in the sun, and as brightness consists in the light, and as the heat is contained in fire.

14. The mind is the reservoir of the worlds, as the snow is the receptacle of coldness. It is the substratum of all existence, as the sky is that of emptiness, and as velocity is inherent in the wind.

15. Therefore the mind is the same with the world, and the world is identic with the mind; owing to their intimate and inseparable connection with one another. The world however is lost by the loss of the mind; but the mind is not lost by destruction of the world. (Because the thoughts thereof are imprinted in the mind).

CHAPTER V.
STORY OF BHÁRGAVA.

Argument. Meditation of Bhrigu, Ramblings of Sukra. His sight of and amour for an aerial nymph.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, that knowest all truths, and art best acquainted with all that is past and is to come, how the form of the world is so vividly existed in the mind.

2. Please Sir, explain to me by some illustration, how this world, appears as a visible object to the inner mind.

3. Vasishtha replied:—The world is situated as truly in the minds of men, as it appeared in its firm and compact state to the bodiless son of Indu (I have related long before).

4. It is situated in the same manner in the minds of men, as the thought of king Lavana’s transformation of himself to a chandála, under the influence of sorcery.

5. It is in the same manner, as Bhárgava believed himself to be possessed of all worldly gratifications. Because true bliss has much more relation to the mind, than to earthly possessions.

6. Ráma said:—How is it Sir, that the son of Bhrigu came to the enjoyment of earthly pleasures, when he had been longing for the fruition of heavenly felicity.

7. Vasishtha replied:—Attend now Ráma, to my narration of the history of Bhrigu and Kála, whereby you will know how he came to the possession of earthly enjoyments.

8. There is a table-land of the Mandara mountain, which is beset by rows of tamála trees, with beautiful arbours of flowers under them.

9. Here the sage Bhrigu conducted his arduous devotion in olden times and it was in this place, that his high-minded and valiant son Sukra, also came to perform his devotion.

10. Sukra was as handsome as the moon, and radiant with his brilliant beams (like the sun). He took his seat in that happy grove of Bhrigu, for the purpose of his devotion.

11. Having long sat in that grove under the umbrage of a rock, Sukra removed himself to the flowery beds and fair plains below.

12. He roved freely about the bowers of Mandara in his youthful sport, and became revered among the wise and ignorant men of the place.

13. He roved there at random like Trisanku, between the earth and sky; sometimes playing about as a boy, and at others sitting in fixed meditation as his father.

14. He remained without any anxiety in his solitude, as a king who has subdued his enemy; until he happened to behold an Apsara fairy, traversing in her aerial journey.

15. He beheld her with the eyes of Hari, fixed upon his Lakshmí, as she skims over the watery plain, decked with her wreaths of Mandara flowers, and her tresses waving loosely with the playful air.

16. Her trinkets jingling with her movements, and the fragrance of her person perfuming the winds of the air; her fairy form was as beautiful as a creeping plant, and her eyeballs rolling as in the state of intoxication.

17. The moon-beams of her body, shed their ambrosial dews over the landscape, which bewitched the hard-heart of the young devotee, as he beheld the fairy form before him.

18. She also with her body shining as the fair full-moon, and shaking as the wave of the sea, became enamoured of Sukra as she looked at his face.

19. Sukra then checked the impulse of his mind, which the god of love had raised after her; but losing all his power over himself, he became absorbed in the thought of his beloved object.

CHAPTER VI.
ELYSIUM OF BHÁRGAVA.

Argument. Sukra’s imaginary journey to heaven, and his reception by Indra.

Vasishtha said:—Henceforth Sukra continued to think of the nymph with his closed eye-lids, and indulge himself in his reverie of an imaginary kingdom.

2. He thought that the nymph was passing in the air, to the paradise of Indra—the god with thousand eyes; and that he followed her closely, to the happy regions of the celestial gods.

3. He thought, he saw before him the gods, decorated with their chaplets of beautiful mandara blossoms on their heads, and with garlands of flowers pendant on their persons resplendent as liquid gold.

4. He seemed to see the heavenly damsels with their eyes as blue-lotuses, regaling the eyes of their spectators; and others with their eyes as beautiful as those of antelopes, sporting with their sweet smiles all about (the garden of paradise).

5. He saw also the Marutas or gods of winds, bearing the fragrance of flowers, and breathing their sweet scent on one another; and resembling the omnipresent Viswarúpa by their ubiquitous journey.

6. He heard the sweet hum of bees, giddy with the perfumed ichor, exuding from the proboscis of Indra’s elephant; and listened to the sweet strains, sung by the chorus of the heavenly choir.

7. There were the swans and storks, gabbling in the lakes, with lotuses of golden hue in them; and there were the celestial gods reposing in the arbours, beside the holy stream of the heavenly Gangá (Mandákiní).

8. These were the gods Yama and Indra, and the sun and moon, and the deities of fire and the winds; and there were the regents of the worlds, whose shining bodies shaded the lustre of vivid fire.

9. On one side was the warlike elephant of Indra—(Airávata), with the scratches of the demoniac weapons on his face (proboscis), and tusks gory with the blood of the defeated hosts of demons.

10. Those who were translated from earth to heaven in the form of luminous stars, were roving in their aerial vehicles, blazing with aureate beams of the shining sun.

11. The gods were washed by the showers, falling from the peaks of Meru below, and the waves of the Ganges, rolled on with scattered mandara flowers floating on them.

12. The alleys of Indra’s groves, were tinged with saffron, by heaps of the dust of mandara flowers; and were trodden by groups of Apsara lasses, sporting wantonly upon them.

13. There were the gentle breezes blowing among the párijáta plants, brightening as moon-beams in the sacred bowers; and wafting the fragrant honey, from the cups of Kunda and mandara blossoms.

14. The pleasure garden of Indra, was crowded by heavenly damsels; who were besmeared with the frosty farina of kēsara flowers, mantling them like the creepers of the grove in their yellow robes.

15. Here were the heavenly nymphs dancing in their gaiety, at the tune of the songs of their lovers; and there were heavenly musicians Nárada and Tamburu, joining their vocal music in unison with the melody of the wired instruments of the lute and lyre (Vallakikákali).

16. Holy men and the pious and virtuous, were seen to soar high in their heavenly cars, and sitting there with their decorations of various kinds.

17. The amorous damsels of the gods, were clinging round their god Indra: as the tender creepers of the garden, twine about the trees beside them.

18. There were the fruit trees of gulunchas, studded with clusters of their ripening fruits; and resembling the gemming sapphires and rubies, and set as rows of ivory teeth.

19. After all these sights, Sukra thought of making his obeisance to Indra, who was seated on his seat like another Brahmá—the creator of the three worlds.

20. Having thought so, Sukra bowed down to Indra in his own mind, as he was the second Bhrigu in heaven—(i.e. He bowed to him with a veneration equal to that he paid to his father).

21. Indra received him with respect, and having lifted him up with his hand, made him sit by himself.

22. Indra addressed him saying:—I am honoured, Sukra! by thy call, and this heaven of mine is graced by thy presence, may thou live long to enjoy the pleasure of this place.

23. Indra then sat in his seat with a graceful countenance, which shone with the lustre of the unspotted full-moon.

24. Sukra being thus seated by the side of Indra, was saluted by all the assembled gods of heaven; and he continued to enjoy every felicity there, by being received with paternal affection by the lord of gods and men.

CHAPTER VII.
RE-UNION OF THE LOVERS.

Argument. Sukra sees his beloved in heaven, and is joined to her at that place.

Vasishtha said:—Thus Sukra being got among the gods in the celestial city, forgot his former nature, without his passing through the pangs of death.

2. Having halted awhile by the side of the Sachi’s consort (Indra), he rose up to roam about the paradise, by being charmed with all its various beauties.

3. He looked with rapture on the beauty of his own person, and longed to see the lovely beauties of heavenly beings, as the swan is eager to meet the lotuses of the lake.

4. He saw his beloved one among them in the garden of Indra’s Eden (udyána), with her eyes like those of a young fawn; and with a stature as delicate as that of a tender creeper of the Amra (amarynthus).

5. She also beheld the son of Bhrigu, and lost her government on herself; and was thus observed by him also in all her indications of amorous feelings.

6. His whole frame was dissolved in affection for her, like the moonstone melting under the moonbeams; so was hers likewise in tenderness for him.

7. He like the moonstone was soothed by her cooling beauty, beaming as moonlight in the sky; and she also being beheld by him, was entirely subdued by her love to him.

8. At night they bewailed as chakravákas (ruddy geese), at their separation from one another, and were filled with delight on their mutual sight at the break of the day (which unites the Chakraváka pair together).

9. They were both as beautiful to behold, as the sun and the opening blossom of the lotus at morn; and their presence added a charm to the garden of paradise, which promised to confer their desired bliss.

10. She committed her subdued-self to the mercy of the god of love, who in his turn darted his arrows relentless on her tender heart.

11. She was covered all over her person with the shafts of cupid, as when the lotus blossom is hid under a swarm of fleeting bees; and became as disordered as the leaves of the lotus, are disturbed under a shower of rain drops.

12. She fluttered at the gentle breath of the playful winds, like the tender filaments of flowers; and moved as graceful as the swan, with her eyes as bluish as those of the leaflets of blue-lotuses.

13. She was deranged in her person by the god of love, as the lotus-bed is put into disorder by the mighty elephant; and was beheld in that plight by her lover (Sukra), in the flight of his fancy.

14. At last the shade of night overspread the landscape of the heavenly paradise, as if the god of destruction (Rudra) was advancing to bury the world under universal gloom.

15. A deep darkness overspread the face of the earth, and covered it in thick gloom; like the regions of the polar mountains; where the hot-blazing-sun is obscured by the dark shade of perpetual night, as if hiding his face in shame under the dark veil of Cimmerian gloom.

16. The loving pair met together in the midst of the grove, when the assembled crowds of the place, retired to their respective habitations in different directions.

17. Then the love-smitten-dame approached her lover with her sidelong glances, as a bird of air alights from her aerial flight in the evening, to meet with her mate on the earth below.

18. She advanced towards the son of Bhrigu, as a peahen comes out to meet the rising cloud; and thought she beheld there a white washed edifice, with a couch placed in the midst.

19. Bhárgava entered the white hall, as when Vishnu enters into hoary sea, accompanied by his beloved Lakshmí; who held him by the hand with her down-cast countenance.

20. She graced his person, as the lotus-stalk graces the bosom of the elephant; and then spoke to him sweetly with her words mixed with tender affection.

21. She told him in a sweet and delightsome speech fraught with expressions of endearment: Behold, O my moon-faced lover! I see the curve of thy bow as a bow bent for my destruction.

22. Cupid is thence darting his arrows to destroy this lovelorn maid; therefore protect me from him, that am so helpless and have come under thy protection from his rage.

23. Know my good friend, that it is the duty of good people, to relieve the wretched from their distress; and those that do not look upon them with a compassionate eye, are reckoned as the basest of men.

24. Love is never vilified by those, who are acquainted with erotics; because the true love of faithful lovers, have endured to the last without any fear of separation.

25. Know my dear, that the delightful draught of love, defies the dewy beams distilled by the moon; and the sovereignty of the three worlds, is never so pleasing to the soul, as the love of the beloved.

26. I derive the same bliss from the touch of thy feet, as it attends on mutual lovers on their first attachment to one another.

27. I live by the nectarious draught of thy touch, as the kumuda blooms by night, imbibing the ambrosial beams of the moon.

28. As the fluttering Chakora, is delighted with drinking the moonbeams, so is this suppliant at thy feet, blessed by the touch of the leaf-like palm of thy hand.

29. Embrace me now to thy bosom, which is filled with ambrosial bliss. Saying so, the damsel fell upon his bosom with her body soft as a flower, and her eyes turning as a leaflet at the gentle breeze.

30. The loving pair fell into their trance of love in that happy grove, as a couple of playful bees creeps into the lotus cup, under the fair filaments of the flower, shaking by the gentle breeze.

CHAPTER VIII.
TRANSMIGRATIONS OF SUKRA.

Argument. Sukra fancies his fall from heaven, and passing through many imaginary births.

Vasishtha related:—Thus the son of Bhrigu, believed himself to be in the enjoyment of heavenly pleasures, in his ideal reveries.

2. He thought of enjoying the company of his beloved, bedecked with garlands of mandara flowers, and inebriated with the drink of ambrosial draughts, like the full-moon accompanied by the evening star.

3. He roved about the ideal lake of heaven (Mánas Sarovara), filled with golden lotuses, and frequented by the giddy swans and gabbling geese or hansas of heaven; and roamed beside the bank of the celestial river (Mandákiní), in company with the choristers (cháranas, and Kinnaras of paradise).

4. He drank the sweet nectarious juice beaming as moonbeams in company with the gods; and reposed under the arbours of the groves, formed by the shaking branches of párijáta plants.

5. He amused himself with his favourite Vidyádharís, in swinging himself in the hanging cradles, formed by the shady creepers of the arbour, and screening him from the vernal sunbeams.

6. The parterres of Nandana gardens were trodden down under the feet of the fellow followers of Siva, as when the ocean was churned by the Mandara mountain.

7. The tender weeds and willows growing as golden shrubberies, and tangled bushes in the beach of the river, were trampled under the legs of heated elephants, as when they infest the lotus lakes on Meru. (i.e. Lotuses growing in the lakes of mountainous regions).

8. Associated by his sweet-heart, he passed the moonlight nights in the forest groves of Kailása, attending to the songs and music of heavenly choristers.

9. Roaming on the table-lands of Gandhamádana mountain, he decorated his beloved with lotus-garlands from her head to foot.

10. He roved with her to the polar mountain which is full of wonders, as having darkness on one side and lighted on the other. Here they sported together with their tender smiles and fond caresses and embrace.

11. He thought he remained in a celestial abode beside the marshy lands of Mandara, for a period of full sixty years; and passed his time in the company of the fauna of the place.

12. He believed he passed half a yuga with his helpmate, on the border of the milky ocean, and associated with the maritime people and islanders of that ocean.

13. He next thought to live in a garden at the city of the Gandharvas, where he believed to have lived for an immeasurable period like the genius of Time himself, who is the producer of an infinity of worlds.

14. He was again translated to the celestial seat of Indra, where he believed to have resided for many cycles of the quadruple yuga ages with his mistress.

15. It was at the end of the merit of their acts that they were doomed to return on earth, shorn of their heavenly beauty and the fine features of their persons.

16. Being deprived of his heavenly seat and vehicle, and bereft of his godlike form and features; Sukra was overcome by deep sorrow, like a hero falling in the field of warfare.

17. His great grief at his fall from heaven to earth, broke his frame as it were into a hundred fragments; like a waterfall falling on the stony ground, and breaking into a hundred rills below.

18. They with their emaciated bodies and sorrowful minds, wandered about in the air, like birds without their nest.

19. Afterwards their disembodied minds entered into the net-work of lunar beams, and then in the form of molten frost or rain water, they grew the vegetables on earth.

20. Some of these vegetables were concocted, and then eaten by a Bráhman in the land of Dasárna or confluence of the ten streams. The substance of Sukra was changed to the semen of the Bráhman, and then conceived as a son by his wife.

21. The boy was trained up in the society of the munis to the practice of rigorous austerities, and he dwelt in the forests of Meru for a whole manwantara, observant of his holy rites.

22. There he gave birth to a male child of human figure in a doe (to which his mistress was transformed in her next birth), and became exceedingly fond of the boy, to the neglect of his sacred duties.

23. He constantly prayed for the long life, wealth and learning of his darling, and thus forsook the constancy of his faith and reliance in Providence. (Longevity, prosperity and capacity for learning, are the triple blessings of civil life, instead of austerity, purity and self-resignation of painful asceticism).

24. Thus his falling off from the thought of heaven, to those of the earthly aggrandizement of his son, made his shortened life an easy prey to death, as the inhaling of air by the serpent. (It is said that the serpent lives upon air, which it takes in freely in want of any other food).

25. His worldly thoughts having vitiated his understanding, caused him to be reborn as the son of the Madra king, and succeed to him in the kingdom of the Madras (Madura-Madras).

26. Having long reigned in his kingdom of Madras by extirpation of all his enemies, he was overtaken at last by old age, as the lotus-flower is stunted by the frost.

27. The king of Madras, was released of his kingly person by his desire of asceticism; whereby he became the son of an anchorite in next-birth, in order to perform his austerities.

28. He retired to the bank of the meandering river of the Ganges, and there betook himself to his devotion; being devoid of all his worldly anxieties and cares.

29. Thus the son of Bhrigu, having passed in various forms in his successive births, according to the desires of his heart; remained at last as a fixed arbour on the bank of a running stream.

CHAPTER IX.
DESCRIPTION OF SUKRA’S BODY.

Argument. The departed spirit of Sukra, remembers the state of its former body.

Vasishtha related:—As Sukra was indulging his reveries in this manner, he passed insensibly under the flight of a series of years, which glided upon him in the presence of his father.

2. At last his arboraceous body withered away with age, under the inclement sun and winds and rain; and it fell down on the ground as a tree torn from its roots.

3. In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to forest.

4. He underwent repeated births and deaths, in his wanderings in the world in search of its enjoyments; and seemed as some thing whirled about in a turning mill or wheel; till at last he found his rest in the cooling beach of the rivulet.

5. Now the disembodied spirit of Sukra, remained to reflect on his past transmigrations, in all the real and ideal forms of his imagination.

6. It thought of its former body on the Mandara mountain, and how it was reduced to a skeleton of mere bones and skin by the heat of the sun and his austerities (i.e. of the five fires pancha-tapas of his penance).

7. It remembered how the wind instrument of its lungs, breathed out the joyous music of its exemption from the pain of action (to which all other men were subjected). (It refers to the breathing of so-ham hamsah in yoga, which is the sweet music of salvation).

8. Seeing how the mind is plunged in the pit of worldly cares, the body seems to laugh at it, by showing the white teeth of the mouth in derision.

9. The cavity of the mouth, the sockets of the eyes, the nostrils and ear-holes in the open face, are all expressive of the hollowness of human and heavenly bodies (i.e. they are all hollow within, though they seem to be solid without).

10. The body sheds the tears of its eyes in sorrow for its past pains and austerities, as the sky rains after its excessive heat to cool the earth.

11. The body was refreshed by the breeze and moon-beams, as the woodlands are renovated by cooling showers in the rainy season.

12. It remembered how its body was washed on the banks of mountain rills, by the water-falls from above, and how it was daubed by the flying dust and the dirt of sin.

13. It was as naked as a withered tree, and rustling to the air with the breeze; yet it withstood the keen blasts of winter as unshaken devotion in person.

14. The faded face, the withered lungs and arteries, and the skinny belly, resembled those of the goddess of famine, that cried aloud in the forest, in the howlings of the wild beasts.

15. Yet the holy person of the hermit was unhurt by envious animals, owing to its freedom from passions and feelings, and its fervent devotion; and was not devoured by rapacious beasts and birds.

16. The body of Bhrigu’s son was thus weakened by his abstinence and self-denial, and his mind was employed in holy devotion, as his body lay prostrate on the bed of stones.

CHAPTER X.
BHRIGU’S CONFERENCE WITH KÁLA OR DEATH.

Argument. Bhrigu’s grief at seeing the death-like body of his son.

Vasishtha continued:—After the lapse of a thousand years, the great Bhrigu rose from his holy trance (anaesthesia); and was disengaged in his mind from its meditation of God, as in a state of suspension or syncope of his holy meditations.

2. He did not find his son lowly bending down his head before him, the son who was the leader of the army of virtues, and who was the personified figure of all merits.

3. He only beheld his body, lying as a skeleton before him, as it was wretchedness or poverty personified in that shape.

4. The skin of his body was dried by the sun, and his nostrils snoring as a hooping bird; and the inner entrails of his belly, were sounding as dry leather-pipes with the croaking of frogs.

5. The sockets of his eyes, were filled with new-born worms grown in them; and the bones of his ribs had become as bars of a cage, with the thin skin over them resembling the spider’s web.

6. The dry and white skeleton of the body, resembled the desire of fruition, which bends it to the earth, to undergo all the favourable and unfavourable accidents of life.

7. The crown of the head had become as white and smooth (by its baldness or grey hairs), as the phallus of Siva anointed with camphor, at the Indu-varcha ceremony in honor of the moon.

8. The withered head erected on the bony neckbone, likened the soul supported by the body:—(either to lead or be led by it).

9. The nose was shriveled to a dry stalk, for want of its flesh; and the nose-bone stood as a post, dividing the two halves of the face.

10. The face standing erect on the protruded shoulders on both sides, was looking forward in the womb of the vacuous sky, whither the vital breath had fled from the body.

11. The two legs, thighs, knees and the two arms (forming the eight angas or members of the body), had been doubled in their length (for their long etherial course); and lay slackened with fatigue of the long journey.

12. The leanness of the belly like a lath, showed by its shriveled flesh and skin, the empty inside of the ignorant: (i.e. they may be puffed up with pride on the outside, but are all hollow in the inside).

13. Bhrigu seeing the withered skeleton of his son, lying as the worn-out post (to which the elephant was tied by its feet), made his reflections as said before, and rose from his seat.

14. He then began to dubitate in his mind, at the sight of the dead body, as to whether it could be the lifeless carcass of his son or any other.

15. Thinking it no other than the dead body of his son, he became sore angry upon the god of death (that had untimely taken him away).

16. He was prepared to pronounce his imprecation against the god of fate, in vengeance of his snatching his son so prematurely from him.

17. At this Yama—the regent of death, and devourer of living beings, assumed his figurative form of a material body, and appeared in an instant before the enraged father.

18. He appeared in armour with six arms and as many faces, accompanied by the army of his adherents, and holding the noose and sword and other weapons in his hands. (The commentary ascribes a dozen of arms to Yama, by the number of the twelve months of the year, and having half of the number on either side, according to the six signs of the zodiac in either hemisphere. The six faces are representative of the six seasons of Hindu astronomy instead of four of other nations).

19. The rays of light radiating from his body, gave it the appearance of a hill, filled with heaps of the crimson kinsuka flowers, growing in mountain forests.

20. The rays of the living fire flashing from his trident gave it the glare of golden ringlets, fastened to the ears of all the sides of the sky.

21. The breath of his host, hurled down the ridges of mountains, which hung about them, like swinging cradles on earth.

22. His sable sword flashing with sombre light, darkened the disk of the sun; as it were by the smoke of the final conflagration of the earth.

23. Having appeared before the great sage, who was enraged as the raging sea, he soothed him to calmness as after a storm, by the gentle breath of his speech.

24. “The sages” said he, “are acquainted with the laws of nature, and know the past and future as present before them. They are never moved even with a motive to anything, and are far from being moved without a cause.

25. “You sages are observers of the multifarious rules of religions austerities, and we are observant of the endless and immutable laws of destiny; we honour you therefore for your holiness, and not from any other desire (of being blessed by you or exempted from your curse).”

26. Do not belie your righteousness by your rage, nor think to do us any harm, who are spared unhurt by the flames of final dissolution, and cannot be consumed by your curses.

27. We have destroyed the spheres of the universe and devoured legions of Rudras, millions of Brahmás and myriads of Vishnus (in the repeated revolutions of creation); what is it therefore that we cannot do?

28. We are appointed as devourers of all beings; and you are destined to be devoured by us. This is ordained by destiny herself, and not by any act of our own will.