Volume 1, continued

CHAPTER V. ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. (MÚLA-KÁRANA).

Ráma said:—Tell me, O chief of the sages! what cause is it that leads to our misconception of the mind, how it is produced and what is the source of its illusion.

2. Tell me sir, in brief of the first production (of the mind), and then, O best of the eloquent, you may tell the rest, that is to be said on the subject.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Incident to the universal dissolution, when all things were reduced to nothing, this infinity of visible objects remained in a state of calm and quiet before their creation.

4. There was then the only great God in existence, who is increate and undecaying, who is the creator of all at all times, who is all in all, and supreme soul of all, and resembling the sun that never sets.

5. He whom language fails to describe, and who is known to the liberated alone; who is termed the soul by fiction only, and not by his real nature (which is unknowable).

6. Who is the prime Male of Sánkhya philosophers and the Brahma of Vedánta followers; who is the Intelligence of gnostics and who is wholly pure and apart from all (personalities).

7. Who is known as vacuum by vacuists, who is the enlightener of solar light, who is truth itself, and the power of speech and thought and vision, and all action and passion for ever.

8. Who though ever existent everywhere appears as inexistent to the world, and though situated in all bodies, seems to be far from them. He is the enlightener of our understanding as the solar light (of the world).

9. From whom the gods Vishnu and others are produced as solar rays from the sun; and from whom infinite worlds have come into existence like bubbles of the sea.

10. Unto whom these multitudes of visible creations return as the waters of the earth to the sea, and who like a lamp enlightens the souls and bodies (of all immaterial and material beings).

11. Who is present alike in heaven as in earth and the nether worlds; and who abides equally in all bodies whether of the mineral, vegetable or animal creation. He resides alike in each particle of dust as in the high and huge mountain ranges; and rides as swift on the wings of winds, as he sleeps in the depths of the main.

12. He who appoints the eight internal and external organs (Paryashtakas) of sense and action to their several functions; and who has made the dull and dumb creatures as inert as stones, and as mute as they are sitting in their meditative mood.

13. He who has filled the skies with vacuity and the rocks with solidity; who has dissolved the waters to fluidity, and concentrated all light and heat in the sun.

14. He who has spread these wonderful scenes of the world, as the clouds sprinkle the charming showers of rain; both as endless and incessant, as they are charming and dulcet to sight.

15. He who causes the appearance and disappearance of worlds in the sphere of his infinity like waves in the ocean; and in whom these phenomena rise and set like the running sands in the desert.

16. His spirit the indestructible soul, resides as the germ of decay and destruction in the interior (vitals) of animals. It is as minute as to lie hid in the body, and as magnified as to fill all existence.

17. His nature (Prakriti) spreads herself like a magic creeper (_máyá latá_) all over the space of vacuity, and produces the fair fruit in the form of the mundane egg (_Brahmánda_); while the outward organs of bodies, resembling the branches of this plant, keep dancing about the stem (the intelligent soul), shaken by the breeze of life which is everfleeting.

18. It is He, that shines as the gem of intelligence in the heart of the human body; and it is he from whom, the luminous orbs constituting the universe, continually derive their lustre.

19. It is that colossus of intelligence, which like a cloud sheds ambrosial draughts of delight to soothe our souls, and showers forth innumerable beings as rain drops on all sides. It bursts into incessant flashes showing the prospects of repeated creations which are as (momentary as) flashes of lightenings.

20. It is his wondrous light which displays the worlds to our wondering sight; and it is from his entity that both what is real and unreal, have derived their reality and unreality.

21. It is the insensible and ungodly soul, that turns to the attractions of others against its purpose; while the tranquil soul rests in itself (as in the spirit of God).

22. He who transcends all existences, and by whom all existent beings are bound to their destined actions in their proper times and places, and also to their free actions and motions and exertions of all kinds.

23. It is he who from his personality of pure consciousness, became of the form of vacuum (pervading all nature), and then by means of his vacuous mind and empty thoughts filled it with substances, wherein his soul was to reside, and whereon his spirit had to preside.

24. Having thus made the infinite hosts of worlds in the immense sphere of the universe, he is yet neither the agent of any action nor the author of any act in it; but remains ever the same as the sole one alone, in his unchangeable and unimpairing state of self-consciousness, and without any fluctuation, evolution or inhesion of himself, as he is quite unconcerned with the world. CHAPTER VI. ADMONITION FOR ATTEMPT TO LIBERATION.

_Mumukshu Pratyopadesa._

Vasishtha said:—It is by the knowledge of this transcendent supreme spirit and God of gods, that one may become an adept (in divine service), and not by the rigour of religious austerities and practices. (Proficiency by theoretic knowledge).

2. Here nothing is needed than the culture and practice of divine knowledge, and thereby the truth being known, one views the errors of the world, as a satiate traveller looks at a mirage in a clear light.

3. He (God) is not far from nor too near us, nor is he obtainable by what he is not (as the adoration of images and ceremonial acts). He is the image of light and felicity, and is perceivable in ourselves.

4. Here austerities and charities, religious vows and observances, are of no good whatever. It is the calm quietude of one’s own nature only that is serviceable to him in his services to God.

5. Fondness for the society of the righteous and devotedness to the study of good books, are the best means of divine knowledge; while ritual services and practices, serve only to strengthen the snare of our in-born delusions, which true knowledge alone can sever.

6. No sooner one has known this inward light of his as the very God, than he gets rid of his miseries, and becomes liberated in this his living state.

7. Ráma said:—Having known the Self in himself, one is no more exposed to the evils of life and even to death itself.

8. But say how is this great God of gods to be attained from such great distance (as we are placed from him), and what rigorous austerities and amount of pains are necessary for it.

9. Vasishtha replied:—He is to be known by means of your manly exertions (in knowledge and faith), and by the aid of a clear understanding and right reasoning, and never by the practice of austerities and ablutions, nor by acts attended with bodily pain of any kind. (Hence the mistake of _Hatha yoga_).

10. For know, O Ráma! all your austerities and charities, your painstaking and mortification are of no efficacy, unless you wholly renounce your passions and enmity, your anger and pride, your selfishness and your envy and jealousy.

11. For whoever is liberal of any money which he has earned by defrauding others, and with a heart full of vile passions, the merit of such liberality accrues to the rightful owner of the property and not to its professed donor.

12. And whoever observes any vow or rite with a mind actuated by passions, he passes for a hypocrite and reaps no benefit of his acts.

13. Therefore try your manly exertions in securing the best remedies of good precepts and good company, for putting down the diseases and disturbances of the world.

14. No other course of action except that of the exertion of one’s manliness, is conducive to the allaying of all the miseries and troubles of this life.

15. Now learn the nature of this manliness for your attainment to wisdom, and annihilation of the maladies of passions and affections and animosity of your nature.

16. True manliness consists in your continuance in an honest calling conformable with the law and good usage of your country; and in a contented mind which shrinks from smelling the enjoyments of life.

17. It consists in the exertion of one’s energies to the utmost of his power, without bearing any murmur or grief in his soul; and in one’s devotedness to the society of the good and perusal of good works and Sástras.

18. He is styled the truly brave who is quite content with what he gets, and spurns at what is unlawful for him to take; who is attached to good company, and ready at the study of unblamable works.

19. And they who are of great minds, and have known their own natures and those of all others by their right reasoning, are honoured by the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra and Siva.

20. He who is called a righteous man by the majority of the good people of the place, is to be resorted to with all diligence as the best and most upright of men.

21. Those religious works are said to compose the best Sástra, which treat chiefly of Spiritual knowledge; and one who constantly meditates on them, is surely liberated (from the bonds of this world).

22. It is by means of right discrimination derived from the keeping of good company and study of holy works, that our understanding is cleared of its ignorance, as dirty water is purified by _Kata_ seeds, and as the minds of men are expurgated by the Yoga philosophy. CHAPTER VII. RECOGNITION OF THE NIHILITY OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD.

(_Drisyásattá Pratijnánam_).

Ráma said:—

Tell me, O Bráhman! where is this God situated and how can I know him, of whom you spoke all this, and whose knowledge you said, leads to our liberation.

2. Vasishtha replied:—This God of whom I spoke, is not at a distance from us. He is situated in these our bodies, and is known to be of the form of mere Intellect (_chinmátra_) to us. So says Fichte: The Infinite Reason (chit) alone exists in himself—the finite in him. Lewis vol. II. p. 563.

3. He is all in all, though all this world is not the omnipresent Himself. He is one alone and is not termed the all that is visible (to us). So Fichte: God is infinite and embraces the finite, but the finite can not encompass the Infinite. Lewis vol. II. p. 573.

4. It is this Intellect which is in Siva, that wears the cusp of the moon in his crest; the same is in Vishnu that rides on his eagle Garuda, and in Brahmá that is born of the lotus. The sun also is a particle of this Intellect (but they are not the self-same Intellect themselves).

5. Ráma rejoined:—So it is; and even boys say this also, that if the whole world is mere Intelligence (_chetana mátrakam_); then why call it by another name (as the world), and what is the use of giving admonition of it to anybody (when every one is full of intelligence).

6. Vasishtha replied:—If you have known the mere Intellect (_Chinmátram_), to be the same with the intelligent world (_chetana viswa_), you have then known nothing for getting rid of this world.

7. The world is verily intelligent, O Ráma (with the mundane soul); but the animal soul (_Jíva_) is called _pasu_ or brutish observer of things pasyati, on account of its looking after sensual gratifications only as brutes, and giving rise only to the fears of disease, decay and death (from its love of itself, and care for self-preservation).

8. The animal soul (_Jíva_), though an incorporeal substance, is an ignorant thing and subject to pain and sorrow. The mind _manas_ also, though it is capable of intelligence—_chetaníyam_, has become the root of all evils. (_i.e._ With its power of intellection and nature of intelligence (_chetanam_), it is yet ever inclined to the wrong side by itself).

9. Intellectual liberation (_chetya mukta_) from thoughts of the world, is one state (of the soul), and unintelligent gazing (_unmukhatá_) at it, is another. He who knows the better of these two the states of the soul, has no cause of sorrow (_i.e._ the rational from the irrational soul).

10. He who has seen the all surpassing Supreme Being, has his heartstrings all cut asunder, and the doubts of his mind all driven away. The sequences of his acts are washed away (and leave no fear of his transmigration).

11. The longing after perceptibles (_Chetyas_) does not cease, unless the perception of the visibles is effaced from the mind.

12. How then is this perception to be effaced? How is it possible to have a longing after the unintelligible Intelligence, without suppression of our longing for the visibles? It is only to be effected by avoiding the external perceptions of the mind.

13. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, where and how is that vacuous soul called pasu, by the knowledge of which no one can get rid of his transmigration (_i.e._ the worshippers of the _jívátmá_ or animal soul called _jívavádis_, are not entitled to their final liberation—_mukti_).

14. Tell me also, who is that man, who by his company with the good and study of good works, has gone over the ocean of the world, and beholds the Supreme soul in himself.

15. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever animal souls being cast in the wilderness of this life, long after this intelligent soul (_chetanátman_), they are truly wise, and know him (in themselves).

16. Whoso believes the animal soul as the life of the world (or mundane soul), and thinks (the knowledge of the) Intelligence to be attended with pain only, he can never know Him anywhere (in this world).

17. If the Supreme soul be known to us, O Ráma! the string of our woes is put to an end, like the fatal cholera after termination of its cholic pain or extraction of its poison.

18. Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman! the true form of the Supreme soul, by light of which the mind may escape from all its errors.

19. Vasishtha replied:—The Supreme soul is seen in the same way in ourselves and within our bodies, as we are conscious of our minds to be seated within us, after its flight to distant countries.

20. Our notion of the Supreme spirit is often lost in the depth of our minds, in the same way, as the existence of the outer world (objective knowledge), becomes extinct in our consciousness in yoga meditation.

21. It is He in whose knowledge we lose our sense of the beholder and visibles, and who is an invacuous vacuum or a substantive vacuity himself. (_i.e._ Who being known, we forget our knowledge both of the subjective and objective, and view his unity as the only _to on_ or substratum of all). So Fichte: In thee, the Incomprehensible, does my own existence, and that of the world become comprehensible to me. Lewis. Phil. vol. II. P. 563.

22. He whose substance appears as the vacuum, and in whom subsists the vacuous plenum of the universe; and who appears as vacuity itself, notwithstanding the plenitude of his creation subsisting in him, is verily the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

23. Who though full of intelligence, appears to stand as an unconscious huge rock before us; and who though quite subtile in his nature, seems as some gross body to our conception: such is the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

24. That which encompasses the inside and outside of every thing, and assumes the name and nature of the very thing to itself, is verily the form of the Supreme (that you want to know).

25. As light is connected with sunshine and vacuity with the firmament and as Omnipresence is present with every thing and every where: such is the form of the Supreme spirit (that you want to know).

26. Ráma asked:—But how are we to understand that He who bears the name and nature of absolute and infinite reality should yet be compressed within any thing visible in the world, which is quite impossible to believe?

27. Vasishtha replied:—The erroneous conception of the creation of the world, resembles the false impression of colours in the clear sky; wherefore it is wrong, O Ráma! to take a thing as real, of which there is an absolute privation in nature.

28. It is the knowledge of Brahma that constitutes his form, or else there is no act of his whereby he may be known to us (the universe being but a development of himself). He is entirely devoid of any visible form, and therefore there is no better course for any one than to know him as truth.

29. After an absolute negation of the visibles comes to be known (_i.e._ after disappearance of the traces of phenomenals from the mind), there remains a pre-eminent object of conception, which is inborn and manifest of itself.

30. This concept (of the Super-eminent) has oftentimes no reflexion, owing to its having no visible appearance; and at others it is not without its reflexion on the mirror of the mind (which has received its image).

31. No body has ever conceived this transcendent verity in himself, who has not at the same time been convinced of the impossibility of the existence of the visible world. (_i.e._ Conviction of the nullity of the phenomenal alone, leads to the perception of the Reality).

32. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage! how the existence of so many extensive worlds composing the visible Universe, can be thought of as unreal, or comprised in the _chinmátram_ (or minutiae of the divine mind), as the mount Meru in the sesamum seed.

33. Vasishtha replied:—If you will but stay a few days in the company of holy men, and study the sacred Sástras with a steady mind with me:

34. Then I will purge away this false view of the visibles from your understanding, like the delusive mirage from one’s sight. This absence of the view will extinguish your sense of being the viewer, and restore you to your intelligence alone.

35. When the viewer is united with the view, and the view with the viewer, there then turns out an unity of the duality, and the duality blends into an inseparable unity.

36. Without union of the two there is no success of either; and this union of both the viewer and the view having disappeared at last, there remains an only one unity (which is indissoluble).[2]

37. I will now cleanse away the dross of all your sense of egoism and tuism, with that of the world and all other things from the mirror of your mind, by bringing you to your consciousness of self, and total negation of every thing besides.

38. From nothing never comes a something, nor from something ever proceeds a nothing; and there is no difficulty whatever in removing what does not exist in nature (_i.e._ That a nil is nil is self evident, and no argument is required to prove it so).

39. This world which appears so very vast and extensive, was not in being at the beginning. It resided in the pure spirit of Brahma, and was evolved from the mind (_Chitta_) of Brahmá.

40. The thing called the world was never produced, nor is it in being nor in actual appearance. It is as the form of a bracelet in gold, which it is not difficult to alter and reduce to its gross metallic state.

41. I will explain it fully by other reasons, whereby this truth may appear of itself, and impress irresistibly in your mind.

42. How can that be said to have its being, which was not brought into being before, and how can there be a rivulet in the mirage, or the ring of an eclipse in the moon?

43. As a barren woman has no son nor a mirage any water in it; and as the firmament has no plant growing in it, so there is no such thing which we erroneously call the world.

44. Whatever you see, O Ráma! is the indestructible Brahma himself: this I have many times shown you with good reasons, and not in mere words (as my _ipse dixit_ only).

45. It is unreasonable, O intelligent Ráma! to disregard what a learned man speaks to you with good reasons; because the dull-headed fellow who neglects to listen to the words of reason and wisdom, is deemed as a fool, and is subject to all sorts of difficulties. CHAPTER VIII. NATURE OF GOOD SÁSTRAS.

Ráma asked:—How can it be reasonably shewn and established, that there is nothing to be known and seen in this world, although we have evident notions of it supported by sense and right reasoning?

2. Vasishtha answered:—It is from a long time, that this endemic of the fallacious knowledge (of the reality of the world), is prevalent (among mankind); and it is by means of true knowledge only that this wrong application of the word world, can be removed from the mind.

3. I will tell you a story, Ráma! for your success in (the attainment of) this knowledge; if you will but attend to it, you will become both intelligent and emancipate.

4. But if from the impatience of your nature like that of brute creatures, you get up and go away after hearing half of this (narrative), you shall then reap no benefit from it.

5. Whoever seeks some object and strives after it, he of course succeeds in getting the same; but if he become tired of it he fails therein.

6. If you will betake yourself, Ráma! to the company of the good and study of good Sástras, you will surely arrive at your state of perfection in course of a few days or mouths, according to the degree of your diligence.

7. Ráma said:—O you, that are best acquainted with the Sástras, tell me which is the best Sástra for the attainment of spiritual knowledge, and a conversancy with which may release us from the sorrows of this life.

8. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O high minded Ráma! this work (the Vásishtha Sanhitá) to be the best of all others on spiritual knowledge. It is the auspicious Great Rámáyana and the Sástra of sástras.

9. The Rámáyana is the best of histories, and serves to enlighten the understanding. It is known as containing the essence of all histories.

10. But by hearing these doctrines one easily finds his liberation coming of itself to him; wherefore it is reckoned as the most holy record.

11. All the existing scenes of the world will vanish away upon their mature consideration; as the thoughts occurring in a dream, are dispersed upon the knowledge of the dreaming state after waking.

12. Whatever there is in this work, may be found in others also, but what is not found here, cannot be found elsewhere (in other works); and therefore the learned call it the thesaurus (_sanhitá_) or store-house (of philosophy).

13. Whoever attends to these lectures every day, shall have his excellent understanding undoubtedly stored with transcendent knowledge of divinity day by day.

14. He who feels this Sástra disagreeable to his vitiated taste, may take a fancy to the perusal of some other sástra that is more wordy and eloquent.

15. One feels himself liberated in this life by the hearing of these lectures, just as one finds himself healed of a disease by a potion of some efficacious medicine.

16. The attentive hearer of these sermons, perceives their efficacy in himself, in the same way as one feels the effects of the curses or blessings pronounced upon him which never go for nothing (but have their full effects in time).

17. All worldly miseries are at an end with him, who considers well these spiritual lectures within himself, and which is hard to be effected by charities and austerities, or performance of the acts ordained in the _srautá_ or ceremonial vedas, or by hundreds of practices in obedience to the ordinances appointed by them. CHAPTER IX. ON THE SUPREME CAUSE OF ALL. (PARAMA KÁRANA).

Vasishtha continued:—

They are truly delighted and gratified (in their souls), who are ever devoted with all their hearts and minds in holy conversation among themselves.

2. Those that are devoted to the acquisition of knowledge and investigation of spiritual science, enjoy the same bliss of liberation in their living state, as it is said to attend on disembodied souls.

3. Ráma said:—Tell me O Bráhman! the distinct natures of the living and disembodied liberations, that I may try to learn the same, with an understanding enlightened by the light of Sástras (literally, having the eye-sight of Sástras).

4. Vasishtha said:—Who ever remains as he is (_i.e._ without any perturbation in his worldly course), and continues intact as vacuity amidst society: such a one is called the living liberated (Jívan mukta).

5. Who so is employed in his intellection only and seems to be sleeping in his waking state, though while conducting his worldly affairs: such a one is called the living liberated.

6. Whose countenance is neither flushed nor dejected in pleasure or pain (in joy or grief and such other reverses); and who remains contented with what he gets: such a one is called liberated while he is living.

7. Whose waking is as a state of sound sleep, and who is not awake to the accidents of the waking state, and whose waking state is insensible of the desires incident to it: such a one is called liberated in his life.

8. Who though actuated by the feelings of affection, enmity, fear and the like, is at rest, and as clear and undisturbed as vacuity within himself: such a one is called liberated while he is alive.

9. Who has not an air of pride in him, and is not conceited (with a notion of his greatness) when he does or refrains to do anything: such a one is called self-liberated in his life time.

10. Who at one glance or winking of his eye, has a full view of the whole creation and final destruction of the world, like the Supreme self (to which he is assimilated): such a one is said to be liberated in his life time.

11. Who ever is not feared by nor is afraid of any body, and who is freed from the emotions of joy, anger and fear: such a one is liberated in life.

12. Who is quiet and quietly disposes his business of this world, and who though he stands as an individual in the sight of men, attaches no individuality to himself; and who though a sentient being, is insensible to all impressions: such is the living liberated soul.

13. Who being full of all possessions, and having every thing present before him, remains cold and apathetic to them, as if they were useless to him: such a man is liberated in his life.

14. Now leaving the subject of “living liberation,” I will tell you what they call the “disembodied liberation,” which like a breath of wind enters into the soul, after it has fled from the mortal body.

15. The disembodied free spirit neither rises nor sets (like the sun), nor is it subject to wane (like the moon); it is neither manifest nor hidden; it is not at a distance, nor is it in me, thee or in any other person.

16. It shines forth in the form of the sun, and preserves the world in the manner of Vishnu. It creates the world in the shape of the lotus-born Brahmá, and destroys all as Rudra or Siva.

17. It takes the form of the sky supported on the shoulders of air, which supports all living beings, the gods, sages and demigods in the three worlds. It takes the form of boundary mountains and separates the different regions (of the earth and skies).

18. It becomes the earth and supports these numerous sets of beings, it takes the forms of trees, plants and grass, and yields fruits and grains for supportance (of all living creatures).

19. It takes the forms of fire and water and burns and melts in them by itself. It sheds ambrosia in the form of the moon, and causes death in the shape of poison.

20. It becomes light wherewith it fills the space of the firmament, and spreads darkness in the form of Erebus (_tama or Teom_). It becomes vacuum (_vyom or beom_) to leave empty space for all, while in the form of hills it obstructs their free passage on earth.

21. In the form of the fleet mind, it moves the self-moving animals, and in that of dull matter it settles the unmoving immovables. It girds the earth by its form of the ocean, as a bracelet encircles the arm.

22. The bodiless spirit takes upon it the great body of the sun, and illumes all the worlds with their minute particles, while it remains quiet in itself.

23. Whatever is shining in this universe or ever was or is to be so, in any of the three—past, present and future times, know them all O Ráma! as forms of the Divine Spirit (which is free to take any shape it likes).

24. Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman! why this view of liberation, appears so very difficult to me, as to make me believe it altogether incomprehensible to and unattainable by any body.

25. Vasishtha replied:—This (disembodied) liberation is called _nirvána_ or total extinction of self-consciousness, and is styled Brahma also (in whom the human soul is finally absorbed). Attend now to the means of its attainment.

26. All such visible objects known as I, thou, this &c., being unproduced (_anutpanna_) from the eternal _sat_ or entity of God, it is impossible to have any conception of them in our minds.[3]

27. Ráma said:—Methinks, O best of them that know the knowable! that the bodiless souls of the liberated, when they pass through the bounds of the three worlds, have again to be born according to the course of nature.

28. Vasishtha replied:—Those that retain the reminiscence of the three worlds have to move about in them, but such as have lost the idea of their existence, are absorbed in infinity.

29. For how can one derive the knowledge of the unity of God from his belief in the duality of the separate existence of the world? Therefore the figurative sense of cosmos as God (_Viswa_) can not give the spiritual and infinite idea of Brahma.

30. He is no other but himself, of the nature of pure intellect, and of the form of the clear and tranquil vacuum (that pervades all things). Brahma is said to be the world, to signify his manifestation of its unreality as a reality unto us.

31. I have well considered about a golden bracelet, and found nothing as a bracelet in it save its gold. (The form is changeable, but the substance is real).

32. I observed the billows, and found nothing in them but water; and where there was no water I saw no billow to rise. (It is the substance and not its shape or shadow that is to be looked into).

33. I see no oscillation any where except in the winds, which are no other than this force in motion, and moving all things in the world. (Thus the spirit of God is the fountain or _primum mobile_ of all forces, which are but forms of the main force).

34. As vacuity abides in air, and water appears in the burning deserts, and as there is light spread over all creation; so is the spirit of Brahma manifest in the three worlds in the forms of the very worlds.

35. Ráma said:—Tell me, O sage! the cause which makes this world with its nature of absolute negation or non-existence, to exhibit such distinct appearances in its phenomena.

36. Tell me also, how the viewer and the view (of these worlds) being both extinct (as they are equally unreal in their nature), there remains their _nirvána_ or absorption in the Deity without their personalities.

37. Again as it is impossible to conceive the existence of the visible objects, say how is it possible to conceive the existence of the invisible Brahma in his own nature (of incomprehensibility).

38. Say by what mode of reasoning this truth may be known and ascertained, and this being accomplished, there remains nothing else to be inquired into.

39. Vasishtha replied:—This false knowledge or prejudice of the reality of the world, has been long prevalent like a chronic disease (among mankind); and requires to be removed by the specific charm (mantra) of reasoning only.

40. It can not however be expelled quickly and in a minute, but requires length of time, like the ascent and descent of an even sided precipice.

41. Therefore hearken to what I say, for dispelling your fallacy of the world, by means of arguments, logical inferences, and habitual meditation (about the nature of God).

42. Attend now Ráma! to a tale that I am to tell you for your attainment of this knowledge, and by the hearing of which you will become intelligent, wise and liberated.

43. I will even now relate to you the subject of the production of the world, in order to show you, that all that is produced serves to bind our souls to the earth, and that you may live quite free from the same.

44. I will tell you at present under this topic of creation, that the erroneous conception of the world is as unsubstantial as Vacuum itself. (_i.e._ All this is null and void).

45. Because this world which appears to contain these moving and unmoving beings, and abounds in various races of gods, Asura—giants and Kinnara—pigmies.

46. All these together with the Rudras and other demigods, become invisible and lose themselves in nothing at the ultimate dissolution of the world. (This final disappearance _tirobháva_ of all things, proves their present appearance _ávirbháva_ to be mere phantoms of our brain. Gloss).

47. Then there remains a moist and hollow deep, without light and thick spread with mist; all undefinable and undeveloped, save something which is Real and lasts for ever.

48. There was no air nor form of any thing, no sight nor any thing to be seen. There were not these multitudes of created and material beings, that appear to be endless and everlasting to view.

49. There was a nameless self, the fullest of the full in its form; it was no _ens_ nor _non ens_, no entity nor non-entity, no reality nor unreality neither.

50. It was mere intellect without its intellection, infinite without decay, auspicious and full of bliss. It was without its beginning, middle and end, eternal and imperishable.

51. In him this world is manifest as a pearly goose in painting; He is and yet is not this (creation), and is the soul of both what is real as well as unreal. (_Sadasadátman_).

52. He is without ears, tongue, nose, eyes and touch, yet he hears, tastes, smells, sees and feels every thing in all places and at all times.

53. He is also that (intellectual) light (_chidáloka_), whereby the form of that real as well as unreal Being—_sadasadátma_ is discerned by us in his perspective of creation, as one without beginning or end, and presenting a representation that is without any colour or shade.

[4]54. He is that vacuous Soul who views the worlds as clearly, as the yogi beholds Him in the form of ineffable light, with his half closed eyes, and fixing his sight to the midst of his eyebrows (in his _khecharí mudrá_ or aerial mode of meditation).

55. He is the cause of all, and whose cause is as _nil_ as the horns of a hare; and whose works are all these worlds, like so many waves of the sea.

56. His light is ever shining every where, and he has his seat in the human heart; and it is from the candle light of his intellect, that all the worlds derive their light.

57. It is He without whose light the sun would dwindle into darkness; and whose existence alone gives the world its appearance of a mirage.

58. It is his pulsation that vibrates throughout the universe, and it is his inertia that stops the course of the whole; it is on that pivot that the world has its revolution, just as the turning round of a fire brand describes a circle.

59. His nature is pure and unchangeable; and the works of creation and destruction, are mere acts of his volition (_Vilása_), in the persons of Brahma and Hara.

60. It is his _inertia_ and force that gives rest and motion to all things, like the ubiquious course of the winds. But this is the common belief that he moves, while in reality his nature is free from all mutability (like the immovable rock).

61. He is always awake in his ever sleeping state, and therefore can neither be said to be waking nor sleeping any where or at any time, but is both awake and asleep every where and at all times.[5]

62. His quiescence is attended with bliss and tranquillity, and his agitation puts the world in motion and in its course of action; which is said to remain unaltered in both states which unite in him.

63. He is inherent in all things as fragrance is innate in the flower, and is indestructible as its odour at the destruction of the flower. He pervades all things, and is yet as intangible as the whiteness of linen.

64. Who though speechless, is the author of all speech and sound, and who though he appears to be as incogitant as a stone, is full of cogitation (being the intellect itself). Who though fully satisfied with his bliss, enjoys all things, although he requires nothing for himself.

65. Who though bodiless actuates all the members of the body; and is attributed with a thousand arms and eyes (in the Veda); and who having no support for himself, is yet the support of all, and pervades the whole without being seated any where.

66. Who having no organs nor organic power, is the organ of organs, and performs the functions of innumerable organs; and who without a sensorial mind, exhibits endless designs of his Divine mind in the infinity of creation.

67. It is for want of our (knowledge) of him, that we are in constant dread of this delusive world as in that of a dragon or hydra; but it is at his sight (or by our knowledge of him), that all our fears and desires fly away afar from us.

68. It is in the presence of the clear light of that God of Truth, that all the wishes of our minds have a better play, just as actors dance the best as long as they have the lights.

69. It is by him that a hundred series of visible objects (as pots and plates—_ghata-patádí_), rise every moment to our view, like the ceaseless series of waves, billows and surges rising on the surface of the waters.

70. It is he that exhibits himself otherwise than what he is, in hundreds of different shapes to our mistaken minds, as the substance of gold is made to appear to our view in the various forms of bracelets, armlets, and a hundred other sorts of trinkets.

71. He who manifests himself as the soul, abiding in me, thee and in this or that person, and is neither myself, thyself, himself nor itself, is the Supreme soul or Self, that is the same with and apart from all.

72. It is he and the self-same being, whether you view him in one or more objects, as it is the same water that heaves itself in this one or the other wave. Thus all visible phenomena have their rise from him.

73. He from whom time has its counting and the visibles have their view; by whom the mind exercises its thinking powers, and by whose light the world is enlightened; is the Supreme.

74. Whatever forms, figures and their actions, whatsoever flavours and odours, and what sounds, touch, feelings and perceptions soever, you are sensible of, know them all and their cause also to be the Supreme.

75. You will be able to know your soul, O good Ráma! if you will take it in the light of the sight or faculty of vision, that lies between the looker and the object looked upon.

76. Know it as increate and indestructible, and without beginning and end. It is the eternal and everlasting Brahma and bliss itself. It is immaculate and infallible, highly adorable and unblamable in its nature. It is beyond all description and a mere void in its form. It is the cause of causes and a notion of something that is unknowable. It is the understanding, and the inward faculty of the intellect or the mind. (_i.e._ It is a spiritual substance and must be known in the spirit). CHAPTER X. DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAOTIC STATE.

Ráma said:—That which remains incident to the Universal dissolution (_mahá-pralaya_), is commonly designated by the term “formless void.”

2. How then said you, there was no void, and how could there be no light nor darkness neither?

3. How could it be without the intellect and the living principle, and how could the entities of the mind and understanding be wanting in it?

4. How could there be nothing and not all things? Such like paradoxical expressions of yours, have created much confusion in me.

5. Vasishtha said:—You have raised a difficult extra-question, Ráma! but I shall have no difficulty to solve it, as the sun is at no pains to dispel the nocturnal gloom.

6. On the occasion or the termination of a great _kalpa age_, when there remains That Entity (the _Tat sat_) of God, it cannot be said to be a void, as I will now explain to you. Attend Ráma and hear.

7. Like images carved in bas-relief upon a pillar, was this world situated _in relievo_ of That Entity, and cannot be said to have been a void.[6]

8. Again when there was the representation of the plenitude under the appellation of the world at any place (in the essence of God), and be it real or unreal, it could not have been a void and vacuity.

9. As a pillar with carved or painted figures, cannot be said to be devoid of them; so Brahma exhibiting the worlds contained in him, can not become a void. (_i.e._ As a pillar is not devoid of figures which has carved images on it; so Brahma is not a void, having the worlds contained in him. This is a negative enthymem).

10. But the world contained in Brahma, becomes both something and nothing; as billows in calm waters may either exist or not exist. (So the appearance and disappearance of the worlds in Brahma, like those of the little billows in a quiet lake, prove their existence and non-existence at the same time, as it is predicated of the Chaos or the _Mahápralaya_. Gloss).[7]

11. Again it happens that certain figures are marked on some insensible trees in some places by the hand of time, which people mistake for images; so it comes to pass that certain figures of evanescent matter, occur in the eternal mind, which men mistake for the real world.

12. This comparison of the figured pillar and tree and the world, is a partial and not complete simile; the similitude here referring only to the situation of the transient world in the substance of the permanent Brahma (like the appearance of false figures in the firmly fixed pillar and on the standing tree).

13. But this appearance of the world is not caused by another (as in the case of the pillar, figures and pictures carved and painted by the hands of the statuary and painter). It rises, lasts and sets spontaneously and of itself in the self-same essence of Brahma (as the figures in the tree or the waves of the Ocean). It is the property of the divine soul and mind to raise and set such imageries in them by turns, like the creations of our imagination.[8]

14. The meaning of the word void (_súnya_) instead of no void (_asúnya_) or existence, is a fiction as false as inanity is a nullity in nature. Something must come out of something, and never from a void nothing; and how can nothing be reduced to nothing in the end—_mahápralaya_ (_súnyatá súnyate katham_)? (_Ex nihilo nihil fit, et in nihilum nihil reverti posse_).

15. In answer to your second question it has been said “there was darkness neither.” Because the divine light of Brahma (which existed before creation), was not like the light of a material luminary (which is followed by darkness). The everlasting light was not to be obscured by darkness, like the sunshine, or moon-light or the blazing of fire or the twinkling of stars or our eyes.

16. It is the absence of the light of the great celestial luminaries, that is called darkness, and there being no material property in the immaterial essence of God, there could be no such light or darkness with him before creation.

17. The light of the vacuous Brahma is an internal perception of the soul, and is only felt and perceived within one’s self, and never externally by any body; nor is this spiritual light ever clouded by any mist or darkness of temporal objects.

18. The indestructible Brahma is beyond and free from external and visible light and darkness; and is above the region of vacuum which is contained, as it were, within his bosom, and contains the universe as sheathed within its hollow womb.

19. As there is no difference between the outside and inside of a fruit (both of which is the same thing); so there is no shade of difference betwixt Brahma and the universe (the one pervading and the other pervaded by his spirit).

20. As the billow is contained in and composed of the water and the pot of the earth, so the world being contained in Brahma, it can not be said as null and void, but full of the spirit of God.

21. The comparison of earth and water does not agree corporeally with the spiritual essence of God, whose vacuous spirit contains and comprises the whole (_Visva_) within itself, as those elements do their component parts and productions.

22. Now as the sphere of the intellect is clearer and brighter far than the spheres of air and empty space; so the sense and idea of the word world as situated in the divine mind, is clearer in a far greater degree than this visible world appears to us.

23. (In answer to the third question with regard to the want of intellect), it is said thus:—As the pungency of pepper is perceived by one who tastes it, and not by him who has never tasted it; so the minutiae of the Intellect are known in the intellectual sphere by a cultivated intelligence, and by none who is without it.

24. Thus the Intellect appears as no intellect to one who is devoid of intelligence in himself (_i.e._ one having the Intellect, does not perceive it without a cultivated understanding). So this world is seen in the spirit of God or otherwise, according as one has cultivated or neglected his spiritual knowledge.

25. The world as it is, is seen either in its outward figure or in a spiritual light, as other than or the same with Brahma (by the materialist and spiritualist); but the Yogi views it in its fourth (_turíya_) state of _susupta_ or utter extinction in his unconscious soul.

26. Therefore the Yogi, though leading a secular life, remains somnolent (_Susupta_) in his soul, and tranquil (_Sánta_) in his mind. He lives like Brahma unknown to and unnoticed by others, and though knowing all and full of thoughts in himself, he is as a treasury of Knowledge, unknown to the rest of mankind.

27. (In answer to the question how corporeal beings could proceed from the incorporeal Brahma). Vasishtha says:—As waves of various shapes rise and fall in the still and shapeless breast of the sea, so innumerable worlds of various forms, float about in the unaltered and formless vacuity of Brahma’s bosom.

28. From the fullness of the Divine soul (_Brahmátmá_), proceeds the fullness of the living soul (_Jívátmá_), which is formless also (_nirákriti_). This aspect of Brahma is said to be owing to the purpose of manifesting himself (as living in all living beings).

29. So the totality of worlds proceeding from the _plenum_ of Brahma, there remains the same sum total also as the plenitude of Brahma himself.

30. Considering the world as synonymous with Brahma in our minds, we find their identity (in the same manner), as one finds by taste the pepper and its pungency to be the same thing.

31. Such being the state of the unreality of the mind and its cognizables, their reflexions upon each other (_i.e._ of the mind upon the object and those of the object on the mind), are equally untrue as the shadow of a shadow. (Here is an utter negation of perception and perceptibles. There being no material subtratum, the shadowy scene of the world is a mere mental synthesis. Berkeley).[9]

32. Know Brahma to be smaller than the smallest atom, and minutest of minutest particles. He is purer than air, and more tranquil than the subtile ether which is embosomed in him.

33. Unbounded by space and time, his form is the most extensive of all. He is without beginning and end, and an ineffable light without brightness in it. (He is the light of lights).

34. He is of the form of intellect—_chit_ and life eternal, without the conditions and accidents of vitality—_jívatá_. The Divine Mind has its will eternal, and is devoid of the desires of finite minds—_chittata_.

35. Without the rise of the intellect (_i.e._ its development), there is neither vitality nor understanding, no intellection nor any organic action or sensation, and no mental desire or feeling whatever (all of which are but products of the intellect or Ego).

36. Hence the Being that is full of these powers (and without which no power has its display), and who is without decline or decay, is seen by us to be seated in his state of tranquil vacuity, and is rarer than the rarefied vacuum of the etherial regions.

37. Ráma said:—Tell me again and more precisely of the form of this transcendental Being, who is of the nature of infinite intelligence, and which may give more light to my understanding.

38. Vasistha said:—I have told you repeatedly, that there is one supreme Brahma, the cause of causes, who remains alone by himself, when the universe is finally dissolved or absorbed in him. Hear me describe Him fully to you.

39. That which the Yogi sees within himself after forgetting his personality, and repressing the faculties and functions of his mind, in his _Samádhi_—meditation, is verily the form of the unspeakable Being.

40. As the Yogi who is absorbed in his meditation in absence of the visible world, and in privation of the viewer and visibles, and sees the light shining in himself, even such is the form of that Being.

41. Who having forgotten the nature of the living soul—_jíva_, and his proclivity towards the intelligibles, remains in the pure light and tranquil state of his intellect (as in Yoga), such is the form of the Supreme Spirit.

42. He who has no feeling of the breathing of the winds, or of the touch or pressure of any thing upon his body; but lives as a mass of intelligence in this life; is verily the form of the Supreme.

43. Again that state of the mind, which a man of sense enjoys in his long and sound sleep, that is undisturbed by dreams and gnats, is verily the form of the Supreme.

44. That which abides in the hearts of vacuum, air and stone, and is the intellect of all inanimate beings, is the form of the Supreme.

45. Again whatever irrational and insensible beings live by nature, as without the soul and mind (as vegetables and minerals), the tranquil state of their existence is the nature of the Supreme Soul.

46. That which is seated in the midst of the intellectual light of the soul, and what is situated in the midst of the etherial light of the sun, and that which is in the midst of our visual light, is verily the form of the Supreme. (This passage admits of an occult interpretation in the Yoga system).

47. The soul which is the witness of our knowledge, of solar and visual lights and darkness, is without beginning and end, and is the form of the Supreme.

48. He who manifests this world to us, and keeps himself hidden from view, be he the same with or distinct from the world, is the form of the Supreme.

49. Who though full of activity, is sedate as a rock, and who though not a vacuum (being the plenum of all), appears yet as an empty vacuity, such is the form of the Supreme.

50. He who is the source and terminus of our triple consciousness of the knower, known and knowledge (_i.e._ from whom they rise and in whom they set by turns); is most difficult of attainment.

51. He who shines forth with the lustre of the triple conditions of the knowable, knower and their knowledge, and shows them to us as a large insensible mirror, is verily the form of the Supreme, who is here represented not as the cause—_nimitta_, but as the source—_vivarta_ of the triple category.

52. The mind that is liberated from bodily activities (as in the waking _Jagrat_ state) from its dreaming (as in the _swapna_ or sleeping state), and is concentrated in the intellect (as in the state of _susupti_ or sound sleep), and abides alike in all moving as well as unmoving bodies (as in the _turíya_ or fourth state of the soul), is said to remain in the end of our being.

53. The intelligent mind which is as fixed as an immovable body, and freed from the exercise of its faculties, is comparable with the Divine Mind.[10] CHAPTER XI. SPIRITUAL VIEW OF CREATION.

Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman, wherein this world abides at its last dissolution, when it does not retain its present form, nor this resplendent show (as we see in it now).

2. Vasishtha answered:—Tell me, Ráma, what is the form of the barren woman’s son, and wherefrom he comes and where he goes, tell me also from where comes the sky-arbour (aerial castle), and where it remains.

3. Ráma replied:—There never was, nor is, nor ever will be the son of a barren woman or an arbour in the sky; why then ask about the form and figure of what is nothing?

4. Vasishtha said:—As there never was a barren woman’s son or a forest in the air, so there existed no such scene as that of the world before.

5. That which has no existence at all, could have neither its production before, nor can it have its dissolution afterwards. What shall I then tell you regarding its genesis or exit.

6. Ráma rejoined:—The son of a barren woman and a forest in the sky are mere fictions, but the visible world is not so, which has both its beginning and end.

7. Vasishtha replied:—It is hard to have a comparison of the compared object, agreeing in all respects with what it is compared. The comparison of the world, is as a simile of those objects, which admit of no comparison (but with themselves).

8. The appearance of the world, is compared with that of a bracelet, because the one is as false as the other, and neither of them is real.

9. And as there is nothing in the sky except a negative emptiness, so the existence of the world in Brahma, is but a negative idea.

10. As the collyrium is no other than blackness, and as there is no difference between frost and its coldness, so the world is not otherwise than the great Brahma himself.

11. As coldness can not be negatived of the moon and frost, so creation can not be negated of God. (Literally, creation is no negative property of Brahma, but essential to his nature).

12. As there is no water in a sea of the mirage, nor light in the new moon, so this world, as it is, does not abide in the pure spirit of God (in its gross state).

13. That which did not exist at first owing to its want of a cause, has neither its existence at present, nor can it be destroyed (when it is a _nil_ itself).

14. How is it possible for a dull material object to have any other cause but a material one; just as it is not the light (but some solid substance), that is the cause of a shadow.

15. But as none of these works, has come into existence without some cause, that cause whatever it is, is situated in these productions of it: (_i.e._ the author is displayed in his works).

16. Whatever appears as ignorance or delusion (as this world), has some appearance of intelligence or truth (of the Divinity) in it, as the delusion of the world seen in a dream, is the effect of the intellect within us. (Consciousness is awake in our dreams also).

17. As the illusion of the world in a dream, is not without our inward consciousness of it, in like manner Brahma was not unconscious of the expansion of the world, at the beginning of creation.

18. All this that we behold about us, is situated in the divine soul (in the same manner as the visions in our dreams, are but archetypes of our souls); there is no other world that rises and sets (but what is imprinted in our minds).

19. As fluidity is another name for water, and fluctuation the same with wind; and as sunshine is no other than light, so the world is naught but Brahma (displayed in nature).

20. As the figure of a city, resides in the inward intellect of one, who is conscious of his dreaming, in the same manner this world, is displayed in the Supreme soul.

21. Ráma said:—If it is so, then tell me, O Bráhman! whence is this our belief of its substantiality, and how this unreal and visionary _ideal_, presents its baneful visible aspect unto us.

22. For the view being in existence, there must be its viewer also, and when there is the viewer, there is the view likewise. As long as either of these is in existence, there is our bondage, and it is on the disappearance of both, that our liberation chiefly depends: (which can hardly take place).

23. It is entirely impossible to be so, as long as our notion of the view, is not lost in our minds, for unless the view is vanished both from the vision of the eyes and mind, no one can even form an idea of liberation in his mind.

24. Again the representation of the view at first, and its obliteration afterwards, is not enough for our liberation, because the remembrance of the view, is bondage of the soul.

25. Moreover when the picture of the view, is settled in the soul, and reflected in the mirror of the mind, there is no necessity of its recollection (for what is deeply rooted in the soul, comes out of itself).

26. The intellect which was without the notion of the visibles at first, would be entitled to liberation, were it not owing to the nature of the viewer (to imbibe the ideas of visibles).

27. Now sir, please to remove by your reasoning, my hopelessness of liberation, which I ween, is unattainable by any.

28. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, Ráma! explain to you in length, how the unreal world with all its contents, appears as real to us.

29. For unless it is explained to you by my reasoning, and the narratives and instances (of the practice of others), this doubt will not subside in your breast, as dirt sets down in the lake.

30. Then Ráma, you will be able to conduct yourself on earth, as one under assurance of the erroneous conception of the creation and existence of the world.

31. You will then remain as a rock against the impressions of affluence and want, and of gain and loss, and your relation with whatever, is fleeting or lasting and the like.

32. Mind, that there is that only one spirit, which is self-existent, and all besides is mere fiction. I will now tell you, how the triple world was produced and formed.

33. It was from Him, that all these beings have come to existence; while He of himself, is all and every thing in it. He likewise appears to us and disappears also, both as forms and their appearances, and as the mind and its faculties, and as figures and their shapes, and as modes and motions of all things. CHAPTER XII. THE IDEALISTIC THEO-COSMOGONY OF VEDÁNTA.

Vasishtha said:—

From the state of perfect quiescence and tranquillity of the supremely Holy spirit, the universe rose to being in the manner, which you must hear with your best understanding and attention.

2. As sound sleep displays itself in visionary dreams, so does Brahma manifest himself in the works of creation, of which he is the soul and receptacle: (_i.e._ who contains and forms and enlivens the whole).

3. The world, which of its nature is continually progressive in its course, is identic with the essence of that Being, whose form is selfsame with the ineffable glory of his eternally gemming Intellect (_chin-mani_).

4. This _chit_ or Intellect, then (_i.e._ after its inert quiescence), gets of itself an intellection (_chetyá_) in itself, before assuming to itself consciousness or the knowledge of egoism. (This is the first stage of the percipient soul).

5. Then this thinking Intellect (_chetya-chit_), gets the notions (_bodhas_) of some faint images (_úhita-rúpas_), which are purer and lighter than air, and which have received their names and forms afterwards. (The innate ideas are born in it before the embryonic mind or soul).

6. Afterwards this transcendent essence (Intellect), becomes an intelligent principle (_sacheta_), and eager for intelligence (_chetana_). It is now worthy of its name as Intellect or _chit_, on account of its attaining to what is called intelligence.

7. Lastly it takes the form of gross consciousness (_ghana-samvedana_), and receives the name of the living soul—_jíva_. It now loses its divine nature by reflecting on itself: (_i.e._ its own personality).

8. This living principle, is then involved in thoughts relating to the world only; but depends by its nature on the divine essence: (as the fallacy of the snake, depends on the substance of the rope).[11]

9. Afterwards there rises a void space into being, called _Kham—vacuum_ (Arabic _Kháviyetun_), which is the seed or source of the property of sound, and which became expressive of meaning afterwards. (It is called _ákása_ or sky-light from _kása_ to shine, as light was the first work of God).

10. Next in order are produced the elements of egoism and duration in the living soul (_i.e._ the simultaneousness of the ideas of self-entity and duration in the living principle). And these two terms, are the roots of the subsistence of future worlds. (_i.e._ The individuality and durability of things).

11. This ideal knowledge, of the unreal forms of the net-work of world, in divine Spirit, was made to appear as a reality by the Omnipotent power. (_i.e._ The ideal world appeared afterwards as real).

12. Thus the ideal self-consciousness became the seed (or root) of the tree of desires, which were vacillated by egoism in the form of air.

13. The intellect in the form of the airy ego, thinks on the element of sounds (_sabda tanmátram_); it becomes by degrees denser than the rarefied air, and produces the element of mind.

14. Sound is the seed (or root) of words, which were afterwards diversified in the forms of names or nouns and significant terms; and the assemblage of words, as shoots of trees, is varied in _padas_ or inflected words, _vákyas_ or sentences, and the collections of Vedas and Sástras.

15. It is from this Supreme spirit, that all these worlds derived their beauty afterwards; and the multitude of words (which sprang from the sounds), and were full of meaning, became widely spread at last.

16. The Intellect having such a family as its offspring, is expressed by the word _jíva_ (_zoa_) or the living soul, which became afterwards the arbor (or source) of all forms of beings, known under a variety of expressions and their significations. (_i.e._ The living god Brahmá became the cause of the formal world, from the _tanmátra_ elements produced by Brahma).

17. The fourteen kinds of living beings, which fill the cells in the bowels of all worlds, sprang afterwards from this living soul. (These include all vegetable and animal life and all such as increase in bulk and growth).

18. It was then, that the Intellect by a motion and inflation of itself, and at an instantaneous thought, became the element _tanmátra_ of touch and feeling (the air), which was yet without its name and action. (The Spirit breathed breathless. _Sruti_). This breath caused air, which expanded itself and filled all bodies, which are objects of touch and feeling.

19. The air, which is the seed (root) of the tree of tangibles, then developed itself into branches, composed of the (49) various kinds of winds, that are the causes of the breathings and motions of all beings.

20. Then the Intellect produced at pleasure and from its idea of light, the elemental essence of lustre, which received afterwards its different names (from the light of the sun and moon and the stars, as also from those of fire and lightning).

21. Then the sun, fire, lightning and others, which are the seeds (or roots) of the tree of light, caused the various colours of bodies that filled the world. (That light is the cause of colour, was known to the ancient Rishi).

22. It reflected on the want of fluidity, and produced the liquid body of waters, whose taste constitutes the element (_tanmátra_) of flavour.

23. The desire of the soul for different flavours (_rasas_), is the seed of the tree of taste, and it is by the relish of a variety of tastes, that the world is to go on in its course.

24. Then the self-willed Brahmá, wishing to produce the visible earth, caused the property of smell to appertain to it from his own element of it.

25. He made his elementary solidity, the seed or source of the tree of forms (morphology); as he made his own element of rotundity the substratum of the spherical world.

26. Those elements being all evolved from the Intellect, are again involved of themselves in it, as the bubbles of water rise and subside in itself.

27. In this manner, all those beings remain in their combined states, until their final dissolution into their simple and separate forms.

28. All those things, which are but forms and formations of pure Intellect, remain within the sphere of Divine Intelligence, as the germs of the big banian tree, reside in the forms of pollen and the seed.

29. These sprouted forth in time, and burst out into a hundred branches: and after having been concealed in an atom, became as big as they were to last for ever.

30. Such is the growth and multiplication of things by pervasion of the Intellect, until they are put to a stop by its contraction and when weakened in their bodies by its desertion, they droop down in the end.

31. Thus is this class of elementary _tanmátras_, produced in the Intellect out of its own volition, and are manifested in the form of formless minutiæ to sight.[12] (trasaranus).

32. These five-fold elements are verily the only seeds of all things in the world. They are the seeds of the primary momentum that was given to them (in the beginning). In our notions, they are the seeds of elementary bodies, but in their real nature, they are the increate ideal shapes of the Intellect replenishing the world. CHAPTER XIII. ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE SELF-BORN.

Vasishtha said:—

Ráma! When the Supreme Brahma remains in his resplendent and tranquil state (before creation), there is no essence of etherial light or heat or even darkness produced in the intellectual spirit. (But they lie hidden there as if buried in oblivion).

2. The _Sat_-God has the attribute of _Chetya_—intellectuality at first, and it is from the intellection (_Chetana_) of his intellectual part (_Chetyánsa_), that the epithet of mind (_Chitta_) is attributed to him. The faculties (_Sakti_) of his intellect (_Chit_), are called its intelligence (_Chetaná_).

3. The _Chit_ or intellect has then the attribute of the Living soul (_Jíva_), from its intelligence (_Chetaná_), and connection with the _chetya_ or intelligible objects in nature. It is next attributed with the title of _máyá_ or illusion, from the subjection of its _Chetya_ or cognizable objects only to itself—_Aham mátra_.

4. It has then the attribute of understanding (_buddhi_), from the excess of its egoism (_ahantá_), which is full with the purposes of its mind and the elements of sound &c. (_i.e._ with a desire for all sensible objects).

5. This (living, deluded and self reflecting) ego, is puffed up with thoughts of (possessing) all things, and looks upon the great arbour of the visible world (as the great garden for its pleasure and gain).

6. But the living souls, like so many evanescent objects seen in a dream, are made to rise and fall one after the other, in this great forest of the world surrounded by the skies.

7. But the world is (as continuous) as the grove of _Karajna_ plants, growing from unsown seeds; and its elementary bodies of the water, fire, earth and air, have no regard for any body; (that is living or dead).

8. The intellect which is the soul of the universe, creates afterwards the earth and all other things, as one remembering the objects of his dream (recalls them to his memory).

9. Wherever there is the germ of the world, it develops itself even at that place; the live elements are the five fold seed of the world, but the undecaying intellect is the seed of the quintuple (_pancha-bhúta_).

10. As is the seed so is its fruit; hence know the world to be a form and full of God; and the spacious firmament to be the reservoir of the quintuple elements in the beginning of creation.

11. The soul like the body, is composed of the powers of the Intellect, and does not subsist of itself; but being inflated by the same, it extends its bulk.

12. But the vacuous form of the intellect, which is seated in the spiritual body of the soul, cannot be composed of solid reality (as the primary elements of matter). This is not possible; hence nothing can come out from an impossibility.

13. Again that which is changeable in its form, cannot have its sameness at all times: hence if the essence of the quintuple elements, be attributed to Brahma, from the idea of their being the quintessence of his spirit, there can be no immaterial and immutable Brahma.

14. Therefore know this quintuple to be the developed Brahma himself, as he evolved them in the beginning, and as he is their producer for the creation of the world.

15. Thus He being the prime cause of their production, there is nothing that is produced (without) him, and the world is no product of itself.

16. The unreal appears as real as a city seen in a dream, and as a castle built in air by our hopes: so we place the living soul in ourselves, which has its foundation in the vacuous spirit of God.

17. Thus the brilliant spirit, which is situated in the Divine Intellect, being no earthly or any other material substance, is styled the living soul, and remains in vacuum as a luminous body rising in the sky.

18. Hear now how this vacuous living soul, comes to be embodied in the human body, after its detachment as a spark from the totality of vital spirits, in the empty sphere of divine Intellect.

19. The soul thinks itself as “a minute particle of light” at first, and then it considers itself as growing in the sphere of its consciousness.

20. The unreal appearing as real, proves to be unreal at last; as the fictitious moon becomes a nullity afterwards; so the soul continues to view itself subjectively and objectively both as the viewer and the view.

21. Thus the single self becomes double as one sees his own death in a dream; and thus it waxes into bigness and thinks its vital spark as a star. (This is the form of the _lingadeha_ or sentient soul within the body).

22. As the soul goes on thinking itself the microcosm of the world (_Viswarúpa_), so it falsely thinks itself as such in reality, as it is expressed by the dictum “_Soham_” “so am I.”

23. By thinking himself as such, man comes to believe it as true, as one believes himself as a traveller in his dream. So by thinking the soul as a star, he views it so within himself.

24. By continued meditation of his soul as such, he loses his external sensations, and views this star in his cranium.

25. He sees the soul within him though it be without him; just as the mirror reflects the distant hill in itself; and the soul remains confined within him, as a body is confined in a well, and as a sound is shut up in the hollow of a cave.

26. The consciousness of our dreams and desires, is but a particle (attribute) of the living soul, whose real form is that of a star waking (keeping watch) within us. (Consciousness of external objects in our dream and desire, is compared to the reflection of outward images in a glass or bubble of water, and to the echo of a distant sound in a hollow cave).

27. Now this vacuous life, which is composed of the essences of the mind, understanding and knowledge, resides in the hollow sheath of the star. (The star is supposed to be the eye-sight and residence of life. Gloss).

28. It appears to me to take its flight to the sky, to see what is passing there (i.e. the manner in which the mental eye of the Yogi penetrates the regions of air). And then it enters the body by two holes, which have the names of the external organs (of sight) given them afterwards. (The whole sphere of air is thought to teem with life or living souls and spirits, which rove free in the air, until they are made to enter and pass out of the body by two unknown holes, whether of the nostrils or sockets or glottis, remains undefined and undetermined).

29. The organs by which the embodied living soul, is to see (external objects), are called the eyes-_netras_ (from their receiving (_nayana_) the light of the soul). That by which it is to feel, is styled the skin (_twak_ or touch); and those whereby it is to hear, are termed the ears (_srutis_ from _sru_ to hear, corresponding with _suna_ or _shunu_ in vernaculars and Persian).

30. The organ of smelling is the nose—_ghrána_ from its bearing the scent—_ghrána_ to the soul; and that of taste is named as tongue _rasaná_, for its conducting the _rasa_ taste or flavour to the spirit.

31. Then there is the breathing air (the air of breath or breath of life), which actuates the energies of the organs of action. It is this air which is the cause—of vision, and mover of the internal organs of the mind and thought.

32. This (vital breath) supports the embodied and all supporting soul (_átiváhika-dehátmá_) in the vacuity of the body, and fills and kindles it as the air does a spark of fire.

33. The word _Jíva_ or the living soul (_zoa_), is brought under a figurative sense, ‘to mean something real in the unreal body’. Hence Brahmá is said to be the life and soul of the unreal world.

34. The gross embodied soul, is of the form of vacuum like the mind and yet it imagines itself to reside in an _ovum_ in the body, as Brahmá is supposed to be seated in the mundane egg. (_i.e._ The soul loses its light airy shape and free range, by being confined in the body).

35. Some view the spirit of God as floating on the surface of the (ante-mundane) waters (in the form of _Náráyana_); and others view it in the person of the Lord of creatures (Brahmá); while there are others, who look at it as infused throughout the creation in the figure of _viráj_. These are called the subtile and gross bodies of the soul (_sthúla_ and _súkshma saríras_).

36. The soul or spirit is the spacious womb of productions, and the means of executing its own purposes, and of knowing the proper time and place, and the article and the manner of action (modus operandi).

37. The mind is the inventor of words, expressive of ideas (in the soul), and subjects itself to the arbitary sounds of its own invention. Hence God is erroneously said to be embodied in words (_sabda Brahma_ of Mimánsá philosophy) in this world of errors.

38. The unproduced and self-born Brahmá, that has risen of himself (and represents the mind), is as unreal as the soaring of a man in the sky in his dream.

39. This all supporting-embodied soul, is the prime Lord of creatures, who is said to have formed this illusory frame of the world.

40. But there was nothing formed or born in it (in reality); nor is there any substance to be found in the world. It is the same vacuous form of Brahma still, whose essence is known to extend as the infinite space itself.

41. Things appearing as real, are as unreal as an imaginary city (Utopia), which presents a variety (of forms and colours) to the fancy, without being built or painted by any body. (The phenomenal appearance of the world, is likened to a phantasmagoria).

42. Nothing that is unmade or unthought of, can be real (either in substance or idea); and the gods Brahmá and others, being freed from their avocations at the universal dissolution of existence, could neither resume their functions nor have materials for the same.

43. The self-born Brahmá, having then neither his remembrance of the past, nor any material appliance at hand, could neither form an ideal or material world out of nothing. Therefore production of Brahmá and formation of the universe are alike (chimerical).

44. The earth and all other existences, are but the eternal ideas of the divine mind, and they appear to us as objects of a dream in our waking state: (when they vanish into airy nothing).

45. The divine spirit is known to be vacuum only, and so also is the world ever known to be: (because the like produces the like). So all waters are alike liquid bodies, though they are made to pass under different names.

46. This creation is every where the same in the Supreme Spirit. It is but an evolution of the same (though presenting different aspects to us); and the creator is always and everywhere immutable in his nature.

47. The vacuous universe, under the name of the mundane egg, shines as clearly as the Divine Spirit: it is calm in its appearance, and becomes disturbed by causes born in itself. (Nature is uniform, but ruffled by accidents).

48. It is supported by the supportless supporter of all, who is one and without a second, but devoid of unity in (the variety of his) creation. All this is born in his consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that is produced anew.

49. He, who is of the form of unlimited space, and without any vacuity in it (because nature abhors a vacuum); who is transparent yet teeming with abundance; who is the whole world (God in nature), without any worldliness in him; is verily the substratum of all.

50. He, who is neither the container nor the contained, nor the view of the world; who is neither the world nor its creator (Brahmá), and about whom there can be no dispute nor disputant; is verily the unknown God.

51. He, who is neither the passing world nor any of its passing things; who is quite at rest, yet situated in all things, (whether moving or quiescent); is the only Brahma that shines of himself in himself (as the soul of and all in all).

52. As we form in ourselves the image of a whirlpool, by the idea of the fluidity of water in our minds; so the sight of the world produces the false notion of its reality in the mind.

53. All unrealities become extinct at the end, as we see the death of our frail bodies in dreams. So we find on the contrary the essential part of our soul, to be unscathed by its own nature of indestructibility, and remaining in the form of everlasting consciousness in the atmosphere of our intellects.

54. Brahmá the prime Lord of creatures, is ever manifest by himself in the form of vacuity in the Supreme spirit; and he being of a spiritual form as the mind, has no material body formed of earth as all other corporeal beings; and is therefore both real and unborn (in his essence). CHAPTER XIV. ESTABLISHMENT OF BRAHMA.

Vasishtha added:—

In this manner the visible world, myself, thyself and all other things are nothing; all these being unmade and unborn are inexistent: it is the Supreme spirit only that is existent of itself.

2. The primeval vacuous soul is awakened at first of itself, and by its own energy from its quietness, and begins to have a motion in itself like the troubled waters of the deep.

3. It then begins to reflect in itself, as in a dream or in imagination, without changing its vacuous form, which is likened to a rock with the inward faculty of thought.

4. The body of the Great Viráj also, is devoid of any material form, either of earthly or any other elemental shape, (as it is viewed in the Vedas). It is purely a spiritual, intellectual and etherial form, and as transparent as the ether itself.

5. It is undecaying and steady as a rock, and as airy as a city seen in a dream. It is immovable as the line of a regiment represented in a picture.

6. All other souls are as pictures of dolls and puppets, painted and not engraven on the body of Viráj as upon a huge pillar; and he standing as an uncarved column in the empty sphere of Brahmá, represents all souls (and not bodies) as they are mere pictures on it.

7. The prime Lord of creatures is said to be self-born at first, and he is known as the increate (Brahmá), for want of his prior acts to cause his birth. (He is coeternal with the eternal Brahma, and is therefore not subject to birth and death).

8. The primeval patriarchs, who obtain their ultimate liberation at the final dissolution of the world, have no antecedent cause to be reborn as unliberated mortals. (So the emancipate souls of the living and dead, are freed from the doom of regeneration.)

9. Brahma, who is the reflector of all souls, is himself invisible in the inward mirror of other souls: (_i.e._ he reflects all images in himself, but never casts his own reflexion upon any). He is neither the view nor the viewer, and neither the creation nor the creator himself. (These being the functions of the creative and representative powers of Brahmá and Viráj).

10. Though thus negated of all predicates, yet is Brahma the soul of all predicables, that may be affirmed or denied of him (since he is all in all). He is the source of these chains of living beings, as light is the cause of a line of lighted lamps in illuminations.

11. The will of the gods (Brahmá and Viráj), proceeding from the volition of Brahma, is of that spiritual nature as the other; just as one dream rising in another, is equally unsubstantial as the first: (_i.e._ the products of spiritual causes, are also spiritual, by the rule of the homogeneity of the cause and effect).

12. Hence all living souls, which are evolved from the breathing of the Supreme Spirit, are of the same nature as their origin for want of an auxiliary causality. (God made man in his own image, and as perfect as himself: and this _man_ is _manas_ the Brahmá, or as he is named Adam, corresponding with _Adima_ or _Adyam purusham_—the first male or Protogonus).

13. Want of a secondary agency, produces the equality of effects with their cause (as the fruits and flowers of trees, are of the same kind with the parent tree, unless there rises a difference in them by cause of engraftments). Hence the uniformity of created things, proves the conception of their creation by a secondary cause, to be wholly erroneous.

14. Brahma himself is the prime soul of Viráj and self-same with him, and Viráj is the soul of creation and identical with it. He is the vacuous vitality of all; and it is from him that the unreal earth and other things have their rise. (Viráj is the spirit of God diffused in nature).

15. Ráma said:—Tell me, whether the living soul, is a limited thing or an unlimited mass of life; or does the unbounded spirit of God, exist in the shape of a mountainous heap of living souls: (_i.e._ whether it is to be taken in a collective or integral sense, and whether it forms a totality—_samashti_ existent in the Divinity, of which all individual souls are either as parts _vyashti_ or separate existences).

16. Are these living souls like showers of rain-water falling from above, or as the drizzling drops of waves in the vast ocean of creation, or as the sparks of fire struck out of a red-hot iron, and from whence they flow, and by whom they are emitted.

17. Tell me sir, the truth concerning the profusion of living souls, and though I have a partial knowledge of it, I require it to be more fully and clearly explained by you.

18. Vasishtha replied:—There being but one living soul of the universe, you can not call it a multitude. Your question therefore is quite out of place, as the query about the horns of hares (which do not exist in nature).

19. There are no detached living souls, O Ráma, nor are they to be found in multitudes any where, nor was there a mountainous heap of souls known to have existed at any time.

20. Living soul is but a fictitious word, and it is heaped with many fictions, all of which, you must know for certain, do not apply to the soul.

21. There is but one pure and immaculate Brahma, who is mere Intellect (_chinmátram_) and all pervasive. He assumes to himself all attributes by his almighty power. (Here Brahma is represented not only as Omniscient and Omnipotent; but as _saguna_ also by his assumption of all attributes).

22. The living soul is viewed by many to evolve itself from the intellect into many visible and invisible forms (_múrta-mútam_); just as a plant is seen to develope itself into its fruits and flowers.

23. They add to their knowledge of the soul the attributes of the living principle, understanding, action, motion, mind and unity and duality, as if these appertain to its nature.

24. But all this is caused by ignorance, while right understanding assigns them to Brahma. The ignorant are bewildered by these distinct views (of the soul), and will not be awakened to sense.

25. These different believers are lost (in their various views), as the light is lost under darkness. They will never come to the knowledge of truth as it is the case with the ignorant.

26. Know Brahma himself as the living soul without any divisibility or distinction. He is without beginning or end. He is omnipotent, and is of the form of the great Intellect which forms his essence.

27. His want of minuteness (_i.e._ his fulness) in all places, precludes his distinctive appellations every where. Whatever attributes are given him (by fiction), are all to be understood to mean Brahma himself.

28. Ráma asked:—How comes it, O Bráhman? that the totality of the living souls in the world, is guided by the will of one universal soul, which governs the whole, and to which all others are subject.

29. Vasishtha replied:—Brahma the great living soul and Omnipotent power, remained from eternity with his volition (_satya sankalpa_—fixed determination) of creation, without partition or alteration of himself.

30. Whatever is wished by that great soul, comes to take place immediately. The wish it formed in its unity at first, became a positive duality at last. Then its wish “to be many” (_Aham bahu syam_), became the separate existences afterwards.

31. All these dualities of his self-divided powers (the different living souls), had their several routines of action allotted to them, as “this is for that”; meaning “this being is for that duty, and such action is for such end”.

32. Thus though there can be no act without exertion (by the general rule as in the case of mortals), yet the predominant will of Brahmá, is always prevailing without its exertion to action, (as in the case of saints whose wills are effective of their ends without the aid of action).

33. Though they that bear the name of living beings, effect their purposes by exertion of their energies, yet they can effect nothing without acting according to the law appointed by the predominant power.

34. If the law of the predominant power, is effective of its end (_i.e._ the law of action for production of acts); then the exertions of the subordinate powers (the living souls), must also be attended with success: (_i.e._ the attainment of the like result of the like action).

35. Thus Brahma alone is the great living soul that exists for ever and without end; and these millions of living beings are no other in the world (than agents of the divine energies).

36. It is with a consciousness of the intellectual soul (_i.e._ the inward knowledge of the divinity within themselves), that all living souls are born in this world; but losing that consciousness (their knowledge of God) afterwards, they became alienated from him.

37. Hence men of inferior souls, should pursue the course of conduct led by the superior souls, for regaining their spiritual life _átmajívatwam_, as the copper becomes transformed into gold (by chemical process).

38. Thus the whole body of living beings, that had been as inexistent as air before, come into existence, and rise resplendent with the wonderful intellect.

39. Whoso perceives this wondrous intellect in his mind, and gets afterwards a body and the consciousness of his egoism, he is then said to be an embodied living soul.

40. The mind that is gratified with intellectual delights, becomes as expanded as the intellect itself, and thinks those pleasures to constitute the sum total of worldly enjoyments.

41. The Intellect is said to remain unchanged in all its succeeding stages; and though it never changes from that state, yet it wakes (developes) by a power intrinsic in itself.

42. The uninterrupted activity of the Intellect, indulges itself in the amusement of manifesting the intelligibles in the form of the world (_i.e._ Of evolving the knowables from its own knowledge of them. Or it is the pleasure of the intellect to unfold the secrets of nature to view).

43. The extent of the intellectual faculty, is wider and more rarefied than the surrounding air, and yet it perceives its distinct egoism by itself and of its own nature. (The subjective knowledge of ego—self).

44. Its knowledge of self, springs of itself in itself like the water of a fountain; and it perceives itself (its _ego_) to be but an atom amidst the endless worlds.

45. It perceives also in itself the beautiful and wondrous world, which is amazing to the understanding, and which is thereafter named the universe. (_i.e._ The one existing in the other and not without it: meaning, the soul to be the seat of both the subjective and objective knowledge).

46. Now Ráma, our _egoism_ being but a conception of the intellect is a mere fiction (_kalpaná_); and the elementary principles being but creatures of egoism, they are also fictions of the intellect.

47. Again the living soul being but a resultant of our acts and desires, you have to renounce these causes, in order to get rid of your knowledge of _ego_ and _tu_ (_i.e._ of the existence of yourself and that of others); and then you attain to the knowledge of the true one, after discarding the fictions of the real and unreal.

48. As the sky looks as clear as ever, after the shadows of clouds are dispersed from it, so does the soul look as bright as it existed at first in the intellect, after its overshadowing fictions have been removed.

49. The universe is a vacuum, and the world is a name for the field of our exertions. This vacuity is the abode of the gods (_Viswa_ and _Viráj_, both of whom are formless). The wonderful frame of plastic nature, is but a form of the formless intellect and no other.

50. What is one’s nature never leaves him at any time; how then can a form or figure be given to the formless Divinity?

51. The divine intellect is exempt from all the names and forms which are given to unintelligent worldly things, it being the pervader and enlivener, of all that shines in the world. (Intellect is the power of understanding).

52. The mind, understanding and egoism, with the elements, the hills and skies, and all things that compose and support the world, are made of the essences proceeding from the intellect. (The intellect from _interlegere_ contains all things).

53. Know the world to compose the mind-_chitta_ of the intellect-_chit_ of God, because the mind does not subsist without the world. Want of the world would prove the inexistence of the mind and intellect which consist of the world. (Hence the identity of the intelligent world with the mind and intellect of God).

54. The intellect like the pepper seed, is possest of an exquisite property within itself, and bears like the flavour of the other, the element of the living soul, which is the element of animated nature.

55. As the mind exerts its power and assumes its sense of egoism, it derives the principle of the living soul from the Intellect, which with its breath of life and action, is called a living being afterwards. (The mind is what thinks, moves and acts).

56. The intellect (_chit_), exhibiting itself as the mind (_chitta_), bears the name of the purpose it has to accomplish, which being temporary and changeable, is different from the _chit_ and a nullity. (The mind being the principle of volition, is applied also to the object of the will, as we say, I have a mind to play; which is equal to the expression, I have a playful mind: and this state of the mind being variable, is said to be null).

57. The distinction of actor and act, does not consist in the intellect, it being eternal, is neither the author or the work itself. But the living soul, which is active and productive of acts, is called the _purusha_ or the embodied soul residing in the body—_purau-sete_. It is action which makes the man-_purusha_, from which is derived his manhood-_paurusha_.

58. Life with the action of the mind constitutes the mind of man. The mind taking a sensitive form, employs the organs of sense to their different functions. (The sensitivity of the mind bears an active and not the passive sense of sensitiveness or sensibility).

59. He, the radiance of the light of whose intellect, is the cause of infinite blessings to the world, is both its author and workmanship from all eternity, and there is none beside him. (He is the _Pratyagátmá_ the all-pervading soul).

60. Hence the ego or living soul is indivisible, uninflammable, unsoilable and undriable in its essence; it is everlasting and infinite (ubiquious), and as immovable as a mountain. (The living soul is viewed in the light of the eternal soul).

61. There are many that dispute on this point, as they dispute on other matters, in their error, and mislead others into the same; but we are set free from all mistake. (The disputants are the dualists, who make a distinction between the eternal and created souls. (_Jívátmá-paramátmá-dvaita-vádis_)).

62. The dualist relying on the phenomena, is deceived by their varying appearances; but the believer in the formless unity, relies in the everlasting blessed spirit (which he views in his intellect).

63. Fondness for intellectual culture, is attended with the vernal blossoms of intellect, which are as white as the clear firmament, and as numberless as the parts of time.

64. The intellect exhibits itself in the form of the boundless and wonderful mundane egg, and it breathes out the breath of its own spirit in the same egg. (The breathing soul is called the _sútrátmá_ one of the ten hypostases of Brahma, the vital air is the first of the elementary bodies, in the order of emanation _alias_ creation).

65. It then showed itself in the wondrous form of the antimundane waters, not as they rise from springs or fall into reservoirs, as also in those of the substances constituting the bodies of the best of beings.

66. It next shone forth with its own intellectual light, which shines as bright as the humid beams of the full moon.

67. Then as the intellect rises in full light with its internal knowledge, upon disappearance of the visibles from sight; so also it is transformed to dullness by dwelling upon gross objects, when it is said to be lie dormant. In this state of the intellect, it is lowered to and confined in the earth.

68. The world is in motion by the force of the Intellect, in whose great vacuity it is settled; it is lighted by the light of that Intellect, and is therefore said to be both existent as well as inexistent by itself.

69. Like the vacuity of that Intellect, the world is said now to exist and now to be inexistent; and like the light of that Intellect, it now appears and now disappears from view.

70. Like the fleeting wind which is breathed by that Intellect, the world is now in existence and now inexistent; and like the cloudy and unclouded sphere of that Intellect, the world is now in being and now a not being.

71. Like the broad day light of that Intellect, the world is now in existence, and like the disappearance of that light, it now becomes nothing. It is formed like collyrium from the particles of the oil of the _rajas_ quality of the Intellect.

72. It is the intellectual fire that gives warmth to the world, and it is the alabaster (conch) of the intellect that causes its whiteness; the rock of intellect gives it hardness, and its water causes its fluidity.

73. The sweetness of the world, is derived from the sugar of the intellect, and its juiciness from the milk in the divine mind; its coldness is from the ice, and its heat from the fire contained in the same. (_i.e._ The divine Intellect is the material cause (_upádána kárana_) of the world).

74. The world is oily by the mustard seeds contained in the Intellect; and billowy in the sea of the divine mind. It is dulcet by the honey and aureate by the gold contained in the same.

75. The world is a fruit of the tree of Intellect, and its fragrance is derived from the flowers growing in the arbour of the mind. It is the _ens_ of the Intellect, that gives the world its entity, and it is the mould of the eternal mind, that gives its form.

76. The difference is, that this world is changeful, while the clear atmosphere of the Intellect has no change in it; and the unreal world becomes real, when it is seen as full of the Divine spirit.

77. The invariable self-sameness of the Divine spirit, makes the entity and non-entity of the world alike (because it has no existence of its own, but in the Supreme soul). And the words ‘part and whole’ are wholly meaningless, because both of these are full with the divine spirit.

78. Fie to them, that deride notions as false talk; because the world with its hills, and seas, earth and rivers, is all untrue without the notion of God’s presence in it. (The Buddhists are perceptionalists, and have no faith in any thing beyond their sensible perceptions (_pratyaksha_); but the Vedantic spiritualists, on the contrary, are abstract conceptionalists, and believe nothing to be true, of which they have no notion or inward conception).

79. The intellect being an unity, cannot be mistaken for a part of any thing; and though it may become as solid as a stone, yet it shines brightly in the sphere of its vacuity.[13]

80. It has a clear vacuous space in its inside, as a transparent crystal, which reflects the images of all objects, though it is as clear as the sky.

81. As the lines on the leaves of trees, are neither the parts of the leaves nor distinct from them, so the world situated in the Intellect, is no part of it nor separate from it.

82. No detached soul is of heterogeneous growth, but retains in its nature the nature of the intellect, and Brahmá is the primary cause of causes. (Hence called Hiranyagarbha.)

83. The mind is of its own nature a causal principle, by reason of its notion of the Intellect; but its existence is hard to be proved, when it is insensible and unconscious of the intellect.

84. Whatever is in the root, comes out in the tree, as we see the seed shoot forth in plants of its own species.

85. All the worlds are as void as vacuity, and yet they appear otherwise, as they are situated in the Great Intellect. All this is the seat of the Supreme, and you must know it by your intellection.

86. As the Muni spake these words, the day declined to its evening twilight. The assembly broke with mutual salutations, to perform their vesperal ablutions, and met again at the court hall with the rising sunbeams, after dispersion of the nocturnal gloom. CHAPTER XV. STORY OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS PRINCE.

Vasishtha said:—The world is a void and as null as the pearls in the sky (seen by optical delusion). It is as unreal as the soul in the vacuity of the intellect.

2. All its objects appear, as unengraven images on the column of the mind, which is without any engraving or engraver of it.

3. As the intermotion of the waters in the sea, causes the waves to rise of themselves, so the visibles as they appear to us, are as waves in the calm spirit of the Supreme. (The variety of the waves, with the pearls, shells and froth they pour out, resemble the multiformity of worldly productions).

4. As sun-beams seen under the water, and as water appearing in the sands of the desert (mirage); so it is the fancy, that paints the world as true to us; and its bulk is like that of an atom, appearing as a hill (when seen through the microscope).

5. The fancied world is no more than a facsimile of the mind of its Maker, just as the sun beams under the water, are but reflexions of the light above; and no other than a negative notion (a false idea).

6. The ideal world is but an aerial castle, and this earth (with its contents), is as unreal as a dream, and as false as the objects of our desire.

7. The earth appearing as solid, is in the light of philosophy, no better than the liquid water of a river, in the mirage of a sandy desert, and is never in existence.

8. The illusive forms of the visibles, in this supposed substantial form of the world, resemble at least, but aerial castles and rivers in the mirage.

9. The visionary scenes of the world being taken to the scales, will be found when weighed, to be light as air and as hollow as vacuum.

10. The ignorant that are taken away by the sound of words in disregard of sense, will find when they come to sense, that there is no difference between the world and Brahma: (the one being but the reflection of the other).

11. The dull world is the issue of the Intellect, like the beams of the sun in the sky. The light of the intellect, is as light as the rarefied rays of the sun; but it raises like the other, the huge clouds, to water the shooting seeds of plants.

12. As a city in a dream, is finer than one seen in the waking state, so this visionary world is as subtile as an imaginary one.

13. Know therefore the insensible world to be the inverse of the sensible soul, and the substantive world as the reverse of the unsubstantial vacuum. The words plenum and vacuum are both as inane as airy breath, because these opposites are but different views of the same Intellect.

14. Know therefore this visible world to be no production at all; it is as nameless as it is undeveloped, and as inexistent as its seeming existence.

15. The universe is the sphere of the spirit of God in the infinite space; it has no foundation elsewhere except in that Spirit of which it is but a particle, and filling a space equal to a bit of infinity.

16. It is as transparent as the sky, and without any solidity at all; it is as empty as empty air, and as a city pictured in imagination.

17. Attend now to the story of the Temple which is pleasant to hear, and which will impress this truth deeply in your mind.

18. Ráma said:—Tell me at once, O Bráhman, the long and short of the story of the temple, which will help my understanding of these things.

19. Vasishtha said:—There lived of yore a prince on the surface of the earth, whose name was Padma from his being like the blooming and fragrant lotus of his race; and who was equally blessed with wisdom, prosperity and good children.

20. He observed the bounds of his duties, as the sea preserves the boundaries of countries; and destroyed the mist of his adversaries, as the sun dispels the darkness at night. He was as the moon to his lotus-like queen, and as burning fire to the hay of evils and crimes.

21. He was the asylum of the learned, as the mount Meru was the residence of the gods; he was the moon of fair fame risen from the ocean of the earth; and was as a lake to the geese of good qualities; and like the sun to the lotuses of purity.

22. He was as a blast to the creepers of his antagonists in warfare; and as a lion to the elephants of his mind (appetites). He was the favourite of all learning, and a patron of the learned, and a mine of all admirable qualities.

23. He stood fixed as the mount Mandara, after it had churned the ocean of the demons. He was as the vernal season to the blossoms of joy, and as the god of the floral bow to the flowers of blooming prosperity.

24. He was the gentle breeze to the vacillation of the playful creepers, and as the god Hari in his valour and energy. He shone as the moon on the florets of good manners, and as wildfire to the brambles of licentiousness.

25. His consort was the happy Líla, playful as her name implied, and fraught with every grace, as if the goddess of prosperity, had appeared in person upon earth.

26. She was gentle with her submissiveness to her lord, and was sweet in her speech without art; she was always happy and slow in her movements, and ever smiling as the moon.

27. Her lovely lotus-white face was decorated with painted spots, and her fair form which was as fresh as a new blown bud, appeared as a moving bed of lotuses.

28. She was buxom as a playful plant, and bright as a branch of _kunda_ flowers, and full of glee and good humour. With her palms red as corals, and her fingers white as lilies, she was in her person a congeries of vernal beauties.

29. Her pure form was sacred to touch, and conferred a hilarity to the heart, as the holy stream of the Ganges, exhilarates the flock of swans floating upon it.

30. She was as a second Rati, born to serve her lord, who was Káma in person on earth to give joy to all souls.

31. She was sorry at his sorrow, and delighted to see him delightful; and was thoughtful to see him pensive. Thus was she an exact picture of her lord, except that she was afraid to find him angry. CHAPTER XVI. JOY AND GRIEF OF THE PRINCESS.

This single wived husband, enjoyed the pleasure of an undivided and unfeigned love, in company with his only consort, as with an _Apsará_ (or heavenly nymph) on earth.

(The _Apsaras_ are the _Abisares_ of Ptolemy and _Absairs_ of the Persians: a term applied to the fairy race in the watery valley of Cashmere, supposed to be the site of Paradise-Firdous, and the scene of innocent attachment).

2. The seats of their youthful sports were the gardens and groves, the arbours of shrubberies, and forests of Tamála trees. They sported also in the pleasant arbours of creepers and delightful alcoves of flowers.

3. They delighted themselves in the inner apartments, on beds decked with fragrant flowers, and on walks strewn over with fresh blossoms. They amused in their swinging cradles in their pleasure gardens in spring, and in rowing their tow-boats in summer heat.

4. Hills overgrown with sandal woods and shades of shady forests; the alcoves of Nípa and Kadamba trees, and coverts of the Páribhadra or Devadáru-cedars, were their favourite resorts in summer.

5. They sat besides the beds of _kunda_ and _Mandára_ plants, redolent with the fragrance of full-blown flowers; and strayed about the vernal green-woods, resounding with the melody of _kokilas’_ notes.

6. The glossy beds of grassy tufts, the mossy seats of woods and lawns, and water-falls flooding the level lands with showers of rain (were also their favourite resorts).

7. Mountain layers overlaid with gems, minerals and richest stones; the shrines of gods and saints, holy hermitages and places of pilgrimage, were oft visited by them.

8. Lakes of full-blown lotuses and lilies, smiling _Kumudas_ of various hues, and wood-lands darkened by green foliage, or overhung with flowers and fruitage, were their frequent haunts.

9. They passed their time in the amorous dalliances of godlike youths; and their personal beauty, was graced by the generous pastimes, of their mutual fondness and affection.

10. They amused each other with bon-mots and witticisms and solution of riddles; with story telling and playing the tricks of hold-fists _mushti-bandha_ (_purmuthi_), and the various games of chess and dice.

11. They diverted themselves with the reading of dramas and narratives, and interpretation of stanzas difficult even to the learned. And sometimes they roamed about cities, towns and villages.

12. They decorated their persons with wreaths of flowers and ornaments of various kinds; fared and feasted on a variety of flavours, and moved about with playful negligence.

13. They chewed betel leaves mixed with moistened mace and camphor, and saffron; and hid the love marks on their bodies, under wreaths of flowers and corals, with which they were adorned.

14. They played the frolics of “hide and find” (Beng. _lukichuri_), tossing of wreaths and garlands, and swinging one another in cradles bestrewn with flowers.

15. They made their trips in pleasure-boats, and on yokes of elephants and tame camels; and sported in their pleasure-ponds by pattering water upon one another.

16. They had their manly and womanly dances, the sprightly _tándava_ and the merry _lásya_; and songs of masculine and effeminate voices the _Kalá_ and _gíta_. They had symphonious and euphonious music, and played on the lute and tabor, (the wired and percussive instruments).

17. They passed in their flowery conveyances through gardens and parterres, by river sides and highways, and amidst their inner apartments and royal palaces.

18. The loving and beloved princess being thus brought up in pleasure and indulgence, thought at one time with a wistful heart within herself:—

19. “How will this my lord and ruler of earth, who is in the bloom of youth and prosperity, and who is dearer to me than my life, be free from old age and death.

20. “And how will I enjoy his company on beds of flowers in the palace, possessed of my youth and free-will, for the long long period of hundreds of years.

21. “I will therefore endeavour with all my vigilance and prayers, and austerities and endeavours, how this moon-faced prince, may become free from death and decline.

22. “I will ask the most knowing, and the most austere and very learned Bráhmans, how men may evade death.”

23. She accordingly invited the Bráhmans and honoured them with presents, and asked them lowly, to tell her how men might become immortal on earth.

24. The Bráhmans replied:—“Great queen! holy men may obtain success in every thing by their austerities, prayers and observance of religious rites; but no body can ever attain to immortality here below.”

25. Hearing this from the mouths of the Bráhmans, she thought again in her own mind, and with fear for the demise of her loving lord.

26. “Should it happen, that I come to die before my lord, I shall then be released from all pain of separation from him, and be quite at rest in myself.

27. “But if my husband happen to die before me, even after a thousand years of our lives, I shall so manage it, that his soul (the immortal part of his body), may not depart from the confines of this mansion (the charnel-house).

28. “So that the spirit of my lord, will rove about the holy vault in the inner apartment, and I shall feel the satisfaction of moving about in his presence at all times.”

29. “I will commence even from this day, to worship Sarasvatí—the goddess of Intelligence, and offer my prayers to her for this purpose, with observance of fasts and other rites to my heart’s content.”

30. Having determined so, she betook herself to observe the strict ceremonials of the Sástra, and without the knowledge of her lord.

31. She kept her fasts, and broke them at the end of every third night; and then entertained the gods, Bráhmans, the priests and holy people, with feasts and due honours.

32. She was then employed in the performance of her daily ablutions, in her act of alms-giving, in the observance of her austerities and in meditation; in all of which she was painstaking, an observant of the rules of pious theism.

33. She attended also to her incognizant husband at stated times, and ministered unto him to the utmost, her duties as required by law and usage.

34. Thus observant of her vows, the young princess passed a hundred of her trinoctial ceremony, with resolute and persevering pains-taking and unfailing austerities.

35. The fair goddess of speech, was pleased at the completion of her hundredth trinoctial observance, in which she was honoured by her, with all outward and spiritual complaisance, and then bespoke to her.

36. Sarasvatí said:—“I am pleased my child! with thy continued devotion to me, and thy constant devotedness to thy husband. Now ask the boon that thou wouldst have of me.”

37. The princess replied:—“Be victorious, O moon-bright goddess! that puttest to an end all the pains of our birth and death, and the troubles, afflictions and evils of this world; and that like the sun, puttest to flight the darkness of our affections and afflictions in this life.

38. “Save me O goddess, and thou parent of the world, and have pity on this wretched devotee, and grant her these two boons, that she supplicates of thee.

39. “The one is, that after my husband is dead, his soul may not go beyond the precincts of this shrine in the inner apartment.

40. “The second is, that thou shalt hear my prayer, and appear before me, whenever I raise my voice to thee, for having thy sight and blessing.”

41. Hearing this, the goddess said, “Be it so;” and immediately disappeared in the air (whence she came); as the wave subsides in the sea whence it rises to view.

42. The princess being blessed by the presence and good grace of the goddess, was as delighted as a doe at the hearing of music.

43. The wheel of time rolled on its two semicircles of the fort-nights. The spikes of months, the arcs of the seasons, the loops of days and nights and the orbit of years. The axle composed of fleeting moments; giving incessant momentum to the wheel.

44. The perceptions of the prince, entered into the inner man within the body (_lingadeha_); and he looked in a short time, as dry as a withered leaf without its juicy gloss.

45. The dead body of the warlike prince, being laid over the sepulchre, in the inside of the palace, the princess began to fade away at its sight, like a lotus flower without its natal water (of the lake).

46. Her lips grew pale by her hot and poisoned breath of sorrow; and she was in the agony of death, as a doe pierced by a dart (in her mortal part).

47. Her eyes were covered in darkness at the death of her lord, as a house becomes dark at the extinction of the light of its lamp.

48. She became leaner every moment, in her sad melancholy; and turned as a dried channel covered with dirt in lieu of its water.

49. She moved one moment and was then mute as a statue; she was about to die of grief, as the ruddy goose at the separation of her mate.

50. Then the etherial goddess Sarasvatí, took pity on the excess of her grief, and showed as much compassion for her relief, as the first shower of rain, does to the dying fishes in a drying pond. CHAPTER XVII. STORY OF THE DOUBTFUL REALM OR REVERIE OF LÍLÁ.

Sarasvatí said:—Remove my child, the dead body of thy husband to yonder shrine! and strew those flowers over it, and thou shalt have thy husband again.

2. Never will this body rot or fade as long as the flowers are fresh over it, and know thy husband will shortly return to life again. (The strewing of flowers over the dead body and the grave, is a practice common in many religions).

3. His living soul which is as pure as air, will never depart from this cemetery of thy inner apartment. (The departed soul is believed to hover about the crypt or cairn until the day of resurrection).

4. The black-eyed princess, with her eyebrows resembling a cluster of black-bees, heard this consolatory speech of the goddess, and was cheered in her spirit, as the lotus-bed on return of the rains.

5. She placed the corpse of her husband there, and hid it under the flowers, and remained in expectation of its rising, as a poor man fosters the hope of finding a treasure.

6. It was at midnight of the very day, when all the members of the family had fallen fast asleep, that Lílá repaired to the shrine in the inward apartment.

7. There she meditated on the goddess of knowledge, in the recess of her understanding, and called her in earnest in the sorrow of her heart, when she heard the divine voice thus addressing to her.

8. “Why dost thou call me, child, and why art thou so sorrowful in thy countenance? The world is full of errors, glaring as false water in a mirage.”

9. Lílá answered:—“Tell me goddess, where my husband resides at present, and what he has been doing now. Take me to his presence, as I am unable to bear the load of my life without him.”

10. The goddess replied:—“His spirit is now roving in the sky, of which there are three kinds:—one the firmament or region of the sensible worlds; the other is the region of the mind, the seat of volition and creation; and third is the region of Intellect, which contains the two others.

11. “Your husband’s soul is now in the sheath of the region of Intellect (being withdrawn both from the regions of the visible world and sensuous mind). It is now by seeking in the region of the Intellect, that things which are inexistent here, are to be found there.

12. “As in passing from one place to another, you are conscious of standing in the mid spot (which is neither the one nor the other); so you will arrive in an instant at the intermediate region of the intellectual world (lying between this sensible and spiritual worlds).

13. “If you will abide in that intellectual world, after forsaking all your mental desires, you will certainly come to the knowledge of that spiritual Being who comprehends all in himself.

14. “It is only by your knowledge of the negative existence of the world, that you can come to know the positive existence of that Being, as you will now be able to do by my grace, and by no other means whatever.” (Forget the sensible to get to the Spiritual. Hafiz).

15. Vasishtha said:—so saying, the goddess repaired to her heavenly seat; and Lílá sat gladly in her mood of steadfast meditation. (Platonism).

16. She quitted in a moment the prison house of her body, and her soul broke out of its inner bound of the mind, to fly freely in the air, like a bird freed from its cage: (so Plato compares the flight of the parting soul with that of a bird from its cage).

17. She ascended to the airy region of the Intellect, and saw (by her intellectual light) her husband seated there in his seat, amidst a group of princes and rulers of the earth (who had received various forms and states according to their acts and desires).

18. He was seated on a throne, and lauded with the loud acclamations of “Long live the king,” and “Be he victorious.” His officers were prompt in the discharge of their several duties.

19. The royal palace and hall were decorated with rows of flags, and there was an assemblage of unnumbered sages and saints, Bráhmans and Rishis at the eastern entrance of the hall.

20. There stood a levy of innumerable princes and chiefs of men at the southern porch, and a bevy of young ladies standing at the western door-way.

21. The northern gateway was blocked by lines of horse, carriages and elephants; when a guard advanced and informed the king of a warfare in Deccan.

22. He said that the chief of Karnatic, has made an attack on the eastern frontier; and that the chieftain of Surat, has brought to subjection the barbarous tribes on the north; and that the ruler of Malwa, has besieged the city of Tonkan on the west.

23. Then there was the reception of the ambassador from Lanká, coming from the coast of the southern sea.

24. There appeared next the Siddhas, coming from the Mahendra mountains bordering the eastern main, and traversing the numerous rivers of their fluvial districts; as also the ambassador of the Guhyaka or Yaksha tribes, inhabiting the shores of the northern sea.

25. There were likewise the envoys, visiting the shores of the western main, and relating the state of affairs of that territory to the king. The whole courtyard was filled with lustre by the assemblage of unnumbered chieftains from all quarters.

26. The recitals of Bráhmans on sacrificial altars, died away under the sound of the timbrels; and the loud shouts of panegyrists, were re-echoed by the uproar of elephants.

27. The vault of heaven, resounding to the sound of the vocal and instrumental music; and the dust raised by the procession of elephants and chariots, and the trotting of horses’ hoofs, obscured the face of the sky as by a cloud.

28. The air was perfumed by the fragrance of flowers, camphor and heaps of frankincense; and the royal hall was filled with presents sent from different provinces.

29. His fair fame shone forth as a burning hill of white camphor, and raised a column of splendour reaching to the sky, and casting into shade the solar light.

30. There were the rulers of districts, who were busily employed in their grave and momentous duties, and the great architects who conducted the building of many cities.

31. Then the ardent Lílá entered the court-hall of the ruler of men, and unseen by any, just as one void mixes with another void, and as air is lost in the air.

32. She wandered about without being seen by any body there; just as a fair figure, formed by false imagination of our fond desire, is not to be perceived by any one without ourselves.

33. In this manner she continued to walk about the palace unperceived by all, as the aerial castle built in one’s mind, is not perceived by another.

34. She beheld them all assembled in the royal court in their former forms, and saw all the cities of the princes, as concentrated in that single city of her lord’s.

35. She viewed the same places, the same dealings, the same concourse of boys, and the same sorts of men and women, and the same ministers as before.

36. She saw the same rulers of earth, and the very same Pandits as before; the identic courtiers and the self-same servants as ever.

37. There was the same assemblage of the learned men and friends as before, and the like throng of citizens pursuing their former course of business.

38. She saw on a sudden, the flames of wild fire spreading on all sides even in broad midday light; and the sun and moon appearing both at once in the sky, and the clouds roaring with a tremendous noise, with the whistling of the winds.

39. She saw the trees, the hills, the rivers and the cities flourishing with population; and the many towns, and villages and forests all about.

40. She beheld her royal consort as a boy of ten years of age after shaking off his former frame of old age, sitting amidst the hall with all his former retinue, and all the inhabitants of his village.

SECTION I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COURT HOUSE AND THE CORTES.

41. Lílá having seen all these began to reflect within herself, whether the inhabitants of this place were living beings or the ghosts of their former living souls.

42. Then having recovered her sense at the removal of her trance, she entered into her inner apartment at midnight, and found the inmates fast bound in sleep.

43. She raised one by one her sleeping companions, and said she was anxious to visit the royal hall.

44. She wanted to be seated beside the throne of her lord, and to clear her doubt by seeing the courtiers all alive.

45. The royal menials rose up at her call, and obedient to her command they said “Be it so,” and attended to their respective duties.

46. A train of club-bearers ran to all sides to call the courtiers from the city, and sweepers came and swept the ground as clean as the sun had shed his rays upon it.

47. A better set of servants cleansed the court-yard as clean, as autumn days clear the firmament of its rainy clouds.

48. Rows of lights were placed about the court-yard, which looked as beautiful as clusters of stars in the clear sky.

49. The ground of the court-yard was filled by throngs of people, as the earth was covered of yore by floods of the great deluge.

50. The dignified ministers and chiefs attended first and took their respective seats, and appeared as a set of the newly created rulers of people of the world on all sides, or the regents of the quarters of the sky.

51. The cooling and fragrant odour of thickly pasted camphor filled the palace, and the sweet-scented zephyrs breathed profusely the fragrance of the lotus flowers, which they bore from all sides.

52. The chamberlains stood all around in their white garbs, and appeared as an assemblage of silvery clouds, hanging over the burning hills under the equator.

53. The ground was strewn over by the morning breeze with heaps of flowers, bright as the beaming dawn dispelling the gloom of night, and etiolated as clusters of stars fallen upon the ground.

54. The palace was crowded by the retinue of the chiefs of the land, and seemed as it was a lake full of full-blown lotuses, with the fair swimming swans rambling about them.

55. There Lílá took her seat on a golden seat by the side of the throne, and appeared as the beauteous Rati seated in the joyous heart of Káma (_i.e._ as Venus sitting in the lap of aureate lighted Phoebus).

56. She saw all the princes seated in their order as before, and the elders of the people and the nobles of men and all her friends and relatives, seated in their proper places.

57. She was highly delighted to behold them all in their former states, and shone forth as the moon with the brightness of her countenance, to find them all alive again. CHAPTER XVIII. EXPOSURE OF THE ERRORS OF THIS WORLD.

She said, “I have much consolation in you, and now will I console my sorrowing heart.” So saying, she made a sign for the assembly to break, and rose from her royal seat.

2. She entered the inner apartment and sat by the side of the dead body of her lord, hidden under the heap of flowers, and thus began to reflect within herself.

3. She exclaimed:—“O the wondrous magic! that presents these people of my place situated in the same manner without myself, as they were seen to be seated within me.

4. “O how great is the extent of this delusion, as to contain the same high hills, and the same spacious forests of palm and Hintála trees, both in the outside as well as they are situated in the inside of myself.

5. “As the mirror shows the reflexion of the hills within itself as they are without it, so the reflector of the intellect presents the whole creation inwardly as it has outwards of itself.

6. “I must now invoke the goddess of wisdom to ascertain which of these is illusion, and which the sober and certain reality.”

7. So saying, she worshipped and invoked the goddess, and beheld her immediately present before herself, in the form of a virgin.

8. She made the goddess sit on the elevated seat, and having seated herself low upon the ground before her, asked that divine power to tell her the truth.

9. Lílá said:—“Vouchsafe, O goddess, and clear this doubt of thy suppliant; for it is thy wisdom which has framed this beautiful system of the universe at first and knows the truth. (Divine wisdom is the prime cause of all).

10. “Tell me, O great goddess, about what I am going to lay before thee at present, for it is by thy favour alone that I may be successful to know it.

11. “I saw the pattern of this world in the intellect, which is more transparent than the etherial sphere, and as extensive as to contain millions and millions of miles in a small space of it.

12. “It is what no definite words can express, and what is known as the calm, cool and ineffable light. This is called the unintelligible intelligence, and is without any cover or support (_nirávarana nirbhitti_).

13. “It exhibits the reflexions of space and the course of time, and those of the sky and its light, and the course of events concentrating in itself.

14. “Thus the images of the worlds, are to be seen both within and without the intellect, and it is hard to distinguish the real and unreal ones between them.”

15. The goddess asked:—Tell me fair lady, what is the nature of the real world, and what you mean, by its unreality.

16. Lílá replied:—I know the nature of the real to be such as I find myself to be sitting here, and looking upon you as seated in this place.

17. And I mean that to be unreal, as the state in which I beheld my husband in the etherial region erewhile; because vacuity has no limit of time or place in it.

18. The goddess rejoined:—The real creation cannot produce an unreal figure, nor a similar cause produce a dissimilar effect.

19. Lílá replied:—But we often see, O goddess! dissimilar effects to be produced from similar causes: thus, the earth and earthen pot though similar in their substance, yet the one is seen to melt in water, and the other to carry water in it.

20. The goddess said:—Yes, when an act is done by the aid of auxiliary means, there the effect is found to be somewhat different from the primary cause. (Thus the earthen pot being produced by the auxiliary appliances of fire, the potter’s wheel and the like, differs in its quality from the original clay).

21. Say O beauteous lady! what were the causes of thy husband’s being born in this earth? The same led to his birth in the other world also (_i.e._ the merit of the acts and desires of men, are the causes of their transmigrations in both worlds).

22. When the soul has fled from here, how can the earth follow him there any more, and what auxiliary causes can there be in connection with this cause?

23. Wherever there arises a coaction with its apparent causality, it is usually attributed by every one to some unknown antecedent cause or motive.

24. Lílá said:—Methinks goddess, that it was the expansion of my husband’s memory that was the cause of his regenerations; because it is certain that reminiscence is the cause of the reproduction of objects before us.

25. The goddess replied that, memory is an aerial substance, and its productions are as unsubstantial as itself.

26. Lílá said:—Yes I find reminiscence to be an airy thing, and its reproduction of my husband and all other things within me to be but empty shadows in the mind.

27. The goddess replied:—So verily was this reproduction of thy husband and all those things which appeared to thy sight in thy reverie; and so, my daughter, is the appearance of all things I see in this world.

28. Lílá said:—Tell me goddess for the removal of my conception of the reality of the world, how the false appearance of my formless lord, was produced before me by the unreal world, (since nothing unsubstantial can cast a shadow).

29. The goddess replied:—As this illusive world appeared a reality to thee before thy reminiscence of it, so must thou know all this to be unreal from what I am going to relate to thee.

30. There is in some part of the sphere of the Intellect the great fabric of the world, with the glassy vault of the firmament for its roof on all sides.

31. The Meru (the polar axle or mountain) is its pillar, beset around by the regents of the ten sides, as statues carved upon it. The fourteen regions are as so many apartments of it, and the hollow concavity containing the three worlds, is lighted by the lamp of the luminous sun.

32. Its corners are inhabited by living creatures resembling ants and emmets, which are surrounded by mountains appearing as ant-hills in the sight of Brahmá, the prime lord of creatures and the primeval patriarch of many races of men.

33. All animal beings are as worms confined in the cocoons (prison houses) of their own making. The azure skies above and below are as the soot of this house, beset by bodies of Siddhas (or departed spirits), resembling groups of gnats buzzing in the air.

34. The fleeting clouds are the smoke of this house or as webs of spiders in its corners, and the hollow air is full of aerial spirits, like holes of bamboos filled with flies.

35. There are also the playful spirits of gods and demigods, hovering over human habitations, as swarms of busy and buzzing bees about vessels of honey.

36. Here there lay amidst the cavity of heaven, earth and the infernal regions, tracts of land well watered by rivers, lakes and the sea on all sides.

37. In a corner of this land, there was situated a secluded piece of ground (a vale or village), sheltered by hills and craigs about it.

38. In this secluded spot thus sheltered by hills, rivers and forests, there lived a Bráhman with his wife and children, free from disease and care of gain and fear of a ruler, and passed his days in his fire-worship and hospitality, with the produce of his kine and lands. CHAPTER XIX. STORY OF A FORMER VASISHTHA AND HIS WIFE.

This Bráhman was equal to his namesake—the sage Vasishtha, in his age and attire, in his learning and wealth, and in all his actions and pursuits, except in his profession. (The one being a secular man, and the other the priest of the royal family).

2. His name was Vasishtha, and that of his wife Arundhatí; who was as fair as the moon, and as the star of the same name on earth.

3. She resembled her namesake the priestess of the solar race, in her virtues and parts and in all things, except in her soul and body.

4. She passed her time in true love and affection in his company, and was his all in the world, with her sweet smiling face resembling the Kumuda flower.

5. This Bráhman had been sitting once under the shady _sarala_ trees, on the table land of his native hill, when he saw the ruler of the land, passing with his gaudy train below.

6. He was accompanied by all the members of the royal family and his troops and soldiers, and was going to a chase, with a clamour that resounded in the hills and forests.

7. The white flappers shed a stream of moon light, and the lifted banners appeared as a moving forest, and the white umbrellas made the sky a canopy to them.

8. The air was filled with dust raised by the hoofs of horses from the ground, and lines of elephants with their high _haúdás_, seemed as moving towers, to protect them from the solar heat and sultry winds.

9. The wild animals were running on all sides at the loud uproar of the party, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool, and shining gems and jewels were flashing all about on the persons of the party.

10. The Bráhman saw the procession and said to himself, “O how charming is royalty, which is fraught with such splendour and prosperity.”

11. Ah! how shall I become the monarch of all the ten sides, and have such a retinue of horse and elephants and foot soldiers, with a similar train of flags and flappers and blazing umbrellas.

12. When will the breeze waft the fragrance of _kunda_ flowers, and the farina of lotuses to my bed-chamber, to lull me and my consorts to sleep.

13. When shall I adorn the countenances of my chamber maids with camphor and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of the four quarters with my fair fame, as the moon-beams decorate the night.

14. With these thoughts, the Bráhman was thenceforth determined to apply himself with vigilance, to the rigid austerities of his religion for life.

15. He was at last overtaken by infirmities which shattered his frame, as the sleets of snowfall, batter the blooming lotuses in the lake.

16. Seeing his approaching death, his faithful wife was fading away with fear, as a creeper withers at the departure of spring, for fear of the summer heat.

17. This lady then began to worship me (the personification of Wisdom) like thyself, for obtaining the boon of immortality which is hard to be had.

18. She prayed saying:—Ordain, O goddess! that the spirit of my lord may not depart from this sepulchre after his demise: and I granted her request.

19. After sometime the Bráhman died, and his vacuous spirit remained in the vacuity of that abode.

20. This aeriform spirit of the Bráhman, assumed the shape of a mighty man on earth, by virtue of the excessive desire and merit of acts in his former state of existence.

21. He became the victorious monarch of the three realms, by subjugating the surface of the earth by his might, by laying hold on the high steeps (of the gods) by his valour, and his kind protection of the nether lands (watery regions) under his sway.

22. He was as a conflagration to the forest of his enemies, and as the steadfast Meru amidst the rushing winds of business on all sides. He was as the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of the virtuous, and as the god of the _makara_ ensign (Kama or Cupid) to the eyes of women.

23. He was the model of all learning, and the all giving _Kalpa_ tree to his suitors; he was the footstool of great Pandits, and as the full-moon shedding the ambrosial beams of polity all around.

24. But after the Bráhman was dead, and his dead body had disappeared in the forms of elementary particles in air, and his airy spirit had reposed in the aerial intellectual soul within the empty space of his house.

25. His Bráhmanic widow (born of the priestly class), was pining away in her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain as the dried pod of _Simbi_.

26. She became a dead body like her husband, and her spirit by shuffling off its mortal coil, resumed its subtile and immortal form, in which it met the departed ghost of her husband.

27. She advanced to her lord, as rapidly as a river runs to meet the sea below its level; and became as cheerful to join him, as a cluster of flowers to inhale the vernal air.

28. The houses, lands and all the immovable properties and movable riches of this Bráhman, are still existent in that rocky village, and it is only eight days past, that the souls of this loving pair, are reunited in the hollow vault of their house. CHAPTER XX. THE MORAL OF THE TALE OF LÍLÁ.

The goddess said:—That Bráhman whom I said before, had become a monarch on earth, is the same with thy husband, and his wife Arundhati, is no other than thyself—the best of women.

2. You two are the same pair now reigning over this realm, and resembling a pair of doves in your nuptial love, and the deities Siva and Párvati in your might.

3. I have thus related to you the state of your past lives, that you may know the living soul to be but air, and the knowledge of its reality is but an error.

4. The erroneous knowledge (derived from sense), casts its reflection in the intellect, and causes its error also (errors in the senses breed errors in the mind); and this makes you doubtful of the truth and untruth of the two states (of the sensible and intellectual worlds).

5. Therefore the question, ‘which is true and which is untrue,’ has no better solution than that all creations (whether visible or invisible, mental or ideal), are equally false and unsubstantial.

6. Vasishtha said:—Hearing these words of the goddess, Lílá was confused in her mind, and with her eyes staring with wonder, she addressed her softly.

7. Lílá said:—How is it, O goddess! that your words are so incoherent with truth, you make us the same, with the Brahmanic pair, who are in their own house, and we are sitting here in our palace.

8. And how is it possible that the small space of the room in which my husband’s body is lying, could contain those spacious lands and hills and the ten sides of the sky: (as I already saw in my trance—_Samádhi_).

9. It is as impossible as to confine an elephant in a mustard seed, and as the fighting of a gnat with a body of lions in a nut-shell.

10. It is as incredible as to believe a lotus seed containing a hill in it, and to be devoured by a little bee; or that the peacocks are dancing on hearing the roaring of clouds in a dream.

11. It is equally inconsistent to say, O great goddess of gods! that this earth with all its mountains and other things, are contained within the small space of a sleeping room.

12. Deign therefore, O goddess to explain this mystery clearly unto me; because it is by thy favour only that the learned are cleared of their doubts.

13. The goddess said:—Hear me fair lady! I do not tell thee a lie; because transgression of the law is a thing unknown to us. (The law is _nánritam vadeta_—never tell an untruth).

14. It is I that establish the law when others are about to break it; if then I should slight the same, who else is there who would observe it.

15. The living soul of the village Bráhman, saw within itself and in the very house, the image of this great kingdom, as his departed spirit now views the same in its empty vacuity. (Therefore both these states are equally ideal).

16. But you have lost the remembrance of the states of your former lives after death, as they lose the recollection of waking events in the dreaming state.

17. As the appearance of the three worlds in dream, and their formation in the imagination; or as the description of a warfare in an epic poem and water in the mirage of a _maru_ or sandy desert (are all false):

18. So were the hills and habitations which were seen in the empty space of the Bráhman’s house, which was no other than the capacity of his own mind to form the images of its fancy, and receive the external impressions like a reflecting mirror (all mere ideal).

19. All these though unreal, yet they appear as real substances on account of the reality of the intellect, which is seated in the cavity of the inmost sheath of the body and reflects the images.

20. But these images, which are derived from the remembrance of unreal objects of the world, are as unreal as those objects which cast their reflexions in the intellect; just as the waves rising in the river of a mirage, are as unreal as the mirage itself.

21. Know this seat (sadana) of yours, which is set in this closet (_kosha_) of the house, as well as myself and thyself and all things about us, to be but the reflections of our intellect only, without which nothing would be perceptible, as to one who is devoid of his intellect.

22. Our dreams and fallacies, our desires and fancies, as also our notions and ideas, serve as the best evidences, that afford us their light for the understanding of this truth: (that nothing is true beside the subjective mind, which creates and forms, produces and presents all objects to our view).

23. The spirit of the Bráhman resided in the vacuity of his house (the body), with the seas and forests and the earth (_i.e._ their impressions) within itself, as the bee abides in the lotus.

24. Thus the habitable globe with every thing it contains, is situated in a small cell in one corner of the intellect, as a spot of flimsy cloud in the firmament.

25. The House of the Bráhman was situated in the same locality of the intellect, which contains all the worlds in one of its atomic particles.

26. The intelligent soul contains in every atom of it, unnumbered worlds within worlds, enough to remove your doubt; of the Bráhman’s viewing a whole realm within the space of his intellect.

27. Lílá asked:—How can the Bráhmanic pair be ourselves, when they are dead only eight days before, and we have been reigning here for so many years?

28. The goddess replied:—There is neither any limit of space or duration, nor any distance of place or length of time in reality: hear me now tell you the reason of it.

29. As the universe is the reflexion of the divine mind, so are infinity and eternity but representations of himself.

30. Attend to what I tell you about the manner in which we form the idea of time, and its distinct parts of a moment and an age, in the same way as we make the distinction of individualities in me, thee and this or that person (which are essentially the same undivided spirit and duration).[14]

SECTION II.

_State of the Human soul after death._

31. Hear now, that no sooner does any one come to feel the insensibility consequent to his death, than he forgets his former nature and thinks himself as another being.

32. He then assumes an empty form in the womb of vacuity in the twinkling of an eye, and being contained in that container, he thinks within himself in the same receptacle.

33. “This is my body with its hands and feet.” Thus the body he thinks upon, he finds the same presented before him.

34. He then thinks in himself: “I am the son of this father and am so many years old; these are my dear friends and this is my pleasant abode.”

35. “I was born and became a boy, and then grew up to this age. There are all my friends and in the same course of their lives.”

36. Thus the compact density of the sphere of his soul, presents him many other figures, which appear to rise in it as in some part of the world.

37. But they neither rise nor remain in the soul itself, which is as transparent as the empty air; they appear to the intellect as a vision seen in a dream.

38. As the view beheld in a dream, presents the sights of all things in one place, so does every thing appear to the eye of the beholder of the other world as in his dream.

39. Again whatever is seen in the other world, the same occurs to men in their present states also; wherefore the reality of this and unreality of the other world, are both alike to a state of dreaming.

40. And as there is no difference in the waves of the same sea-water, so the produced visible creation is no other than the unproduced intellectual world, both of which are equally indestructible: (the one being but a copy of the other).

41. But in reality the appearance is nothing but a reflection of the intellect; and which apart from the intelligible spirit, is merely an empty vacuity.

42. The creation though presided by the intelligible spirit, is itself a mere void, its intelligible soul being the only substance of it as the water of the waves.

43. The waves though formed of water, are themselves as false as the horns of hares; and their appearance as natural objects: is altogether false (because they are the effects of the auxiliary cause of the winds which have raised them).

44. Hence there being no visible object in reality (except a false appearance of such), how can the observer have any idea of the visible, which loses its delusion at the moment of his death.

45. After disappearance of the visible outer world from sight, the soul reflects on its reminiscence of the creation in its inner world of the mind, according to the proper time and place of every thing.

46. It remembers its birth, its parents, its age and its residence, with its learning and all other pursuits in their exact manner and order.

47. It thinks of its friends and servants, and of the success and failure of its attempts. And thus the increate and incorporeal soul, ruminates on the events of its created and corporeal state in its intellectual form.

48. It does not however remain long in this state, but enters a new body soon after its death, to which the properties of the mind and senses, are added afterwards in their proper times.

49. It then becomes a baby, and finds a new father and mother, and begins to grow. Thus whether one may perceive it or not, it is all the product of his former reminiscence.

50. Then upon waking from this state of trance, like a fruit from the cell of a flower, it comes to find that a single moment appeared to it as the period of an age.

51. So King Harish Chandra of yore thought one night as a period of twelve years; and so one day seems as long as a year to them that are separated from their beloved objects.

52. Again as the birth or death of one in his dream, or his getting a begotten father in infancy, or a hungry man’s faring on dainty food in thought, is all false:

53. So when a sated man says he is starving, or one declares he is an eye witness of a thing he has not seen, or an empty space is full of people, or that he has got a lost treasure in his dream, who is there to believe him?

54. But this visible world rests in the invisible spirit of God, as the property of pungency, resides in the particles, of the pepper seed, and as the painted pictures on a column. But where are the open and clear sighted eyes to perceive the same?

INTERPRETATION OF LÍLÁ’S VISION.

55. The vision of Lílá, called samádhi in Yoga and _clairvoyance_ of spiritualism, was the abstract meditation of her lord in her memory. Which presented her with a full view of every thing imprinted in it. The memory is taken for the whole intellect _chit_, which is identified with God, in whose essence the images of all things, are said to be eternally present. CHAPTER XXI. GUIDE TO PEACE.

Soon after the insensibility occasioned by one’s death is over, there appears to him (soul) the sight of the world, as he viewed it with his open eyes when he was living.

2. It presents before him the circle of the sky and its sides with the cycle of its seasons and times, and shows him the deeds of his pious and secular acts, as they were to continue to eternity.

3. Objects never seen nor thought of before, also offer themselves to his view, as the sight of his own death in a dream, and as they were the prints in his memory.

4. But the infinity of objects, appearing in the empty sphere of the immaterial intellect, is mere illusion, and the baseless city of the world, like an aerial castle, is but the creation of imagination.

5. It is the remembrance of the past world, that makes it known to us (because it is impossible to recognise any thing without a previous impression of its kind in the mind). Hence the length of a _kalpa_ age and the shortness of a moment, are but erroneous impressions proceeding from the rapidity and slowness of our thoughts.

6. Therefore knowledge, based upon previous notions or otherwise, is of two kinds, and things known without their cause, are attributed to Divine Intelligence (as the hidden cause of all).

7. We are conscious also of thoughts, unthought of before in our minds, as we often have in our dreams; and think of our parents after their demise by mistake of other persons as such.

8. Sometimes genius supercedes the province of memory, as in the first creation or discovery of a thing, which is afterwards continued by its remembrance.

9. According to some, those visible worlds are said to have remained in their ideal state in the Divine mind; and according to others, that there were no pre-existent notions of these in the mind of God.

10. According to some others, the world manifested itself not from the memory, but by the power and will of God; while others maintain it to be the production of a fortuitous combination, of intelligence and atomic principles on a sudden (_Kákatálíya sanyoga_).

11. It is the entire forgetfulness of the world, which is styled liberation, and which can not be had from attachment to what is desirable or aversion of the undesirable.

12. It is difficult to effect an entire negation, both of one’s subjective as well as objective knowledge of his self, and the existence of the outer world; and yet no body can be freed without obliteration of both.

13. As the fallacy of taking a rope for a snake, is not removed until the meaning of the world snake, is known to be inapplicable to the rope; so no one can have rest and peace of his mind, unless he is convinced of the illusive nature of the world.

14. One party, who is at peace with himself (by his abandonment of the world), can not be wholly at rest without divine knowledge; as the ghost of his inward ignorance, may overtake him after his getting rid of the devil of worldliness.

15. The world is certainly a monster in itself without the knowledge of its Author; but the difficulty of knowing the first cause, has rendered it an impassable wilderness.

16. Lílá said:—If reminiscence be the cause of one’s reproduction, then say, O goddess! what were the causes of the birth of the Bráhmanic pair, without the vestiges of their past remembrance.

17. The goddess replied:—Know that Brahmá the first progenitor of mankind, who was absolute in himself, did not retain any vestige of his past remembrance in him.

18. The first born, who had nothing to remember of a prior birth, was born in the lotus with his own intelligence—_chaitanya_; (and not because of his remembrance).

19. The lord of creatures being thus born by chance of his own genius or creative power, and without any assignable cause or design on his part, reflected within himself “now I am become another and the source of creation.”

20. Whatever is thus born of itself, is as it were nothing and never produced at all, but remained as the absolute intellect itself in _nubibus_ (chinnabhas).

21. It is the Supreme being that is the sole cause of both states of reminiscence (_i.e._ the one caused by vestiges of prior impressions, and the other produced by prior desires); and both the conditions of cause and effect combine in Him in the sphere of his intellect.

22. Thus it is the knowledge of the union of the cause and effect, and the auxiliary cause in Him, that gives us our tranquillity and naught otherwise.

23. Causality and consequence are mere empty words of no significance, since it is the recognition of the universal intellect, which constitutes true wisdom.

24. Hence nothing is produced that is seen in the phenomenal, or known in the noumenal or intellectual world (_Chid-jagat_); but every thing is situated within the space of the sphere of the intellect in one’s own soul.

25. Lílá said:—O! wonderful was the sight thou hast shown me, O goddess; it was a fair prospect of the world as in its morning light, and as brilliant as in the glare of a lightning.

26. Now goddess! deign to satisfy my curiosity, until I become conversant with it by my intense application and study.

27. Kindly take me to that dwelling where the Bráhman pair dwelt together, and show me that mountainous spot of their former residence.

28. The goddess replied:—If you want to see that sight, you shall have to be immaculate, by forsaking the sense of your personality (_mana_ or _meum_), and betaking yourself to the clairvoyance or clear sightedness of seeing the unintelligible Intellect (_achetya-chit_) within the soul.

29. You shall then find yourself in a vacuous atmosphere (_vyomátman_), and situated in the sky (_nabhas-nubibus_), resembling the prospects of earthly men, and the apartments of the firmament (_i.e._ all _nil_ and void).

30. In this state we shall be able to see them with all their possessions without any obstruction; otherwise this body is a great barrier in the way of spiritual vision.

31. Lílá said:—Tell me kindly, O goddess! the reason, why do we not see the other world with these eyes, nor go there with these bodies of ours.

32. The goddess replied:—The reason is that you take the true futurity for false, and believe the untrue present as true. For these worlds which are formless, appear as having forms to your eyes, as you take the substance gold in its form of a ring.

33. Gold though fashioned as a circlet, has no circularity in it; so the spirit of God appearing in the form of the world, is not the world itself.

34. The world is a vacuity full with the spirit of God; and whatever else is visible in it, is as the dust appearing to fly over the sea. (Hence called _máyá_ or illusion of vision, as specks peopling the summer skies).

35. This illusory quintessence of the world is all false, the true reality being the subjective Brahma alone; and in support of this truth we have the evidence of our guides in Vedánta philosophy, and the conviction of our consciousness.

36. The Brahma believer sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere, and he looks to Brahma through Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of all, and whose nature includes all other attributes in itself.

37. Brahma is not known only as the author of his work of the creation of worlds, but as existent of himself without any causation or auxiliary causality (_i.e._ as neither the creator or created, nor supporter of nor supported by another).

38. Until you are trained by your practice of Yoga, to rely in one unity, by discarding all duality and variety in your belief, so long you are barred from viewing Brahma in his true light.

39. Being settled in this belief of unity, we find ourselves by our constant practice of Yoga communion, to rest in the Supreme spirit.

40. We then find our bodies mixing with the air as an aerial substance, and at last come to the sight of Brahma with these our mortal frames.

41. Being then endued with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames, like those of Brahmá and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part of the divine essence.

42. Without practice of yoga, you can not approach God with your mortal frame. The soul that is sullied by sense, can never see the image of God.

43. It is impossible for one to arrive at the aerial castle (objects of the wish) of another, when it is not possible for him to come to the castle (wished for object), which he has himself built in air.

44. Forsake therefore this gross body, and assume your light intellectual frame; then betake yourself to the practice of yoga, that you may see God face to face.

45. As it may be possible to realize an aerial castle by the labour of building it, so it is possible to behold God, either with this body or without it, by practice of yoga only and not otherwise.

46. And as the erroneous conception of the existence of the world, has continued since its first creation (by the will of Brahma); so it has been ever since attributed to an eternal fate—niyati (by fatalists), and to an illusory power (_máyá sakti of Máyá vadis_).

47. Lílá asked:—Thou saidst O goddess? that we shall go together to the abode of the Brahman pair, but I ask thee to tell me, how are we to effect our journey there?

48. As for me, I shall be able to go there with the purer part of my essence the sentient soul (after leaving this my gross body here). But tell me how wilt thou that art pure intellect (_chetas_), go to that place?

49. The goddess replied:—I tell thee lady, that the divine will is an aerial tree, and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no figure nor form nor substance in them.

50. And whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of his intelligent nature, is only a likeness of himself, and bears little difference from its original.

51. This body of mine is of the like kind, and I will not lay it aside, but find out that place by means of this as the breeze finds the odours.

52. And as water mixes with water, fire with fire and air with air, so does this spiritual body easily join with any material form that it likes.

53. But a corporeal body cannot mix with an incorporeal substance, nor a solid rock become the same with an ideal hill.

54. And as your body, which is composed both of its spiritual and mental parts, has become corporeal by its habitual tendency to corporeality.

55. So your material body becomes spiritual (_átiváhika_), by means of your leaning to spirituality, as in your sleep, in your protracted meditation, insensibility, fancies and reveries.

56. Your spiritual nature will then return to your body, when your earthly desires are lessened and curbed within the mind.

57. Lílá said:—Say goddess, what becomes of the spiritual body after it has attained its compactness by constant practice of yoga; whether it becomes indestructible, or perishes like all other finite bodies.

58. The goddess replied:—Any thing that exists is perishable, and of course liable to death; but how can that thing die which is nothing, and is imperishable in its nature? (Such is the spirit).

59. Again the fallacy of the snake in a rope being removed, the snake disappears of itself, and no one doubts of it any more.

60. Thus, as the true knowledge of the rope, removes the erroneous conception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the spiritual body, dispels the misconception of its materiality.

61. All imagery is at an end when there is no image at all, as the art of statuary must cease for want of stones on earth. (Thus they attribute materiality to the immaterial spirit from their familiarity with matter).

62. We see clearly our bodies full of the spirit of God, which you can not perceive owing to your gross understanding.

63. In the beginning when the intellect—_chit_, is engrossed with the imagination of the mind—_chitta_, it loses thenceforth its sight of the only one object (the unity of God).

64. Lílá asked:—But how can imagination have any room or trace out anything in that unity, wherein the divisions of time and space and all things, are lost in an undistinguishable mass?

65. The goddess replied:—Like the bracelet in gold and waves in water, the show of truth in dreams, and the resemblance of aerial castles:—

66. As all these vanish on the right apprehension of them, so the imaginary attributes of the unpredicable God, are all nothing whatever.

67. As there is no dust in the sky, so there can be no ascribing of any attribute or partial property to God; whose nature is indivisible and unimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil and all-pervading.

68. Whatever shines about us, is the pure light of that being, who scatters his lustre like a transcendental gem all around.

69. Lílá said:—If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess! how we happened to fall into the error of attributing duality and diversity to His nature.

70. The goddess replied:—It was your want of reason that has led you to error so long; and it is the absence of reasoning that is the natural bane of mankind, and requires to be remedied by your attending to reason.

71. When reason takes the place of the want of reason, it introduces in a moment the light of knowledge in the soul, in lieu of its former darkness.

72. As reason advances, your want of reason and knowledge and your bondage to prejudice, are put to flight; and then you have an unobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world.

73. As long as you had remained without reasoning on this subject, so long were you either dormant or wandering in error.

74. You are awakened from this day both to your reason and liberation, and the seeds for the suppression of your desires, are sown in your heart.

75. At first neither was this visible world presented to you nor you to it, how long will you therefore reside in it, and what other desires have you herein?

76. Withdraw your mind from its thoughts of the visitor, visibles and vision of this world, and settle it in the idea of the entire negation of all existence, then fix your meditation solely in the supreme Being, and sit in a state of unalterable insensibility (by forgetting yourself to a stone).

77. When the seed of inappetency has taken root in your heart, and begun to germinate in it, the sprouts of your affections and hatred (literally—pathos and apathy), will be destroyed of themselves.

78. Then the impression of the world will be utterly effaced from the mind, and an unshaken _anesthesia_ will overtake you all at once.

79. Remaining thus entranced in your abstract meditation, you will have in process of time a soul, as luminous as a luminary in the clear firmament of heaven, freed from the concatenation of all causes and their consequences for evermore. CHAPTER XXII. PRACTICE OF WISDOM OR WISDOM IN PRACTICE.

(VIJNÁNA-BHYÁSA).

SECTION I.

ABANDONMENT OF DESIRES.

_Básaná Tyága._

The goddess continued:—

As objects seen in a dream, prove to be false as the dream, on being roused from sleep and upon knowing them as fumes of fancy; so the belief in the reality of the body, becomes unfounded upon dissolution of our desires.

2. As the thing dreamt of disappears upon waking, so does the waking body disappear in sleep, when the desires lie dormant in the soul.

3. As our corporeal bodies are awakened after the states of our dreaming and desiring, so is our spiritual body awakened after we cease to think of our corporeal states.

4. As a sound sleep succeeds the dormancy which is devoid of desires (_i.e._ when we are unconscious of the actions and volition of our minds); so does the tranquillity of liberation follow the state of our inappetency even in our waking bodies.

5. The desire of living-liberated men (_jívan-muktas_), is not properly any desire at all, since it is the pure desire relating to universal weal and happiness.

6. The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant, is called the sound sleep _susupta_, but the dormancy of desires in the waking state, is known as insensibility _moha_ or _múrchhá_.

7. Again the sleep which is wholly devoid of desire, is designated the _turíya_ or the fourth stage of yoga, and which in the waking state is called _samádhi_ or union with Supreme.

8. The living man, whose life is freed from all desires in this world, is called the living liberated—_jívan-mukta_, a state which is unknown to them that are not liberated (_amukta_).

9. When the mind becomes a pure essence (as in its _samádhi_), and its desires are weakened, it becomes spiritualised (_ativáhika_), and then it glows and flows, as the snow melts to water by application of heat.

10. The spiritualised mind, being awakened (as if it were from its drowsiness or lethargy), mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls in the other world.

11. When your egoism is moderated by your practice of yoga, then the perception of the invisible, will of itself rise clearly before your mind.

12. And when spiritual knowledge gains a firm footing in your mind, you will then behold the hallowed scenes of the other world more than your expectation.

13. Therefore O blameless lady! try your utmost to deaden your desires, and when you have gained sufficient strength in that practice, know yourself to be liberated in this life.

14. Until the moon of your intellectual knowledge, comes to shine forth fully with her cooling beams, so long you shall have to leave this body of yours here, in order to have a view of the other world.

15. This fleshy body of yours, can have no tangible connection with one which is without flesh; nor can the intellectual body (_lingadeha_), perform any action of the corporeal system.

16. I have told you all this according to my best knowledge, and the state of things as they are: and my sayings are known even to boys, to be as efficacious as the curse or blessing of a deity.

17. It is the habitual reliance of men in their gross bodies, and their fond attachment to them, that bind their souls down, and bring them back to the earth; while the weakening of earthly desires serve to clothe them with spiritual bodies.

18. No body believes in his having a spiritual body here even at his death bed; but every one thinks the dying man to be dead with his body for ever.

19. This body however, neither dies, nor is it alive at any time; for both life and death are mere resemblances of aerial dreams and desires in all respects.

20. The life and death of beings here below, are as false as the appearances and disappearance of persons in imagination, (or a man in the moon), or of dolls in play or puppet shows.

21. Lílá said:—The pure knowledge, O goddess! that thou hast imparted to me, serves on its being instilled into my ears, as a healing balm to the pain caused by the phenomenals.

SECTION II.

ON THE PRACTICE OF YOGA.

22. Now tell me the name and nature of the practice, that may be of use to Spiritualism, how it is to be perfected and what is the end of such perfection.

23. The goddess replied:—Whatever a man attempts to do here at any time, he can hardly ever effect its completion, without his painful practice of it to the utmost of his power.

24. Practice is said by the wise, to consist in the conference of the same thing with one another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in devoting one’s self solely to his object.

25. And those great souls become successful in this world, who are disgusted with the world, and are moderate in their enjoyments and desires, and do not think on the attainment of what they are in want of.

26. And those great minds are said to be best trained, which are graced with liberal views, and are delighted with the relish of unconcernedness with the world, and enraptured with the streams of heavenly felicity.

27. Again they are called the best practised in divine knowledge, who are employed in preaching the absolute negation of the knower and knowables in this world, by the light of reasoning and Sástras.

28. Also the knowledge, that there was nothing produced in the beginning, and that nothing which is visible, as this world or one’s self, is true at any time, is called to be practical knowledge by some.

29. The strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which results from a knowledge of the nihility of visibles, and subsidence of the passions, is said to be the effect of the practice of Yoga.

30. But mere knowledge of the inexistence of the world, without subduing the passions, is known as knowledge without practice, and is of no good to its possessor.

31. Consciousness of the inexistence of the visible world, constitutes the true knowledge of the knowable. This habitude of the mind is called the practice of Yoga, and leads one to his final extinction—_nirvána_.

32. The mind thus prepared by practice of Yoga, awakens the intelligence which lay dormant in the dark night of this world, and which now sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the frosty night of autumn.

33. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed as to its evening service, and led the assembled train to their evening ablutions. They met again with their mutual greetings at the rising beams of the sun after the darkness of night was dispelled. CHAPTER XXIII. THE AERIAL JOURNEY OF SPIRITUAL BODIES.

Vasishtha said:—

After this conference between the goddess and that excellent lady on that night, they found the inmates of the family fast asleep in the inner apartment.

2. They entered the charnel-house which was closely shut on all sides by latches fastened to the doors and windows, and which was perfumed with the fragrance of heaps of flowers.

3. They sat beside the corpse decorated with fresh flowers and garments, with their faces shining like the fair full-moon; and brightening the place.

4. They then went to the cemetery and stood motionless on the spot, as if they were sculptures engraven on marble columns, or as pictures drawn upon the wall.

5. They shook off all their thoughts and cares, and became as contracted as the faded blossoms of the lotus at the decline of the day, when their fragrance has fled from them.

6. They remained still, calm and quiet and without any motion of their limbs, like a sheet of clouds hanging on the mountain top in the calm of autumn.

7. They continued in fixed attention without any external sensation, like some lonely creepers shrivelled for want of the moisture of the season.

8. They were fully impressed with the disbelief of their own existence, and that of all other things in the world, and were altogether absorbed in the thought of an absolute privation of every thing at large.

9. They lost the remembrance of the phantom of the phenomenal world, which is as unreal as the horn of a hare.

10. What was a _non ens_ at first, is even so a not-being at present, and what appears as existent, is as inexistent as the water in a mirage.

11. The two ladies then became as quiet as inert nature herself, and as still as firmament before the luminous bodies rolled about in its ample sphere.

12. They then began to move with their own bodies, the goddess of wisdom in her form of intelligence, and the queen in her intellectual and meditative mood.

13. With their new bodies they rose as high as one span above the ground, then taking the forms of the empty intellect, they began to mount in the sky.

14. The two ladies then with their playful open eyes, ascended to the higher region of the sky, by their nature of intellectual knowledge.

15. Then they flew higher and higher by force of their intellect, and arrived at a region stretching millions of leagues in length.

16. Here the pair in their etherial forms, looked about according to their nature in search of some visible objects; but finding no other figure except their own, they became much more attached to each other by their mutual affection. CHAPTER XXIV. THE AERIAL JOURNEY.

Vasishtha continued:—

Thus ascending higher and higher and reaching by degrees the highest station, they went on viewing the heavens, with their hands clasped in each other’s.

2. They saw a vast expanse as that of the wide extended universal ocean, deep and translucent within; but soft with etherial mildness, and a cooling breeze infusing heavenly delight.

3. All delightsome and pleasant was the vast Ocean of vacuity, into which they dived, and which afforded them a delight far greater in its purity, than what is derived from the company of the virtuous.

4. They wandered about all sides of heaven, under the beams of the full moon shining above them; and now halted under the clear vault of the clouds, covering the mountain tops of _Meru_, as if under the dome of a huge white washed edifice.

5. And now they roved by the regions of Siddhas and Gandharvas, breathing the charming fragrance of _Mandára_ chaplets; and now passing the lunar sphere, they inhaled the sweet scent exhaled by the breeze from that nectarious orb (_Sudhákara_).

6. Now tired and perspiring profusely, they bathed in the lakes of showering clouds, fraught with the blushing lotuses of lurid lightnings flashing within them.

7. They promenaded at random of their free will on all sides, and now alighted like fluttering bees on the tops of high mountains, appearing as filaments of the lotus-like earth below.

8. They roved also under the vaults of some fragments of clouds, which were scattered by the winds, and raining like the cascade of Ganges, thinking them as shower-bath-houses in the air.

9. Then failing in their strength, they halted in many places, with their slow and slackened steps, and beheld the vacuum full of great and wondrous works.

SECTION II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAVEN.

10. They saw what they had never seen before, the tremendous depth of vacuity, which was not filled up by the myriads of worlds which kept revolving in it.

11. Over and over and higher and higher, they saw the celestial spheres filled with luminous orbs adorned with their ornamental stars, roving one above and around the other.

12. Huge mountainous bodies as the _Meru_ moved about in the vacuous space, and emitted a rubicund glare, like a flame of fire from within their bowels on all sides.

13. There were beautiful table-lands, like those of the Himálayas, with their pearly peaks of snow; and also mountains of gold, spreading an aureate hue over the land.

14. They saw in some place mountains of emerald, tinging the landscape with verdant green, as it were a bed of grass; and in others some dark cloud, dimming the sight of the spectator, and hiding the spectacle in dark blackness.

15. They beheld also tracts of blue sapphire, with creepers of párijáta flowers, blooming with their blossoms as banners in the azure skies.

16. They saw the flights of Siddhas (or departed holy spirits), the flight of whose minds outstripped the swiftness of the winds; and heard the vocal music of the songs of heavenly nymphs in their aerial abodes.

17. All the great bodies in the universe (the planetary system), were in continual motion; and the spirits of the gods and demigods, were moving about unseen by one another.

18. Groups of spiritual beings, as the Kushmándas, Rákshasas and Pisáchas, were seated in aerial circles at the borders; and the winds and gales blowing with full force in their etherial course.

19. Loud roarings of clouds, as those of the crackling wheels of heavenly cars, were heard in some places; and the noise of rapid stars, resembled the blowing of pneumatic engines.

20. There the half burnt Siddhas, were flying from their burning cars under the solar rays, by reason of their nearness to the Sun; and the solar embers were flung afar by the breath of the nostrils of his horses. (It means the falling of the burning meteors and meteorolites from the sky).

21. In some places they beheld the rulers of men, and trains of Apsaras, hurrying up and down the air; and in others, the goddesses roving amidst the smoky and fiery clouds in the firmament.

22. Here they saw some sparks of light, falling like the jewels of celestial nymphs, in their hurried flight to their respective spheres; and there they beheld the lightsome spirits of lesser Siddhas dwindling into darkness.

23. Flakes of mists were falling off from the clouds, as if by friction of the bodies of turbulent spirits, rushing up and down the skies; and shrouding the sides of mountains as with sheets of cloth.

24. Fragments of clouds, beset by groups in the shapes of crows, owls and vultures, were flying about in the air; and there were seen some monsters also, as Dákinis heaving their heads in the forms of huge surges, in the cloudy ocean of the sky.

25. There were bodies of Yoginís too, with their faces resembling those of dogs, ravens, asses and camels, who were traversing the wide expanse of the heavens to no purpose.

26. There were Siddhas and Gandharvas, sporting in pairs in the coverts of dark, smoky and ash coloured clouds, spread before the regents of the four quarters of the skies.

27. They beheld the path of the planets (the zodiac), which resounded loudly with the heavenly music of the spheres; and that path also (of the lunar mansions), which incessantly marked the course of the two fortnights.

28. They saw the sons of gods moving about in the air, and viewing with wonder the heavenly stream of Ganges (the milky way), which was studded with stars, and rolling with the rapidity of winds.

29. They saw the gods wielding their thunderbolts, discuses, tridents, swords and missiles; and heard Nárada and Tumburu singing in their aerial abodes on high.

30. They beheld the region of the clouds, where there were huge bodies of them mute as paintings, and pouring forth floods of rain as in the great deluge.

31. In some place they saw a dark cloud, as high as the mountain-king Himálaya, slowly moving in the air; and at others some of a golden hue as at the setting sun.

32. In some place there were flimsy sheets of clouds, as are said to hover on the peaks of the Rishya range; and at another a cloud like the calm blue bed of the Sea, without any water in them.

33. There were tufts of grass seen in some places, as if blown up by the winds and floating in the stream of air; and swarms of butterflies at others with their glossy coats and wings.

34. In some place, there was a cloud of dust raised by the wind, and appearing as a lake on the top of a mountain.

35. The Mátris were seen, to be dancing naked in their giddy circles in some place, and the great Yoginís sat at others, as if ever and anon giddy with intoxication.

36. There were circles of holy men, sitting in their calm meditation in one place; and pious saints at others, who had cast away their worldly cares at a distance.

37. There was a conclave of celestial choristers, composed of heavenly nymphs, Kinnaras and Gandharvas in one place; and some quiet towns and cities situated at others.

38. There were the cities of Brahmá and Rudra full with their people, and the city of illusion (Máyá) with its increasing population.

39. There were crystal lakes in some places and stagnant pools at others; and lakes with the Siddhas seated by them, and those embosomed by the rising moon.

40. They saw the sun rising in one part, and the darkness of night veiling the others; the evening casting its shadow on one, and the dusky mists of dusk obscuring the other.

41. There were the hoary clouds of winter in some places, and those of the rains in others; somewhere they appeared as tracts of land and at another as a sheet of water.

42. Bodies of gods and demigods, were roving from one side to the other; some from east to west, and others from north to the south.

43. There were mountains heaving their heads to thousands of miles in their height; and there were valleys and caves covered in eternal darkness.

44. There was a vast inextinguishable fire, like that of the blazing sun in one place; and a thickly frost covering the moon-light in another. (The burning heat of the tropics and the cold of the frigid zone).

45. Somewhere there was a great city, flourishing with groves and arbours; and at another big temples of gods, levelled to the ground by the might of demons.

46. In some place there was a streak of light, described by a falling meteor in the sky; in another the blaze of a comet with its thousand fiery tails in the air.

47. In one place there was a lucky planet, rising with its full orb to the view; in another there spread the gloom of night, and full sunshine in another.

48. Here the clouds were roaring, and there they were dumb and mute; here were the high blasts driving the clouds in air, and there the gentle breeze dropping the clusters of flowers on the ground.

49. Sometimes the firmament was clear and fair, and without an intercepting cloud in it, and as transparent as the soul of a wise man, delighted with the knowledge of truth.

50. The vacuous region of the celestial gods, was so full with the dewy beams (_himánsu_) of the silvery orb of the moon (_sweta-váha_), that it appeared as a shower of rain, and raised the loud croaking of the frogs below.

51. There appeared flocks of peacocks and goldfinches, to be fluttering about in some place, and vehicles of the goddesses and Vidyádharis thronging at another.

52. Numbers of Kártikeya’s peacocks were seen dancing amidst the clouds, and a flight of greenish parrots was seen in the sky appearing as a verdant plain.

53. Dwarfish clouds were moving like the stout buffaloes of Yama; and others in the form of horses, were grazing on the grassy meadows of clouds.

54. Cities of the gods and demons, appeared with their towers on high; and distinct towns and hills, were seen at distances, as if detached from one another by the driving winds.

55. In some place, gigantic Bhairavas were dancing with their mountainous bodies; and great _garudas_ were flying at another, as winged mountains in the air.

56. Huge mountains also, were tossed about by the blowing of winds; and the castles of the Gandharvas, were rising and falling with the celestial nymphs in them.

57. There were some clouds rising on high, and appearing as rolling mountains in the sky, crushing down the forests below; and the sky appeared in some place, as a clear lake abounding in lotuses.

58. The moon-beams shone brightly in one spot, and sweet cooling breezes blew softly in another. Hot sultry winds were blowing in some place, and singeing the forest on the mountainous clouds.

59. There was a dead silence in one spot, caused by perfect calmness of the breeze; while another spot presented a scene of a hundred peaks, rising on a mountainlike cloud.

60. In one place the raining clouds, were roaring loudly in their fury; and in another a furious battle was waging between the gods and demons in the clouds.

61. In some place the geese were seen gabbling in the lotus lake of the sky, and inviting the ganders by their loud cackling cries.

62. Forms of fishes, crocodiles and alligators, were seen flying in the air, as if they were transformed to aerial beings, by the holy waters of their natal Ganges.

63. They saw somewhere the eclipse of the moon, by the dark shadow of the earth, as the sun went down the horizon; and so they saw the eclipse of the sun by the shadow of the moon falling on his disk.

64. They saw a magical flower garden, exhaling its fragrance in the air; and strewing the floor of heaven, with profusion of flowers, scattered by showers of morning dews.

65. They beheld all the beings contained in the three worlds, to be flying in the air, like a swarm of gnats in the hollow of a fig tree; and then the two excellent ladies stopped in their aerial journey, intent upon revisiting the earth.

NOTE. Most part of the above description of the heavens, consists of the various appearances of the clouds, and bears resemblance to Shelly’s poetical description of them. All this is expressed by one word in the Cloud-Messenger of Kálidása, where the cloud is said to be “_Káma rúpa_” or assuming any form at pleasure. CHAPTER XXV. DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH.

These ladies then alighted from the sky in their forms of intelligence, and passing over the mountainous regions, saw the habitations of men on the surface of the earth.

2. They saw the world situated as a lotus, in the heart of the first male Nara (Brahmá); the eight sides forming the petals of the flower, the hills being its pistils, and the pericarp containing its sweet flavour.

3. The rivers are the tubes of its filaments, which are covered with drops of snow resembling their dust. The days and nights rolling over it, like swarms of black-bees and butterflies, and all its living beings appearing as gnats fluttering about it.

4. Its long stalks which are as white as the bright day light, are composed of fibres serving for food, and of tubes conducting the drink to living beings.

5. It is wet with moisture, which is sucked by the sun, resembling the swan swimming about in the air. It folds itself in sleep in the darkness of night in absence of the sun.

6. The earth like a lotus is situated on the surface of the waters of the ocean, which make it shake at times, and cause the earthquake by their motion. It is supported upon the serpent Vásuki serving for its understalk, and is girt about by demons as its thorns and prickles.[15]

7. The mount Meru (and others) are its large seeds, and the great hives of human population; where the fair daughters of the giant race, propagated (the race of men), by their sweet embrace (with the sons of God).[16]

8. It has the extensive continent of Jambudwípa situated in one petal, the petioles forming its divisions, and the tubular filaments its rivers.

9. The seven elevated mountains, forming the boundary lines of this continent, are its seeds; and the great mount of Sumeru reaching to the sky, is situated in the midst. (_i.e._ The topmost north pole).

10. Its lakes are as dewdrops on the lotus-leaf, and its forests are as the farina of the flower; and the people inhabiting the land all around, are as a swarm of bees about it.

11. Its extent is a thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded on all sides by the dark sea like a belt of black bees.

12. It contains nine _varshas_ or divisions, which are ruled by nine brother kings, resembling the regents of its eight petalled sides, with the Bhárata-varsha in the midst.

13. It stretches a million of miles with more of land than water in it. Its habitable parts are as thickly situated as the frozen ice in winter.

14. The briny ocean which is twice as large as the continent, girds it on the outside, as a bracelet encircles the wrist.

15. Beyond it lies the Sáka continent of a circular form, and twice as large as the former one, which is also encircled by the sea.

16. This is called the milky ocean for the sweetness of its water, and is double the size of the former sea of salt.

17. Beyond that and double its size is the Kusadwípa continent, which is full of population. It is also of the size of a circle, and surrounded by another sea.

18. Around it lies the belt of the sea of curds, delectable to the gods, and double the size of the continent which is encircled by it.

19. After that lies the circle of the Krauncha dwípa, which is also twice the size of the former one, and surrounded by a sea in the manner of a city by a canal.

20. This sea is called the sea of butter, and is twice as large as the continent which is girt by it. Beyond it lies the Sálmali dwípa, girt by the foul sea of wine.

21. The fair belt of this sea resembles a wreath of white flowers, like the girdle of the _Sesha_ serpent, forming the necklace hanging on the breast of Hari.

22. Thereafter is stretched the Plaxa dwípa, double the size of the former, and encircled by the belt of the sea of sugar, appearing as the snowy plains of Himálaya.

23. After that lies the belt of the Pushkara dwípa, twice as large as the preceding one, and encircled by a sea of sweet water double its circumference.

24. Hence they saw at the distance of ten degrees, the descent to the infernal regions; where there lay the belt of the south polar circle, with its hideous cave below.

25. The way to the infernal cave is full of danger and fear, and ten times in length from the circle of the _dwípas_ (continents).

26. This cave is encompassed on all sides by the dreadful vacuum, and is half covered below by a thick gloom, appearing as a blue lotus attached to it.

27. There stood the Lokáloka Kumeru or South Polar mountain, which is bright with sun-shine on one side, and covered by darkness on the other, and is studded with various gems on its tops, and decked with flowers growing upon it.

28. It reflected the glory of the three worlds (in the everlasting snows), which are clapped as a cap of hairs on its top.

29. At a great distance from it, is a great forest, untrodden by the feet of any living being; and then proceeding upward, they saw the great northern ocean encompassing the pole on all sides.

30. Further on they beheld the flaming light of the aurora borealis, which threatened to melt the snowy mountain to water.

31. Proceeding onward, they met with the fierce Boreas or north winds, blowing with all their fury and force.

32. They threatened to blow away and uproot the mountains, as if they were dust or grass; and traversed the empty vacuum with their noiseless motion.

33. Afar from these they saw the empty space of vacuum, stretching wide all about them.

34. It spreads around to an unlimited extent, and encompasses the worlds as a golden circlet encircles the wrist (_i.e._ the belt of the zodiac).

35. Thus Lílá, having seen the seas and mountains, the regents of the worlds, the city of the gods, the sky above and the earth below in the unlimited concavity of the universe, returned on a sudden to her own land, and found herself in her closet again. CHAPTER XXVI. MEETING THE SIDDHAS

Vasishtha said:—After the excellent ladies had returned from their visit of the mundane sphere, they entered the abode where the Bráhman had lived before.

2. There the holy ladies saw in that dwelling, and unseen by any body, the tomb or tope of the Bráhman.

3. Here the maid servants were dejected with sorrow, and the faces of the women were soiled with tears. Their countenances had faded away, like lotuses with their withered leaves.

4. All joy had fled from the house, and left it as the dry bed of the dead sea, after its waters were sucked by the scorching sun (Agastya). It was as a garden parched in summer, or a tree struck by lightening.

5. It was as joyless as the dried lotus, torn by a blast or withering under the frost; and as faint as the light of a lamp, without its wick or oil; and as dim as the eyeball without its light.

6. The house without its master, was as doleful as the countenance of a dying person, or as a forest with its falling and withered leaves, and as the dry and dusty ground for want of rain.

7. Vasishtha continued:—Then the lady with her gracefulness of divine knowledge, and the elegance of her perfections, and her devotedness to and desire of truth, thought within herself, that the inmates of the house might behold her and the goddess, in their ordinary forms of human beings.

9. The dwellers of the house then beheld the two ladies as Laxmí and Gaurí together, and brightening the house with the effulgence of their persons.

10. They were adorned from head to foot, with wreaths of unfading flowers of various kinds; and they seemed like Flora—the genius of spring, perfuming the house with the fragrance of a flower garden.

11. They appeared to rise as a pair of moons, with their cooling and pleasant beams; infusing a freshness to the family, as the moonlight does to the medicinal plants in forests and villages.

12. The soft glances of their eyes, under the long, loose and pendant curls of hair on their foreheads, shed as it were a shower of white _málati_ flowers, from the dark cloudy spots of their nigrescent eyes.

13. Their bodies were as bright as melted gold, and as tremulous as the flowing stream. The current of their effulgence, cast a golden hue on the spot where they stood, as also over the forest all around.

14. The natural beauty of Laxmí’s body, and the tremulous glare of Lílá’s person, spread as it were, a sea of radiance about them, in which their persons seemed to move as undulating waves.

15. Their relaxed arms resembling loose creepers, with the ruddy leaflets of their palms, shook as fresh Kalpa creepers in the forest.

16. They touched the ground again with their feet, resembling the fresh and tender petals of a flower, or like lotuses growing upon the ground.

17. Their appearance seemed to sprinkle ambrosial dews all around, and made the dry withered and brown boughs of _tamála_ trees, to vegetate anew in tender sprouts and leaflets.

18. On seeing them, the whole family with Jyeshtha Sarmá (the eldest boy of the deceased Bráhman), cried aloud and said, “Obeisance to the sylvan goddesses,” and threw handfuls of flowers on their feet.

19. The offerings of flowers which fell on their feet, resembled the showers of dew-drops, falling on lotus leaves in a lake of lotuses.

20. Jyeshtha Sarmá said:—Be victorious, ye goddesses! that have come here to dispel our sorrow; as it is inborn in the nature of good people, to deliver others from their distress.

21. After he had ended, the goddesses addressed him gently and said, tell us the cause of your sorrow, which has made you all so sad.

22. Then Jyeshtha Sarmá and others related to them one by one their griefs, owing to the demise of the Bráhman pair.

23. They said:—Know O goddess pair! there lived here a Bráhman and his wife, who had been the resort of guests and a support of the Bráhminical order.

24. They were our parents, and have lately quitted this abode; and having abandoned us with all their friends and domestic animals here, have departed to heaven, and left us quite helpless in this world.

25. The birds there sitting on the top of the house, have been continually pouring in the air, their pious and mournful ditties over the dead bodies of the deceased.

26. There the mountains on all sides, have been lamenting their loss, in the hoarse noise (of the winds) howling in their caverns, and shedding showers of their tears in the course of the streams issuing from their sides.

27. The clouds have poured their tears in floods of rainwater, and fled from the skies; while the quarters of the heavens have been sending their sighs in sultry winds all around.

28. The poor village people are wailing in piteous notes, with their bodies mangled by rolling upon the ground, and trying to yield up their lives with continued fasting.

29. The trees are shedding their tears every day in drops of melting snow, exuding from the cells of their leaves and flowers, resembling the sockets of their eyes.

30. The streets are deserted for want of passers-bye, and have become dusty without being watered. They have become as empty as the hearts of men forsaken by their joys of life.

31. The fading plants are wailing in the plaintive notes of Cuckoos and the humming of bees; and are withering in their leafy limbs by the sultry sighs of their inward grief.

32. The snows are melt down by the heat of their grief and falling in the form of cataracts, which break themselves to a hundred channels by their fall upon stony basins.

33. Our prosperity has fled from us, and we sit here in dumb despair of hope. Our houses have become dark and gloomy as a desert.

34. Here the humble bees, are humming in grief upon the scattered flowers in our garden, which now sends forth a putrid smell instead of their former fragrance.

35. And there the creepers that twined so gayly round the vernal arbors, are dwindling and dying away with their closing and fading flowers.

36. The rivulets with their loose and low purling murmur, and light undulation of their liquid bodies in the ground, are running hurriedly in their sorrow, to cast themselves into the sea.

37. The ponds are as still in their sorrow, as men sitting in their meditative posture (_Samádhi_), notwithstanding the disturbance of the gnats flying incessantly upon them.

38. Verily is that part of the heaven adorned this day by the presence of our parents, where the bodies of heavenly choristers, the Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Vidyádharas, welcome them with their music.

39. Therefore, O Devis! assuage this our excessive grief; as the visit of the great never goes for nothing.

40. Hearing these words, Lílá gently touched the head of her son with her hand, as the lotus-bed leans to touch its offshoot by the stalk.

41. At her touch the boy was relieved of all his sorrow and misfortune, just as the summer heat of the mountain, is allayed by the showers of the rainy season.

42. All others in the house, were as highly gratified at the sight of the goddesses, as when a pauper is relieved of his poverty, and the sick are healed by a draught of nectar.

43. Ráma said:—Remove my doubt, sir, why Lílá did not appear in her own figure before her eldest son—Jyeshta Sarmá.

44. Vasishtha answered:—You forget, O Ráma! to think that Lílá had a material body, or could assume any at pleasure. She was in her form of pure intellect (lingadeha), and it was with her spiritual hand that she touched the inner spirit of the boy and not his body. (Gloss). Because whoso believes himself to be composed of his earthly body only, is verily confined in that; but he who knows his spirituality, is as free as air: (and it was in this aerial form that Lílá was ranging about and touched her son).

45. Belief in materialism leads one to think his unreal earthly frame as real, as a boy’s belief in ghosts makes him take a shadow for a spirit.

46. But this belief in one’s materiality, is soon over upon conviction of his spirituality; as the traces of our visions in a dream, are effaced on the knowledge of their unreality upon waking.

47. The belief of matter as (vacuous) nothing, leads to the knowledge of the spirit. And as a glass door appears as an open space to one of a bilious temperament, so does matter appear as nothing to the wise.

48. A dream presents us the sights of cities and lands, of air and water, where there are no such things in actuality; and it causes the movements of our limbs and bodies (as in somnambulation) for nothing.

49. As the air appears as earth in dreaming, so does the non-existent world appear to be existent in waking. It is thus that men see and talk of things unseen and unknown in their fits of delirium.

50. So boys see ghosts in the air, and the dying man views a forest in it; others see elephants in clouds, and some see pearls in sun-beams.

51. And thus those that are panic-struck and deranged in their minds, the halfwaking and passengers in vessels, see many appearances like the aforesaid ghosts and forests, as seen by boys and men in the air, and betray these signs in the motions and movements of their bodies.

52. In this manner every one is of the form of whatever he thinks himself to be; and it is habit only that makes him to believe himself as such, though he is not so in reality.

53. But Lílá who had known the truth and inexistence of the world, was conscious of its nothingness, and viewed all things to be but erroneous conceptions of the mind.

54. Thus he who sees Brahma only to fill the sphere of his intellect, has no room for a son or friend or consort to abide in it.

55. He who views the whole as full with the spirit of Brahma, and nothing produced in it, has no room for his affection or hatred to any body in it.

56. The hand that Lílá laid on the head of Jyeshtha Sarmá—her eldest son, was not lain from her maternal affection for him, but for his edification in intellectual knowledge.

57. Because the intellect being awakened, there is all felicity attendant upon it. It is more subtile than ether and far purer than vacuum, and leads the intellectual being above the region of air. All things beside are as images in a dream. CHAPTER XXVII. PAST LIVES OF LÍLÁ.

The two ladies then disappeared from that place, leaving the Bráhman family at their house in the mountainous village.

2. The family exclaimed “We are highly favoured by the sylvan goddesses;” and then forgetting their grief, they betook themselves to their domestic employments.

3. Then the etherial goddess spake to the aerial-Lílá, who stood fixed in air, over the mansion of the Bráhman, in a state of mute astonishment.

4. They then conversed as familiarly with each other, as persons having the same thoughts and desires, agree with one another in their views and acts; and as the dreamers of the same dream hold their mutual correspondence, like _Usha and Aniruddha_ (the Cupid and Psyche of India).

5. Their conversation in their immaterial forms, was of the same intellectual (psychical) kind, as we are conscious of in our dreams and imaginations.

6. Sarasvatí said:—Now you have fully known the knowable, and become acquainted with whatever is visible and invisible: such is the essence of Brahma; say now what more you want to know.

7. Lílá said:—Tell me the reason why I was seen by my son, and not where the spirit of my departed lord is reigning over his realm.

8. Sarasvatí replied:—Because you were not then perfect by your practice of Yoga to have your wish fulfilled, nor had you then lost your sense of duality, which is a preventive of perfection.

9. He who has not known the unity, is not entitled to the acts and benefits of his faith in the true God; as no one sitting in the sun, can enjoy the coolness of shade.

10. You were not practiced to forget your identity as Lílá, nor learnt that it is not your will, but the will of God that is always fulfilled.

11. You have afterwards become of pure desire, and wished that your son might see you, whereby he was enabled to have your sight.

12. Now if you should return to your husband, and do the like, you will undoubtedly be successful in your desire.

13. Lílá said:—I see within the sphere of this dome (of my mind), the Bráhman to have been my husband before; and I see also in it, that he died and became a ruler of the earth afterwards.

14. I see in it that spot of the earth, that city and that palace of his where I sat as his queen.

15. I see within myself my lord to be reigning in that place, and I see even there how he died afterwards.

16. I see herein the glory of the sovereign of so many countries on earth, and I see also the perfect frankness of his conduct through life.

17. I see the worlds in the inner sky of my mind, as they are placed in a casket, or as the oil is contained in a mustard seed.

18. I see the bright orb of my husband ever roving before me, and now I pray you to contrive any how to place me by his side.

19. The Goddess replied:—Tell me Lílá, to what husband you shall go, as there are hundreds of them that you had, and shall have in your past and future lives, and now there are three of them confined in this earth.

20. The nearest of the three, is the Bráhman who is here reduced to ashes; the next is the prince lying in state and covered with flowers in the inner apartment.

21. The third is now a reigning prince in this earth, and has been buffeting in the waves of error in the vast ocean of the world.

22. His intellect is darkened and disordered by the splashing waves of worldliness, his intelligence is perverted to stupidity, and he is converted to a tortoise in the ocean of the world.

23. The management of his very many disordered state affairs, has stultified him to a lubbard, and he is now fast asleep amidst the turmoils of business.

24. He is fast bound to subjection by the strong chain of his thoughts, that he is a lord, is mighty, accomplished, and that he is happy and is to enjoy his estates for ever.

25. Now say, O excellent lady! to what husband you wish to be led, in the manner of the fragrance of one forest borne by the breeze to another.

26. Here you are in one place, and there they in others amidst this vast world; and the state of their lives and manners differs widely from one another.

27. These orbs of light in the heaven, though they appear to be placed so near us (both to our eyesight and in the mind), are yet situated millions of leagues apart from one another; and the departed souls are carried in them (in their endless transmigrations).

28. And again all these bodies are as vacuous as air, though they contain the great mounts Meru and Mandara in themselves.

29. All bodies are formed by the combination of atoms, incessantly proceeding from the Great Intellect, like particles of sun-beams over the universe.

30. The great and stupendous fabric of the world, is no more (in the eye of intelligence), than a quantity of paddy weighed in the balance.

31. As the spangled heavens appear like a forest full of brilliant gems in it, so the world appears as full of the glory of God to the contemplative mind, and not as composed of earth or other material bodies in it.

32. It is intelligence alone, that shines in the form of world in the intelligent soul, and not any material body, which was never brought into being before.

33. As billows in the lake, rise and set and rise again, so the rising and falling days and nights present these various scenes to our knowledge.

34. Lílá said:—So it is, O mother of mankind! and so I come to remember now, that my present birth (state) is of a royal (_rájasika_) kind, and neither of too pure nor gross a nature. (_Sattvika or Támasika_).

35. I having descended from Brahmá, had undergone a hundred and eight births (in different shapes); and after passing various states, I find myself still in existence.

36. I recollect, O goddess! to have been born in another world before, and to have been the bride of a Vidyádhara, when I used to rove about as freely as a bee over flowers.

37. Being debased by my libertinism, I was born in this mortal world, and became the mate of the king of the feathered tribe (an eagle).

38. And then having been a resident in the woods, I was turned to a woodman’s mate, wearing a vest of leaves on my loins.

39. Growing fond of my life, I sported wantonly about the forest, and was changed to the _guluncha_ plant, delighting the woods with my leafy palms and flowering eyes.

40. This arboret of the holy hermitage, was held sacred by the society of saintly sages; and then I was regenerated in the form of an anchorite’s child, after the woods were burnt down by a wild-fire.

41. Here I was initiated in the formularies for removing the curse of womanhood, and became as a male being in the person of the handsome prince of Suráshtra (Surat), where I reigned for a hundred years (or for a whole century).

42. I was then denounced to become a weasel, and covered with leprosy, in the lowlands of Táli, on account of my misconduct in the government.

43. I remember, O goddess! how I became a bullock at Surat, and was goaded by thoughtless cowherd boys, in their merry sport for full eight years.

44. I bear in mind when I was transformed to a bird, and with what difficulty I broke the net, that was laid by birdcatchers for my destruction. It was in the same manner as we release ourselves from the snares of sinful desires.

45. I remember with pleasure when as a bee, I lighted lightly on the leaflets of blossoms, sipped the honey of the blooming buds, dined on the pistils, and slept in the cups of lotus flowers.

46. I wandered about in pleasant wood-lands and lawns, with my exalted and branching horns and beautiful eyes, in the form of an antelope, till I was killed by the dart of a huntsman in my mortal part.

47. I have been in the form of a fish, and was lifted up by the waves of the sea above the surface of the water. I saw how a tortoise was killed by the blow of a club on the neck, when it failed to break its back-bone.

48. I was a Chandála huntsman once, roving by the side of Charmanvatí (the river Chenab), when I used to quench my thirst with cocoa water, as I was tired with roaming.

49. I became a stork also, delighting in lakes with my mate, and filling the air with our sweet cries.

50. In another birth, I rambled about in groves of palm and tamála trees, and fixed my eyes with amorous looks and glances upon my lover.

51. I had next been a fairy Apsará, with a form as bright as melted gold, and features as beautiful as those of the lotus and lily, in which the celestials like bees and butterflies, used to take delight.

52. I remember to have decked myself in gold and pearls, and in gems and rubies upon earth, and to have sported with my youthful consorts in pleasure gardens and groves, and on hills and mountains.

53. And I remember also to have lived long as a tortoise on the borders of a river, and to have been carried away by the waves, sometimes under an arbour of creepers, over-hung with clusters of beautiful flowers; and at others to some wild cave washed by the waves.

54. I see how I acted the part of a goose with my covering of feathers, swimming on the high heaving waves on the surface of a lake.

55. Then seeing a poor gnat hanging on the moving leaf of a Sálmali branch, I became its associate and as contemptible a thing like itself.

56. I became an aquatic crane also, skimming playfully over the waters gushing from the hills, and slightly kissing the crests of the waves rising over the rapid torrent.

57. I remember also how I slighted the loves of amorous youths, and spurned off from me the Vidyádhara boys on the Gandha Mádana and Mandara hills.

58. I remember likewise the pangs of a lovelorn lass, when I lay pining in my bed, strewn over with the fragrance of camphor, and how I was decaying like the disk of the waning moon.

59. Thus I passed through many births, in the wombs of higher and lower animals, and found them all to be full of pain. And my soul has run over the billows of the irresistible current of life, like the fleet antelope, pacing its speed with the swiftness of the wind (_Vátapramí_). CHAPTER XXVIII. SECTION I.

EXPOSITION OF LÍLÁ’S VISION.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, in what manner the goddesses broke out of the strongholds of their bodies, and the prison-house of this world (where their souls were pent up), and passed through infinite space, to survey the scenes beyond its confines. (_i.e._ How does the mind and the flight of imagination, reach to regions unknown and unseen before).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Where is the world and where is its support or solidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the goddesses.

3. They saw in it the hilly tract, where the Bráhmana Vasishtha had his abode and his desire of royalty (pictured it in their minds).

4. They saw in a corner of it the deserted mansion of the Bráhman, and they saw in it the surface of the earth stretching to the seas (_i.e._ in their mental view).

5. They beheld in that imaginary spot of earth the city of the prince, and the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati his consort (in his imagination).

6. How she was born under the name of Lílá, and worshipped the goddess of wisdom—Sarasvatí; by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the delightful region of the sky.

7. It was in the mansion situated in that hilly village, that she beheld the world placed within the space of a span of her mind.

8. Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself seated in her house, as one finds himself lying in his own bed, after his rambling from one dream to another.

9. All that she saw was mere vision and void; there was no world nor earth, nor a house nor the distance thereof.

10. It was the mind which showed them these images, as it presents the objects of our desire to our view; or else there was neither any world nor earth in actuality.

11. The sphere of intelligence is infinite, and without any covering; and being agitated by the powers of one’s intellect, it presents all the objects of nature to his view, as the sky when agitated by heat produces the winds.

12. The sphere of the intellect is uncreated (being a mode of the Divinity itself); it is ever calm everywhere; and is supposed as the world itself by deluded minds.

13. He who understands rightly, views the world to be as unsubstantial as air; but whoso is misled by his wrong judgment takes it to be as a solid mountain.

14. As a house and a city are manifested to us in our dream, so is this unreal world presented as a reality to our understandings.

15. As is the misconception of water in the mirage, and the mistake of gold in a bracelet; so does all this unreality appear as a substantiality to the mistaken mind.

16. Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming ladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.

SECTION II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINOUS HABITATION.

17. Being unseen by the village people, they viewed the mountain which stood before them, kissing the vault of heaven, and touching the orb of the sun with its lofty peaks.

18. It was decorated with flowers of various colours, and covered with a variety of woods of various hues. There were waterfalls gushing with their tremendous roarings on one side, and groves resounding with the warbling of birds in another.

19. The clouds were variegated by the many coloured clusters of flowers sweeping over them, and cranes and storks sat screeching on the cloud-capt top of _gulancha_ trees.

20. There were the robust reeds, hedging the banks of rivers with their wide stretching stems and roots, and the strong winds tossing about the tender creepers, growing out of the rocky caves, for want of support.

21. The tops of trees covered with flowers, were over-topped by the sheds of clouds hanging from the vault of heaven; which shed profusely their pearly drops of rain water upon them, and formed the current streams below.

22. The banks of the streamlets were continually laved by the waves, raised by the winds playing upon the shaking arbours on them; and a continued cooling shade was spread by the branching trees all around.

23. Standing on that spot, the ladies beheld the hilly hamlet in the lawn, likening a fragment of heaven fallen upon the ground.

24. There the purling rills were softly gliding by, and here the brimming brooks wabbled in the ground. The birds of the air were chirping on the sprays and aquatic fowls were flying about the holes of the sea shore.

25. There they saw the herds of kine slowly moving and grazing in the plains, and filling the echoing woods with their loud lowing; and beheld the space, interspersed with shady groves and arbours and verdant meadows all about.

26. The cliffs were whitened with snow, impenetrable by sun-beams; and the tops of hills were covered with bushy brambles, forming as braids of hair upon their craggy heads.

27. Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, and scattering their pearly particles afar, memorialized the churning of the milky ocean by the Mandara mountain.

28. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruits and flowers, appeared as waiters upon the goddesses, and standing to welcome their approach with their rich presents.

29. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees, were shedding showers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods and people.

30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping from the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and shots of archers.

31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed by the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky.

32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall _tála_ (or palm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their sweetmeat.

33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their heads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam and nimba trees.

34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the way, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear dress.

35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats, and conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear one another.

36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and hands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the flowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.

37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and fro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks on the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed.

38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and curds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of sufficient food.

39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their wristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men were seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying the loosened knots of their hair.

40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the offerings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were strewn over with the sacred _kuru_ and _kurunta_ leaves.

41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about the precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with heaps of flowers to the depth of the heels.

42. There were the _chouri_ kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of the forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under the _gunja_ groves.

43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their ears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and upon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths.

44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by driving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering _asokas_ (_asoka Jonesia_); and their rooms were painted with lacdye.

45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum to bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the beds of green grass below.

46. The _Ketaka_ (_keya_) arbour was blooming white by removal of its weeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring tune.

47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds rested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of water, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons.

48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the ground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened like twinkling stars in the azure sky.

49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the whitened ground.

50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household compound, like the _chirinti_ (or kulína) girls, that never forsake the abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the roof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place of lights.

51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds, confined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was graced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in their numerous flights.

52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled by the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves of trees as they passed along the lawn.

53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful parrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes of the _Kokila_, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches.

54. The palma and tamála trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest trees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around them.

55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one side, and the fragrance of the efflorescent _Kandala_ and _silindhra_ plants, exhaled on the other. The tapering _tála_ and _tamála_ trees rising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the flower plants in the gardens.

56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs, and garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and beautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees on the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers without alternation.

57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of _kunda_ flowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding the humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was reddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses (_sthala padmas_) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra’s palace in the sky.

58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from the hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue of _kundu_ flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in the compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds singing joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.

59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful damsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet. The ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs and blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping of creepers about the clumps of reeds.

60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and fragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated by wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over the houses, terrified the women within.

61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets about, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green grazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the house-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as if they were the showers of rain water.

62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of the fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending their lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with ceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears of men on the bank.

63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground, from the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty of the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting charms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets. CHAPTER XXIX. ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF LÍLÁ

_A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady._

The two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the two states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of the man knowing the Divine spirit.

2. Lílá, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure intelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three times presenting themselves before her.

3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived pleasure in relating the events of her former life and death.

4. Lílá said:—I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of this place, all what I did and thought of in my past life.

5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become lean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Bráhmaní here, and had my body scratched by the dried sacrificial grass (_kusa_), which I had to meddle with.

6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was employed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for butter and _ghee_). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess to my guests.

7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Bráhmans and good people, and rubbed my body with cow milk and _ghee_: I was employed in cleaning the frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house.

8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of conch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and daughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals.

9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all day and night; and ‘haste and hasten,’ were the words I used to repeat to myself.

10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I never thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what was this world, although I had been the wife of a Bráhman.

11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial wood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in a worn out blanket.

12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.

13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh green grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white tints of pasted and powdered rice (_gundi_).

14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to keep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers.

15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.

16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with Sarasvatí about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the goddess.

17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn _pátala_ plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas.

18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to the trees; and this is my pet calf Karniká, which has refrained from browzing the leaves (in my absence).

19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her appearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes daubed in tears.

20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and where I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and received the things to and from my attendants.

21. This is my eldest son Jyeshtha Sarmá, weeping in the house; and this is my milch cow, now grazing on the grassy plain in the forest.

22. I see this portico and these windows, once dear to me as my person, and besmeared with the dry powder of the _huli_ festival of the vernal season.

23. I see these pulpy plants of gourd planted with my own hands, and dear to me as myself, now spreading themselves over the oven place.

24. I see these relatives of mine, who had been the bonds of my life before, now smoking in their eyes with tears, and carrying the fuel for fire, with beads of _rudráksha_ seeds on their bodies.

25. I see that stony shore, baffling the force of the waves, which have been pelting their pebbles against it, now covered by bushes of the beach.

26. The verdant meadows were full of leafy plants, with pendant dew drops on their tips; and the plains were whitened by the hailstones falling on them in showers.

27. The mid-day was mantled by sun beams, as by a white mist of frost, and the arbours resounded with the humming of bees, fluttering about their clustering flowers.

28. The blooming palása glowing as reddish corals, had covered the trees and the land with heaps of crimson flowers.

29. The village rill was flowing with the floating fruits, which it bore from shore to shore; and the rustic lads jumbled together with loud noise, eager to lay hold on them.

30. The cool shady beach of the rill, was strewn over with pebbles, washed and carried away by the current, and covered by leaves falling from the trees.

31. There I see the altar of my house, which is so beautifully ornamented with the flowering creepers, and which is overhung on its windows by clusters of fruits and flowers.

32. Here lived my husband, whose life has fled to the sky in its aerial form, and became afterwards the lord of the earth, reaching to the surrounding seas.

33. I remember, how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal dignity, and how ardently he looked forward on its attainment.

34. I see, O goddess! his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed to be of so long a duration (as eighty years) before.

35. I see the soul of my Lord, residing in the empty space of this mansion, as in his former kingly state; although it is invisible to all as the current air in the sky, and as the odours borne by the winds.

36. It is in this vacuous space, that his soul is contained in the form of a thumb; which contains in its bosom, the whole extent of the realm of my lord, stretching to thousands of leagues in its circumference.

37. I see also O goddess! the spacious kingdom of my lord, in the space of my intellect, which makes room for thousands of mountains by the miraculous power of God, styled as illusion. (_máyá_).

38. I wish now, O Goddess! to see the earthly city of my lord again; let us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to the resolute.

39. Vasishtha said:—Having said so, she bowed down to the goddess and entered into the shrine, and then like a bird, she flew into the air with the goddess.

40. It was a region devoid of darkness, and as fair as a sea of moonlight. And then it was as azure as the person of Náráyana, and as bright as the back of a locust.

41. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, as also beyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon.

42. They passed beyond the path of the north polar star, and the limits of the circuits of the sádhyas and siddhas and other celestial beings.

43. Thence they ascended to the higher heavens of Brahmá and the Tushita divinities, and then upward to the sphere of Golaka (the zodiac); and thence again to the Sivaloka, and the sphere of the Pitris or the departed souls of the dead.

44. Passing thus beyond the spheres of the embodied living beings, and bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the unknown regions of empty space.

45. Having passed the etherial sphere, they beheld nothing there, except the sun, moon and the stars shining below them.

46. There was only a deep darkness to be seen, filling the whole vacuity of space, and appearing as the basin of the waters of universal deluge, and as compact as the impenetrable cavity of a rock.

47. Lílá said:—Tell me, O goddess! what became of the light of the sun and other luminaries, and whence came this dense darkness as to be compressed under the fist (mushti-gráhya).

48. The goddess replied: you have got to a spot so remote from the spheres of heaven, that the light of the luminaries can never reach to it.

49. And as one in a deep dark pit, can see no light of a fire fly flitting over it; so the solar light is invisible to one behind the great belt of heaven.

50. Lílá said:—Oh! the great distance that we have come to, whence the great luminary of the sun also, appears as small as an atom below.

51. Tell me mother, what sort of a place is that which lies beyond this region, and how can we come to it after traversing this gloomy expanse.

52. Sarasvatí said:—Behind this is the great pole of the universe, which is scattered over with innumerable nebular stars in the form of the particles of dust.

53. Vasishtha said:—As they were talking in this manner, they glided imperceptibly to that pole, as the bee saunters over the solitary hut on the height of a mountain.

54. They then were at no pains to come down from that precipice, as there is no pains to effect what must certainly come to pass in the end, though it appeared difficult at first. (Or) that which is certain must come to pass, however hard it might seem at first.

55. They saw the system of the universe, laid naked to their sight, as the bold navigator beholds a world exposed to his view beyond the wide expanse of waters.

56. They saw the watery expanse to be ten times greater than the earth, and enveloping it in the shape of the crust of the walnut fruit.

57. Then there is a latent heat which is ten times as great as the water, and the circumambient air which is as much greater than the water; and then the all encompassing vacuum of which there is no end.

58. There is no beginning, middle or end of that infinite space; and it is productive of nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring.

59. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without beginning, middle or end, and is situated in the Supreme spirit.

60. Its immensity is as immeasurable as if a stone is flung with full force from its top, or if the phœnix would fly up to it with all his might, or if he would traverse through it in full velocity, it is impossible for him to reach from one end to the other, in a whole Kalpa age. CHAPTER XXX. DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE EGG—(BRAHMÁNDA).

They passed in a moment beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire, water, and vacuum, and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres.

2. They reached the boundless space, whence the universe appeared as an egg (ovum).

3. They beheld under its vault millions of luminous particles floating in the air (nebulæ).

4. These were as innumerable bubbles, floating on the waters of the unlimited ocean of the sphere of the Intellect.

5. Some of them were going downward, and others rising upward; some turning round, and others appeared to their understanding to remain fixed and immovable.

6. These different motions appeared to them with respect to their own situations, as they saw them in their different sides.

7. Here there were no ups and downs and no upside or below, nor any going forward or backward. Here there are no such directions as men take to be by the position of their bodies.

8. There is but one indefinite space in nature, as there is but one consciousness in all beings; yet everything moves in its own way, as wayward boys take their own course.

9. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why do we call upward and downward, forward and backward, if there are no such things in space and nature.

10. Vasishtha said:—There is but one space enveloping all things, and the worlds which are seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of vacuity, are as worms moving on the surface of water.

11. All these bodies that move about in the world by their want of freedom (_i.e._ by the power of attraction), are thought to be up and down by our position on earth.

12. So when there is a number of ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below which are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs.

13. Such is this ball of the earth in one of these worlds, covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by devas, demons and men walking upon it.

14. It is covered also by cities, towns and mountains, and their inhabitants and productions, like the walnut by its coat.

15. Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan mountains, do these worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space.

16. Every thing that is any where, is produced from and subsists in space. It is always all in all things, which are contained as particles in it.

17. Such is the pure vacuous space of the Divine understanding, that like an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds, which like the countless waves of the sea, are revolving for ever in it.

18. Some of these are hollow within, and others as dark as the darkness in the end of a _kalpa_ age: and they are all moving about in the ocean of vacuity, like the waves of the sea.

19. Some of these are whirling about with a jarring noise for ever, which is neither heard by nor known to any body. It is like the motion of men addicted to earthly pursuits by their nature.

20. Some of these are now growing in form, as if they were newly created, and are in the course of their development, like sprouts in the cells of seeds newly sown in the ground.

21. Some of these are melting away as icicles under heat, like the mountains that were melted down by the burning sun and heavenly fire, at the dissolution of the world.

22. Others have been continually falling downward without gaining the ground, till at last they dwindle away, and melt into the divine Intellect.

23. Others are as immovable in the air, as the animalculae in the water, which are moved to and fro by the wind, without any sign of motion or sensation in them.

24. Again nothing is stable in nature, but every thing is as changeful as the acts and usages enjoined in the Vedas and sástras, are altered and succeeded by others.

25. There are other Brahmás and other patriarchs, and many Vishnus and many Indras one after the other. We have different kings of men, and sometimes no ruler of them.

26. Some are as men and lords of others (Ishas), in this multiform creation, and some are creeping and crooked living beings on earth; some kinds are as full as the waters of the ocean, and others have become quite extinct in the world.

27. Some are as hard as solid stones, and others as soft as the poor insects and worms; some are of godly figures as the giants, and others of puny human forms.

28. Some are quite blind and suited to darkness (as owls and moles and bats); others are suited to light (as men, birds and beasts), and some to both (as cats and rats).

29. Some are born as gnats sucking the juice of the fruits of the fig tree; while others are empty within, and fly about and feed upon the air.

30. The world is thus filled with creatures beyond the conception of Yogis, and we can not form even a guess-work of the beings that fill the infinite vacuum.

31. This world is the sphere of these living beings; but the great vacuum spreading beyond it, is so extensive, that it is immeasurable by the gods Vishnu and others, were they to traverse through it, for the whole of their lives.

32. Every one of these etherial globes, is encircled by a belt resembling a golden bracelet; and has an attractive power like the earth to attract other objects.

33. I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best knowledge, any thing beyond this, is what I have no knowledge of, nor power to describe. 34. There are many other large worlds, rolling through the immense space of vacuum, as the giddy goblins of _Yakshas_ revel about in the dark and dismal deserts and forests, unseen by others. CHAPTER XXXI. SECTION I.

ALIGHTING OF THE LADIES ON EARTH.

Vasishtha said:—After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey, the ladies alighted from there, and quickly entered the inner apartment of the king.

2. There they saw the dead body of the king lying in state amidst heaps of flowers, accompanied by the spiritual body of Lílá, sitting beside the corpse.

3. It was the dead of night, and the inmates had fallen into sound sleep one by one; and the room was perfumed with the incense of resin, camphor and sandalwood and saffron.

4. Lílá, seeing the house of her latter husband, and wishing to enter into it, alighted in her assumed body (sankalpadeha) on the spot of his sepulchre.

5. She then passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord (_sankalpasansára_), by breaking out of the confines of her body and cranium called the earthly and worldly environs in Yoga terminology (sansára and Brahmánda-ávaranas).

6. Then she went again with the goddess to the bright and spacious temple of the world (Brahmánda-mandapa), in which she quickly entered.

7. She saw her husband’s imaginary world to lie as a dirty and mossy pool, as the lioness beholds the mountain cave covered by darkness and clouds.

8. The goddesses then entered into that vacuous world with their airy bodies, as weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the wood-apple or _bel_-fruit.

9. There they passed through regions of cloudy hills and skies, and reached the surface of the earth, consisting of tracts of land and basins of water.

10. They then came to the Jambudwípa (Asia), situated amidst the ninefold petals of the other dwípas (or continents), and thence proceeded to the territories of Lílá’s husband in the _varsha_ land of Bharata (India).

11. At this interval of time they beheld a certain prince—(the ruler of Sinde), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this part which was the beauty of the world.

12. They beheld the air crowded by people of the three worlds, who had assembled there to see the conflict.

13. They remained undaunted, and saw the air crowded by aerial beings in groups like clouds.

14. There were the Siddhas, Cháranas, Gandharvas, Vidyádharas, Súras, celestials and Apsarás in large bodies.

15. There were also the goblins of Bhútas and Pisáchas, and Rákshasa cannibals; while the Vidyádhara females were flinging handfuls of flowers like showers of rain on the combatants.

16. The Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmánds, that were looking at the affray with pleasure, took themselves to the shelter of hills, to avoid the flying darts and weapons.

17. The imps were flying from the air, to keep themselves from the way of the flying weapons; and the spectators were excited by sound of the war-whoop of the combatants.

18. Lílá who was standing by with a flapper (or fan) in her hand, was frightened at the imminent dreadful conflict, and smiled to scorn their mutual vauntings.

SECTION II.

SIGHT OF A BATTLE ARRAY IN EARTH AND AIR.

19. Virtuous people who were unable to endure the horrid sight, betook themselves to prayers, with the chief priests for averting the calamity.

20. The messengers of Indra, were ready with their decorated elephants (called _loka-pálas_), for bearing the souls of mighty heroes to grace the seats of heaven.

21. The cháranas and Gandharvas, were singing praises of the advancing heroes; and heavenly nymphs that liked heroism, were glancing at the best combatants.

22. Voluptuous women were wishing to embrace the arms of the brave; and the fair fame of the heroes, had turned the hot sunshine to cool moonlight.

23. Ráma asked:—Tell me, sir, what sort of a warrior is called a hero, that becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent.

24. Vasishtha answered:—He who engages in a lawful warfare, and fights for his king, and whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field, is called a hero, and goes to heaven.

25. Whoever kills men otherwise in war and dies afterwards, in an unjust cause, is called an insurgent, and goes to hell at last.

26. Whoever fights for unlawful property, and dies in battle, becomes subject to everlasting hell fire.

27. Whoso wages a just warfare, that is justified by law and usage, that warrior is called both loyal as well as heroic in deed.

28. Whoever dies in war, for the preservation of kine, Bráhmans and friends with a willing mind, and whoso protects his guest and refugee with all diligence, he verily becomes an ornament in heaven after his death.

29. The king who is steadfast in protecting his subjects and his own country, is called the just, and those that die in his cause are called the brave.

30. They that die fighting on the side of riotous subjects, or in the cause of rebellious princes or chiefs, are doomed to fire.

31. They that die fighting unjustly against their kings, lawgivers and rulers, are subjected to the torments of hell.

32. A war which is just, serves to establish order; but the giddy that are fearless of the future, destroy all order (by their unjust warfare).

33. The hero dying, goes to heaven, is the common saying; and the sástras call the lawful warrior only a hero, and not otherwise.

34. They who suffer wounds on their bodies, for the protection of the righteous and good, are said to be heroes, or else they are insurgents (_dimbhavas_).

35. It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the damsels of the gods, were standing in the air, and talking to themselves of becoming the spouses of such warriors.

36. The air was as decorated as by an illumination on high, and by rows of the beautiful heavenly cars of gods and Siddhas, and presence of celestial maidens, who sang in sweet notes, and decorated their locks with _mandára_ flowers. CHAPTER XXXII. ONSET OF THE WAR.

Vasishtha said:—Lílá standing with the goddess of wisdom in air, saw the Apsarás dancing there, at the eagerness of the combatants for war below.

2. She beheld the assemblage of the forces in her own territory once governed by her lord; and saw the field of the air not less formidable by the assembled ghosts (and its encircling belt composed of the lion, scorpion, crab and the archer).

3. The meeting of the two forces made the ground appear as a billowy sea; like the meeting of two clouds in the sky, giving it the appearance of two hostile forces.

4. The battle array of armoured warriors, flashing as the fire of heaven, was succeeded by their commingled blows, resembling the rattling of thunders above, deafening the ears and dazzling the sight.

5. Then darts and javelins, spears and lances, and many other missiles (_prásas_) began to fall on both sides, like showers of raindrops, hailstones and meteorolites from the skies.

6. Showers of shafts fell with a force, that would pierce the pinions of _garuda_, and struck out the glare of sunbeams, by hitting at the armours of the warriors.

7. The combatants standing face to face with their lifted arms, and staring at each other with steadfast looks, seemed as they were pictures in a painting.

8. The armies drawn in long regiments, standing in lines opposite to each other, were heard to answer one another by their repeated shouts.

9. The battalia of both armies, and the drums on both sides, were put to a stop by the warnings of their leaders, against striking the first blow.

10. The intermediate space of the breadth of two bows, that separated the hostile forces like a bridge from one another, appeared as the gap, caused by the winds in the midst of the ocean at the universal deluge. (Or more like the partition of the waters of the Red sea by the rod of Moses).

11. The leaders were drowned in thoughts for fear of bloodshed and massacre; and the cowardly soldiers groaned in their hearts, with the hoarse noise of croaking frogs.

12. There were numbers of bravoes, eager to yield up their precious lives in a trice; and the bowyers stood with their bowstrings drawn to the ear, and ready to let loose their pointed arrows at the foe.

13. Others stood dreadfully fixed to strike their arms upon the enemy, and many were looking sternly at their adversaries, with their frowning looks.

14. The armours were clashing by mutual concussion, the countenances of the bravoes were burning with rage, and the faces of cowards were turned towards sheltered retreats for flight.

15. The lookers stood in doubt of their lives until the end of the war, and old men like big elephants, were covered with horripilation on their bodies.

16. The silence which ensued at the expectation of the first blow, resembled the calm of the stormy main, and the deep sleep of a city at the dead of night.

17. The musical instruments, the drum and conch-shell were all silent, and a thick cloud of dust, covered the face of the earth and sky.

18. The retreaters were flying from their stronger assailants, who kept running after them, in the manner of sharks pursuing the shoals of fishes in the sea.

19. The glittering fringes of the flags, put the etherial stars to blush, and the lifted goads in the hands of the elephant-drivers, made a forest of tapering trees in the sky.

20. The flinging arrows were flying like flocks of the winged tribe in air, and the loud beating of drums and blowing of pipes, resounded amidst the air.

21. There was a phalanx in a circular form, attacking a host of wicked demons, and here was a squadron in the form of Garuda, with its right and left wings, attacking a body of elephants.

22. Somewhere a great howling was heard to rise from the vanguard of a body of troops, disconcerted by a cohort in the form of eagles: and at another many were seen to fall upon one another with mutual shouts.

23. Thus a tremendous noise was raised by the warriors of the many legions, and a multitude of big mallets were seen to be raised on high by the hands of the combatants.

24. The glaring of sable steel, shaded the sunbeams like a cloud, and hissing darts in the air, emitted a sound, resembling the rustling of breeze amidst the dry leaves of trees.

25. Now the brunt of battle, began like the dashing of clouds upon clouds at the end of a Kalpa, and the war raged like the raging sea ruffled by a hurricane.

26. Big elephants were falling in the field like coal-black rocks, hurled down by gusts of wind.

27. It seemed that the infernal spirits were let loose from their caves of hell, to rage in the battle field with their horrid and dismal figures.

28. The day light was obscured by the sable cloud of swords, and the mallets and lances were raised up by the black Kunta warriors, who seemed bent upon converting the earth to an ocean of bloodshed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.[17]

COMINGLED FIGHTING.

Ráma said:—Sir, relate to me in short and promptly, about this warfare, as my ears are delighted with narratives of this kind.

2. Vasishtha said:—These ladies then, in order to have a better view of the battle below, ascended in their imaginary aerial cars _vimánas_, to a more retired spot in the higher regions of the sky.

3. At this interval, there began a mingled fight of the forces face to face, with a commingled shout of the two armies, as the dashing of the waves against one another in the raging sea.

4. At this instant, Vidúratha the lord of the realm, (formerly Padma—the husband of Lílá), seeing a daring warrior of the hostile force attack one of his soldiers, struck him impatiently on the breast, with the blow of a ponderous mallet.

5. Then the battle raged with the impetuosity of the rolling waves of the stormy main, and the arms on both sides, flamed with living fire and flash of fiery lightnings.

6. Now the edges of waving swords (larattarat), glittered in the sky, and cracking and clashing noise (Kanakana), filled the air with a hideous crackling (kadkada).

7. Then flew the winged arrows, overshadowing the beams of the sun, and emitting a booming noise (hunkára), which hushed the rattling clamour (gharghara) of summer clouds.

8. Armours clashed against armours (Kankata), with a clanking noise (tankára), and shot forth the sparks of glistening fire (Kanatkana); and arms, hashing (ch’hina-bhinna) and slashing (Khanda-khanda) against arms, filled the air with their fragments flying like birds in the air.

9. The shaking (dodulya) shanks and arms of the army, appeared as a moving forest (dordruma) on the land, and the twangings of their bows (tankára), and rumbling of the disks (krenkára), drove away the birds of the air, and crackled like the rattling drive of wheels (dravat) in heaven.

10. The hissing of their loosened strings (halhala), resembled the (ghunghuna) buzzing of bees, heard in the _samádhi_ yoga (by shutting the ears).

11. Iron shafts like sleets of hailstones, pierced the heads of the soldiers, and the (ranat) crashing of armours (sanghatta), broke the arms of the warriors in mail (Kankata sankata).

12. Weapons struck on brazen armours with a howling noise (hunkára), made a clanking sound by the stroke (tánkára), and flying like drifts of rain water (tartara), pierced the face of the air on all sides: (literally, denticulated—dantura dingmukha).

13. The striking of steel on one another (sanghatta), made the hands ring with a jingling sound (jhanjhanat); and the continued rapping on the arms (ásphota), and clapping of hands, (karasphota), raised a pattering and chattering sound (chat chat and pat pat).

14. The whizzing noise of unsheathing the sword (shitkára), and the hissing of the sparks of fire (sansana); the flinging of arrows in all ways (sadatkára), and the flying of darts, likened the rustling of falling leaves (Kharkhara) in autumn.

15. The spouting of life blood (dhakdhak), from the throats separated from the bodies, the mangled limbs and heads, and the broken swords filled the whole space.

16. The flame of fire flaring (sphurat) from the armours; emblazoned the hairs of the warriors, and the fighting and falling (ranatpatat) of swordsmen, raised a giddy and loud jingling of their weapons (jhanjhana).

17. The lofty elephants pierced by the spears of the Kunta lancers, poured out torrents of red-hot blood; while the tusky tribe was goring whole bodies of them with their shrill cries (chitkára).

18. Others crushed by the ponderous maces of their antagonists, creaked grievously under the blows; while the heads of the slain soldiers, swam in the rivers of blood over the plain.

19. Here the hungry vultures were pouncing from above, and there the sky was covered by a cloud of dust; and the weaponless combatants, were engaged in _Kesákesí_ fighting, by holding each other down by the hairs. CHAPTER XXXIV. DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE.

Now the generals and ministers of the belligerent powers, and the aerial spectators of the war, were thus talking among themselves.

2. Lo! here the ground has become a lake of blood, with the heads of the slaughtered hosts floating as lotuses upon it; and there the air has become as the starry heaven, glittering with broken weapons, flying like birds in the sky.

3. Behold the air is reddened with the particles of vermeil blood, borne above by the winds, and the sky presenting the evening clouds, with the glow of the setting sun at midday.

4. What are these, says one, that are flying as straws in the firmament? They are, says the other, no straws, but the flight of arrows, that have filled the atmosphere.

5. As long as the dust of the earth, cries another, is moistened by the bloodshed of the brave, so long are the heroes entitled to glory, and have their abode in heaven for myriads of years.[18]

6. Fear not these sable swords, says the sástra, whose blades are worn by the brave like petals of blue lotuses about their necks and breasts; and bravoes are favourites in the eyes of the goddess of fortune. (Fortune favours the brave).

7. The heavenly nymphs that beheld the fighting, felt a desire to embrace the brave, and the god of the flowery bow (Káma or Cupid), was busy to loosen their waist bands. (Cupid by inversion is Dípuc, another name of the Indian Káma. And Fairies or Paries and Huries are said to fall to the lot of the fighters in Jehad-battle. So says Dryden: “None but the brave deserve the fair”).

8. They beckoned their welcome by the waving of their reddish palms, in the shaking of the ruddy leaves of trees, and by the round glances of their eyes, in the blooming blossoms of plants, and by the perfume of their breath in the honied fragrance of flowers.

9. The geniuses of the garden of Paradise, were singing sweetly in the notes of the sylvan choir, and betook themselves to dancing in the wagging tails of peacocks.

10. As the brave warrior was breaking the line of the enemy with his hardy axe; so was his beloved breaking his hard heart and spirit, with the soft glances of her eyes.

11. It is by my lance, says the lancer, that I have severed the head of my adversary with the rings in his ears, like the head of the ascending node of Ráhu, approaching the disk of the sun.

12. Lo! There is a champion, hurling the blocks of stones, attached to the end of a chain reaching his feet; and another whirling his wheel with a wondrous log of wood, held in his uplifted arm.

13. There comes that combatant in the form of Yama, appearing from the region of Pluto (Preta), and spreading a horrid devastation all around. Come let us go hence as we came.

14. Look there the ravenous birds, greedily plunging their long necks in the cells of bodies just separated from their heads, and glutting themselves with the gushing blood; and see there the headless trunk of the slain, moving to and fro in the field of battle.

15. The eloquent among the spectators were talking to one another, about the frailty of human life, and the uncertainty of the time of their meeting in the next world.

16. Oh! the stern cannibal of death, says one, that devours in one swoop, whole bodies of the assembled armies, now weltering in blood; and levels the levelling hosts to the ground.

17. The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble the showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to their frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks of cliffs.

18. While the headless body of the beheaded, was groveling grievously on the ground for want of its head, the pate flying on high as a bird of air, proclaimed its immortality in heaven.

19. The army harassed by stones slung on their heads, cried to entrap the enemy in the snares set at their feet.

20. Wives that had become Apsarás (heavenly nymphs) after death, were now eager to claim their husbands, who were restored to their youth, by virtue of their falling in the field of battle.

21. The glaring light of the line of lances that had reached the skies, seemed as a flight of stairs or golden vistas, for the ascent of the brave to the gates of heaven.

22. The wife of the slain soldier, seeing now a heavenly goddess, taking possession of her husband’s fair gold-like breast, was looking about in search of another.

23. Generals, wailing loudly with their uplifted arms, over their fallen armies in the field, appeared as the cliffs of rocks, resounding to the clamorous surges below.

24. They cried out to fight the foremost in war, and to remove the wounded to the rear; and not to trample over the bodies of their own soldiers, now lying low on the ground.

25. Behold! there the Apsarás eagerly tying their loosened locks, and advancing with sobbing bosoms to receive the departed warriors, joining their company in their celestial forms.

26. Ah! receive them says one, who are our guests from afar, on the banks of the rivers of Paradise, decorated with lotus blossoms of golden hue, and entertain them with fresh water and cooling breeze.

27. Look! there the groups of weapons, broken into pieces like bones by their concussion, are huddled in the air with a jingling sound (kanatkára), and shining as stars in the sky.

28. Lo! the stream of deceased souls, flowing in arrowy currents and rolling in whirlpools of the flying disks, is rapidly gliding with the pebbles and stones, flung from the slings in the air.

29. The sky is become as a lake of lotuses with the lotiform heads of warriors flung aloft in the air, while the flying weapons are floating like their stalks in it, with the broken swords as their thorns all around.

30. The flying fragments of the flags, forming the folia of the plants, and the darts sticking to them, appear as big black bees fluttering about the flowers moving with the breeze.

31. The arrows sticking to the dead bodies of elephants, are as emmets on mountain tops, and as timid girls clinging to the bosoms of men.

32. The winds unfurling the curling locks of Vidyádhara females, indicate their approaching spousals, as the unfolding plumage of fowls are predictions of success in augury.

33. The lifted umbrellas are shining as so many moons on high and the moon shining above in the form of fair fame, spreads her light as a white canopy on earth.

34. The brave warrior, soon after his death, assumes a celestial form framed by his own merit, as a man in his sleep, attains to a state, he has imagined to himself in his waking.

35. The flying spears and lances and clubs and disks are hurtling in the air, like shoals of restless fishes and sharks, moving about incessantly in the troubled waters of the sea.

36. The milk-white rags of umbrellas, tattered and shattered by arrowy shafts, are flying as cranes in the crowded air, and appearing as the disk of the moon broken into a thousand pieces.

37. These waving flappers flying in the air with a hoarse gurgling (gharghara), seem as the waves of the sea lifted in the air, and undulating with a babbling noise in the ocean of the sky.

38. Those slips of the flappers and umbrellas, hashed by the slashing arms, appear as the laurels of glory flung aloft and flying in the regions of air.

39. Behold ye friends! how these flying arrows and showering spears, are approaching to us with hits of their spoil, like bodies of locusts, bearing away their verdant booty in the air.

40. Hearken to the clanking sound of the striking steel, in the uplifted arm of the armoured soldier, resounding like the loud larum of the regent of death.

41. Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an all destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of mountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on the ground.

42. Lo! there the drivers of war chariots are stopped in their course, and striving to make their way through the puddles of blood, in which the wheels and horses of the car, are huddled together as in a bog of quagmire.

43. The jingling of arms and armours, and the jangling of swords and steel, resound, as the tinkling of the lute at the dancing of the dire and dreaded dame of death.

44. See the skirts of the sky reddened by the roseate particles, borne by the winds from the streams of blood, issuing out of the wounds in the bodies of men, horses and elephants lying dead in the field.

45. Look at the array of arrows formed in the air as a wreath of blossoms, and falling as the rays of lightnings from the dark black clouds of weapons hanging on high.

46. Lo! the surface of the earth filled with blood-red weapons, appearing as faggots of fire strewn over the ground in an universal conflagration.

47. The multitudes of commingled weapons, clashing with and breaking one another into pieces, are falling down in showers, like the innumerable rays of the sun.

48. The fighting of one man among the motionless many, is like the magic play of a magician[19] where the conjurer acts his parts amidst the bewitched beholders, Lo! there the indifferent spectators viewing the warfare as a dream (by their _prajna_ or inward vision of the mind).

49. The field of battle, where all other sounds are hushed under the clashing of arms, resembles the stage of the martial god Bhairava, chanting his pitiless war song in jarring cacophony.

50. The battlefield is turned to a sea of blood, filled with the sands of pounded weapons, and rolling with the waves of broken discuses.

51. All the quarters under the regents of the sky, are filled with martial music loudly resounding on all sides; and the rebellowing hills seem to challenge one another, in their aerial flight and fighting (as in contest of the gods and titans of old).

52. Alas for shame! says one, that these arrows flung with such force from the bow strings, and flying with such loud hissing, and glittering as red hot lightnings in the air, are foiled in their aim of piercing the impenetrable armours, and driven back by them to hit at the stony hills.

53. Hear me friend, that art tired with the sight, that it is time for us to depart from this place, ere we are pierced in our bodies by these sharp arrows flashing as fire, and before the day runs its course of the fourth watch (evening). CHAPTER XXXV. DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD.[20]

Vasishtha said:—Then the waves of horse troops mounting to the sky, made the battlefield appear as a raging sea.

2. The moving umbrellas floated as its foam and froth, and the feathered silvery arrows glided like the finny pearly fishes in it, while the high flight and rush of the cavalry, heaved and dashed as surges of the sea.

3. The rushing of the weapons resembled the running of its currents, and the circles of the soldiers were as vortices of its waters. The elephants were as its islets and their motions resembled the moving rocks in it.

4. The whirling disks were as its eddies, and the flying hairs on the heads likened its floating weeds. The sparkling sands were as its shining waters, and the flash of swords like its glassy spray.

5. The gigantic warriors were its whales and alligators, and the resounding caverns like its gurgling whirlpools.

6. The flying arrows were like its swimming fishes, and the floating flags likened its uprising waves and bores.

7. The shining weapons formed the waters of this ocean and their whirlpools also, while the long lines of forces appeared as the huge and horrible bodies of its whales.

8. Soldiers clad in black iron armour, were as the dark blue waters of the deep, and the headless bodies groveling in dust were as the eddies of the sea, with the encircled equipments as the sea weeds.

9. The showers of arrows had obscured the skies with a mist, and the confused rattlings of the battlefield, were as the roarings of the clouds.

10. The flying and falling heads of the slain soldiers, resembled the large drops of rain, and their bodies were as pieces of wood, whirling in the eddies of the disks.

11. The bold bowyer, bending his strong bow in the form of a curve, and leaping above the ground, resembled the spouting sea, rising from underneath the ground with his heaving waves on high.

12. The unnumbered umbrellas and flags, that were moving up and down in the field, were as the foaming and frothing sea, rolling in waves of blood, and carrying away the beams and timbers of the broken cars in its current.

13. The march of the army resembled the flowing of the sea waters, and the blood spouting from the wounds of the elephants likened its bubbles, while the moving horses and elephants represented the sea animals in their motion.

14. The battlefield had become like the wondrous field of the air, where the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook the hills like moving clouds in the sky.

15. Here the waves were undulating like flights of birds in the air, and the groups of elephants falling aground like rocks, and the cowardly ranks were murmuring like herds of the timorous deer.

16. The field is turned to a forest of arrows, and wounded soldiers are standing fixed on the ground as trees, with the arrows flying as locusts, and the horses moving like antelopes in it.

17. Here the loud drum sounded as the humming of bees in the hollows of trees, and the army appearing as a mist, with the bold warrior sprawling like a lion in it.

18. The dust was rising in clouds and the forces falling as rocks; the huge cars broken down as hills, and the flaming swords shining on all sides.

19. The rise and fall of the foot soldier’s feet flitted like the falling flowers on the ground, and the flags and umbrellas o’ertopped it as clouds; it was overflown by streams of blood, and the high-sounding elephants falling as thundering showers of rain.

20. The war was as the last doom of death ready to devour the world, and destroy the flags and banners, the umbrellas and chariots in a confused chaos.

21. The shining weapons were falling like fragments of the refulgent sun, and burning all things as a burning pain inflames the soul and mind.

22. The out-stretched bows were as rainbows, and the falling arrows as showers of rain; the flying sabres resembled the forky lightnings, and their falling fragments like the sparkling hailstones.

23. The dire massacre made a sea of blood, with the hurling stones as its shoals and rocks; while the flying arms resembled the falling stars from heaven.

24. The sky was as a sea full of the whirlpools of the groups of disks and circlets, that were hurled in the air; and there were the burning fires, that performed the funerals of the slain.

25. The missiles were as bolts of thunder, which struck the rock-like elephants dead in the field, to block the passage of men.

26. The earth and sky were obscured by a thick cloud of showering arrows, and the army below was a sea of tempestuous warfare and bloodshed.

27. The destructive weapons were flying on all sides, like huge dragons of the sea, carried aloft by gusts of wind from the stormy main.

28. The flying arms of bolts and swords, disks, pikes and lances, were blazing and breaking one another in the air with such hideous noise, that it seemed to be a second deluge, when the last tornado blew up everything on high scattering them in all directions, and crushing and smashing them with a tremendous peal. CHAPTER XXXVI. SECTION I.

COLLISION OF EQUAL ARMS AND ARMIGERENTS.

The heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground, drove the cowards and the wounded afar from the field.

2. The hills of the dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving in promiscuous heaps, and appearing as clouds fallen upon earth, invited the Yakshas and Rákshasas, and the carnivorous Pisáchas, to come and sport in the wide ocean of blood.

3. Now there commenced a commutual contest, betwixt men of rank and virtue, and those of good character, valour and strength on both sides; not excepting even the holy and household people, all of whom took part in the combat (that is, no condition of life, nor age nor sex, could escape the contagion of a warfare).

4. Duels were fought between these, like the clashing of one cloud with another; and like the confluence of two streams discharging their fury against each other.

5. As a rib is joined to another, and one side with the other, so met the horse against the horse, and elephant opposed the elephant in mutual conflict.

6. As one forest clasps and clings to another, and one hill is linked with the other in a range, so the duelists strove together, as one wave dashes against the other.

7. Footmen fought with footmen, as the reeds crush the reeds, and bamboos clash against one another, and the contrary winds struggle between themselves.

8. Cars falling upon cars, and chariots running against chariots, broke one another to pieces; and the citizens beat the rustics, as the Devas smote the demons of old.

9. The sky which had been erewhile clouded by the flight of arrows, was now emblazoned by the banner of the bowyer, resembling the rainbow of various colours.

10. At last the warriors who were overpowered in their conflict with unequal arms, fled away from the field, as they do from the fire of a conflagration.

11. Now the armigerents with discuses, met the thwarters of disks (chakras) in contest; and bowyers were opposed to bowmen, and swordsmen challenged the sword fighters in the field. So met the hookers and crookers with their co-rivals with crowbars (bhusundis) in hand.

12. Maces were opposed to maces (musalas), and lancers were set against the lance bearers (kuntas) in fighting. Spearmen braved the spearmen (rishtis), and the throwers of missiles were crossed with missives (prásas) in hand.

13. Mallets militated against mallets (mudguras), and clubs were contravened by clubmen in the conflict. Combatants with pikes (saktis), encountered the pikemen (sakti-dharas) face to face; and iron rods were crossed to pointed rods (súlas) in the strife.

14. Pugilists with missive weapons, counteracted the missiles of their antagonists (prásas), and those fighting with battle axes (parasus), baffled the poleaxes and pickaxes (paraswadhas) of their foes.

15. Trappers with their traps and snares, attacked the darters of nooses and lassos (pásas); and the darters of javelins (sankus), withstood the darts of the dartsmen on the other side. Daggers were opposed to daggers (kshurikas), and cudgels were presented before the cudgels (bhindipálas of the enemy).

16. Combatants with iron gloves contravened the boxers with iron fistcuffs (Vajramushtis), and those with iron cranes, pursued the fighters with crooked goads (ankusas) in hand. Warriors with ploughshares attacked the ploughmen, and those with tridents, fell upon the trident holders (trisúlins) in contest.

17. Champions with chained armours set upon the soldiers attired in mail (srinkhala jála); and they poured upon the field as flights of locusts, or as the waves in the troubled sea.

18. The air also seemed as a sea, with flying disks whirling as whirlpools (chakravartas), and the flight of reeds whistling like gusts of wind; while the range of running weapons seemed as sharks and dolphins moving about it.

19. The hollow of the heaven became as the great deep of the sea, impassable by the celestials, owing to the waving weapons, moving as sea monsters in the air.

20. Thus the armies of the two belligerent potentates, each composed of eight ranks or battalions, were furiously engaged with one another, as described below.

SECTION II.

CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.

21. Now hear me relate to you, the forces on the side of Padma, now named Vidúratha, and the allied powers that came to his side, from the Central and Eastern districts.

22. There came the hardy warriors of Kosala (Oudh) and Kási (Benares); those of Magadha (Behar) and Utkala (Orissa), situated in the east; and the Mekhalas (of Vindhya range), the Karkars (of Karnatic), and the Madras (of Madura) in the south.

23. The chiefs of Hema (Imaus) and Rudras and the Támraliptas (Tamils) from the south; the Prágjyotishas (of east Assam), and the horse faced Osmuks and Ambashtha cannibals.

24. Then there joined the Varna-koshthas and Viswotras, and the eaters of raw food and flesh and the fish eaters (piscivori); and those with faces like tigers, the Kiratas (Kirrhoids and Kira-antis), with the Sauviras and one legged people.

25. Next came the mountaineers of Mályavána, Sibira and Anjanagiri; and others having the ensigns of bulls and lotuses, and the people of the sun rising mountain (Udaya-giri) in the east.

26. Those that joined from the south east (prágdaxina), are the following, namely; the Vindhyaris, the Chedis, the Vatsas, the Dasárnas (near the confluence of the ten streams); and the Angas, Bangas and Upabangas (of Upper and Lower Bengal).

27. They that met from the south were, Kalingas and Pundras, the Jatharas, Vidarbhas and the hill people (on the Karnatic coast); the Sabaras, the outcasted savages, the Karnas and the Tripura people.

28. Those named Kantakas from their thorny district, the unenlightened Komalas (of Comilla?); the Karnas (Canarese), the Ándhras, the Cholas and the people on the borders of the Charmanvati river.

29. The Kakos or bald-headed and bearded people, and those of the Hema-kuta hills; the frizzled and long necked people, and the inhabitants of Kishkindha and cocoa forests.

30. The princes that joined with Lílá’s husband from the south, were as follows viz. the Vindhyans, the Kusumians (of Patna), the Mahendras and the Darduras (of the hills of the same names).

31. The Malays and the solar race, and the Prince of the (33) united states and the rich and united cities of Avanti and Sámbavati.

32. And those of Dasapura (or ten cities) of Katha (Kota), Chakra, Reshika Cutch and others, and the foresters of Upagiri and Bhadragiri hills.

33. The prince of Nagore and the chiefs of Dandaka forest, and the joint states of the people; the Sahas, Saivas, and the hill people of the Rishyamuka and Karkota and the Vimbila foresters.

34. Then came the inhabitants from the banks of Pampá, the Kerakas and Karkaviras; with the Kherikas, Asikas and the people of Dhrumapattana.

35. Next came the Kásikas and Khallukas, the Yadas and Tamraparnikas; the Gonardas, the Kanakas and the people of Dinapattam.

36. The Tamris (Tamils), Kadambharas, Sahakáras and Enakas (or deer hunters); the Vaitundas, Tumba-vanalas, and those attired in deer and elephant skins.

37. Then came the lotus-like Sibis and Konkans and the inhabitants of Chitrakuta mountains; with the people of Karnata, the Mantas, Batakas and those of Cattak.

38. The Andhras and Kola hill people (Koles), the Avantis and Chedis; with the Chandas and Devanakas and Kraunchavahas.

39. At last came the people from the three peaks of Chitrakúta mountains, called the Silákhára, Nanda mardana and Malaya, which were the seats of the guardian Bákshasas of Lanká.

40. Then those of the southwest where there is the great realm of Surástra (Surat), with the kingdoms of Sindhu (Sinde) Sauvira, Abhíra, and Dravidas (in Deccan).

41. Also those of the districts of Kikata, Siddha Khanda, and Káliruha, and the mount Hemagiri or golden hills and the Raivataka range.

42. Then the warriors of Jaya Kachchha (the victorious Cutch), and Mayavara (Mewar); as also the Yavanas (Ionians), the Bahlikas (Balkhs), the Marganas (nomads), and the grey coloured Tumbas (on the north).

43. Then there came Lahsa races and many hill peoples, inhabiting the borders of the sea (Caspian), forming the limit of the dominion of Lílá’s husband (Hindu Government) on the north.

44. Now know the names of the countries belonging to the enemy in the west, and of those composed of the following mountain ranges, _viz._

45. The mount Manimán and the Kurar-pana hills, with the hillocks of Vanorka, Megha-bhava, and the Chakra-vana mountain.

46. There is the country of the five peoples limiting the territory of the Kása Brahmans, and after that the Bháraksha, the Páraka and Sántika countries.

47. Thence stretch the countries of the Saivyas, Amarakas, the Pachchyas (Páschátyas) and Guhutwas; and then the Haihaya country, and those of the Suhyas, Gayas and Tajikas and Hunas (Huns).

48. Then along the side of some other countries, there is the range of Karka hills, inhabited by barbarous people, devoid of caste, customs and limits of moral duties.

49. Thence stretches a country hundreds of leagues in length, to the boundary mountain of Mahendra, abounding in rich stones and gems.

50. After that stands the Aswa range with hundreds of hills about it; and extending to the dread ocean on the north of the Pariyátra range. (Paropamisus).

51. On the north western side, there are countries beyond the boundary mountains (of Asia), where Venupati was the king of the land.

52. Then there are the countries of the Phálgunakas and Mándavayas and many other peoples; and those of Purukundas and Paras (Paris?) as bright as the orb of the sun.

53. Then the races of Vanmilas and Nalinas and the Dirghas; who are so called, from their tall statures and long arms and hairs. Then there are the Rangas (Red men), Stánikas with protuberant breasts, and the Guruhas and Chaluhas.

54. After that is the kingdom of women (ruled by a queen), where they feed upon bullocks and heifers. Now about the Himálayas and its hills in the north (of India):—

55. These are the Krauncha and Madhumán hills; and the Kailása, Vasumán and the Sumeru peaks; at the foot of which are the people, known under many names.

56. Beside these there met the warlike tribes of India consisting of the Madrawars, Malavas and Sura-senas. The Rajputs of the race of Arjuna, the Trigartas and the one legged people and Khudras.

57. There were the Abalas, Prakhalas, and Sakas (Saccæ or Scythians). The Khemadhúrtas, the Dasadhanas, the Gavásanas and Dandahanas (club fighters).

58. The Dhánadas and Sarakas and Bátadhánas also, with the islanders and Gándháras and Avanti warriors of Malwa.

59. The warlike Takshasilas (Taxilas), the Bílavas, Godhanas and the renowned warriors of Pushkara (Pokhra).

60. Then there were the Tíkshas and Kálavaras, and the inhabitants of the cities of Káhaka and Surabhúti likewise.

61. There were the people of the Ratikádarsa and Antarádarsa also; and the Pingalas, the Pandyas, Yamanas and Yátudhánas Rákshasas too.

62. There were also the races of men, known as Hematálas and Osmuks, together with the hilly tribes, inhabiting the Himalaya, Vasumán, Krauncha and Kailasa mountains.

63. Hear me now relate to you the peoples that came from the north east quarter, which extends a hundred and eighty leagues in its circumference.

64. There came also the Kalutas and Brahmaputras, the Kunidas and Khudinas, with the warlike Malavas and the champions of the Randhra and forest states.

65. Then there were the Kedavas and Sinhaputras of dwarfish statures; the Sabas (Sabæ or Sabians?), the Kaccæs, the Pahlavis (ancient Persians), the Kamiras and the Daradas (the present Darduis or Himalayan hills).

66. There were also the people of Abhisa, the Jarvakas, the Pulolas and Kuves; the Kirátas and Yamupatas, together with the poor and rich people of desert lands and tracts of gold.

67. Thus Lílá saw in one view, the residences of the _devas_; the forest lands and the earth in all their beauty. She saw all the seats of opulence (viswavasus), and the edifices with which they were adorned; she beheld the summit of Kailása, and the delightful groves at its foot, and the level lands traversed by the aerial cars of Vidyádhara and celestial beings.[21]

CHAPTER XXXVII

CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES CONTINUED.[22]

Vasishtha said:—Thus the ravaging war was making a rapid end of men, horse, elephants and all; and the bravos coming foremost in the combat, fell in equal numbers on both sides.

2. These (as named before), and many others were reduced to dust and ashes; and the bravery of the brave, served but to send them like poor moths to the fire and flame of destruction.

3. Know now the names of the central districts, not yet mentioned by me, that sent their warriors to the field, in favour of the consort prince of Lílá.

4. These were the inland forces of Sursena (Muttra), the Gudas (Gaudas?), and the Asganas (?); the Madhymikas and they that dwell under sunlight (the tropics).

5. The Sálukas and Kodmals, and Pippaláyanas; the Mándavyas, Pandyans, Sugrívas and Gurjars.

6. The Páriyátras, Kurashtras, Yamunas and Udumvaras; the Raj-waras, the Ujjainas, the Kálkotas (Calicuts) and the Mathuras (of Muttra).

7. The Pánchálas (Pánjábis), the Northern and Southern Dharmakshetras; the Kurukshetriyas, Pánchálakas and Sáraswatas.

8. The line of war chariots from Avanti, being opposed by the arms of the warriors of the Kunta and Panchanada districts, fell in fighting by the sides of the hills.

9. Those arrayed in silken attire, being dismantled by the enemy, fell upon the ground, and were trodden down by the elephants.

10. The bravadoes of Daspura, being hacked in their breasts and shoulders by the hostile weapons, were pursued by the Banabhuma warriors, and driven to the distant pool.

11. The Sántikas being ripped in their bellies, lay dead and motionless in naked field, and wrapped in their mangled entrails, which were torn and devoured by the voracious Pisáchas at night.

12. There the veteran and vociferous warriors of Bhadrasiri, who were well skilled in the battle field, drove the Amargas to the ditch, as they drive the tortoises to their pits.

13. The Haihayas were driving the Dandakas, who like fleet stags were flying with the swiftness of winds, and all gushing in blood by the pointed and piercing arrows of the enemy.

14. The Daradas were gored by the tusks of the elephants of their enemies, and were borne away in floods of their blood, like the broken branches of trees.

15. The Chínas (Chinese) were mangled in their bodies by darts and arrows, and cast their tortured bodies in the water, as a burden they could no longer support.

16. The Asúras, pierced in their necks by the flying lances of the Karnatic lancers, fled in all directions like the faggots of fire, or as the flying meteors of heaven.

17. The Sákas and Dásakas were fighting together, by holding down one another by the hair on their heads, as if the whales and elephants were struggling mutually from their respective elements.

18. The flying cowards were entrapped in the snares cast by the Dasárna warriors, as dolphins hiding under the reeds, are dragged out by nets on the blood-red shore.

19. The lifted swords and pikes of the Tongas (Tonguise), destroyed the Gurjara (Guzrati) force by hundreds, and these like razors balded the heads (_i.e._ made widows) of hundreds of Gurjara women. (It is their custom to remain baldheaded in widowhood).

20. The lustre of the lifted weapons of the warriors, illumined the land as by flashes of lighting; and the clouds of arrows were raining like showers of rain in the forest.

21. The flight of the crowbars (bhusundis), which untimely obscured the orb of the sun, affrighted the Abhíra (cowherd) warriors with the dread of an eclipse, and overtook them by surprise, as when they are pursued by a gang of plunderers of their cattle.

22. The handsome gold collared army of the Támras or tawny coloured soldiers, were dragged by the Gauda warriors, as captors snatch their fair captives by the hair.

23. The Tongons were beset by the Kanasas, like cranes by vultures with their blazing weapons, destroying elephants and breaking the discuses in war.

24. The rumbling noise (gudugudurava), raised by the whirling of cudgels by the Gauda gladiators, frightened the Gándháras to a degree, that they were driven like a drove of beasts, or as the dreading Drávídas from the field.

25. The host of the Sáka or Scythian warriors, pouring as a blue torrent from the azure sky, appeared by their sable garb as the mist of night, approaching before their white robed foes of the Persians.

26. The crowded array of lifted arms in the clear and bright atmosphere, appeared as a thick forest under the milk white ocean of frost, that shrouds the mountainous region of Mandara.

27. The flights of arrows which seemed as fragments of clouds in the air from below, appeared as waves of the sea, when viewed by the celestials from above.

28. The air appeared as a forest thickly beset by the trees of spears and lances, with the arrows flying as birds and bees; and innumerable umbrellas, with their gold and silver mountings, appearing as so many moons and stars in the sky.

29. The Kekayas made loud shouts, like the war whoops of drunken soldiers, and the Kankas covered the field like a flight of cranes, and the sky was filled with dust over their heads.

30. The Kiráta army made a purling noise (kulakula) like the effeminate voice of women; causing the lusty Angas to rush upon them with their furious roar.

31. The Kásas (Khasias) covering their bodies with _kusa_ grass (in their grassy garbs), appeared as birds with feathers, and raised clouds of dust by flapping their feathered arms.

32. The giddy warriors of Narmada’s coasts, came rushing in the field unarmed with their weapons, and began to fleer and flout and move about in their merry mood.

33. The low statured Sálwas came with the jingling bells of their waist bands, flinging their arrows in the air, and darting showers of their darts around.

34. The soldiers of Sibi were pierced with the spears hurled by the Kuntas. They fell as dead bodies in the field, but their spirits fled to heaven in the form of Vidyádharas.

35. The Pándu-nagaras were laid groveling on the ground in their quick march, by the mighty and light footed army, who had taken possession of the field.

36. The big Páncha-nadas (Punjabis), and the furious warriors of Kási (Benares), crushed the bodies of stalwart warriors with their lances and cudgels, as elephants crush the mighty trees under their feet and tusks.

37. The Burmese and Vatsenis were cut down on the ground by the disks of the Nípas (Nepalese); and the Sahyas were sawn down with saws as withered trees.

38. The heads of the white Kákas (Caucasians), were lopped off with sharp axes; and their neighbouring prince of the Bhadras was burnt down by the fiery arrows (fire arms).

39. The Matangajas (of Elephanta) fell under the hands of Káshthayodhas (of Katiawar), as old unchained elephants falling in the miry pit; and others that came to fight, fell as dry fuel into the blazing fire.

40. The Mitragartas falling into the hands of the Trigartas, were scattered about as straws in the field, and having their heads struck off in their flight, they entered the infernal regions of death.

41. The weak Vanila force, falling into the hands of the Magadha army, resembling a sea gently shaken by the breeze, went down in the sands, as lean and aged elephants.

42. The Chedis lost their lines in fighting with the Tongans, and lay withered in the field of battle, as flowers when scattered in the plains, fade away under the shining sun.

43. The Kosalas were unable to withstand the war cry of the deadly Pauravas, and were discomfited by showers of their clubs, and missile arrows and darts.

44. Those that were pierced by pikes and spears, became as coral plants red with blood all over their bodies, and thus besmeared in bloodshed, they fled to the sheltering hills like red hot suns to the setting mountains (astáchala).

45. The flight of arrows and weapons borne away by the rapid winds, moved about in the air as fragments of clouds, with a swarm of black bees hovering under them.

46. The flying arrows seemed as showering clouds, and their feathers appeared as the woolly breed; their reedy shafts seeming as trees, were roving with the roar of elephants.

47. The wild elephants and people of the plains, were all torn to pieces like bits of torn linen.

48. War chariots with their broken wheels, fell into the pits like the broken craigs of mountains, and the enemy stood upon their tops as a thick mist or cloud.

49. The multitude of stalwart warriors meeting in the field, had given it the appearance of a forest of _tála_ and _tamála_ trees; but their hands being lopped off by weapons, they made it appear as a mountainous wood, with its clumps of tapering pine trees.

50. The youthful damsels of Paradise were filled with joy and glee, to find the groves of their native hill (Meru), full of the brave champions (fallen in the field).

51. The forest of the army howled in a tremendous roar, until it was burnt down by the all devouring fire of the enemy.

52. Hacked by the Pisáchas (Assamese), and snatched of their weapons by the Bhutas (Bhoteas), the Dasárnás (at the confluence of the ten streams of Vindhya) threw off their staffs, and fled as a herd of heifers (_nikuchya karnidhavati_—bolted with their broken staves. Pánini).

53. The Kásias were eager to despoil the tinsels from the dead bodies of the chiefs by their valour, as the summer heat robs the beauty of lotuses in a drying pool.

54. The Tushákas were beset by the Mesalas, with their darts, spears and mallets; and the sly Katakas were defeated and driven away by the Narakas in battle.

55. The Kauntas were surrounded by Prastha warriors, and were defeated like good people by the treachery of the wily.

56. The elephant drivers, that struck off the heads of their hosts in a trice, were pursued by the harpooners, and fled with their severed heads, as they do with the lotus-flowers plucked by their hands.

57. The Sáraswatas fought on both sides with one another until it was evening, and yet no party was the looser or gainer, as in a learned discussion between pandits and among lawyers.

58. The puny and short statured Deccanese, being driven back by the Rákshas of Lanka, redoubled their attack on them, as the smothering fire is rekindled by fuel.

59. What more shall I relate Ráma about this war, which baffles the attempt of the serpent Vásuki even, to give a full description of it with his hundred tongues and mouths. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CESSATION OF THE WAR.

Vasishtha continued:—Now as the war was waging fiercely, with mingled shouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his burnished armour under the mist of darkness, and was about to set.

2. The waters of the limpid streams glided with the showers of stones flung by the forces, and falling on the fading clusters of lotuses growing in them.

3. Flashes of fire glittered in the sky, by the clashing of the shafts and darts below; and waves of arrows were seen, now approaching nigh and now receding at a distance.

4. Severed heads like loose lotuses, floated and whirled in the whirlpools of blood below, and the sea of heaven was filled with flying weapons, moving as marine animals above.

5. The rustling of the breeze and the whistling of the overshadowing clouds of weapons, frightened the aerial Siddhas and sylvan apes, with the fear of an approaching rain.

6. The day declined after it had run its course of the eight watches (Yámárdhas), and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero, returning in glory, after he has fought his battle.

7. The army like the day, declined in splendour, being battered in its cavalry, and shattered in its force of elephants.

8. Then the commanders of the armies, in concert with the ministers of war, sent envoys to the hostile parties for a truce to the fighting.

9. Both parties agreed to the armistice, seeing how much they were harassed in the engagement; and the soldiers with one voice, gave their assent to it.

10. They hoisted their soaring banners of truce on the pinnacles of the highest chariots (rathas); and a crier on each side, mounted over one, to give proclamation to the armies below.

11. They furled the white flags on all sides, which like so many moons in the gloom of night, proclaimed peace on earth by cessation from contention.

12. Then the drums sent their loud peals around, which were resounded by roarings of the clouds (Pushkarávartas) above and all about.

13. The flights of arrows and weapons, that had been raging as fire in the atmosphere, now began to fall in torrents, like the currents of the lake Mansaravara on the ground below.

14. The hands and arms of the warriors were now at rest like their feet; as the shaking of trees and the surges of the sea are at an end after the earthquake is over.

15. The two armies now went their own ways from the field of battle, as the arms of the sea run into the land in different directions.

16. The armies being at rest, there was an end of all agitation in the field; as the waves of the ocean are lulled to rest, on its calm after a storm (literally, after its churning by the Mandara mountain).

17. It became in an instant as dreadful as the dismal womb of death (Pútaná); and as deep and dark as the hollow pit of the sea, after its waters were sucked up by Agastya (the sun).

18. It was full of the dead bodies of men and beasts, and flowed in floods of purpling blood; it was resonant with the sounds of insects, like a heath with the humming of beetles.

19. The gory bodies were gushing with blood, and gurgling as the waves of the sea; and the cries of the wounded who wished to live, pierced the ears, and throbbed the heart strings of the living.

20. The dead and wounded weltering side by side in streams of blood, made the living think the dead as still alive like themselves.

21. Big elephants lying dead in piles in the field appeared as fragments of clouds, and the heaps of broken chariots seemed as a forest dispersed by the storm.

22. Streams of blood were running with the dead bodies of horses and elephants, and heaps of arrows and spears and mattocks and mallets, flowing together with broken swords and missiles.

23. Horses were lying girt in their halters and harnesses, and the soldiers wrapt in their mails and armours; and flags and flappers and turbans and helmets lay scattered in the field.

24. The winds were rustling in the orifice of the quivers, like the hissing of arrowy snakes, or as the whistling of the breeze in the holes of bamboo trees; and the Pisáchas were rolling on beds of dead bodies, as upon their beddings of straws.

25. The gold chains of the helmets and the head ornaments of the fallen soldiers, glittered with the various colours of the rainbow, and greedy dogs and jackals were tearing the entrails of the dead like long ropes or strings.

26. The wounded were gnashing their teeth in the field of blood, like the croaking of frogs in the miry pool of blood.

27. Those clad in party coloured coats with a hundred spots on them, had now their arms and thighs gushing in a hundred streams of blood.

28. The friends of the dead and wounded, were wailing bitterly over their bodies; lying amidst the heaps of arrows and weapons, the broken cars and the scattered trappings of horses and elephants, which had covered the land.

29. Headless trunks of the goblins were dancing about with their uplifted arms touching the sky; and the stink of the carrion, fat and blood, filled the nostrils with nausea.

30. Elephants and horses of noble breed, lay dead and others gasping with their mouths gaping upwards; and the dashing of the waving streams of blood, beat as loud as drums against their rock-like bodies.

31. The blood gushing out of the pores of the wounded horses and elephants, ran like that of a wounded whale into a hundred streams. And the blood spouting from the mouths of the dying soldiers flowed into a hundred channels.

32. Those who were pierced with arrows in their eyes and mouths, were uttering an inaudible voice in their last gasp of death; and those pierced in their bellies, had their bowels gushing out with a horrible stench; while the ground was reddened with thickened blood issuing out of the wounds.

33. Half dead elephants grasped the headless trunks with their uplifted trunks (proboscis), while the loose horses and elephants, that had lost their riders, were trampling over the dead bodies at random.

34. The weeping, crying and tottering wives of the fallen soldiers, fell upon their dead bodies weltering in blood, and embracing them fast by their necks, made an end of themselves with the same weapons.

35. Bodies of soldiers were sent with their guides on the way, to fetch the dead bodies from the field; and the hands of their lively companions, were busily employed in dragging the dead.

36. The field had become a wide river running with waves of blood, and breaking into a hundred whirling streams, carrying the severed heads, as lotuses swimming in them, and the torn braids of hair floating as bushes on them.

37. Men were busy to extract the weapons from the bodies of the wounded, who lamented loudly on account of their dying in a foreign land, and losing their arms and armours and horses and elephants in the field.

38. The dying souls remembered their sons and parents, their dear ones and their adored deities, and called out by their names; and began to sigh and sob with heart-rending heigh-hos and alacks.

39. The brave that died cursed their fates, and those falling in their fighting with elephants, blamed the unkind gods they had adored in vain.

40. The cowards fearing to be killed betook themselves to base flight; but the dauntless brave stepped forward amidst the whirlpools of blood.

41. Some suffering under the agony of arrows piercing their mortal parts, thought upon the sins of their past lives, that had brought this pain upon them; while the blood sucking Vetálas, advanced with their horrid mouths for drinking the blood of the headless trunks (Kabandhas).

42. The floating flags and umbrellas and flappers, seemed as white lotuses in the lake of blood below, while the evening stretched her train of stars like red lotuses in the etherial sea above.

43. The battle field presented the appearance of an eighth sea of blood; the rathas or warcars forming its rocks, and their wheels its whirlpools; the flags being its foam and froth, and the white flappers as its bubbles. (There are seven seas only on record).

44. The field of blood with the scattered cars, appeared as a track of land plunged in mud and mire, and covered over with woods broken down and blown away by a hurricane.

45. It was as desolate as a country burnt down by a conflagration, and as the dry bed of the sea sucked up by the sage Agastya (the sun). It was as a district devastated by a sweeping flood.

46. It was filled with heaps of weapons, as high as the bodies of big elephants lying dead about the ground.

47. The lances which were carried down by the streams of blood, were as big as the palm trees growing on the summits of mountains. (Compare the description in Ossian’s poems).

48. The weapons sticking in the bodies of the elephants, seemed as the shining flowers growing on verdant trees: and the entrails torn and borne up by vultures, spread a fretted network in the sky.

49. The lances fixed beside the streams of blood, were as a woody forest on the bank of a river; and the flags floating on the surface, appeared as a bush of lotuses in the liquid-blood.

50. Dead bodies of men were drawn up by their friends, from the bloody pool in which they were drowned, and the embedded bodies of big elephants were marked by men by the jutting weapons sticking in them.

51. The trunks of trees which had their branches lopped off by the weapons, appeared as the headless bodies of slain soldiers, and the floating carcasses of elephants seemed as so many boats swimming in the sea of blood.

52. The white garments that were swept down by the current, seemed as the froth of the pool of blood, and were picked up by the servants sent to search them out.

53. The demoniac bodies of headless soldiers, were rising and falling in the field, and hurling large wheels and disks upon the flying army on all sides.

54. The dying warriors were frothing forth floods of blood from their throats, and stones stained with blood were inviting the greedy vultures to devour them.

55. Then there were groups of Sutála, Vetála and Uttála demons dancing their war dance about the field, and whirling the rafts of the broken cars upon the flying soldiers on all sides.

56. The stir and last gasp of those that were yet alive, were fearful to behold, and the faces of the dying and the dead that were covered in dust and blood, were pitiful to the beholder.

57. The devouring dogs and ravenous ravens beheld the last gasp of the dying with pity; while the feeders on carrions were howling and fighting on their common carcass, till many of them became dead bodies by their mutual fighting.

58. Now I have described the sea of blood, which flowed fast with the gore of unnumbered hosts of horses, elephants and camels, and of warriors and their leaders, and multitudes of cars, and war chariots; but it became a pleasure garden to the god of death, delighting in his bed of bloodshed, and grove of the weapons beset all around. CHAPTER XXXIX. DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE-FIELD INFESTED BY NOCTURNAL FIENDS.

Now the blood-red sun set down in the west, like a hero red with blood; and hid his lustre, which was dimmed by the brightness of the weapons of war in the western main.

2. The sky which had reflected the blood-red flush of the field of blood, was now dimmed by the setting of the glorious sun, and darkened by the veil of evening.

3. Thick darkness overspread the face of heaven and earth like the waters of the great deluge, and there appeared a body of ghosts (Vetálas), dancing in a ring and clapping their hands.

4. The face of the day like that of an elephant, being besmeared with the blackness of night fall, was again painted by the light of evening with the pearly spots of stars on the cheeks.

5. The busy buzz of Creation being silent in the dead darkness of night, like the humming of bees over the surface of the waters, the hearts of men were closed in sleep as in death, like the petals of the lotus at night.

6. The birds lay with their folded wings and fallen crests in their nests, as the dead bodies were lying in the field, covered with their wounds and weapons.

7. Then the fair moonbeams shone above, and the white lotuses were blown below; the hearts of men were gladdened, and the victors felt joyous in themselves.

8. The ruddy evening assumed the shape of the blood-red sea of battle, and the fluttering bees now hid themselves like the faces of the fallen soldiers.

9. There was an etherial lake above spangled with stars like the white lotuses on high; and here was the earthly lake below, beset by lotuses resembling the stars of heaven.

10. The bodies that were thought to be lost in darkness, were now recovered in light, as the gems hid under the water, are found scattered about in moonlight.

11. The battle field was filled by the Vetála demons, howling with their hideous cry; while bodies of vultures, crows and owls, were tearing the carcasses and sporting with the skeletons.

12. Then blazed the funeral piles as brightly as the starry frame on high, and the fire consumed the dead bodies together with their bones and raiments.

13. The fire burnt the bodies with their bones to ashes, after which it extinguished itself as if sated with plenty. The female fiends now began to sport in the water.

14. There arose a mingled cry of dogs and crows, of Yakshas and Vetálas, with the clapping of their hands; and bodies of ghosts were moving about as woods and forests.

15. The Dákinis (Dáyinis) were eager to steal away the flesh and fat from the piles, and the Pisáchas delighted in sucking the blood and the flesh and bones of the dead.

16. The demons were now looking and now lurking about the funeral piles, and the Rákshasas that rushed in, bore away the carcasses on their shoulders.

17. There came also bodies of ferocious Kumbhándas, and big Dámaras, uttering their barbarous cries of _chumchum_, and hovering over the fumes of fat and flesh in the shapes of clouds.

18. Bodies of Vetálas stood in the streams of blood like earthly beings, and snatched the skeletons with hideous cries.

19. The Vetála younglings slept in the bellies and chests of the elephants, and the Rákshasas were drinking their fill in the bloody field.

20. The giddy Vetálas fought with one another with the lighted faggots of the piles, and the winds were wafting the stench of the putrid carcasses on all sides.

21. The female fiends (Rúpikás), filled the baskets of their bellies with carrion, with a rat-a-tat (ratarata) noise; and the Yaksha cannibals were snatching the half-burnt carcasses from the funeral piles, as their roasted meat and dainty food (S. kali A. Kul).

22. Aerial imps (khagas) attacked the dead bodies of the big Bangas and black Kalingas, and flouted about with their open mouths, emitting the blaze of falling meteors.

23. The Vetála goblins fell down in the dark and discoloured blood-pits, lying hid in the midst of the heaps of dead bodies; while the Pisácha ogres and the leaders of Yogini sprites, laughed at them for their false step (vetála).

24. The pulling of the entrails (antras-ánts), vibrated as by striking the strings of wired instruments (tantras—or tánts); and the ghosts of men that had become fiends from their fiendish desires, fell a-fighting with one another.

25. Valiant soldiers were affrighted at the sight of the spectres (Rúpíkás); and the obsequies were disturbed by the Vetála and Rákshasa goblins.

26. The hobgoblins of the night (nisácharas), got frightened at the fall of the carcasses from the shoulders of the elves (Rúpíkás), who were carrying them aloft in the air; where they were waylaid by a throng of ghostly demons (bhúta-sankata).

27. Many dying bodies, that were lifted aloft with labour by the bogies (Dánas), were let to fall down dead on the ground, being found unfit for their food.

28. Pieces of blood-red flesh, fallen from the fiery jaws of jackals, resembled clusters of _asoka_ flowers, strewn all around the funeral ground.

29. Vetála urchins were busy in putting on the scattered heads over the headless bodies of kabandhas (acephali); and bodies of Yaksha, Raksha and Pisácha ogres, were flashing as firebrands in the sky.

30. At last a thick cloud of darkness, covered the face or the sky, and the view of the hills and valleys, gardens and groves, was hid under an impenetrable gloom. The infernal spirits got loose from their dismal abodes, and ranged and ravaged at large over the field, as a hurricane under the vault of heaven. CHAPTER XL. REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN LIFE AND MIND.

Vasishtha related:—The nocturnal fiends were thus infesting the gloomy field, and the myrmidons of death (Yama), roaming about it as marauders in the day time.

2. The naked and fleeting ghosts, were revelling on their provision of carrion in their nightly abode, and under the canopy of thick darkness, which was likely to be laid hold upon under the clutches of one’s hand (hasta-gráhya).

3. It was in the still hour of the gloomy night, when the host of heaven seemed to be fast bound in sleep, that a sadness stole in upon the mind of Lílá’s magnanimous husband (the belligerent prince Vidúratha by name).

4. He thought about what was to be done on the next morning, in council with his Counsellors; and then went to his bed, which was as white as moonlight, and as cold as frost. (A cold bed in the east _vs._ a warm one in the west).

5. His lotus-eyes were closed in sleep for a while in his royal camp, which was as white as the moonbeams, and covered by the cold dews of night.

6. Then the two ladies, issued forth from their vacuous abode, and entered the tent through a crevice, as the air penetrates into the heart and amidst an unblown bud of flower.

7. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, that the gross bodies of the goddesses, with their limited dimensions, could enter the tent through one of its holes, as small as the pore of a piece of cloth?

8. Vasishtha answered saying that:—Whoso mistakes himself to be composed of a material body, it is no way possible for him to enter a small hole with that gross body of his.

9. But he who thinks himself to be pent up in his corporeal body as in a cage, and obstructed by it in his flight, and does not believe himself to fill his frame, or to be measured by its length; but has the true notion of his inward subtle spirit, it is no way impossible for him to have his passage any where he pleases to go.

10. He who perceives his original spiritual state, as forming the better half of his body, may pass as a spirit through a chink; but whoso relies in his subsequent half of the material body, cannot go beyond it in the form of his intellect.

11. As the air never rises upward, nor the flame of fire ever goes downward; so it is the nature of the spirit to rise upward, as that of the body to go down; but the intellect is made to turn in the way in which it is trained.

12. As the man sitting in the shade, has no notion of the feeling of heat or warmth; so one man has no idea of the knowledge or thoughts of another person.

13. As is one’s knowledge so is his thought, and such is the mode of his life; it is only by means of ardent practice (of yoga and learning), that the mind is turned to the right course.

14. As one’s belief of a snake in a rope, is removed by the conviction of his error; so are the bent of the mind and course of conduct in life, changed from wrong to right by the knowledge of truth.

15. It is one’s knowledge that gives rise to his thoughts, and the thoughts that direct his pursuits in life: this is a truth known even to the young and to every man of sense.

16. Now then the soul that resembles a being seen in a dream or formed in fancy, and which is of the nature of air and vacuum, is never liable to be obstructed any where in its course: (for who can constrain the flight of his imagination?).

17. There is an intellectual body, which all living beings possess in every place. It is known both by consciousness, as well as the feelings of our hearts.

18. It is by the divine will, that the intellect rises and sets by turns. At first it was produced in its natural, simple and intellectual form, and then being invested with a material body, it makes together an unity of the person out of the duality (of its material and immaterial essences).

19. Now you must know the triple vacuity, composed of the three airy substances—the spirit, mind and space, to be one and the same thing (all the three being equally all pervasive); but not so their receptacle (of the material body), which has no pervasion.

20. Know this intellectual body of beings, to be like the air, present with every thing and every where (over which it extends and which it grasps in itself); just as your desire of knowing extends over all things in all places, and presents them all to your knowledge.

21. It abides in the smallest particles, and reaches to the spheres of heavens (which it grasps within itself): it reposes in the cells of flowers, and delights in the leaves of trees. (_i.e._ It stretches over all these things in its knowledge of them).

22. It delights in hills and dales, and dances over the waves of the oceans; it rides over the clouds, and falls down in the showers of rain and hailstones of heaven.

23. It moves at pleasure in the vast firmament, and penetrates through the solid mountains. Its body bears no break in it, and is as minute as an atom.

24. Yet it becomes as big as a mountain lifting its head to heaven, and as large as the earth, which is the fixed and firm support of all things. It views the inside and outside of every thing, and bears the forests like hairs on its body.

25. It extends in the form of the sky, and contains millions of worlds in itself; it identifies itself with the ocean, and transforms its whirlpools to spots upon its person.

26. It is of the nature of an uninterrupted understanding, ever calm and serene in its aspect; it is possessed of its intellectual form, from before the creation of the visible world, and being all comprehensive as vacuity itself, it is conversant with the natures of all beings.

27. It is an unreality as the appearance of water in the mirage, but manifests itself as a reality to the understanding by its intelligence. Without this (intellection), the intellectual man is a nil as the son of a barren woman, and a blank as the figure of a body seen in a dream.

28. Ráma asked:—How is that mind to which you attribute so many powers, and what is that again which you say to be nothing? Why is it no reality, and as something distinct from all what we see?

29. Vasishtha replied:—All individual minds are indued with these faculties, except all such individualities, whose minds are engrossed with the error (of the reality) of the outer world.

30. All the worlds are either of a longer or shorter duration, and they appear and disappear at times; some of these vanish in a moment, and others endure to the end of a _Kalpa_. But it is not so with the mind, whose progress I will now relate to you.

31. There is an insensibility which overtakes every man before his death; this is the darkness of his dissolution (mahá-pralaya-yáminí).

32. After the shocks of delirium and death are over, the spiritual part of every man, is regenerated anew in a different form, as if it was roused from a state of trance, reverie or swoon; (the three states of insensibility—avidyá-trayam).

33. And as the spirit of God, assumes his _triune_ form with the persons of Brahmá and Viráj, after the dissolution of the world for its recreation; so every person receives the triplicate form of his spiritual, intellectual and corporeal beings, after the termination of his life by death.

34. Ráma said:—As we believe ourselves to be reproduced after death by reason of our reminiscence; so must we understand the recreation of all bodies in the world by the same cause. Hence there is nothing uncaused in it (as it was said with regard to the unproduced Brahmá and others).

35. Vasishtha replied:—The gods Hari, Hara and others, having obtained their disembodied liberation or _videha-mukti_, (_i.e._ the final extinction of their bodies, their minds and spirit as in nirvána), at the universal dissolution, could not retain their reminiscence to cause their regeneration.

36. But human beings having both their spiritual and intellectual bodies entire at their death, do not lose their remembrance of the past, nor can they have their final liberation like Brahmá, unless they obtain their disembodied state, which is possible to all in this life or hereafter, by the edification of their souls, through yoga meditation alone.

37. The birth and death of all other beings like yourself, are caused by their reminiscence, and for want of their disembodied liberation or eternal salvation.

38. The living soul retains its consciousness within itself, after its pangs of death are over; but remains in its state of insensibility by virtue of its own nature (called pradhána).

39. The universal vacuum is called nature (prakriti). It is the reflexion of the invisible divine mind (chit prativimbam); and is the parent of all that is dull or moving (Jadá-Jada), which are so produced by cause of their reminiscence or its absence (sansmriti and asmriti); the former causing the regeneration of living beings, and the latter its cessation as in inert matter.

40. As the living principle or animal life begins to have its understanding (bodha), it is called _mahat_ or an intelligent being, which is possessed of its consciousness (ahankára). It has then the organs of perception and conception, added to it from their elements (tanmátras) residing in the vacuous ether.

41. This minutely intelligent substance, is next joined with the five internal senses, which form its body, and which is otherwise called its spiritual body (átivahika or lingadeha).

42. This spiritual being by its long association with the external senses, comes to believe itself as a sensible being; and then by imagining to have the sensible form, it finds itself invested with a material body (ádhibhautika-deha) as beautiful as that of a lotus.

43. Then seated in the embryo, it reposes in a certain position for sometime, and inflated itself like the air, until it is fully expanded.

44. It then thinks itself to be fully developed in the womb, as a man dreams of a fairy form in his sleep, and believes this illusion as a reality.

45. He then views the outer world, where he is born to die, just as one visits a land where he is destined to meet his death; and there remains to relish its enjoyments, as prepared for him.

46. But the spiritual man soon perceives every thing as pure vacuum, and that his own body and this world are but illusions and vain vacuities.

47. He perceives the gods, and human habitations, the hills and the heavens resplendent with the sun and stars, to be no more than abodes of disease and debility, decay and ultimate death and destruction.

48. He sees nothing but a sad change in the natures of things, and all that is movable or immovable, great or small, together with the seas, hills and rivers and peoples of this earth and the days and nights, are all subject to decay sooner or later.

49. The knowledge that I am born here of this father, and that this is my mother, these my treasures, and such are my hopes and expectations, is as false as empty air.

50. That these are my merits and these my demerits, and these the desires that I had at heart; that I was a boy and am now young; are the airy thoughts of the hollow mind.

51. This world resembles a forest, where every being is like a detached arbor; the sable clouds are its leaves, and the stars its full blown flowers.

52. The walking men are as its restless deer, and the aerial gods and demons its birds of the air; the broad day light is the flying dust of its flowers, and the dark night the deep covert of its grove.

53. The seas are like its rills and fountains, and the eight boundary mountains as its artificial hills; the mind is the great tank in it, containing the weeds and shrubs of human thoughts in abundance.

54. Wherever a man dies, he is instantly changed to this state, and views the same things every where; and every one thus rises and falls incessantly, like the leaves of trees in this forest of the world.

55. Millions of Brahmás, Rudras, Indras, Maruts, Vishnus and Suns, together with unnumbered mountains and seas, continents and islands, have appeared and disappeared in the eternal course of the world.

56. Thus no one can count the numbers of beings that have passed away, are passing and shall have to pass hereafter, nor such as are in existence and have to become extinct in the unfathomable eternity of Brahma.

57. Hence it is impossible to comprehend the stupendous fabric of the universe any how except in the mind, which is as spacious as the infinite space itself, and as variable as the course of events in the world.

58. The mind is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, and the infinite sphere of the intellect, is the seat of the Supreme.

59. Now know the whirlpool and waves of the sea to be of the same element, as the sea in which they rise and fall, though they are not of the same durable nature as the sea water, by reason of their evanescence. So the phenomena are the same with the Noumena, though none of these is a reality.

60. The etherial sphere of heaven, is but a reflexion of the intellectual sphere of the Divine mind, and the bright orbs of the firmament, are as gems in the bosom of Brahma. Its concavity is the cave of the mind of the Eternal One.

61. The world according to the sense in which I take it, as the seat of God, is highly interesting, but not so in your sense of its being a sober reality. So the meaning of the words “I and thou,” refers according to me to the intellectual spirit, and according to you to the living soul and body.

62. Hence Lílá and Sarasvatí, being in their vacuous intellectual bodies, were led by the pure desire of their souls, to every place without any obstruction or interruption.

63. The intellectual spirit has the power, to present itself wherever it likes, on earth or in the sky, and before objects known or unknown and wished to be known by it. It was by this power that they could enter into the tent of the prince.

64. The intellect has its way to all places and things, over which it exercises its powers of observation, reflection and reasoning to their full extent. This is known as the spiritual and unconfined body (Átiváhika), whose course cannot be obstructed by any restriction whatever. CHAPTER XLI. DISCRIMINATION OF ERROR.

Vasishtha said:—Upon the entrance of the ladies in the tent, it appeared as a bed of lotuses; and its white vault, seemed as graceful as the vault of heaven with two moons rising at once under it.

2. A pure and cooling fragrance spread about it, as if wafted by the breeze from the Mandara flowers; and lulled the prince to sleep, with every body lying in their camps.

3. It made the place as pleasant as the garden of Eden (Nandana), and healed all the pains and cares of the people there. It seemed as a vernal garden, filled with the fragrance of the fresh blown lotuses in the morning.

4. The cooling and moon-bright radiance of the ladies, roused the prince from his sleep, as if he was sprinkled over with the juice of ambrosia.

5. He beheld upon his rising the forms of two fairies (apsarás), seated on two stools, and appearing as two moons risen on two pinnacles of the mount Meru.

6. The prince beheld them with wonder, and after being composed in his mind, he rose up from his bed, as the god Vishnu rises from his bed of the serpent.

7. Then advancing respectfully to them, with long strings of flowers in his hands, he made offerings of them to the ladies, with handfuls of flowers flung at their feet.

8. Leaving his pillowed sofa in the midst of the hall, he sat with his folded legs on the ground; and lowly bending his head, he addressed them saying:—

9. Be victorious, O moon-bright goddesses! that drive away all the miseries and evils and pains and pangs of life, by your radiance, and dispellest all my inward and outward darkness by your sunlike beams.

10. Saying so he poured handfuls of flowers on their feet, as the trees on the bank of a lake, drop down their flowers on the lotuses growing in it.

11. Then the goddess desiring to unfold the pedigree of the prince, inspired his minister, who was lying by, to relate it to Lílá.

12. He upon waking, saw the nymphs manifest before him, and advancing lowly before them, threw handfuls of flowers upon their feet.

13. The goddess said:—Let us know, O prince! who you are and when and of whom you are born herein. Hearing these words of the goddess, the minister spake saying:—

14. It is by your favour, O gracious goddesses! that I am empowered to give a relation of my prince’s genealogy to your benign graces.

15. There was a sovereign, born of the imperial line of Ixaku, by name of Mukunda-ratha, who had subjugated the earth under his arms.

16. He had a moon-faced son by name of Bhadraratha; whose son Viswaratha was father to the renowned prince Brihadratha.

17. His son Sindhuratha was the father of Sailaratha, and his son Kámaratha was father of Maháratha.

18. His son Vishnuratha was father of Nabhoratha, who gave birth to this my lord of handsome appearance.

19. He is renowned as Vidúratha, and is born with the great virtues of his sire, as the moon was produced of the milky ocean, to shed his ambrosial beams over his people.

20. He was begotten by his mother Sumitrá, as the god Guha of Gauri; and was installed in the realm at the tenth year of his age, owing to his father’s betaking himself to asceticism.

21. He has been ruling the realm since that time with justice; and your appearance here to night, betokens the blossoming of his good fortune.

22. O goddesses! whose presence is hard to be had, even by the merit of long devotion, and a hundred austerities, you see here the lord of the earth-famed Vidúratha, present before you.

23. He is highly blessed to-day by your favour. After saying these words, the minister remained silent with the lord of the earth.

24. They were sitting on the ground with their folded legs (padmásana), and clasped hands (kritánjali), and downcast looks; when the goddess of wisdom told the prince, to remember his former births, by her inspiration.

25. So saying, she touched his head with her hand, and immediately the dark veil of illusion and oblivion was dispersed from over the lotus of his mind.

26. It opened as a blossom by the touch of the genius of intelligence, and became as bright as the clear firmament, with the rays of his former reminiscence.

27. He remembered by his intelligence his former kingdom, of which he had been the sole lord, and recollected all his past sports with Lílá.

28. He was led away by the thoughts of the events of his past lives, as one is carried away by the current of waves, and reflected in himself, this world to be a magic sea of illusion.

29. He said: I have come to know this by the favour of the goddesses, but how is it that so many events have occurred to me in course of one day after my death.

30. Here I have passed full seventy years of my lifetime, and recollect to have done many works, and remember also to have seen my grand-sire.

31. I recollect the bygone days of my boyhood and youth, and I remember well all the friends and relatives and all the apparels and suite, that I had before.

32. The goddess replied:—Know O king! that after the fit of insensibility attending on your death was over, your soul continued to remain in the vacuum of the same place, of which you are still a resident.

33. This royal pavilion, where you think yourself to abide, is situated in the vacuous space, within the house of the Bráhman in that hilly district.

34. It is inside that house that you see the appearances of your other abodes present before you: and it was in that Bráhmana’s house, that you devoted your life to my worship.

35. It is the shrine within the very house and on the same spot, that contains the whole world which you are seeing all about you.

36. This abode of yours is situated in the same place, and within the clear firmament of your mind.

37. It is a false notion of your mind, which you have gained by your habitual mode of thinking, that you are born in your present state, of the race of Ixáku.

38. It is mere imagination, which has made you to suppose yourself to be named so and so, and that such and such persons were your progenitors, and that you had been a boy of ten years.

39. That your father became an ascetic in the woods, and left you in the government of the realm. And that you have subjugated many countries under your dominion, and are now reigning as the lord paramount over them.

40. And that you are ruling on earth with these ministers and officers of yours, and are observant of the sacrificial rites, and a just ruler of your subjects.

41. You think that you have passed seventy years of your life, and that you are now beset by very formidable enemies.

42. And that having waged a furious battle, you have returned to this abode of yours, where you are now seated and intend to adore the goddesses, that have become your guests herein.

43. You are thinking that these goddesses will bless you with your desired object, because one of them has given you the power of recollecting the events of your former births.

44. That these goddesses have opened your understanding like the blossom of a lotus, and that you have the prospect of getting your riddance from all doubts.

45. That you are now at peace and rest, and enjoy the solace of your solity; and that your long continued error (of this world), is now removed for ever.

46. You remember the many acts and enjoyments of your past life, in the body of prince Padma, before you were snatched away by the hand of death.

47. You now perceive in your mind, that your present life is but a shadow of the former, as it is the same wave, that carries one onward, by its rise and fall.

48. The incessant current of the mind flows as the stream of a river, and leads a man, like a weed, from one whirlpool into another.

49. The course of life now runs singly as in dreaming, and now conjointly with the body as in the waking state, both of which leave their traces in the mind, at the hour of death.

50. The sun of the intellect being hid under the mist of ignorance, there arises this network of the erroneous world, which makes a moment appear as a period of hundred years.

51. Our lives and deaths are mere phantoms of imagination, as we imagine houses and towers in aerial castles and icebergs.

52. The world is an illusion, like the delusion of moving banks and trees to a passenger in a vessel on water, or a rapid vehicle on land; or as the trembling of a mountain or quaking of the earth, to one affected by a convulsive disease.

53. As one sees extraordinary things in his dream, such as the decapitation of his own head; so he views the illusions of the world, which can hardly be true.

54. In reality you were neither born nor dead at any time or place; but ever remain as pure intelligence in your own tranquility of soul.

55. You seem to see all things about you, but you see nothing real in them; it is your all seeing soul, that sees every thing in itself.

56. The soul shines as a brilliant gem by its own light, and nothing that appears beside it, as this earth or yourself or any thing else, is a reality.

57. These hills and cities, these people and things, and ourselves also, are all unreal and mere phantoms, appearing in the hollow vault of the Bráhmana of the hilly district.

58. The kingdom of Lílá’s husband, was but a picture of this earth, and his palace with all its grandeur, is contained in the sphere of the same hollow shrine.

59. The known world is contained in the vacuous sphere of that shrine, and it is in one corner of this mundane habitation, that all of us here, are situated.

60. The sphere of this vaulted shrine, is as clear as vacuity itself, which has no earth nor habitation in it.

61. It is without any forest, hill, sea or river, and yet all beings are found to rove about in this empty and homeless abode (_i.e._ in the Divine Mind).

62. Here there are no kings, nor their retinue, nor any thing that they have on earth. Vidúratha asked:—If it is so, then tell me goddess! how I happened to have these dependants here?

63. A man is rich in his own mind and spirit, and is it not so ordained by the Divine mind and spirit also? If not, then the world must appear as a mere dream, and all these men and things are but creatures of our dreams.

64. Tell me goddess, what things are spiritually true and false, and how are we to distinguish the one from the other.

65. Sarasvatí answered:—Know prince that, those who have known the only knowable one, and are assimilated to the nature of pure understanding, view nothing as real in the world, except the vacuous intellect within themselves.

66. The misconception of the serpent in a rope being removed, the fallacy of the rope is removed also; so the unreality of the world being known, the error of its existence, also ceases to exist.

67. Knowing the falsity of water in the mirage, no one thirsts after it any more, so knowing the falsehood of dreams, no one thinks himself dead as he had dreamt. The fear of dreaming death may overtake the dying, but it can never assail the living in his dream.

68. He whose soul is enlightened with the clear light of the autumnal moon of his pure intellect, is never misled to believe his own existence or that of others, by the false application of the terms _I_, _thou_, _this_ &c.

69. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed to its evening service with the setting sun. The assembly broke with mutual greetings to perform their ablutions, and it met again with the rising sun, after dispersion of the gloom of night. CHAPTER XLII. PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMING. SWAPNAM OR SOMNUM.

The man who is devoid of understanding, ignorant and unacquainted with the All-pervading principle, thinks the unreal world as real, and as compact as adamant.

2. As a child is not freed from his fear of ghosts until his death; so the ignorant man never gets rid of his fallacy of the reality of the unreal world, as long as he lives.

3. As the solar heat causes the error of water in the mirage to the deer and unwary people, so the unreal world appears as real to the ignorant part of mankind.

4. As the false dream of one’s death, appears to be true in the dreaming state, so the false world seems to be a field of action and gain to the deluded man.

5. As one not knowing what is gold, views a golden bracelet as a mere bracelet, and not as gold (_i.e._ who takes the form and not the substance for reality); so are the ignorant ever misled by formal appearances, without a knowledge of the causal element.

6. As the ignorant view a city, a house, a hill and an elephant, as they are presented before him; so the visibles are all taken only as they are seen, and not what they really are.

7. As strings of pearls are seen in the sunny sky, and various paints and taints in the plumage of the peacock; so the phenomenal world, presents its false appearances for sober realities.

8. Know life as a long sleep, and the world with myself and thyself, are the visions of its dream; we see many other persons in this sleepy dream, none of whom is real, as you will now learn from me.

9. There is but one All-pervading, quiet, and spiritually substantial reality. It is of the form of unintelligible intellect, and an immense outspreading vacuity.

10. It is omnipotent, and all in all by itself, and is of the form as it manifests itself everywhere.

11. Hence the citizens that you see in this visionary city, are but transient forms of men, presented in your dream by that Omnipotent Being.

12. The mind of the viewer, remains in its self-same state amidst the sphere of his dreams, and represents the images thought of by itself in that visionary sphere of mankind. (So the Divine Mind presents its various images to the sight of men in this visionary sphere of the world, which has nothing substantial in it).

13. The knowing mind has the same knowledge of things, both in its waking as well as dreaming states; and it is by an act of the percipient mind, that this knowledge is imprinted as true in the conscious souls of men.

14. Ráma said:—If the persons seen in the dream are unreal, then tell me sir, what is that fault in the embodied soul, which makes them appear as realities.

15. Vasishtha replied:—The cities and houses, which are seen in dreams are in reality nothing. It is only the illusion (máyá) of the embodied soul, which makes them appear as true like those seen in the waking state, in this visionary world.

16. I will tell you in proof of this, that in the beginning of creation the self-born Brahmá himself, had the notions of all created things, in the form of visionary appearances, as in a dream and their subsequent development, by the will of the creator; hence their creator is as unreal as their notions and appearances in the dream.

17. Learn then this truth of me, that this world is a dream, and that you and all other men have your sleeping dreams, contained in your waking dreams of this visionary world. (_i.e._ The one is a night dream and the other a day dream, and equally untrue in their substance).

18. If the scenes that are seen in your sleeping dream, have no reality in them, how then can you expect those in your day dreams to be real at all?

19. As you take me for a reality, so do I also take you and all other things for realities likewise, and such is the case with every body in this world of dreams.

20. As I appear an entity to you in this world of lengthened dreams; so you too appear an actual entity to me; and so it is with all in their protracted dreaming.

21. Ráma asked:—If both these states of dreaming are alike, then tell me, why the dreamer in sleep, does not upon his waking, think the visions in his dream, to be as real as those of his day dreaming state?

22. Vasishtha replied:—Yes, the day dreaming is of the same nature as night dreams, in which the dreamt objects appear to be real; but it is upon the waking from the one, as upon the death of the day dreamer, that both these visions are found to vanish in empty air.

23. As the objects of your night dreams do not subsist in time or place upon your waking, so also those of your day dream, can have no subsistence upon death.

24. Thus is every thing unreal, which appears real for the present, and it disappears into an airy nothing at last, though it might appear as charming as a fairy form in the dream.

25. There is one Intelligence that fills all space, and appears as every thing both within and without every body; It is only by our illusive conception of it, that we take it in different lights.

26. As one picks up a jewel he happens to meet with in a treasure house, so do we lay hold on any thing, with which the vast Intellect is filled according to our own liking. (Here we find the free agency of human will).

27. The goddess of intelligence, having thus caused the germ of true knowledge, to sprout forth in the mind of the prince, by sprinkling the ambrosial drops of her wisdom over it, thus spake to him in the end:—

28. I have told you all this for the sake of Lílá, and now, good prince, we shall take leave of you, and these illusory scenes of the world.

29. Vasishtha said:—The intelligent prince, being thus gently addressed by the goddess of wisdom, besought her in a submissive tone.

30. Vidúratha said:—Your visit, O most bounteous goddess, cannot go for nothing, when we poor mortals cannot withhold our bounty from our suppliant visitants.

31. I will quit this body to repair to another world, as one passes from one chain of dreams into another.

32. Look upon me, thy suppliant, with kindness, and deign to confer the favour I ask of thee; because the great never disdain to grant the prayers of their suppliants.

33. Ordain that this virgin daughter of my minister, may accompany me to the region, where I shall be led, that we may have spiritual joy in each other’s company hereafter.

34. Sarasvatí said:—Go now prince to the former palace of your past life, and there reign without fear, in the enjoyment of true pleasure. Know prince, that our visits never fail to fulfil the best wishes of our supplicants. CHAPTER XLIII. BURNING OF THE CITY.

The goddess added:—Know further, O prince! that you are destined to fall in this great battle, and will have your former realm, presented to you in the same manner as before.

2. Your minister and his maiden daughter will accompany you to your former city, and you shall enter your lifeless corpse, lying in state in the palace.

3. We shall fly there as winds before you, and you will follow us accompanied by the minister and his virgin daughter as one returning to his native country.

4. Your courses thereto will be as slow or swift as those of horses, elephants, asses, or camels, but our course is quite different from any of these.

5. As the prince and the goddess were going on with this sweet conversation, there arrived a man on horse back before them in great hurry and confusion.

6. He said:—Lord! I come to tell that, there are showers of darts and disks, and swords and clubs, falling upon us as rain, from the hostile forces, and they have been forcing upon us as a flood on all sides.

7. They have been raining their heavy weapons upon us at pleasure, like fragments of rocks hurled down from the heads of high hills, by the impetuous gusts of a hurricane.

8. There they have set fire to our rock-like city, which like a wild fire, is raging on all sides. It is burning and ravaging with _chat chat_ sounds, and hurling the houses with a hideous noise.

9. The smoke rising as heaving hills, have overspread the skies like diluvian clouds; and the flame of fire, ascending on high, resembles the phœnix flying in the sky.

10. Vasishtha said:—As the royal marshal was delivering with trepidation this unpleasant intelligence, there arose a loud cry without, filling the sky with its uproar (hallahalloo-kolá halam).

11. The twanging (tankára) of bow strings drawn to the ears, the rustling (sarsara) of flying arrows flung with full force; the loud roaring (bringhana) of furious elephants, and the shrieks (chitkára) of frightened ones.

12. The gorgeous elephants bursting in the city with a clattering (chatchata) sound; and the high halloos (halahala) of citizens, whose houses have been burnt down on the ground:—(Here dagdhadára _Arabic_ daghdaghad-dár, means both a burnt house and also a burnt wife).

13. The falling and flying of burnt embers with a crackling noise (tankára); and the burning of raging fire with a hoarse sound (dhaghdhaga _Arabic_ daghdagha, _Bengali_ dhakdhak):—

14. All these were heard and seen by the goddesses and the prince and his minister, from an opening of the tent; and the city was found to be in a blaze in the darkness of the night.

15. It was as the conflagration or fiery ocean of the last day, and the city was covered by clouds of the hostile army, with their flashing weapons, waving on all sides.

16. The flame rose as high as the sky, melted down big edifices like hills by the all dissolving fire of destruction.

17. Bodies of thick clouds roared on high, and threatened the people, like the clamour (kala-kala) of the gangs of stout robbers, that were gathered on the ground for plunder and booty.

18. The heavens were hidden under clouds of smoke, rolling as the shades of Pushkara and Ávarta, and the flames of fire, were flashing, like the golden peaks of Meru.

19. Burning cinders and sparks of fire, were glittering like meteors and stars in the sky; and the blazing houses and towers glared as burning mountains in the midst.

20. The relics of the forces were beset by the spreading flames of clouds of fire, and the half burnt citizens (with their bitter cries), were kept from flight, for fear of the threatening enemy abroad.

21. Sleets of arrowy sparks flying in the air on all sides, and showers of weapons falling in every way, burnt and pierced the citizens in large numbers.

22. The greatest and most expert champions, were crashed under the feet of elephants in fighting; and the roads were heaped with treasures, wrested from the robbers in their retreat.

23. There were wailings of men and women at the falling of fire-brands upon them; and the splitting of splinters and the slitting of timbers emitted a _phat-phat_ noise all around.

24. Big blocks of burning wood were blown up, blazing as burning suns in the air; and heaps of embers filled the face of the earth with living fire.

25. The cracking of combustible woods and the bursting of burning bamboos, the cries of the parched brutes and the howling of the soldiers, re-echoed in the air.

26. The flaming fire was quenched after consuming the royalty to ashes, and the devouring flame ceased after it had reduced everything to cinders.

27. The sudden outbreak of the fire was as the outburst of house breaking robbers upon the sleeping inhabitants; and it made its prey of everything (whether living or lifeless), that fell in its way.

28. At this moment the prince Vidúratha heard a voice, proceeding from his soldiers, at the sight of their wives flying from the scorching flames.

29. Oh! the high winds, that have blown the flames to the tops of our household trees, with their rustling sound (kharakhara) and hindered our taking shelter under their cooling umbrage.

30. Woe for the burning of our wives, who were as cold as frost to our bodies before (by their assuaging the smart of every pain); and whose ashes now rest in our breasts, like the lime of shells, _i.e._ in the sublimated state of spiritual bodies (súkshma-dehas).

31. Oh! the mighty power of fire, that has set to flame the forelocks of our fair damsels, and is burning the braids of their hair, like blades of grass or straws.

32. The curling smoke is ascending on high, like a whirling and long meandering river in the air, and the black and white fumes of fire, resemble the dark stream of Yamuná in one place, and the milky path of the etherial Gangá in another.

33. Streams of smoke bearing the brands of fire on high, dazzled the sight of the charioteers of heaven by their bubbling sparks.

34. There are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, relations and suckling babes, all burnt alive in the livid flames; and here are we burning in grief for them in these houses, which have been spared by the devouring fire.

35. Lo! there the howling fire is fast stretching to these abodes, and here the cinders are falling as thick as the frost of Meru.

36. Behold the direful darts and missiles dropping down as the driving rain, and penetrating the windows, like bodies of gnats in the shade of evening.

37. The flashing spears and flaming fire, flaring above the watery ocean of the sky, resemble the submarine fire ascending to heaven.

38. The smoke is rising in clouds, and the flames are tapering in the form of towers, and all that was humid and verdant, is sucked and dried up, as the hearts of the dispassionate.

39. The trees are broken down by the raging element, like posts of enraged elephants; and they are falling with a cracking noise (kata-kata), as if they were screaking at their fall.

40. The trees in the orchards, now flourishing in their luxuriance of fruits and flowers, are left bare by the burning fire, like householders bereft of their properties.

41. Boys abandoned by their parents in the darkness of the night, were either pierced by flying arrows or crushed under the falling houses, in their flight through the streets.

42. The elephants posted at the front of the army, got frightened at the flying embers driven by the winds, and fled with loud screaming at the fall of the burning houses upon them.

43. Oh! the pain of being put to the sword, is not more grievous, than that of being burnt by the fire, or smashed under the stones of the thundering engine.

44. The streets are filled with domestic animals and cattle of all kinds, that are let loose from their folds and stalls, to raise their commingled cries like the confused noise of battle in the blocked up paths.

45. The weeping women were passing as lotus flowers on land, with their lotus like faces and feet and palms, and drops of tears fell like fluttering bees from their lotiform eyes and wet apparel upon the ground.

46. The red taints and spots of _alakávali_, blazed as _asoka_ flowers upon their foreheads and cheeks.

47. Alack for pity! that the furious flame of fire, should singe the black bee-like eyelids of our deer-eyed fairies; like the ruthless victor, that delights in his acts of inhumanity.

48. O the bond of connubial love! that the faithful wife never fails to follow her burning lord, and cremates herself in the same flame with him (this shows the practice of concremation to be older than the days of Válmíki and Viswámitra).

49. The elephant being burnt in his trunk, in breaking the burning post to which he was tied by the leg, ran with violence to a lake of lotuses, in which he fell dead. (Here is a play upon the homonymous word “pushkara,” in its triple sense of a lake, a lotus and the proboscis of an elephant).

50. The flames of fire flashing like flitting lightnings amidst the clouds of smoke in the air, were darting the darts of burning coals like bolts of thunder in showers.

51. Lord! the sparks of fire sparkling amidst the dusky clouds, appear as glittering gems in the bosom of the airy ocean, and seem by their twirling to gird the crown of heaven with the girdle of Pleiades.

52. The sky was reddened by the light of the flaming fires, and appeared as the courtyard of Death dyed with purple hues in joy for reception of the souls of the dead.

53. Alas! the day and want of manners! that the royal dames are carried away by these armed ruffians by force. (_O tempores O mores_).

54. Behold them dragged in the streets from their stately edifices, and strewing their paths with wreaths of flowers torn from their necks; while their half burnt locks are hanging loosely upon their bare breasts and bosoms.

55. Lo! their loose raiments uncovering their backs and loins, and the jewels dropt down, from their wrists, have strewn the ground with gems.

56. Their necklaces are torn and their pearls are scattered about; their bodies are bared of their bodices, and their breasts appear to view in their golden hue.

57. Their shrill cries and groans rising above the war cry, choked their breath and split their sides; and they fell insensible with their eyes dimmed by ceaseless floods of tears.

58. They fell in a body with their arms twisted about the necks of one another, and the ends of their cloths tied to each other’s; and in this way they were dragged by force of the ruffians, with their bodies mangled in blood.

59. “Ah! who will save them from this state,” cried the royal soldiers, with their piteous looks on the sad plight of the females and shedding big drops of their tears like lotuses.

60. The bright face of the sky turned black at the horrible sight, and it looked with its blue lotus-like eyes of the clouds, on the fair lotus-like damsels thus scattered on the ground.

61. Thus was the goddess of royal prosperity, decorated as she was with her waving and pendant locks, her flowing garments, flowery chaplets and gemming ornaments brought to her end like these ladies, after her enjoyment of the pleasures of royalty and gratification of all her desires. CHAPTER XLIV. SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION.

Vasishtha said:—At this instant the great queen, who was in the bloom of youthful beauty, entered the camp of Vidúratha, as the goddess of grace pops upon the lotus flower.

2. She was decorated with pendant wreaths of flowers and necklaces, and accompanied by a train of her youthful companions and handmaids, all terrified with fear.

3. With her face as bright as the moon and her form as fair as the lily, she appeared as a luminary of heaven, with her teeth shining as sets of stars, and her bosom throbbing with fear.

4. Then the king was informed by one of her companions about the fate of the warfare, which resembled the onset of demons upon the Apsará tribe.

5. Lord! this lady, said she, has fled with us from her seraglio, to take refuge under thy arms, as a tender creeper seeks the shelter of a tree, from a rude gust of wind.

6. Behold! the ravishers ravishing the wives of the citizens with their uplifted arms, like the swelling waves of the sea carrying away the arbours of the bank in their rapid current.

7. The guards of the royal harem are all crushed to death by the haughty marauders, as the sturdy trees of the forest are broken down by the furious tornado.

8. Our armies frightened by the enemy from afar, dare not approach the falling city, as nobody ventures to rescue the lotus beds from a flood, under the threatening thunders of a rainy night.

9. The hostile force have poured upon the city in terrible numbers, and having set it on fire, are shouting loudly under the clouds of smoke, with their weapons brandishing on all sides.

10. The handsome ladies are dragged by the hair from amidst their families, in the manner of screaming cranes, caught and carried away by the cruel fowlers and fishermen.

11. Now we have brought this exuberant tender creeper to thee, that thou mayst save her from similar fate by thy might.

12. Hearing this, he looked at the goddesses and said, now will I go to the war from here, and leave this my lady as an humble bee at your lotus feet.

13. Saying so, the king rose in a rage from his seat and sprang like the enraged lion from the den, when pierced and pressed by the tusk of a furious elephant.

14. The widowed Lílá beheld the queen Lílá to be exactly of her form and features, and took her for a true inflexion of herself in a mirror.

15. Then said the enlightened Lílá to Sarasvatí:—Tell me, O goddess! how this lady here is exactly as myself, she is what I have been before, and how she came to be as myself.

16. I see this prime minister with all these soldiers and citizens, these forces and vehicles, to be the same as mine, and situated in the same place and manner as before.

17. How is it then, O goddess! that they came to be placed in this place. I see them as Images situated within and without the mirror of my mind, and know not whether these be living beings (or the false chimeras of my imagination).

18. Sarasvatí replied:—All our external perceptions of things, are the immediate effects of our internal conceptions of them. The intellect has the knowledge of all the intelligibles in it, as the mind has the impressions of mental objects in itself. (Or in other words:—the intellect is possessed of all intelligence, like the mind of its thoughts, as they present themselves in dreams. Gloss).

19. The external world appears in an instant in the same form and manner to one, as he has its notion and impression in his intellect and mind; and no distance of time or place, nor any intermediate cause can create any difference in them.

20. The inward world is seen on the outside, as the internal impressions of our minds, appear to be seen without us in our dreams. Whatever is within us, the same appears without us, as in our dreams and desires, and in all our imaginations and fancies of objects.

21. It is the constant habitude of your mind, that presented these things as realities to your sight, and you saw your husband in the same state in which you thought him to be, when he died in that city of yours.

22. It is the same place wherein he exists at present, and is presented with the same objects of his thought at present as he had at that moment. Any thing that appears to be different in this state, proceeds from the turn of his mind of thinking it so before.

23. All that appears real to him, is as unreal as his dream or desire, and the creation of his fancy; for every thing appears to be the same as it is thought of in the mind. (All external objects are representations of their prototypes in the mind).

24. Say therefore what truth can there be in these visionary objects, which are altogether unsubstantial as dreams, and vanish in the end into airy nothing.

25. Know then every thing to be no better than nothing; and as a dream proves to be nothing upon waking, so is waking also a dream and equally nothing at death.

26. Death in life time is a nullity, and life in death becomes null and extinct; and these extinctions of life and death, proceed from the fluctuating nature of our notions of them.

27. So there is neither any entity nor nonentity either, but both appear to us as fallacies by turns. For what neither was before, nor will be, after a _Kalpa_ = creation or dissolution, the same cannot exist to-day or in any _Yuga_ = age, whether gone before or coming afterwards.

28. That which is never inexistent, is the ever existent Brahma, and the same is the world. It is in him that we see everything to rise and fall by our fallacy, and what we falsely term as the creation or the created.

29. As phantoms appearing in the vacuum, are all vacant and void, and as the waves of the sea, are no other than its water; so do these created things exist and appear in Brahma only.

30. As the minutiæ appearing in the air, vanish in the air; and as the dust driven by the winds, are lost in the winds; so the false notions of yourself and myself, are lost in that Supreme self, in which all things rise and fall like waves of the ocean.

31. What reliance can there be in this dust of creation, which is no more than the water of the mirage? The knowledge of individualities is mere fallacy, when every thing is united in that sole unity.

32. We see apparitions in the dark, though the darkness itself is no apparition; so our lives and deaths are the false notions of our error, and the whole existence is equally the production of gross error (máyá).

33. All this is Himself, for He is the great Kalpa or will which produces every thing; it is He that exists when all things are extinct in Him; and therefore these appearances, are neither real nor unreal of themselves.

34. But to say both (the real and unreal) to be Brahma, is a contradiction; therefore it is He, who fills the infinity of space, and abides equally in all things and their minutest particles.

35. Wherever the spirit of Brahma abides, and even in the minute animalcule, it views the whole world in itself; like one thinking on the heat and cold of fire and frost, has the same sensation within himself at that moment. (Vide Hume).

36. So doth the pure intellect perceive the Holy Spirit of God within itself, just as one sees the particles of light flying in his closet at sunrise.

37. So do these multitudes of worlds, move about as particles in the infinite space of the Divine mind, as the particles of odoriferous substances oscillate in the empty air.

38. In this manner does this world abide in its incorporeal state in the mind of God, with all its modifications of existence and inexistence, emanation and absorption, of its condensation and subtilization and its mobility and rest.

39. But you must know all these modes and these conditions of being to belong to material bodies only and not to the spirit, which is unconditioned and indivisible (_i.e._ without attributes and parts).

40. And as there is no change or division of one’s own soul, so there is no partition or variation of the Supreme Spirit. It is according to the ideas in our minds, that we view things in their different aspects before us.

41. Yet the word world—_visva_—all, is not a meaningless term; it means the all as contained in Brahma (who is _to pan_). Therefore it is both real and unreal at the same time like the fallacy of a snake in a rope.

42. It is the false notion (of the snake), that makes the true (rope) to appear as the untrue snake to us, which we are apt to take for the true snake itself, so we take the Divine Intellect, which is the prime cause of all, as a living soul (like ours), by mistake.

43. It is this notion (of the living soul), that makes us to think ourselves as living beings, which whether it be false or true, is like the appearance of the world in empty air.

44. Thus these little animals delight themselves with their own misconceived idea of being living beings, while there are others who think themselves so, by their preconceived notions as such.

45. Some there are that have no preconceived notions, and others that retain the same as or somewhat different notions of themselves than before. Somewhere the inborn notions are predominant, and sometimes they are entirely lost.

46. Our preconceived notions of ourselves, represent unrealities as realities to our minds, and present the thoughts of our former family and birth, and the same occupations and professions before us (as also the enjoyments we had before and no more existent at present).

47. Such are the representations of your former ministers and citizens, imprinted as realities in your soul, together with the exact time and place and manner of their functions, as before.

48. And as the intelligence of all things, is present in the omniscient spirit of God, so is the idea of royalty inherent in the soul of the prince (_i.e._ like the ex-king Lear, he thinks himself every inch a king).

49. This notion of his goes before him as his shadow in the air, with the same stature and features, and the same acts and movements as he had before.

50. In this manner, Lílá! Know this world to be but a shadowy reflexion of the eternal ideas of God; and this reflection is caught by or refracted in the consciousness of all animal souls as in a prismatic mirror.

51. Everything shows itself in every place in the form in which it is; so whatever there is in the living soul, casts out a reflexion of itself, and a shadow of it is caught by the intellect, which is situated without it. (The mind is a mirror of the images in the soul).

52. Here is the sky containing the world, which contains this earth, wherein you and myself and this prince are situated, as reflexions of the One Ego only. Know all these to be contained within the vacuous womb of the Intellect, and to remain as tranquil and transparent as vacuity itself. CHAPTER XLV. THEISM CONSISTING IN TRUE KNOWLEDGE.

Sarasvatí continued:—Know Lílá! this Vidúratha, thy husband, will lose his life in this battle-field; and his soul will repair to the sepulchre in the inner apartment, where it will resume its former state.

2. Upon hearing these words of the goddess, the second Lílá, who was standing by, bent herself lowly before the goddess, and addressed her with her folded palms.

3. The second Lílá’s speech. Goddess! the genius of intelligence is ever adored by me, and she gives me her visits in my nightly dreams.

4. I find thee here exactly of her likeness; therefore give me thy blessing, thou goddess with the beauteous face.

5. Vasishtha said:—The goddess being thus addressed by the lady, remembered her faith and reliance in her, and then spake with complacence to the lady standing suppliant before her.

6. The goddess said:—I am pleased my child, with thy unfailing and unslakened adoration of me all thy lifetime; now say what thou askest of me.

7. The second Lílá said:—Ordain O goddess, that I may accompany my husband with this body of mine to whatever place he is destined to go, after his death in the war.

8. The goddess replied:—Be it so my child; that hast worshipped me with all diligence and without fail, with flowers, incense and offerings.

9. Vasishtha said:—The second Lílá being gladdened by this blessing of the goddess, the first Lílá, was much puzzled in her mind at the difference of their states.

10. The first Lílá said:—Those who are desirous of truth, and they whose desires lean towards godliness, have all their wishes fulfilled without delay and fail.

11. Then tell me, goddess! why could I not keep company with my Bráhmana husband with my body of the Bráhmaní, but had to be taken to him in the hilly mansion after my death, (and reproduction in the present form).

12. The goddess answered saying:—Know O excellent lady! that I have no power to do anything; but every thing happens to pass according to the desire of the living being.

13. Know me only as the presiding divinity of wisdom, and I reveal everything according to my knowledge of it. It is by virtue of the intellectual powers as exhibited in every being, that it attains its particular end.

14. It is according to the development of the mental powers of living beings in every state, that it obtains its object in the manner and in the same state as it aims at.

15. You had attained the powers of your understanding by your devotedness to my service, and have always desired of me for being liberated from flesh.

16. I have accordingly awakened your understanding in that way, whereby you have been able to arrive at your present state of purity.

17. It was by cause of your constant desire of liberation, that you have gained the same state, by enlargement (of the powers) of your intellect.

18. Whoever exerts his bodily powers according to the dictates of his understanding, is sure to succeed in gaining his object sooner or later.

19. Performance of austerities and adoration of gods, are as vain without cultivation of the intellect, as to expect the falling of fruits from the sky.

20. Without cultivation of the intellect and exertion of manly powers, there is no way to success; do therefore as you may choose for yourself.

21. It is verily the state of one’s mind, that leads his internal soul to that state which it thinks upon, and to that prosperity which it attempts to obtain. 22. Now distinguish between what is desirable or disagreeable to you, and choose that which is holy and perfect, and you will certainly arrive to it. CHAPTER XLVI. ONSLAUGHT OF VIDÚRATHA.

Ráma said:—Relate to me the acts of Vidúratha, after he went out enraged from the camp, and left the ladies and the goddess talking in that manner.

2. Vasishtha said:—Vidúratha left his camp in company with a large body of his companions like the bright moon beset by a host of stars.

3. He was in armour and girt by laces and girdles, and thus attired in his martial habit, he went forth amidst the loud war cry of _vae victis_, like the god Indra going to battle.

4. He gave orders to the soldiers and was informed of the battle array; and having given directions to his captains, he mounted his chariot.

5. It was adorned with mountings resembling the pinnacles of mountains and beset by five flags fringed with strings of pearls and gems, resembling a celestial car.

6. The iron hoops of its wheels flashed with their golden pegs, and the long and beautiful shaft of the car, rang with the tinkling of pearls which were suspended to it.

7. It was drawn by long necked, swift and slender horses of the best breed and auspicious marks; that seemed to fly in the air by their swiftness and bearing aloft a heavenly car with some god in it.

8. Being impatient of the swiftness of the winds, they spurred them with their hinder heels and left them behind, and sped the forepart of their bodies as if to devour the air, impeding their course.

9. The car was drawn by eight coursers with their manes hanging down their necks like flappers, and white spots or circlets resembling the disks of moon on their foreheads, and filling the eight sides around with their hoarse neighing. 10. At this time there rose a loud noise of the elephants, resounding like drums from the hollows of the distant hills.

11. Loud clamours (kala-kalas) were raised by the infuriate soldiers, and the tinkling of their belted trinkets (kinkini), and clashing of their weapons, rang afar in the open air.

12. The crackling (chatachata) of the bows, and the wheezing (shitkara) of the arrows, joined with the jangle (jhanjhana) of armours, by their clashing against one another, raised a confused hubbub all around.

13. The sparkling (kanatkara) of blazing fire, and the mutual challenge of the champions; the painful shrieks of the wounded and the piteous cry of captives, were seen and heard on all sides.

14. The mingled sounds thickened in the air, and filled its cavity and its sides as with solid stones and capable of being clutched in the hands.

15. Clouds of dust flew as fast and thick into the air, that they seemed to be the crust or strata of the earth, rising upward to block the path of the sun in the sky.

16. The great city was hid in the dark womb of the overspreading dust (rajas), as the ignorant state of man is covered in darkness by the rising passion (rajas) of juvenescence.

17. The burning lights became as dim, as the fading stars of heaven by day light, and the darkness of night became as thick, as the devils of darkness gather their strength at night.

18. The two Lílás saw the great battle with the virgin daughter of the minister from the tent; and they had their eyes enlightened with farsightedness by favour of the goddess.

19. Now there was an end of the flashing and clashing of the hostile arms in the city, as the flash and crash of submarine fires were put to an end by the all-submerging floods of the universal deluge.

20. Vidúratha collected his forces and without considering the superiority of the hostile power pressed himself forward amidst them, as the great Meru rushed into the waters of the great deluge.

21. Now the twanging of the bow strings emitted a clattering (Chatachata) sound; and the forces of the enemy advanced in battle array, like bodies of clouds with rainbows amidst them.

22. Many kinds of missiles flew as falcons in the air; and the black steel waved with a dark glare owing to the massacres they made.

23. The clashing swords flashed with living flames of fire by their striking against one another; and showers of arrows whistled like hissing rainfalls in the air.

24. Two edged saws pierced the bodies of the warriors; and the flinging weapons hurtled in the air by their clashing at and crashing of each other.

25. The darkness of the night was put to flight by the blaze of the weapons; and the whole army was pierced by arrows, sticking as the hairs on their bodies.

26. Headless trunks moved about as players in the horrid solemnity of the god of death (Yama); and the furies fled about at the dint of war, like the raving lasses at Bacchanal revelries.

27. Elephants fighting with their tusks, sent a clattering noise in the air; and the stones flung from the slings, flew as a flowing stream in the sky.

28. Bodies of men were falling dead on the ground, like the dried leaves of forests blown away by blasts; and streams of blood were running in the field of battle, as if the heights of war were pouring down the floods of death below.

29. The dust of the earth was set down by the floods of blood, and the darkness was dispelled by the blaze of weapons; all clamour ceased in intense fighting, and the fear for life, was lost under the stern resolution of death.

30. The fighting was stern without a cry or noise, like the pouring of rain in the breezeless sky, and with the glitter of swords in the darkened air, like the flashes of forky lightnings amidst the murky clouds.

31. The darts were flying about with a hissing noise (khad-khada); and the crow-bars hit one another with a harsh (taktaka) sound; large weapons were struck upon one another with a jarring noise (jhanjhana), and the dreadful war raged direfully in the dim darkness (timitimi) of the night. CHAPTER XLVII. ENCOUNTER OF SINDHU AND VIDÚRATHA.

Vasishtha said:—As the war was waging thus furiously between the two armies, the two Lílás addressed the goddess of knowledge and said:—

2. “Tell us, O goddess! what unknown cause prevents our husband to gain the victory in this war, notwithstanding your good grace to him, and his repelling the hostile elephants in the combat”.

3. Sarasvatí replied:—Know ye daughters, that I was ever solicited by Vidúratha’s enemy to confer him victory in battle, which your husband never craved of me.

4. He lives and enjoys his life as it was desired by him, while his antagonist gains the conquest according to his aim and object.

5. Knowledge is contained in the consciousness of every living being, and rewards every one according to the desire to which it is directed.

6. My nature like that of all things is as unchangeable as the heat of fire (which never changes to cold). So the nature of Vidúratha’s knowledge of truth, and his desire of liberation lead him to the like result (and not to victory).

7. The intelligent Lílá also will be liberated with him, and not the unintelligent one, who by her nature is yet unprepared for that highest state of bliss.

8. This enemy of Vidúratha, the king of Sinde, has long worshipped me for his victory in war; whereby the bodies of Vidúratha and his wife must fall into his hands.

9. Thou girl wilt also have thy liberation like hers in course of time; but ere that, this enemy of yours,—the king of Sinde, will reign victorious in this earth.

10. Vasishtha said:—As the goddess was speaking in this manner, the sun appeared on his rising hill to behold the wondrous sight of the forces in fighting.

11. The thick mists of night disappeared like the hosts of the enemy (Sinde); and left the forces of Vidúratha to glitter as stars at the approach of night.

12. The hills and dales and the land and water gradually appeared to sight, and the world seemed to reappear to view from amidst the dark ocean of the (deluge).

13. The bright rays of the rising sun radiated on all sides like the streams of liquid gold, and made the hills appear as the bodies of warriors besmeared with (blood).

14. The sky seemed as an immense field of battle, stretched over by the radiant rays of the sun (Karas), likening the shining arms (Karas) of the warriors, shaking in their serpentine mood.

15. The helmets on their heads raised their lotus-like tops on high, and the rings about their ears blazed with their gemming glare below.

16. The pointed weapons were as fixed as the snouts of unicorns, and the flying darts fled about as butterflies in the air. The bloody field presented a picture of the ruddy dawn and dusk, and the dead bodies on the ground, represented the figures of motionless saints in their Yoga.

17. Necklaces like snakes overhung their breasts, and the armours like sloughs of serpents covered their bodies. The flags were flying like crests of creepers on high, and the legs of the warriors stood as pillars in the field.

18. Their long arms were as branches of trees, and the arrows formed a bush of reeds; the flash of weapons spread as a verdant meadow all around, while their blades blazed with the lustre of the long-leaved _ketaka_ flowers.

19. The long lines of weapons formed as rows of bamboos and bushes of brambles, and their mutual clashing emitted sparks of fire like clusters of the red _asoka_ flowers.

20. The bands of Siddhas were flying away with their leaders from the air, to avert the weapons which were blazing there with the radiance of the rising sun, and forming as it were, a city of gold on high.

21. The sky re-echoed to the clashing of darts and discuses, of swords and spears and of mallets and clubs in the field; and the ground was overflown by streams of blood, bearing away the dead bodies of the slain.

22. The land was strewn with crowbars, lances and spears, and with tridents and stones on all sides; and headless bodies were falling hideously, pierced by poles and pikes and other instruments of death.

23. The ghosts and goblins of death were making horrible noise above, and the shining cars of Sindhu and Vidúratha, moved with a loud rumbling below.

24. They appeared as the two luminaries of the sun and moon in heaven, and equipped with their various weapons of disks and rods, of crowbars and spears, and other missiles besides.

25. They were both surrounded by thousands of soldiers, and turned about as thy liked, with loud shouts of their retinues.

26. Crushed under heavy disks, many fell dead and wounded with loud cries; and big elephants were floating lightly on the currents of blood.

27. The hairs on the heads of dead bodies, floated like weeds in the stream of blood, and the floating discuses glided like the disks of the moon, reflected in the purple streamlet.

28. The jingling (jhanat) of gemming ornaments, and the tinkling (ranat) bells of war carriages, with the flapping (patat) of flags by the wind, filled the field with a confused noise.

29. Numbers of valiant as well as dastardly soldiers followed their respective princes, some bleeding under the spears of Kuntas and others pierced by the arrows of bowyers.

30. Then the two princes turned round their chariots in circling rings over the ground, and amidst phalanxes armed with all sorts of destructive weapons.

31. Each confronted the other with his arms, and having met one another face to face, commenced showering forth his arrows with the pattering sound of hailstones.

32. They both threatened one another with the roaring of loud surges and clouds, and the two lions among men, darted their arrows upon one another in their rage.

33. They flung their missiles in the air in the form of stones and malls, and some faced like swords, and others headed as mallets.

34. Some were as sharp edged disks, and some as curved as battle axes; some were as pointed as pikes and spears, and others as bars and rods in their forms, and some were of the shape of tridents, and others as bulky as blocks of stones.

35. These missives were falling as fully and as fast as blocks of stones, which are hurled down from high and huge rocks, by gusts of blustering hurricanes. And the meeting of the two armigerent powers, was as the confluence of the Indus and the sea, with tremendous roaring, and mutual collision and clashing. CHAPTER XLVIII. DESCRIPTION OF DAIVÁSTRAS OR SUPERNATURAL WEAPONS.[23]

Vasishtha said:—Rájá Vidúratha, finding the high shouldered Sindhu-rája before him, was enraged like the raging sun, in his mid-day fury.

2. The twanging of his bow resounded in the air on all sides, and growled as loudly as the howling of winds in the caverns of mountains.

3. He drew his arrows from the dark quiver, and darted them like the rays of the sun rising from the womb of night.

4. Each arrow flung from the bowstring, flew as thousands in the air, and fell as millions on the ground. (The arrow or _bána_ is a name given to bombs which burst out into unnumbered shells).

5. The king Sindhu was equally expert in his bowmanship, as both of these bowyers owed their skill in archery to the favour of Vishnu.

6. Some of these darts were called bolts, which blocked the aerial passages as with bolts at their doors, and fell down on the ground with the loud roar of thunderbolts.

7. Others begirt with gold, flew hissing as if blown by the winds in the air, and after shining as stars in the sky, fell as blazing meteors on the ground.

8. Showers of shafts poured forth incessantly from the hands of Vidúratha, like the ceaseless torrents of rivers or billows of the sea, and the endless radiation of solar rays.

9. Shells and bullets were flying about as sparks of fire struck out of the balls of red-hot iron, and falling as flowers of forests, blown away by gusts of wind.

10. They fell as showers of rainwater, and as the rush of water-falls; and as plentifully as the sparks of fire which flew from the burning city of Vidúratha.

11. The jarring sound (chatchat) of their bowstrings, hushed the clamour of the two armies, as a calm quiets the roaring of the raging sea.

12. The course of the arrows, was as the stream of Ganges (the milky path) in heaven, running towards the king Sindhu, as the river runs to meet the sea (Sindhu).

13. The shower of arrows flying from the golden bow of the king, was as the flood of rain falling under the variegated rainbow in the sky.

14. Then Lílá the native of that city, saw from the window the darts of her husband, rushing like the currents of Ganges, against the forces of Sindhu resembling a sea.

15. She understood the flight of those darts to promise victory to her lord, and then spoke gladly to Sarasvatí, with her lotus like face (Lit.—by opening her lotus like mouth).

16. Be victorious O goddess! and behold victory waiting on the side of my lord, whose darts are piercing the rocks, and breaking them to pieces.

17. As she was uttering these words full of affection (to her lord), the goddesses eyed her askance, and smiled at her womanish tenderness of heart.

18. The flaming (Agastian) fire of Sindhu swallowed the raging sea of Vidúratha’s arrows, as the submarine fire consumes the water, and as Jahnu drank the stream of Ganges.

19. The missive weapons of Sindhu, thwarted the thickening arrows of his adversary, and drove them back broken and flying as dust in the empty air.

20. As an extinguished lamp loses its light in the air, so the flashes of the fire arms disappeared in the sky, and nobody knew where they fled.

21. Having thus dispelled the shower of arrows, he sent a thick cloud of his weapons, appearing as hundreds of dead bodies flying in the air.

22. Vidúratha repelled them quickly by means of his better bolts, as a hurricane disperses the frightening clouds in the air.

23. Both the kings being thus baffled in their aims by the opposing arms, which were indiscriminately let loose against one another, laid hold on more potent missiles (which they had got as gifts of their gods to them).

24. Sindhu then let fly his magic missile the gift of a Gandharva to him, which kept his hostile army all spell-bound except Vidúratha’s self.

25. Struck with this weapon, the soldiers became as mute as moonstruck, staring in their looks, and appearing as dead bodies or as pictures in a painting.

26. As the soldiers of Vidúratha remained exorcised in their files, the king employed his instruments of a counter-charm to remove the spell.

27. This awakened the senses of Vidúratha’s men as the morning twilight discloses the bed of lotuses, and the rising sun opens their closed petals to light; while Sindhu like the raging sun darted his rage upon them.

28. He flung his serpentine weapons upon them, which bound them as fast as a band all about their bodies, and encircled the battle ground and air, like snakes twining round the craigs and rocks.

29. The ground was filled with snakes as the lake with the spreading stalks of lotuses, and the bodies of gigantic warriors were begirt by them, like hills by huge and horrible hydras.

30. Everything was overpowered by the poignant power of the poison, and the inhabitants of the hills and forests were benumbed by the venomous infection.

31. The smart poison spread a fiery heat all around, and the frozen snows like fire-brands sent forth their burning particles which were wafted by the hot winds in the air.

32. The armigerous Vidúratha who was equally skilled in arms, had then recourse to his Garuda or serpivorous weapons, which fled like mountainous eagles to all sides.

33. Their golden pinions spread in the sky on all sides, and embroidered the air with purple gold; and the flapping of their wings wheezed like a breeze, which blew away the poisonous effluvia afar in the air.

34. It made the snakes breathe out of their nostrils with a hissing, resembling the gurgling (ghurghur) of waters in a whirlpool in the sea.

35. The flying Garuda weapons devoured the creeping terrene serpents with a whistling noise (salsala), like that of the rising waters (water-spouts), in the act of their suction by Agastya—the sun.

36. The face of the ground delivered from its covering of these reptiles, again appeared to view, as the surface of the earth re-appeared to light, after its deliverance from the waters of the deluge.

37. The army of Garudas disappeared afterwards from sight, like a line of lamps put out by the wind, and the assemblage of clouds vanishing in autumn.

38. They fled like flying mountains for fear of the bolts of the thundering Indra; and vanished like the evanescent world seen in a dream, or as an aerial castle built by fancy.

39. Then king Sindhu shot his shots of darkness (smoke), which darkened the scene like the dark cave under the ground.

40. It hid the face of the earth and sky, like the diluvian waters reaching to the welkin’s face; making the army appear as a shoal of fishes, and the stars as gems shining in the deep.

41. The overspreading darkness appeared as a sea of ink or dark quagmire, or as the particles of Anjanagiri (Inky mountain) wafted by the breeze over the face of nature.

42. All beings seemed to be immersed in the sea or darkness, and to lose their energies as in the deep gloom of midnight.

43. Vidúratha the best of the most skilful in ballistics, shot his sun-bright shot which like the sun illumined the vault of the sky.

44. It rose high amidst the overspreading darkness like the sun (Agastya) with his effulgent beams, and dispelled the shades of darkness, as autumn does the rainy clouds.

45. The sky being cleared of its veil of darkness, manifested itself with its reddish clouds, resembling the blowzy bodices of damsels before the king. (Here is a pun upon the word _payodhara_ which means both a cloud and the breast of a woman).

46. Now the landscape appeared in full view, like the understanding (good sense) of men coming in full play after the extinction of their avarice.

47. The enraged Sindhu then laid hold on his dreadful Rákshasa weapon, which he instantly flung on his foe with its bedeviled darts.

48. These horrid and destructive darts flew on all sides in the air, and roared as the roaring sea and elephantine clouds (dighastis) of heaven.

49. They were as the flames of lambent fire, with their long licking tongues and ash-coloured and smoky curls, rising as hoary hairs on the head, and making a _chat-chat_ sound like that of moist fuel set up on fire.

50. They wheeled round in circles through the air, with a horrible _tangtang_ noise, now flaming as fire and now fuming as smoke, and then flying about as sparks of fire.

51. With mouths beset by rows of sprouting teeth like lotus stalks, and faces defaced by dirty and fusty eyes, their hairy bodies were as stagnate pools full of moss and weeds.

52. They flew about and flashed and roared aloud as some dark clouds, while the locks of hairs on their heads glared as lightnings in the midway sky.

53. At this instant Vidúratha the spouse of Lílá, sent forth his Náráyana weapon, having the power of suppressing wicked spirits and demons.

54. The appearance of this magic weapon, made the bodies of the Rákshasas, disappear as darkness at sun rise.

55. The whole army of these fiends was lost in the air, as the sable clouds of the rainy season, vanish into nothing at the approach of autumn.

56. Then Sindhu discharged his fire arms which set fire to the sky, and began to burn down every thing, as by the all destroying conflagration of the last day.

57. They filled all the sides of air with clouds of smoke, which seemed to hide the face of heaven under the darkness of hell.

58. They set fire to the woods in the hills, which burned like mountains of gold; while the trees appeared to bloom with yellow _champaka_ flowers all around.

59. All the sides of the sky above, and the hills, woods and groves below, were enveloped in the flames, as if they were covered under the red powder of _huli_, with which Yama was sporting over the plain.

60. The heaven-spreading flame burnt down the legions in one heap of ashes, as the submarine fire consumes whole bodies of the fleet and navy in the sea.

61. As Sindhu continued to dart his firearms against his vanquished adversary, Vidúratha let off his watery arms with reverential regard.

62. These filled with water, flew forward as the shades of darkness from their hidden cells; and spread up and down and on all sides, like a melted mountain gushing in a hundred cataracts.

63. They stretched as mountainous clouds or as a sea in the air, and fell in showers of watery arrows and stones on the ground.

64. They flew up like large _tamála_ trees, and being gathered in groups like the shades of night, appeared as the thick gloom beyond the _lokáloka_ or polar mountains.

65. They gave the sky the appearance of subterraneous caves, emitting a gurgling sound (ghurghura) like the loud roaring of elephants.

66. These waters soon drank (cooled) the spreading furious fire, as the shades of the dark night swallow (efface) the surrounding red tints of the evening.

67. Having swallowed the fires above, the waters overflooded the ground and filled it with a humidity which served to enervate all bodies, as the power of sleep numbs every body in death-like torpidity.

68. In this manner both the kings were throwing their enchanted weapons against each other, and found them equally quelling and repelling one another in their course.

69. The heavy armed soldiers of Sindhu and the captains of his regiments were swept away by the flood, together with the warcars which floated upon it.

70. At this moment, Sindhu thought upon his anhydrous weapons (soshanástre—thermal arms), which possessed the miraculous power of preserving his people from the water, and hurled them in the air.

71. These absorbed the waters as the sun sucks up the moisture of the night, and dried up the land and revived the soldiers, except those that were already dead and gone.

72. Their heat chased the coldness as the rage of the illiterate enrages the learned, and made the moist ground as dry, as when the sultry winds strew the forest land with dried leaves.

73. It decorated the face of the ground with a golden hue, as when the royal dames adorn their persons with a yellow paint or ointment.

74. It put the soldiers on the opposite side to a state of feverish (or blood heated) fainting, as when the tender leaves of trees are scorched by the warmth of a wild fire in summer heat.

75. Vidúratha in his rage of warfare laid hold on his bow (kodanda), and having bent it to a curve, let fly his cloudy arms on his antagonist.

76. They sent forth columns of clouds as thick as the sable shades of night, which flying upward as a forest of dark _tamála_ trees, spread an umbrage heavy with water on high.

77. They lowered under the weight of their water, and stood still by their massive thickness; and roared aloud in their circles all over the sky.

78. Then blew the winds dropping the dewdrops of the icy store they bore on their pinions; and showers of rain fell fast from the collections of the clouds on high.

79. Then flashed the fiery lightnings from them like golden serpents in their serpentine course or rather like the aslant glances of the eyes of heavenly nymphs.

80. The roarings of the clouds rebounded in the mountainous caverns of the sky, and the quarters of heaven re-echoed to the same with the hoarse noise of elephants and the roaring of lions and growling of tigers and bears.

81. Showers of rain fell in floods with drops as big as _musalas_—malls or mallets, and with flashes of lightnings threatening as the stern glancings of the god of death.

82. Huge mists rising at first in the form of vapours of the earth, and then borne aloft by the heated air into the sky, seemed like titans to rise from the infernal regions (and then invade heaven with their gloomy armament).

83. The mirage of the warfare ceased after a while; as the worldly desires subside to rest upon tasting the sweet joys attending on divine knowledge.

84. The ground became full of mud and mire and was impassable in every part of it; and the forces of Sindhu were overflown by the watery deluge, like the river Sinde or the sea.

85. He then hurled his airy weapon which filled the vault of heaven with winds, and raged in all their fury like the Bhairava-Furies on the last day of resurrection.

86. The winds blew on all sides of the sky, with darts falling as thunder bolts, and hailstones now piercing and then crushing all bodies as by the last blast of nature on the dooms-day. CHAPTER XLIX. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER KINDS OF WEAPONS.

Then blew the icy winds of winter, blasting the beauty of the foliage of forest trees, and shaking and breaking the beautiful arbors, and covering them with gusts of dust.

2. Then rose the gale whirling the trees like birds flying in the air, dashing and smashing the soldiers on the ground, and hurling and breaking the edifices to dust.

3. This fearful squall blew away Vidúratha and his force, as a rapid current carries away the broken and rotten fragments of wood.

4. Then Vidúratha who was skilled in ballistics hurled his huge and heavy arrows, which stretched themselves to the sky, and withstood the force of the winds and rain.

5. Opposed by these rock-like barriers, the airy weapons were at a stand still, as the animal spirits are checked by the firm stoicity of the soul.

6. The trees which had been blown up by the winds and floating in the breezy air, now came down and fell upon the dead bodies, like flocks of crows upon putrid carcasses.

7. The shouting (shitkára) of the city, the distant hum (dátkára) of the village, the howling (bhánkára) of forests, and the rustling (utkára) of the trees, ceased on all sides like the vain verbiology of men.

8. Sindhu saw burning rocks (rockets?) falling from above like leaves of trees, and flying about as the winged Mainákas or moving rocks of the sea or Sinde (sindhu).

9. He then hurled his thundering weapons, falling as flaming thunderbolts from heaven, which burnt the rocks away as the flaming fire destroys the darkness.

10. These falling bolts broke the stones with their pointed ends, and hewed down the heads (tops) of the hills, like a hurricane scattering the fruits of trees on the ground.

11. Vidúratha then darted his Brahmá weapon to quell the thunderbolts, which jostling against one another, disappeared in their mutual conflict.

12. Sindhu then cast his demoniac weapons (Pisáchástras) as black as darkness, which fled as lines of horrid Pisácha demons on all sides.

13. They filled the firmament with the darkness of their bodies, and made the daylight turn to the shade of night, as if it were for fear of them.

14. They were as stalwart in their figures as huge columns of smoke, and as dark in their complexion as the blackest pitch, and tangible by the hand.

15. They were as lean skeletons with erect hairs on their heads and bearded faces, with looks as pale as those of beggars, and bodies as black as those of the aerial and nocturnal fiends.

16. They were terrific and like idiots in their looks, and moved about with bones and skulls in their hands. They were as meagre as churls, but more cruel than either the sword or thunderbolt.

17. The Pisáchas lurk about the woods, bogs and highways, and pry into empty and open door houses. They hunt about as ghosts in their dark forms, and fly away as fast as the fleeting lightning.

18. They ran and attacked with fury the remaining forces of the enemy, that stood weaponless in the field, with their broken and sorrowful hearts.

19. Frightened to death they stood motionless, and dropped down their arms and armours, and stood petrified as if they were demon-struck, with staring eyes, open mouths, and unmoving hands and feet.

20. They let fall both their lower and upper garments, loosened their bowels and slakened their bodies through fear, and kept shaking as fixed trees by the winds.

21. The line of the Pisáchas then advanced to frighten Vidúratha out of his wits, but he had the good sense to understand them as the mere Mumbo-jumbos of magic.

22. He knew the counter charm to fight out the Pisáchas from the field, and employed his charmed weapons against the Pisácha army of his enemy.

23. He darted in his ire the Rúpiká weapon, which gave comfort to his own army, and deluded the Pisácha force of his adversary.

24. These Rúpikás flew in the air with erect hairs on their heads; their terrific eyes were sunk in their sockets, and their waists and breasts moved as trees with bunches of fruit.

25. They had past their youth and become old; and their bodies were bulky and worn out with age; they had deformed backs and hips, and protuberant navels and naves.

26. They had dark dusky bodies, and held human skulls in their hands all besmeared with blood. They had bits of half devoured flesh in their mouths, and pouring out fresh blood from their sides.

27. They had a variety of gestures, motions and contortions of their bodies, which were as hard as stone, with wry faces, crooked backs and twisted legs and limbs.

28. Some had their faces like those of dogs, crows, and owls, with broad mouths and flat cheek-bones and bellies, and held human skulls and entrails in their hands.

29. They laid hold of the Pisáchas as men catch little boys, and joined with them in one body as their consorts. (_i.e._ The Rúpiká witches bewitching the demoniac Pisáchas, got the better of them).

30. They joined together in dancing and singing with outstretched arms and mouths and eyes, now joining hand in hand and now pursuing one another in their merry sport.

31. They stretched their long tongues from their horrid mouths, and licked away the blood exuding from the wounds of the dead bodies.

32. They plunged in the pool of blood with as much delight, as if they dived in a pond of ghee, and scrabbled in the bloody puddle with outstretched arms and feet, and uplifted ears and nose.

33. They rolled and jostled with one another in the puddle of carrion and blood, and made it swell like the milky ocean when churned by the Mandara mountain.

34. As Vidúratha employed his magic weapon against the magic of Sindhu, so he had recourse to others from a sense of his inferiority.

35. He darted his Vetála weapon, which made the dead bodies, whether with or without their heads, to rise up in a body in their ghastly shapes.

36. The joint forces of the Vetálas, Pisáchas and Rúpikás presented a dreadful appearance as that of the Kavandhas, and seemed as they were ready to destroy the earth.

37. The other monarch was not slow to show his magical skill, by hurling his Rákshasa weapon, which threatened to grasp and devour the three worlds.

38. These with their gigantic bodies rose as high as mountains, and seemed as hellish fiends appearing from the infernal regions in their ghostly forms.

39. The ferocious body of the roaring Rákshasas, terrified both the gods and demigods (surásuras), by their loud martial music and war dance of their headless trunks (Kavandhas).

40. The giddy Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmándas, devoured the fat and flesh of dead bodies as their toast, and drank the gory blood as their lurid wines in the coarse of their war dance.

41. The hopping and jumping of the Kushmándas, in their war dance in streams of blood, scattered its crimson particles in the air, which assembled in the form of a bridge of red evening clouds over the sparkling sea. CHAPTER L. DEATH OF VIDÚRATHA.

Vasishtha said:—As the tide of war was rolling violently with a general massacre on both sides, the belligerent monarchs thought on the means of saving their own forces from the impending ruin.

2. The magnanimous Sindhurája, who was armed with patience, called to his mind the Vaishnava weapon, which was the greatest of arms and as powerful as Siva (Jove) himself.

3. No sooner was the Vaishnava weapon hurled by him with his best judgment (mantra), than it emitted a thousand sparks of fire from its flaming blade on all sides.

4. These sparks enlarged into balls, as big and bright as to shine like hundreds of suns in the sky, and others flew as the lengthy shafts of cudgels in the air.

5. Some of them filled the wide field of the firmament with thunderbolts as thick as the blades of grass, and others overspread the lake of heaven, with battle axes as a bed of lotuses.

6. These poured forth showers of pointed arrows spreading as a net-work in the sky, and darted the sable blades of swords, scattered as the leaves of trees in the air.

7. At this time, the rival king Vidúratha, sent forth another Vaishnava weapon for repelling the former, and removing the reliance of his foe in his foible.

8. It sent forth a stream of weapons counteracting those of the other, and overflowing in currents of arrows and pikes, clubs and axes and missiles of various kinds.

9. These weapons struggled with and justled against one another. They split the vault of heaven with their clattering, and cracked like loud thunder claps cleaving the mountain cliffs.

10. The arrows pierced the rods and swords, and the swords hewed down the axes and lances to pieces. The malls and mallets drove the missiles, and the pikes broke the spears (saktis).

11. The mallets like Mandara rocks, broke and drove away the rushing arrows as waves of the sea, and the resistless swords broke to pieces by striking at the maces.

12. The lances revolved like the halo of the moon, repelling the black sword-blades as darkness, and the swift missiles flashed as the destructive fires of Yama.

13. The whirling disks were destroying all other weapons; they stunned the world by their noise, and broke the mountains by their strokes.

14. The clashing weapons were breaking one another in numbers, and Vidúratha defeated the arms of Sindhu, as the steadfast mountain defies the thunders of Indra.

15. The truncheons (Sankus) were blowing away the falchions (asis); and the spontoons (súlas) were warding off the stones of the slings. The crow bars (bhusundis) broke down the pointed heads of the pikes (bhindhipálas).

16. The iron rods of the enemy (parasúlas) were broken by tridents (trisúlas) of Siva, and the hostile arms were falling down by their crushing one another to pieces.

17. The clattering shots stopped the course of the heavenly stream, and the combustion of powder filled the air with smoke.

18. The clashing of dashing weapons lightened the sky like lightnings, their clattering cracked the worlds like thunderclaps, and their shock split and broke the mountains like thunderbolts.

19. Thus were the warring weapons breaking one another by their concussion, and protracting the engagement by their mutual overthrow.

20. As Sindhu was standing still in defiance of the prowess of his adversary, Vidúratha lifted his own fire-arm, and fired it with a thundering sound.

21. It set the war chariot of Sindhu on fire like a heap of hay on the plain, while the Vaishnava weapons filled the etherial sphere with their meteoric blaze.

22. The two Kings were thus engaged in fierce fighting with each other, the one darting his weapons like drops of raging rain, and the other hurling his arms like currents of a deluging river.

23. The two Kings were thus harassing each other like two brave champions in their contest, when the chariot of Sindhu was reduced to ashes by its flame.

24. He then fled to the woods like a lion from its cavern in the mountain, and repelled the fire that pursued him by his aqueous weapons.

25. After losing his car and alighting on the ground, he brandished his sword and cut off the hoofs and heels of the horses of his enemy’s chariot in the twinkling of an eye.

26. He hacked every thing that came before him like the lean stalks of lotuses; when Vidúratha also left his chariot with his _asi_ (ensis) in hand.

27. Both equally brave and compeers to one another in their skill in warfare, turned about in their rounds, and scraped their swords into saws by mutual strokes on one another.

28. With their denticulated weapons, they tore the bodies of their enemies like fishes crushed under the teeth, when Vidúratha dropt down his broken sword, and darted his javelin against his adversary.

29. It fell with a rattling noise on the bosom of Sindhu (the king), as a flaming meteor falls rumbling in the breast of the sea (Sindhu).

30. But the weapon fell back by hitting upon his breast plate, as a damsel flies back from the embrace of a lover deemed an unfit match for her.

31. Its shock made Sindhu throw out a flood of blood from his lungs, resembling the water spout let out from the trunk of an elephant.

32. Seeing this, the native Lílá cried with joy to her sister Lílá: see here the demon Sindhu killed by our lion-like husband.

33. Sindhu is slain by the javelin of our lion-like lord, like the wicked demon by the nails of the lion-god Nrisinha, and he is spouting forth his blood like the stream of water, thrown out by the trunk of an elephant from a pool.

34. But alas! this Sindhu is trying to mount on another car, although bleeding so profusely from his mouth and nostrils, as to raise a wheezing (chulchulu) sound.

35. Lo there! our lord Vidúratha breaking down the golden mountings of his car with the blows of his mallet, as the thundering clouds—Pushkara and Ávarta break down the gold peaks of Sumeru.

36. See this Sindhu now mounting on another carriage, which is now brought before him, and decorated as the splendid seat of a Gandharva.

37. Alack! our lord is now made the mark of Sindhu’s mallet darted as a thunder bolt against him; but lo! how he flies off and avoids the deadly blow of Sindhu.

38. Huzza! how nimbly he has got up upon his own car; but woe is to me! that Sindhu has overtaken him in his flight.

39. He mounts on his car as a hunter climbs on a tree, and pierces my husband, as a bird-catcher does a parrot hidden in its hollow, with his pointed arrow.

40. Behold his car is broken down and its flags flung aside; his horses are hurt and the driver is driven away. His bow is broken and his armour is shattered, and his whole body is full of wounds.

41. His strong breast-plate is broken also by slabs of stone and his big head is pierced by pointed arrows. Behold him thrown down on earth, all mangled in blood.

42. Look with what difficulty he is restored to his senses, and seated in his seat with his arm cut off and bleeding under Sindhu’s sword.

43. See him weltering in blood gushing out profusely from his body, like a rubicund stream issuing from a hill of rubies. Woe is me! and cursed be the sword of Sindhu that hath brought this misery on us.

44. It has severed his thighs as they dissever a tree with a saw, and has lopped off his legs like the stalks of trees.

45. Ah! it is I that am so struck and wounded and killed by the enemy. I am dead and gone and burnt away with my husband’s body.

46. Saying so, she began to shudder with fear at the woeful sight of her husband’s person, and fell insensible on the ground like a creeper cut off by an axe.

47. Vidúratha though thus mutilated and disabled, was rising to smite the enemy in his rage, when he fell down from his car like an uprooted tree, and was replaced there by his charioteer ready to make his retreat.

48. At this instant, the savage Sindhu struck a sabre on his neck, and pursued the car in which the dying monarch was borne back to his tent.

49. The body of Padma (alias Vidúratha), was placed like a lotus in the presence of Sarasvatí, shining with the splendour of the sun; but the elated Sindhu was kept from entering that abode, like a giddy fly from a flame.

50. The charioteer entered in the apartment, and placed the body in its death-bed, all mangled and besmeared with blood, exuding from the pores of the severed neck, in the presence of the goddess, from where the enemy returned to his camp.

(_Gloss_). Here Padma fighting in the person of Vidúratha, and falling bravely in the field, obtained his redemption by his death in the presence of the goddess; but the savage Sindhu, who slew his foiled foe in his retreat, proved a ruffian in his barbarous act, and could have no admittance into the presence of the goddess and to his future salvation.

CONCLUSION.

The whole vision of Lílá, like that of Mirza, shows the state of human life, with its various incidents and phases to its last termination by death. It is not so compact and allegorical as that of the western essayist; but as idle effusions of those ideal reveries or loose vagaries which are characteristic of the wild imagination of eastern rhapsodists. The discontented Bráhmana longs for royal dignity, imagines to himself all its enjoyments in the person of Padma, and sees at last all its evils in the character of Vidúratha; which serves as a lesson to aspirants from aiming at high worldly honours which end in their destruction.

Lílá by her wisdom sees in her silent meditation, the whole course and vicissitudes of the world, and the rise and fall of human glory in the aspirations of her husband. These parables serve to show the nature of Yoga philosophy to be no other, than an absolute idealism or mental abstraction, consisting in the abstract knowledge of all things appertaining to our temporal as well as Spiritual concerns.

The knowledge is derived either by intuition as that of the Bráhmana and Padma, or by inspiration like that of the genius of wisdom to her votary Lílá. It may also be had by means of communication with others, as in the discourse of Ráma and his preceptor; as also from the attentive perusal of such works as the present one, treating both of temporal and spiritual subjects, and reviewing them with the eye of the mind.

The Yogi is said to know all things through the medium of his intellectual eye (jnána chakshu), apart from his connection with every thing in the world called _nihsanga_, as it is expressed by the Persian sophist;—“_amokhteh Oniamekhteh az harche hast_”.—“Knowing and not mixing with all that is.”

From this view of Yoga, it will appear that, all kinds of knowledge, whether as it existed among the ancients, or is in the course of its improvement in modern times, forms a subject of the Yoga or meditative philosophy, which embraces and comprehends in itself a knowledge of all practical arts and sciences, as the military art and other things treated of in this work. Hence it is evident, that a large fund of learning forms the greatest Yoga, and the most learned among men, were the greatest thinkers or Yogis amongst mankind in all ages. No rational being therefore can either refrain from thinking, or employing his mind to the acquisition of knowledge, both of which are termed Yoga in Indian philosophy.

But the yogi is commonly believed to be an inspired sage or seer, viewing all things appearing before him in his dream and vision. These are sometimes retrospective, and resultants of the vibrations of waking feelings and imagination, as in the case of the Bráhmana’s anticipation of royalty as a coming reality.

In many instances they are believed as prospective and prophetic of future events, as in Padma’s dread of his future life and fate. In Lílá’s case however they were “no dreams but visions strange” of supernatural sights, and prophetical of the future state of her husband, as it was revealed to her by the goddess.

But as there are few that rely any faith “in the baseless fabric of a vision”, they require to be told that the books of revelation in all religions are based upon these dreams and visions, which are believed to be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the souls of saints, in the sacred records of all nations.

The holy scriptures furnish us with many texts on the divine origin of dreams and visions as the following.

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. I shall pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

“And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy;

“And I will shew wonders, in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire and vapour of smoke:

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood &c.”

The Book of Acts, Chap II. v. 16-20.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

GENEALOGY

I. Kálí Mitra.[24] II. Srídhara Mitra. III. Sukti Mitra. IV. Sauveri Mitra. V. Hari Mitra. VI. Soma Mitra. VII. Kesava Mitra. VIII. Mrityunjaya Mitra. IX. Dhui Mitra.[25] X. Nísápati Mitra. XI. Lambodara Mitra Alias Kuvera. XII. Parameswara Mitra.[26] XIII. Dánapati Mitra. XIV. Jayadeva Mitra. XV. Shashthivara Mitra. XVI. Sríkánta Mitra. XVII. Sivaráma Mitra. XVIII. Krishnaráma Mitra. XIX. Sítáráma Mitra.[27] XX. Gocula Chandra Mitra. XXI. Jagamohana Mitra. XXII. Rasika Lála Mitra XXIII. Vihári Lála Mitra.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cicero “_De senectute._”

[2] Kant says:—‘The pure Ego is the condition of all consciousness, the condition of the sum total of experience, consequently the Ego is the source from which the universe is to be deduced.’ Again: “The thing _per se_ underlying all phenomena, is one and the same substance with Ego. We know not wherein the Ego is different from it. This identity of both is only an affirmation of Monism, not of Idealism.” Lewis: Hist.-Phil. Vol. II. pp. 356-7. Fichte says:—The Non-Ego is a product of the Ego. It is the Ego which thus creates the necessity for a Non-Ego and the Non-Ego wanted. Ibid. p. 358.

[3] Because the visible and destructible bodies could not proceed from the invisible and indestructible essence of God, nor the invisible and indestructible souls of persons, which are _utpanna_ or produced from the essence of the eternal and infinite spirit, can have their extinction except in their main source, when they become instinct in and identic with the supreme spirit.

[4] The _khecarí_ or aerial mode of meditation is said to confer liberation from sickness and acts and the grasp of death. Thus;

_Napídyate rogena nacha lipyate karmaná, Bádhyate sa na kalena, yo mudrám-vetti khecarím._

The mode of conducting it is described as follows.

_Kapála kuhare jihvá, pravesitá viparítagá, Bhruvorantargatá drishtir, mudrá-bhavati khecarí._

[5] This passage contradicts the belief of his rising and sleeping by turns at the end of each _kalpa_ of the creation and dissolution of the world, as well as the popular faith of Hari’s, _sayana_ and Utthána at the opposite tropics.

[6] The pre-existent substratum is the Noumenon underlying all phenomena. It is the support of qualities, and something in which all accidents inhere. Berkeley.

[7] It contradicts the well known axiom of Locke, that, “it is impossible for the same thing to be and not be at the same time.”

[8] The unknown substance is the known cause, a spiritual substance—God. Berkeley.

[9] The venerable Vasishtha would not raise question “where is the shadow of a shadow?” (_prativimbasya prativambam kutak_), had he known the discoveries of the modern science of Optics, and the achievements of photography and phonography, the refractions of prismatic lens and the vibrations of musical wires.

[10] The gods Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Sun, Indra and all others, are assimilated into the Supreme Spirit in their state of rest. He is beyond all attribute and out of the sphere of the universe, and is of the form of an immutable Intellect.

[11] The living soul is the creative spirit of God, represented by the divine hypostasis of _Hiranyagarbha_ or Demiurgus, which is dependent on the Supreme spirit.

[12] _Tanmátra_ or tat-mátra might be rendered from its affinity as “that matter,” but the idealistic theory of vedánta being opposed to that of the materialistic, it expresses only the idea and not the matter.

[13] The conceptualism of Europe, is a doctrine between Realism and Nominalism and betwixt Idealism and Relationism. The realist says, universal genera are real and independent existences; but the nominalist (_like the Pratyaksávádi_) says that, things only exist and universals are _Flatus venti-pralápa_.

[14] Note. It is the mind that lengthens time by the quick succession of its thoughts, and shortens it by its quiescence.

[15] This means the demons to have first peopled the borders and skirts of the earth. See Hesiod. Works and Days. Book I. v. 200.

[16] That the Meru or Altain chain in Scythia, was the great hive of human race is an undisputed truth in history. So Moses speaks of the giant race in Genesis chapter VI. v. 2 and 4. “And there were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that. And when the sons of God saw the daughters of men fair, they took them to wives, of all which they chose.”

And again: “when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown”.

[17] The whole of this chapter abounds in onomatopoeian alliterations, and is more a play upon words than display of sense. It is interesting however, for these jingling words in the language, as also for the names of the warlike weapons in use among the ancients.

[18] Notwithstanding the reward of heavenly abodes promised to the slayer and slain in war, in the Sástra and Koran, the Asiatics are far backward now-a-days, both to kill and to be killed than the Europeans, who are forbidden by the Holy writ, to slay and shed human blood. Thus there is a laxity of the injunction and prohibition on both sides.

[19] P. mujosi S. Yátudhána, H. Jádugar = juggler.

[20] The battle ground is compared firstly with the sky, then with the sea, next with a forest, and lastly with the last dooms-day.

[21] It was easy for the lively Lílá, to learn about these peoples and their native lands in her lonely Yoga meditation, by the help of the goddess of learning; but it is hard for us to identify them without subjecting ourselves to a long labour of love, which is a sort of Yoga also, called _vidya Yoga_, or intense application and self devotion to learning.

[22] Note. It is not easy to say, whether this continuation and lengthy description of the warfare, is Vasishtha’s or Válmíki’s own making; both of them being well acquainted with military tactics: the former having been the general of King Sudása against the Persians, and the latter the epic poet of Ráma’s wars with Rávana in the celebrated Ramáyana.

These descriptions are left out in the vernacular translations of this work as entirely useless in Yoga philosophy, without minding, that they formed the preliminary step to Ráma’s military education, which he was soon after called to complete under the guidance of Viswámitra in the hermitage.

[23] I have always thought the Daivástras or superhuman arms, described in the Ramáyana and Mahábhárata epics, as a display of pyrotechnic contrivances much in use in early warfare. Or they may have been some kinds of electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and steam engines emitting gusts of fire, water, wind and smoke in the field of war. Halhead in his Gentoo Laws, tells them to be shot from a kind of cross-bow used by the Crusadiers of old.

[24] He was formerly an inhabitatnt of Kánya Kubjya, North Western Provinces, India. He being invited on an occasion of a ceremony (yajna) by Ádisura, Rájá of Gour Bengal, paid a visit at his court on Thursday 12th Kartick (October-November) Sakábda 994 (Tenth-Eleventh Century A.D.), and on his request he settled there and became the founder of Gour Mitra Family, at Maldah in Bengal.

[25] Barisá, Twenty four Pargannahs, District Alipur, Bengal.

[26] Báli. Boro Pargunah, District Hugli.

[27] Bágbázar, Calcutta.