The Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki ( Volume -4) -11

The

Yoga Vasishtha

Maharamayana

of Valmiki

The only complete English translation is

by Vihari Lala  Mitra (1891).

CHAPTER LXXII.

DESCRIPTION OF NIRVÁNA OR FINAL EXTINCTION.

Argument:--Brahmá's suppression of his Respiration; his settling on

the wings of air and his form of viràj[**viráj].

Vasishtha Continued :--Now the self-born Brahmá,

having compressed his breath in his form of viráj (or

the heart); the aerial or atmospheric air, which is borne on

the wings of wind, lost its existence.

2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmá

being thus compressed in his breast; what other air could there

remain, to uphold the starry frame and the system of the universe.

3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vital

breath of Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before),

was about to come to its ultimate quietus.

4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support of

the air, gave way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down on

earth, as starry flowers from the arbour of heaven.

5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediate

air, were now falling on the ground; like the unfailing

and impending fruits of our deserts, or the flying fates falling

from above.

6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being now

at its end at the approach of dissolution; there was an utter

stop, of the actions and motions of the siddhas, as that of the

flame of fire before its extinction.

7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, like

the thin and flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas fell

down mute from heaven, after the loss of their strength and

power of speech.

8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with the

cities of the Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurled

headlong, by shocks of tremendous earthquakes.

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9. Ráma rejoined:--Now sir, if the world is but a representation

of the ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá or

viráj; then what is the difference of earth, heaven and hell to

him, (who encompasses the whole in his body or mind).

10. How can this[**these] worlds be said, to be the members of his

body; or can it be thought, that the God resides in them with

his stupendous form.

11. I well know that Brahmá, is wilful spirit of God, and

has no form of himself; and so do I take this world, for a formless

representation of the will or idea in the Divine Mind.

Please sir, explain this clearly unto me.

12. Vasishtha replied:--In the beginning this world was

not in existence, nor inexistence either; because there was the

eternal Intellect, which engrossed all infinity in itself, and the

whole vacuity of space with its essence.

13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as the

objective chetya or thought; and the intellect without forsaking

its form, becomes chetana or the power of intellection (or

the mind) itself.

14. Know this intellection as the jíva or living soul, which

being condensed (with feelings &c[**.]) becomes the gross mind;

but none of these essences or forms of existence, have any form

whatever.

15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuum

in itself forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is no

other and nothing without the self-same soul.

16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality),

and thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endless

desires, in its vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed to

the impure spirit or volitive mind).

17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air,

by its own volition; and by this false supposition of itself, it

becomes of an aerial form in the open air.

18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediately

finds itself transformed to an aerial body, by its volition or

sankalpa. (The will being master to the thought).

19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their

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natures; yet they can assume aerial forms to themselves by

their will, as the mind sees its imaginary cities; and so doth

the Lord take upon Him any form it pleases.

20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of an

aerial nature, so the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord is

likewise of an intellectual kind; and he takes and forsakes any

form as he supposes and pleases for himself.

21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, so

we come to lose the perception of size and extension; and to

know this extended world as a mere nullity, though it appears

as a positive entity.

22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires,

as it is by our knnwledge[**knowledge] of the unity and the absence of

our egoism or personality, that we obtain our liberation. (i. e.

The knowledge of our nothingness).

23. Such is He-[**--]the supreme One, and is Brahma the entity

of the world. And know viráj, O Ráma, to be the body of

Brahma, and the form of the visible world. (Brahma, Brahmá

and viráj, are the triple hypostasis of the One and same God).

24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, and

the erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same give

birth to the world, which is thence called the mundane egg.

25. Know all this is nonesse[**non esse], and the forms you see, are but

formation of your fancy; in reality there is nothing inesse[**in esse];

and tuism and egoism are no entities at any time.

26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simple

Intellect, which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause or

secondary causality, be ever produced in or come out from a

mere void?

27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that is

seen a mere falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, which

[**add: is] erroneously taken for something.

28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in the

forms of the world and its productions, in the same manner as

the air begets its pulsations (in the form of winds), in the very

calm air itself.

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29. The world is either as something or a nothing at all, and

devoid of unity and duality; know the whole to lie in the

empty vacuity of the Intellect, and is as void and transparent

as the same.

30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and destinctions[**distinctions],

and whether you take them as real or unreal, and

be with or without your egoism, it is nothing to me.

31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remain

silent and without fickleness in your conduct; do whatever

you have to do, or avoid to do it without anxiety.

32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion of

Him, is manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other than

Himself. But our imperfect notion of God, has many things

in it which are unknown to us and beyond our comprehension;

and such are the phenomenals also, that are so palpable unto us.

(We have the innate idea of god[**God], but no knowledge of his

inner or outer nature and attributes, which are displayed in all

existence).

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CHAPTER LXXIII.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON OF VIRAJ--THE

GOD OF NATURE.

Argument:--If there is no truth or untruth in the creation, how can

both be true or false at once.

Ráma said:--Sir, you have said at length regarding our

bondage and liberation, and our knowledge of the world

as neither a reality nor an unreality also; and that it neither

rises nor sets, but is always existent as at first and ever

before.

2. I have well understood Sir, all your lectures on the subjects,

and yet wish to know more of these, for my full satisfaction

with the ambrosial drops of your speech.

3. Tell me sir, how there is no truth nor any untruth, either

an erroneous view of the creation as a reality, or its view as a

mere vacuum:

4. In such a case, I well understand what is the real truth;

yet I want you to tell more of this, for my comprehension of

the subject of creation.

5. Vasishtha replied:--All this world that is visible to us,

with all its moving and unmoving creatures; and all things

with all there[**their] varieties, occasioned by difference of country and

climate.

6. All these are subject to destruction, at the great dissolution

of the world; together with Brahmá, Indra, Upendra,

Mahendra and the Rudras at the end.

7. Then there remains something alone, which is unborn

and increate and without its begining[**beginning]; and which is ever calm

and quiet in its nature. To this no words can reach, and of

which nothing can be known.

8. As the mountain is larger and more extended than a

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mustard seed, so is the sky much more than that; but the

entity of vacuity is the greatest of all.

9. Again as the dusts of the earth, are smaller than the

great mountain; so the stupendous universe, is a minute particle

in comparison with the infinite entity of the vacuity of

God.

10. After the long lapse of unmeasured time, in the unlimited

space of eternity, (i. e. at the end of a Kalpa age); and

after the dissolution of all existence in the transcendent vacuum

of the Divine Mind (lit[**.], thinking soul).

11. At this time the great vacuous intellect, which is unlimited

by space and time, and is quite tranquil by being devoid

of all its desire and will; looks in itself by its reminiscence, the

atomic world in aeriform state, (as the soul ruminates over the

past in its dream).

12. The intellect reconnoitres over this unreality within

itself, as it were in its dream; and then it thinks on the sense

of the word Brahma or enlargement, and beholds the dilation

of these minutiae in their intellectual forms: (i.e. the developed

ideas).

13. It is the nature of the intellect to know the minute

ideas, which are contained in its sensory; and because it continues

to look upon them, it is called their looker. (i. e. The

subjective principle of the objective thoughts).

14. (In order to clear how the intellect can be both the

subjective and objective at once, it is said that); As a man sees

himself as dead in his dream, and the dead man sees his own

death; so doth the intellect see the minute ideas in itself.

(Hence it is not impossible for the contraries to subsist together).

15. Hence it is the nature of the intellect, to see its unity

as a duality within itself; and to remain of its own nature, as

both the subjective and objective by itself.

16. The intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and therefore

formless in itself; and yet it beholds the minute ideas to rise

as visibles before it, and thereby the subjective viewer becomes

the duality of the objective view also.

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17. It then finds its minute self, springing out distinctly in

its own conception; just as a seed is found to sprout forth in

its germ. (This is the first step of the conception of personality

of the universal spirit).

18. It has then the distinct view of space and time, and of

substance and its attributes and actions before its sight; but as

these are yet in their state of internal conceptions, they have

as yet received no names for themselves.

19. Wherever the particle of the intellect shines (or that

which is perceptible to it); is called the place (or object), and

whenever it is perceived the same is termed as time, and the

act of perception is styled the action.

20. Whatever is perceived (by the intellect), the same is

said as the object; and the sight or seeing thereof by it, is

the cause of its perception, just as the light of a luminary, is

the cause of ocular vision.

21. Thus endless products of the intellect appear before it,

as distinct from one another by their time, place, and action;

and all these appearing as true, like the various colours of the

skies in the sky.

22. The light of the intellect shines through different parts

of the body, as the eye is the organ whereby it sees; and so

the other organs of sense for its perception of other objects. (All

these are called axas[**axes] answering the sight of the eyes).

23. The intellectual particle, shining at first within itself,

bears no distinct name except that of tanmátra or its inward

perception; which is as insignificant a term as empty air.

24. But the shadow of the atomic intellect falling upon the

empty air, becomes the solid body; which shoots forth into the

five organs of sense, owing to its inquest into their five objects

of form and the rest.

25. The intellectual principle, being then in need of retaining

its sensations in the sensorium, becomes the mind and

understanding, (which is called the sixth or internal organ of

sense).

26. Then the mind being actuated by its vanity, takes

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upon it the denomination of egoism, and is inclined to make

imaginary divisions of space and time.

27. Thus the minute intellect comes to make distinctions

of time, by giving them the different denomination of the

present, past and future.

28. Again with regard to space, it denominates one place

as upper and another as lower; and goes on giving different

appellations of sides (or the points of compas[**compass]), to one invariable

space in nature.

29. It then comes to understand the meanings of words,

and invent the terms signifying time and space, action and substance.

30. Thus the intellect bearing a vacuous form in the primordial

vacuum, became the spiritual or lingdeha[**lingadéha] of its own

accord, untill[**until] it was diffused all over the world; (which is thence

called the mundane God).

31. Having long remained in that state as it thought, it

took upon it the compleately[**completely] concrete material form through

which it was transfused.

32. Though formed originally of air in the original air,

and was perfectly pure in its nature; yet being incorporated in

the false corporeal form, it forgot its real nature; as the solar

heat[**replaced - with space] in conjunction with sand, is mistaken for water.

33. It then takes upon itself and of its own will, a form

reaching to the skies; to which it applied to the sense of the

word head to some part, and that of the word feet to another.

(The highest heaven is the head and the earth the foot-stools

of God).

34. It applied to itself the sense of the words breast, sides

and to other parts, by adopting their figurative sense and rejecting

the literal ones. (Viraj is the human figure[** space added] for the macrocosm

of the universe).

35. By thinking constantly on the forms of things, as this is

a cow and that is a horse &c[**.], as also of their being bounded

by space and time; it became conversant with the objects of

different senses.

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36. The same intellectual particle, saw likewise the different

parts of its body; which it termed its hands, feet &c[**.], as its outward

members; and the heart &c[**.], as the inner members of

the body[**.]

37. In this manner is formed the body of Brahmá, as also

those of Vishna[**Vishnu] and the Rudras and other Gods; and so also

the forms of men and worms are produced from their conception

of the same.

38. But in fact[**space added] there is nothing, that is really made or

formed; for all things are now, as they have been ever before.

All this is the original vacuum, and primeval intelligence; and

all forms are the false formations of fancy.

39. Viráj is the seed producing the plants of the three

worlds, which are praductive [** typo for productive] of many more, as one root produces

many bulbs under it. Belief in the creation, puts a bolt to the

door of salvation; and the appearance of the world, is as that of

a light and fleeting cloud without any rain.

40. This viráj is the first male, rising unseen of his own will.

He is the cause of all actions and acts.

41. He has no material body[**,] no bone or flesh, nor is he

capable of being grasped under the fist of anybody.

42. He is as quiet and silent, as the roaring sea and cloud,

and the loud roar of lions and elephants, and the din of battle,

is unheard by the sleeping man.

43. He remains neither as a reality, nor entirely as an unreality;

but like the notion of a waking[**space added] man of a warrior seen to

be fighting in his dream, (i. e. As the faint idea of an object

seen in dream).

44. Although his huge body stretches to millions of miles,

yet it is contained in an atom with all the worlds that lie hid

in every pore of his body. (Meaning--the cosmos contained in a

grain of the brain),[**.]

45. Though thousands of worlds and millions of mountains

compose the great body of the unborn viráj, yet they are not

enough to fill it altogether, as a large quantity of grain, is not

sufficient to fill a winnowing basket.

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46. Though myriads of worlds are stretched in his body, yet

they are but an atom in comparison with its infinity; and the

viráj is represented to contain all in his body, yet it occupies no

space or place, but resembles a baseless mountain in a dream.

47. He is called the self-born and viráj also, and though

he is said to be the body and soul of the world, yet he is quite

a void himself.

48. He is also named as Rudra and sanatana[**Sanatana], and Indra

and upendro[**Upendra] also; he is likewise the wind, the cloud and the

mountain in his person.

49. The minute particle of the Intellect, like a small spark

of fire, inflates and spreads itself at first; and then by thinking

its greatness, it takes the form of chitta or the thinking mind,

which with its self-consciousness becomes the vast universe.

50. Then being conscious of its afflation, it becomes the

wind in motion; and this is the aeriform body of viráj.

51. Then it becomes the vital breath, from the consciousness

of its inspiration and expiration in the open air.

52. It then imagines of an igneous particle in its mind, as

children fancy a ghost where there is none; and this assumes

the forms of luminous bodies (of the sun, moon, and stars) in

the sky.

53. The vital breath of respiration, are carried by turns

through the respiratory organs into the heart; whence it is

borne on the wings of air to sustain the world, which is the

very heart of viráj.

54. This viráj is the first rudiment of all individual bodies

in the world, and in their various capacities forever.

55. It is from this universal soul, that all individual bodies

have their rise, and according to their sundry desires; and as

these differ from one another in their outward shapes, so they

are different also in their inward natures and inclinations.

56. As the seed of viráj sprang forth at first, in the

nature and constitution of every individual being; it continues

to do so in the same manner in the heart of every living,

agreeably to the will of the same causal principle.

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57. The sun, moon and the winds, are as the bile, phlegm

in the body of Brahmá; and the planets and stars, are as the

circulating breath and drops of the spittle of phlegm of that

deity.

58. The mountains are his bones, and the clouds his flesh;

but we can never see his head and feet, nor his body and skin.

59. Know, O Ráma, this world to be the body of viráj, and

an imaginary form by his imagination only. Hence the earth

and heaven and all the contents, are but the shadow of his

Intellectual vacuity.

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CHAPTER LXXIV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COSMICAL BODY OF VIRAJ (CONTINUED).

Argument:--Description of the several parts and Members of the body

of viráj.

Vasishtha continued:--Hear now more about the

body of viráj, which he assumed to himself of his own

will in that Kalpa epoch, together with the variety of its order

and division, and its various customs and usages.

2. It is the transcendent vacuous sphere of the intellect,

which makes the very body of viráj; it has no beginning, middle

or end, and is as light as an aerial or imaginary form.

3. Brahmá who is without desire, beheld the imaginary

mundane-egg appearing about him, in its aerial form (of a

chimera).

4. Then Brahmá divided this imaginary world of his in

twain. It was of a luminous form, from which he came out as a

luminary, like a bird matured in its egg. (This is hence called

Brahmánda or egg of Brahmá).

5. He beheld one half (or the upper hemisphere[**space added]) of this egg,

rising high in the upper sky; and saw the other half to constitute

the lower world, and both of which he considered as parts

of himself.

6. The upper part of Brahmá's egg, is termed as the head

of viráj; the lower part is styled his footstool, and the midway

region is called his waist.

7. The midmost part of the two far separated portions, is

of immense extent, and appearing as a blue and hollow vault all

around us.

8. The heaven is the upper roof of this hollow, likening to

the palate of the open mouth, and the stars which are studded

in it, resemble the spots of blood in it. The breath of the

mouth is as vital air, which supports all mortals and the immortal

Gods.

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9. The ghosts, demons and ogres, are as worms in his body;

and the cavities of spheres of the different worlds, are as the

veins and arteries in his body.

10. The nether worlds below us, are the footstools of viráj;

and the cavities under his knees, are as the pits of infernal

regions.

11. The great basin of water in the midst of the earth,

and surrounding the islands in the midst of them; is as the

navel and its pit in the centre of the body of viráj.

12. The rivers with the purling waters in them, resemble

the arteries of viráj with the purple blood running in them;

and the Jam-bu-dvípa[**Jambú-dvípa] is as his lotiform heart, with the mount

Meru as its pericarp.

13. The sides of his body, are as the sides of the sky; and

the hills and rocks on earth, resemble the spleen and liver in

the body of viráj; and the collection of cooling clouds in the

sky, is like the thickening mass of fat in his body.

14. The sun and the moon are the two eyes of viráj, and the

high heaven is his head and mouth; the moon is his marrow,

and the mountains are the filth of his person.

15. The fire is the burning heat, and bile in his bowels;

and the air is the breath of his nostrils; (and so the other

elements are humours of his body).

16. The forests of Kalpa trees and other woods, and the serpentine

races of the infernal regions, are the hairs and tufts of

hairs on his head and body. (All these are parts of the one

undivided whole of virája's body).

17. The upper region of the solar world, forms the capt head

of viráj's body; and the zodiacal light in the concavity beyond

the mundane system, is the crest on top of virája's head.

18. He is the universal Mind itself, has no individual mind

of his own; and he being the sole enjoyer of all things, there is

nothing in prticular[**particular] that forms the object of his enjoyment.

19. He is the sum of all the senses, therefore there is no sense

beside himself; and the soul of viráj being fully sensible of

every thing, it is a mere fiction to attribute to him the property

of any organ of sense. (It is a mere figure of speech to say

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God hears and sees, when the omniscient soul knows all without

the aid of the organs of seeing and hearing).

20. There is no difference of the property of an organs[**drop the s] (as

the hearing of the ear); and its possessor--the mind, in the

person of viráj, who perceives by his mind all organic sensations,

without the medium of their organs.

21. There is no difference in doings of viráj and those of

the world; it is his will or thought alone which acts with

many (or active) force (on the passive world), both in their

transitive as well as in their causal forms.

22. All actions and events of the world, being said to be

same with his, our lives and deaths in this world, are all conformable

to his will. (This passage is explained in four different

ways in the gloss).

23. It is by his living that the world lives, and so it dies

away with his death; and just as it is the case, with the air

and its motion, so it is with the world and viráj to act or subside

together. (But viráj being the god of nature in general, he

acts by general and not by partial laws, and is therefore neither

affected by particular events nor ever directs any particular

accident at any place or time). (Both of which are the one

and the same[**space]thing).

24. The world and viráj are both of the same essence, as

that of air and its motion in the wind; that which is the world,

the same is viráj; and what viráj is, the very same is the

world also. (The same thing personified as another).

25. The world is both Brahma as well as viráj, and both of

which are its synonyms according to its successive stages; and

are but forms of the will of the pure and vacuous intellect of

god. (The will was at the beginning, Aham bahu syam; i. e.

I will become many).

26. Ráma asked:--Be it so that viráj is the personified will

of god, and of the form of vacuum; but how is it that he is

considered as Brahma himself in his inner person?

27. Vasishtha replied:--As you consider yourself as Ráma

and so situated in your person also; so Brahma--the great

father of all, is the wilful soul only in his person.

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28. The souls of holy men also, are full with Brahma in

themselves; and their material bodies, are as mere images of

them.

29. And as your living soul is capable, of fixing its residence

in your body; so the self-willed soul of Brahma, is by far

more able to reside in his body of the Brahmánda--Universe.

30. If it is possible for the plant, to reside in its seed, and

for animal life to dwell in the body; it must likewise be much

more possible for the spirit of Brahma, to dwell in a body of

its own imagination,[**.]

31. Whether the Lord be in his consolidated form of the

world, or in his subtile form of the mind, He is the same in his

essence, though the one lies inside and the other outside of us,

in his inward and outward appearence[**appearance].

32. The holy hermit who is delighted in himself, and continues

as mute as a log of wood and as quiet as a block of

stone; remains with his knowledge of I and thou (i. e. of the

subjective and objective as well as of the general and particular)

fixed in the universal soul of viráj.

33. The holy and god knowing man, is passionless under all

persecution, as an idol which they make with ligatures of straw

and string; he remains as calm as the sea, after its howling

waves are hushed; and though he may be engaged in a great

many affairs in the world, yet he remains as calm and quiet in

his mind, as a stone is unperturbed in its heart.

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CHAPTER LXXV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FINAL CONFLAGRATION OF THE WORLD.[**=print]

Argument:--Destruction of the world by the great fire, produced by a

dozen of suns at the behest of Brahmá.

Vasishtha continued:--Then sitting in my meditation

of Brahma, I cast my eyes around, I came to the sight

of the region before me.

2. It being then midday, I beheld a secondary sun behind

me, appearing as a conflagration over a mountain (or a burning

mountain), at the furthest border of that side.

3. I saw the sun in the sky as a ball of fire, and another in

the water burning as the submarine fire; I beheld a burning

sun in the south east corner, and another in the southern

quarter.

4. Thus I saw four fiery suns on the four sides of heaven,

and as many in the four corners of the sky also.

5. I was astonished to find so many suns all at once in all

the sides of heaven; and their flame-fire which seemed to burn

down their presiding divinities--the Agni, váyu[**Váyu], yama[**Yama], Indra

&c. (The twelve suns of hindu[**Hindu] Astronomy, are the so many

solar mansions in the twelve signs of the zodiac, which encircles

all the sides of the compass, together with the personified

climates under the same).

6. As I was looking astonished at these unnatural appearances,

in the heavens above; there appeared on a sudden a

terrestial[**terrestrial] sun before me, bursting out of the submarine regions

below.

7. Eleven of these sun[**s] were as reflexions of the one sun,

seen in a prismatic mirror; and they rose out of the three suns

of Brahmá[**à-->á], Vishnu and Siva, in the vacuity of the different

sides of heaven. (The gloss explains the eleven suns, as the

eleven Ruddra[***Rudra] forms of Siva--the god of destruction amidst the

Hindu Trinity).

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8. The same form of Rudra with its three eyes, shone forth

in the forms of the twelve burning suns of heaven. (As Siva

with the eleven Rudras, makes the number twelve, so doth the

sun with the other eleven signs of the zodiac, make the same

number).

9. In this manner the sun burnt down the world, as the

flame of fire burns away dry wood of the forest; and the

world was dried up of its moisture, as in the parching days of

summer season.

10. The solar fire burnt away the woods, without any

literal fire or flame; and the whole earth was as dry as dust by

this fireless incendiarism.

11. My body became heated and my blood boiled as by the

heat of a wild fire; and I left that place of torrid heat, and

ascended to the remoter and higher regions of air.

12. I beheld the heavenly bodies hurling as tops, flung from

the string held by a mighty hand; and I saw from my aerial

seat, the rising of the blazing suns in heaven.

13. I beheld the twelve suns burning in the ten sides of

it, and I saw also the extensive spheres of the stars, whirling

with incredible velocity.

14. The waters of the seven oceans were boiling, with a

gurgling noise; and burning meteors were falling over the

cities in farthest worlds.

15. The flame flashed upon distant mountains, making

them flare with vermeil hue, and splitting noise; and continued

lightnings flashed upon the great edifices on every side, and

put the canopy of heaven in a flame.

16. The falling buildings emitted a cracking and crackling

noise all around, and the earth was covered with columns of

dark smoke, as by the thickening clouds and mists.

17. The fumes rising as crystal columns, appeared as turrets

and spires upon the towers on earth; and the loud noise of

wailing beasts and men, raised a gurgling (gharghara) clangor

all over the ground.

18. The falling of cities upon men and beasts, made a hideous

noise and huge heaps of omnium gatherum on earthy;

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and the falling stars from heaven, strewed the earth with fragments

of gems and jewels.

19. All human habitations were in flames, with the bodies

of men and beasts, burning in their respective homes and

houses: and the noiseless skirts of villages and towns, were

filled with the stink of dead and burning bodies.

20. The aquatic animals were stewed, under the tepid waters

of the seas: and the cry of people within the city, was hushed

by the howling of the ambient flames on all sides.

21. The elephants of the four quarters of heaven, fell down

and rolled upon the burning ground, and uplifted the hills with

their tusks, (to shelter themselves from the falling fires; while

the caverns of the mountains, were emitting gusts of smoke,

from the subterraneon[**subterranean] fire).

22. The burning hamlets and habitations, were crushed and

smashed under the falling stones and hills; which the mountain

elephants yelled aloud, with their deadly groans and

agonies.

23. Heated by sunheat, all living beings rushed to and

splashed the hot waters of seas, and the mountainous vidyadharas

fell down into the hollow bosom of mountains, bursting

by their volcanic heat.

24. Some being tired with crying, and others resorting to

their yoga meditation, remained quiet in some places; and the

serpent races were left to roll on the burning cinders, both

below as well as upon the earth.

25. The voracious marine beasts as sharks and whales; being

baked in the drying channels, were driven to the whirlpools of

the deep; and the poor fishes attempting to evade the smart

fire, flew into the airs by thousands and thousands.

26. The burning flames, then clad as it were, in crimson

apparel, rose high in the air; and there[**their] leaping as it were in

dancing, caught the garments of the Apsaras in heaven.

27. The desolating Kalpa fire, being then wreathed with its

flashing flames, began to dance about all around; with the loud

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sound of bursting bamboos and cracking trees, as it were with

the beating of drums and timbrels.

28. The sportive fire danced about like a playful actor, in

the ruinous stage of the world.

29. The fire ravaged through all lands and islands, and desolated

all forests and forts; it filled all caves and caverns and

the hollow vault of sky, till at last it over reached the tops of

the ten sides of heaven.

30. It blazed in caverns and over cities and in all sides of

dales, and the lands; it blazed over hills and mountain tops,

and the sits[**seats?] of the siddhas and on the seas and oceans.

31. The flames flashing from the eyes of Siva, and the

Rudras, boiled the waters of the lakes and rivers; and burned

the bodies of devas and demons, and those of men and serpent

races; and there arose a hoarse whispering sound from everywhere.

32. With column of flaming fire over their head, they began

to play by throwing ashes upon one another; like the playful

demon's flirtation with dust and water.

33. Flames flashed forth from subterranean cell and caves on

earth, and all things situated amidst them, were reddened by

their light.

34. All the sides of heaven lost their azure hue, under the

vermilion colour of the clouds which hung over them; and all

things and the rubicund sky, lost their respective hues, and

assumed the rosy tint of the red lotus; (sthala padma--growing

on land).

35. The world appeared to be covered under a crimson

canopy, by the burning flames which overspread it all around,

and resembled the evening sky under the parting glories of the

setting sun.

36. Overspread with the flaming fires, the sky appeared as an

overhanging garden of blooming Asoka flowers, or as a bed of

the red kinsuka blossoms hanging aloft in the sky.

37. The earth appeared to be strewn over with red lotuses,

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and the seas seemed to be sprinkled with red dye; in this

manner the fire blazed in many forms, with its tails and crests

of smoke.

38. The fire of conflagration, raged with its youthful vigour

in the forest, where it glared in variegated colours, as a burning

scenery is shown in a painting.

39. The vicissitudes of sunrise and sunset (i. e. the succession

of day and night), now disappeared from the vindhyan

mountain, owing to the continual burning of the woods upon its

summit.

40. The flying fumes had the appearance of the blue sahya

mountain in the south (Deccan), from their emitting the

flashes of fire in the midst, like the lustre of the gems in that

mountain.

41. The blue vault of the sky seemed as a cerulean lake,

decorated with lotus like fire brands all over it, and the flames

of fire flashed over the tops of the cloudy mountains in air; (like

the brisk dancing of actresses in a play).

42. Flames of fire with their smoky tails, resembling the

train of a comet, danced about on the stage of the world, in the

manner of dancing actresses, with the loosened and flouncing

hair.

43. The burning fire burst the parched ground, and flung

its sparkling particles all around, like the fried rice flying all

about the frying pan in various colours.

44. Then the burning rocks and woods exhibited a golden

hue on the breast of the earth, with their bursting and splitting

noise; (as if the earth was beating her breast at her impending

destruction).

45. All lands were crushed together with the cry of their

inhabitants, and all the seas dashed against one another, with

foaming froths in their mouths.

46. The waves shone in their faces, with the reflexion of the

shining sun upon them; they clashed against each other, as if

they were clapping their hands; and dashed with such force

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against the land, that they beat and broke down the rocks on

the sea shore.

47. The raging sea with his billowy arms, grasped the earth

and stone, as foolish men do in their anger; and devoured them

in his hollow cell with a gurgling noise, as fools swallow their

false hopes with vain bawling.

48. The all destruction fire with a hoarse sound, melted

down the rivers with their banks, and the regents of the

sphere fell before the geysers.

49. The ten sides of the compass, were out of order and

confounded together; and all the mountains were reduced to

the form of liquid gold (fire), with their woods and abodes and

caves and caverns.

50. By degrees the prodigious mountain Meru, was dissolved

to snow by the heat of fire; and soon after the great

mount of Himálaya, was melted down as lacdye[**lac-dye] by the same

fire.

51. All things were cold and pinched in themselves, as good

people are thawed by the awe of the wicked; except the Malaya

mountain, which yielded its fragrance even in that state (of its

tribulation).

52. The noble minded man never forsakes his nobleness,

though he is exposed to troubles; because the great never

afflict another, though they are deprived of their own joy and

happiness.

53. Burn the sandal wood, yet it will diffuse its fragrance to

all living beings; because the intrinsic nature of a thing, is

never lost or changed into another state.

54. Gold is never consumed nor disfigured, though it is

burnt in the fire of a conflagration; thus there are two things,

namely, aura and vacuum, that cannot be consumed by the

all destroying fire.

55. Those bodies are above all praise, which do not perish at

the perdition of all others; such as the vacuum is indestructible

on account of its omnipresence, and gold is not subject to

any loss owing to its purity.

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56. The property of goodness (sattwa) alone is true happiness,

and neither rajas nor ostentation or passion. Then the

fiery clouds moved aloft as a moving forest, ashed showers of

vivid flame.

57. Mountainous clouds of fire, accompanied with flame and

fume, poured liquid fire around; and burnt away all bodies,

already dried up by heat and for want of water.

58. Thd[**The] dried leaves of trees ascending high in the air, were

burnt away by the flame instead of the rain of heavy clouds.

(Now the clouds were heavy with fire, and not with rain

water).

59. The ambient and gorgeous flame passed by the kailása[**Kailása]

mountain without touching it, know it to be the seat of the

dread God Siva; in the manner of wise men, flying from the

mud and mire of sin: (knowing it to be attended with their

perdition).

60. Then the God Rudra growing furious, at the final destruction

of the world, darted the direful flame of his igneous

eyes, and burnt down the sturdy arbours and robust rocks to

ashes, with their stunning cracklings.

61. The hills at the foot of mountains, being crowned with

flames of fire, moved forward as it were, to fight against the

fire, with their stones and clubs of the clumps of trees.

62. The sky became as a bed of full blown lotuses, and

creation became a mere name as that of Agastya, that departed

and disappeared for ever from sight.

63. The suffering idiot on remembering into his mind the

Kalpánta, took the world to be at an end; as the fire consumes

all objects like the unreality of the world.

64. The falling thunderbolts pierced all bodies, and the

glittering flames inflamed all the trees and plants; the winds

too blew with fiery heat, and scorched the bodies of even the

gods, and singed all things on every side.

65. Here the wild fire was raging loose among the arbours

in the forest, and there were clouds of hot ashes flying in the

air; and smoky mists emitting red hot embers and fiery sparks.

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Again darknesses were rising upward with fagots of fire falling

from amidst them, and gusts of wind blew with speed and

force, to befriend the destructive fire. (The air enkindled and

spread the wild fire all about).

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CHAPTER LXXVI.

THE STRIDOR OF PUSHKARÁVARTA CLOUDS.

Argument:--Description of the Devouring fire below, and the Deluginging[**Deluging]

clouds above.

Vasishtha added:--Now blew the destroying winds,

shaking the mountains by their force: and filling the

seas with tremendous waves, and rending the skies with cyclonic

stroms[**storms].

2. The bounded seas broke their bounds, and ran to the

boundless oceans by impulse of the wind, as poor people run to

the rich, by compulsion of their driving poverty.

3. The earth being fried by the fire, went under the overflowing

waters; and joined with the infernal regions, lying

below the waters of the deep.

4. The heaven disappeared into nothing, and the whole

creation vanished into the air. The worlds were reduced to

vacuum, and the solar light dwindled to that of a star in the

starry sphere.

5. There appeared from some cavity of the sky some

hideous clouds, called pashkara Avartaka and others in the

forms of dreadful demons, and roaring with tremendous

noise.

6. The noise was as loud as the bursting of the mundane-egg,

and the hurling down of a large edifice; and as the

dashing of the waves against one another, in a furiously

raging sea.

7. The loud peal resounding thought the air and water,

and reechoing amidst the city towers, was deafenning[**deafening] and

stunning to the ear; and the swelling at the tops of mountains,

fitted the world with uproar.

8. The sound swelling as it were, in the conch-shell of the

mundane-egg, was returned with triple clangor[**=print], from the vaults

of heaven and sky and the infernal world.

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9. The supports of all the distant sides, were tottering at

their base; and the waters of all the seas were mixed up

together, as if to quench the thirst of the all devouring doomsday.

10. The doomsday advanced as the God Indra, mounted

on the back of his elephantine clouds; which roared aloud

amidst the waters, contained in the etherial ocean from the

beginning.

11. The great doomsday was attended with a hubbub, as

loud as that of the churning of the ocean before; or as that

emitted by the revolving world or a hydrostatic engine of immense

force.

12. Hearing this roaring of the clouds, amidst the surrounding

fires, I became quite astonished at the stridor, and cast my

eyes on all sides to see the clouds.

13. I saw no vestige of a cloud in any part of the heavens,

except that of hearing their roar and finding flashes of firebrands

flaming in the sky, with showers of thunderbolts falling

from above. (i. e. It was a thunderstorm preceding the

rain).

14. The flaming fire spread over millions of miles, on all

the sides of earth and heaven; and burnt away every thing in

them, to a horrid devastation.

15. After a little while I descried a spot at a great distance

in the sky; and felt a cool air blowing to my body

from it.

16. At this time I observed the Kalpa clouds, appearing

and gathering at a great distance in the sky, where there was

no relic of the living fire perceptible to the naked eye.

17. Then there breathed the Kalpa airs, from the watery

corner or western side of the sky; which burnt at last in blasts,

capable of blowing and bearing away the great mountains of

meru[**Meru], Malaya and Himálaya.

18. These winds blew away the mountainous flames, and

put to flight the burning cinders as birds to a distance; they

bore down the spreading sparks, and drove away the fire from

all sides.

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19. The clouds of fire disappeared from the air, as evening

clouds; then clouds of ashes rose to the sky, and the atmosphere

was cleared of every particle of fire.

20. The air was blowing with fire, and passing every where

as the fire of incendiarism; and melted down the golden citadels

on the flying mountain of Meru.

21. The mountains on earth being put on fire, their flames

spread all about as the rays of the twelve suns.

22. The waters of oceans were boiling with rage, and the

trees and leaves of the forest were burning with blaze.

23. The cities and celestials sitting on their happy seats,

in the highest heaven of Brahma, fell down below with all their

inhabitants of women and young and old people, being burnt

by the flames.

24. The Kalpánta or chaotic fire was mixed with the water,

in the lake of Brahmá.

25. The strong winds uprooted the deep rooted mountains

and rocks, and plunged them headlong into the fiery mire of

the infernal regions.

26. The chaotic clouds advanced as a troop of sable camels,

moving slowly in the azure sky with a grumbling noise.

27. They appeared from a corner of the sky, like a huge

mountain flashing with lightnings of gorgeous flame; and

fraught with the waters of the seven oceans.

28. These clouds were capable of rendering the great vault

of the world (heaven), with their loud uproar; and splitting all

the sides of heaven, standing upon their solid snow white and

impregnable walls.

29. The doomsday was as the raging ocean, and the planets

were the rolling islands in the whirlpools of their orbits; the

flitting lightnings likened its shifting aquatic animals, and the

roaring of the clouds was as the howling of its waters.

30. The moon being devoured by Ráhu, and burnt away by

the fiery commet[**comet], rose to heaven again and assumed the colder

form of the cloud, to pour down more moisture than her nightly

beams and dews.

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31. Lightning like golden sphere in the shape of frigidity

of the sort of Himalaya, held all stupefied[**space removed] waters, woods and

hills.

32. After the clouds had split the vault of heaven, by their

harsh crackling and thunders; they dropped down the solid

snows at first, which were then melted down in the form of

liquid rain.

33. There was a jarring of dissonant sounds, that grated

upon the ear, and proceeded from the bursting of woods by wild

fire, and the stridor of thunder-claps in the rebellowing air;

and the cracking and crackling and dashing and crashing of

every thing in the shattering world.

34. There was a sharp and shrill noise, arising from the

warring winds blowing in a hundread[**hundred] ways, and the drift of

bleak cold showers of driving snows, covering the face of

heaven.

35. The vault of heaven which is supported by the blue and

sapphire-like pillars of the azure skies on all sides, shattered the

earth and its props of the mountains, with big and heavy showers

of diluvian rain.

36. The earth was bursting and splitting sound, by the

blazing furnaces of fire on all sides; and the hearts of all living

beings, were rent by the loud rattling of thunderbolts from

heaven.

37. The rain that reigned long over the realm of the fiery

earth, was now going upward in the form of smoke, which the

burning earth heaved from her bosom, as her sighs towards

heaven.

38. Now the vault of heaven, appeared to be overspread

with a network, studded with red lotuses of the flying fires

on high; while the dark showers had the appearance of swarms

of black bees, and the rain drops likened their fluttering

wings.

39. All the sides of heaven resounded to the mingled

clatter of hailstone and fire brands, falling down simultaneously

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from the comingled clouds of dire and dreadful appearance;

and the scene all around was as diresome to behold, as the

mingled warfare of two dreadful forces, with dire arms and

commingled bloodshed.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

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