Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 105 - Metamorphoses of Kumbha to a female From

Sikhidhwaja said- If such is the case, sir, that destiny over rules all events, why should you be sorry for aught that has befallen to you, knowing that you are a god son and knowing the knowable also.

Kumbha replied- Hear, O prince, the wonderful accident that has befallen on me; and I will relate to you all that has happened to me in body.

The heart becomes light when its griefs are imparted to a friend, as the thickened gloominess of the cloudy atmosphere, is dissipated after discharge of its waters in rains.

The troubled mind is restored to its serenity, by its communication with a sincere friend, as the turbid waters of a jar is cleared by its being filtered with kata seeds.

Hear now that after I departed from here, by handing over the spike of flowers to you; I traversed though the regions of air, till I reached the heavenly abode of the god.

There I met my father, and accompanied him to the court of the great Indra, where having sat a while, I got up with my father and then parted from him at his abode.

Leaving the seat of the Gods in order to come down on earth, I entered the region of air; and kept my pace with the fleet steeds of the chariot of the sun, in the airy paths of the skies.

Thus wafted together with the sun, I reached the point of my separation from him; and there took my path through the midway sky, as if I were sailing in the sea.

I saw there in a track before me, a path stretching amidst the watery clouds of air, and marked the indignant sage Durvāsa gliding swiftly by it.

He was wrapt in the vest of cloud, and girt with girdles of flashing lightning; the sandal taints on his body were washed off by showering, rains, and he seemed as a maiden making her way in haste, to meet her lover at the appointed place.

Or as a devotee he hastened to discharge in due tine his fond devotion, on the beach of the river (Ganges), flowing under the shade of the beaching boughs of the rows of trees on the shore. ¹

I saluted the sage from my aerial seat, and said you wrapt as you are in your blue vest of the cloud, seem to advance in haste, as an amorous woman to meet her lover; ².

Hearing this, the reverend sage was incensed and pronounce his curse upon me; saying, "Be you transformed to an amorous woman as you thinkest me to be".

Go your way, and bear my curse, that every night you shall become a woman, with your protuberant breasts and long braids of hairs on your heads, and fraught with all womanish grace and dalliance, ³.

As I was thunder struck and deeply dejected at this imprecation, I found the old muni had already disappeared from before me; and then I bent my course this way from the upper sky, being quite sick in my heart, ⁴.

Thus I have related to you all, regarding my being changed to a damsel at the approach of night; and my constant thought of the manner, how I shall manage myself under my womanhood.

How shall I divulge to my father, the shame of my being a swollen breasted maid at night; and can I reconcile myself to my dire fate, throughout the course of nay life. O how wonderfut is the decree of fate, that we are fated to bear in this world in the course of time!

I am now ill fated to become a prey to young men, and the subject of fighting among them, like a piece of flesh among ravenous vultures.

O what a fun have I become to the Indicrous boys of the Gods in heaven, and ah! how shameful have I been before the sages, who must be quite ashamed of me, and how shall I remain anywhere and before any body in my female form at night.

Vasistha said- After saying so far, cudāla become as mute as a silent muni; and remained as quiet as if she were in a swoon.

The pretended Kumbha then, seeming to recover his senses and his patience also, thus spoke out to himself; ah! why do I wail like the ignorant, ⁵, when my soul suffers no change by this?

Sikhidhwaja spoke- Why sorrow you sir for the body, that are the son of a God; let it become whatever may become of it, can never affect the intangible soul.

Whatever pain or pleasure betides us in this life, is all concomitant with the changing body, and can never touch the unchanging soul.

If you who are acquainted with the Vedas, and fortified against all events; should allow yourself to be so much moved by this accidents, say what will be the case with others, at all the casualties of life, to which they are incessantly subject.

To be sorry in sorrow, is very sorrowful in the wise; and therefore you who have yourself spoken this precepts before, should now be overwhelmed in sorrow, but remain as unmoved, as you are wont to unshaken all along.

Vasistha related- In this did the two hearty friends, continue to condole with one another; and console themselves by turns, under the cooling shade of the grove where they sat together.

At last the bright sun who is the light of the world, set down in darkness like an oilless lamp, by involving Kumbha under despondency of her female form.

The full blown lotuses closed their foliums, like the closing eye-lids of the busy worldlings; and the foot paths became as deserted by their passengers, as the hearts of loving wives are forlorn in the absence of their husbands, devoted to travelling and staying in distant countries.

The upper sky borrowed the semblance of the lower earth, by its spreading the curtain of darkness over the groups of its twinkling stars, like the outstretched nets of fishermen enfolding the funny tribe. ⁶

The black vault of the sky, was smiling above with its train of shining stars, as the blue bed of lakes was rejoicing with its chain of blooming lilies below; and the sounding black bees and beetles on the land, resounded to the cries of the ruddy geese in the water.

The two friends then rose and offered their evening prayers at the rising of the moon, and chanted their hymns and muttered their mantras, and took their shelter under the sylvan retreat.

Afterwards Kumbha, changed as he was in the female form, and sitting before Sikhidhwaja, lisped his faltering speech to him in the following manner.

Sir, I seem to fall down and cry out and melt away in my tears, to see myself even now changed to my feminine figure in your presence.

See Sir, how quickly are the hairs on my head lengthened to curling locks, and to how they sparkle with, strings of pearls fastened to them, like the brilliant clusters of stars in the azure sky.

Look here at these two snowy balls bulging out of my bosom, like two white lotus-buds rising on the surface of waters in the vernal season.

Look how my long robe is stretched down to the heels, and how it mantles my whole body, like the person of a female.

Look at these gemming ornaments and wreathes of flowers decorating my person, like he blooming blossoms of spring ornamenting the forest tree.

Lo! the moon-bright vest covering the crown of my head, ⁷: and the necklaces hanging about my body, ⁸.

Look at my features, how they are converted to their effeminate comeliness, and see how my whole frame, graced all over with feminine loveliness.

O! how very great in my sorrow, as this sudden change of mine to a woman; and ah! tell me friend, what am I to do, and where to go with this my female form.

I perceive also the change to take place in my inner parts, and in my thighs and posteriors; Kumbha said so far to her friend, and then remained quite mute and silent.

The prince also, seeing him thus, remained in his mute gaze and silence, and then after a while, he open his mouth and spoke as follows:

It is of course very sorrowful and pitiable, to see you thus transformed to a female; but you sir, who know the truth, know also that there is no contending with fate.

Whatever is destined, must come to pass; and wise men must not be startled at or feel sorry for the same; because all those events betake the body only, and cannot affect the inward soul.

Kumbha replied- So it is, and I must bear with my feminine form, with an unfeminine soul. ⁹

I will no more sorrow for, what is never to be averted; but must endure with patience what I cannot abjure. Relying on this principle, they, alleviated their sorrow for what was impossible to avoid.

They passed their nights in peace, and slept in the same bed without touching one another; and
Kumbha rose in the morning in his masculine form again, without any trace of his female fea­tures and feminine beauty or grace.

Kumbha was Kumbha again, by being shorn of his female form; and thus he passed as bisexual and biformal being of the Brāhman-boy Kumbha by day, and of cudāla the princess by night.

In his male form, Kumbha continued as a friend to the prince in the day time; and in female form of cudāla, he lived as a virgin maid with him at night.

Thus did cudāla cling to her husband, as a string of necklace hangs upon the neck and breast of a person. They then continued to wander in the company of one another, to different countries and over distant hills, to satisfy their curiosity.

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