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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 27 - Conclusion of the narrative of Bhuśanda
Bhuśunda added- I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am and how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that I was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior intelligence.
Vasistha replied: O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have given of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me with admiration. 1
Blessed are those eminent souls 2, that have the good fortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of antiquity is next to none, expect the great grand-father of the gods the lotus born Brahmā himself.
Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your holy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full recital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.
I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the dignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men; but have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.
It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great soul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like yourself any where. 3
We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow of a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy personage, like yourself in any part of this world.
I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also at the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and seen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.
Now please do enter your cell, and fare you well in this place; it is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noon-tide service, call my presence to my heavenly seat.
Hearing this Bhuśunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out a golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. 4
The accomplished 5 crow made a vessel with his beak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers and pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be offered as an honorarium-arghya worthy of the divine sage.
The prime-born 6 bird, then took-the Arghya with some water and flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head to foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed god śiva.
Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk after me 7. So saying I rose from my seat and made a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight. 8
Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when I hindered his proceeding further by compelling him to return after shaking our hands. 9
The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in my ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it is difficult to part from the company of the good 10.
Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate air, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea; and I fall with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded upward to meet the Munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the Pleiades, where I was honourably received by Arundhatī my wife.
It was in the beginning of the golden age (Satya Yuga) before, and after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at Bhuśundas, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.
Now, O Rāma! that golden age has gone by, and the Treata or silver age has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that you are born to subdue your enemies. 11
It is now only eight years past that 12 I met with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and same as I had seen him long before.
Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character of Bhuśunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you consider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. 13
Vālmikī says: The man of pure heart, that considers well the narrative of the virtuous Bhuśunda, will undoubtedly pass over the unstable gulf of this world, which is, full of formidable dangers on all sides.
Footnotes
1. It beggars description, and is merabile diclu
2. great men
3. Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient (savans), but never so holy and godly as a saint
4. Holy persons have the power to add to the members of their bodies
5. lit. full knowing
6. ancient
7. in token of your respect
8. Bistāra-aseat, means also a bedding like the Persian bistar and urdu bistara derived from the root strī to spread
9. The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and parting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with thv ancients
10. or of good people
11. From the above statement, it is clear that during the Rama's trine Tretā had started or say it was the started of Tretā when Rāma was born.
12. or the eight years since
13. In order to be as long-lived as he
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