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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 85 - Investigation Into True Happiness

Vasistha continued- In this manner, the prince sikhidhwaja remained in his monastery in the forest, in his state of perfect felicity; while the princess remained at home, and did as you shall now hear from me.

After the prince had gone away from the palace at midnight, cudālā started from her sleep, as a timid fawn lying in the village, is startled by fear.

She found the bed vacated by her husband and though it as dreary as the, sky, without the sun and moon. ¹

She rose up with a melancholy face, and with her heart full of sorrow and sadness; and her limbs were as lank as the leaves of plants, without being well watered in summer.

Sorrow sat heavy in her heart, and drove the charm and cheerfulness of her countenance; and she remained as a winter day, over cast by a cloud or covered by a hoar-frost over its face.

She sat awhile on the bedstead, and thought with sorrow in herself; saying, "Ah woe unto me: that my lord is gone away from here, and abandoned a kingdom for a retreat in the woods.

What then can I do now, than repair to my husband; where he is, because it is appointed both by the law of nature and God, that the husband is the only resort and support of the wife.

Having thought so, cudala rose up to follow her husband and she fled by the door of a window into the open air. ²

She roamed in her aerial course, and by the force of her breath on the wings of air; and appeared before the face of the aerial spirits (siddhas), as a second moon moving in the skies.

As she was passing at the night time, she happened to behold her lord roving about with a sword in his hand; and appearing as a ghost of a Vetāla or demon wondering in the solitary for­est.

The princess seeing her husband in this manner from her aerial seat, she began to reflect on the future state which awaited on her husband; and which she foresaw by power of her yoga.

It is certain, O Rāma! that whatever is allotted in the book of fate of befall on anybody at any time or place or manner, the same is sure to take place at the very moment and spot and in the same way; ³.

The princess seeing plainly in her presence, whatever is to take place on her husband; and knowing it to be averted by no means, she stopped from going to him to communicate the same:

Be my visit postponed to him to a future occasion, when it is destined for me to be in his company again.

Thinking so in her mind cudālā turned her course from him, and returned to her inner apartment and reclined on her milk white pillow; as the crescent of the moon lies recumbent on the hoary forehead of Hara.

She proclaimed to her people, that the prince was gone on some important occasion; and having relieved with the consolation of his quick return, she took the reins of the government in her own hands.

She managed the state in the manner of her husband, according to the established rules of toleration; and with the same care and vigilance, as the husband-woman guards her ripening corn-­fields.

In this manner they passed their days without seeing one another, and the conjugal pair lived separated from each other; in their respective habitations of the royal palace and the solitary forest.

And in this manner passed on their days and nights, their weeks and fortnights, their months and seasons in regular succession over one and another; the one counting his days in the woods and the other in her princely palace.

What is the use of a lengthy description of full eighteen years, which glided on slowly over the separated couple, the one dwelling in her palatial dome, and the other in his wood land retreat.

Many more years elapsed in this manner, until the hermit prince Sikhidhwaja was overtaken by the hoary old age; in his holy hermitage in a cell of the great Mandāra mountain.

Knowing the passions of the prince to be on the wane, with his declining age and gray hairs, and finding herself not yet too old to overtake him in the distant forest.

And believing that it was the proper time for her to prevail on him, and to bring him back to the palace, she thought of joining her husband where he was.

With these thoughts, she made up her mind of going towards the Mandāra mountain; and started from her home at night, and mounted on the wings of air to the upper sky.

As she was moving onward on the pinions of air, she beheld in the upper sky some Siddha women, wearing the thin bark of the kalpa tree and girt with jewels of clustering gems.

These were the inhabitants of the garden of paradise, and going out to meet their Siddha husbands; and sprinkled over with perfumeries, shedding their dews as bright moon-beams.

She breathed the air perfumed by the flowers of the garden of paradise, and worn by the Siddhas of Eden; and wallowed in the moon­beams, waving like the billows of the milky ocean.

She felt a purer moon light, as she ascended the higher atmosphere; and she passed amidst the clouds, as the flashing lightning moves in their midst. ⁴

She said, this flashing lightning though situated in the bosom of her cloudy spouse, is yet looking at him repeatedly with the twinkling of her eyes; so must I look out for my absent lord, as I pass like the lightning in the midway sky.

It is true, she said, that nature is irresponsible during the life time of a person; hence it is impossible for my disquieted mind, to have its quiet without the sight of my loving and lion like lord.

My mind roves and runs mad, when I say, I will see my lord, and when I will see these creepers turning round and clasping their supporting tree. ⁵

My mind loses its patience to see the contract of these senseless creepers, and the excursion of the superior siddha females inquest of their consorts. ⁶

How then and when, shall I like them come to meet the man that is situated in my heart.

These gentle breezes, and these cooling moon-beams and those plants of the forest, do all continue to disquiet my heart and set it on fire; ⁷.

O my simple heart, why dost you throb in vain and thrill at every vein within me and oh my faithful mind, that are pure as air, why dost you loose your reason and right discretion?

It is you O faithless mind! that dost excite my heart to ran after its spouse; better remain with your yarning in yourself, than torment my quiet spirit with your longings.

Or why is it, O silly woman! that you dost long in vain after your husband, who possibly become too old ⁸; he is now an ascetic and too week in his bodily frame, and devoid of all his earthly desires.

I think you, desires of the enjoyment of his princely honours and pleasures, have now been utterly rooted out of his mind; and the plant of his fondness for sensual gratification, is now as dry as a channel that pours forth its waters into a large river or sea.

I think my husband, who was as fond of me as to form one soul with myself; has become as callous to soft passions, as a dried and withered tree.

Or I will try the power of my yoga to waken his mind to sense, and infuse the eager longings and throbbing of my heart into his.

I will collect the thoughts of the ascetic devotee to one focus, and employ them towards the government of his realm; where we may be settled forever to our hearts content.

O I have after long discovered the way to my object, and it is by infusing my very thoughts into the mind of your husband.

The unanimity of the minds of the wedded pair, and the pleasure of their constant union; contribute to the highest happiness of human beings on earth.

Revolving in this manner in her mind, the princess cudālā passed onward in his aerial journey; now mounting on mountains and mountainous clouds, and then passing the bounds of lands and visible horizons; she reached the sight of Mandāra, and found the glen and cavern in it.

She entered the grove as an aerial spirit invisible to sight, and passed as the air amidst it known by the shaking of the leaves of trees. ⁹

She beheld a leafy but in one corner of the wood, and knew her husband by the power of her yoga; though appeared to be transformed to another person.

She found his body that was decorated before by a variety of jewels, and glinted as the mount of Meru with its gold; to have grown as lean and thin and as dark and dry, as a withered and dried leaf.

He wore a vest of rays, and seemed as if, he had dipped in a fountain of ink; he sat alone in one spot, and appeared as the god Śiva to be wholly devoid of all desire.

He was sitting on the barren ground, and stringing the flowers to his braided hairs; when the beauteous princess approached before him.

She was moved to sorrow at the sight of his miserable plight, and thus bespoke to herself inaudibly in her mind. Alas, how painful is it to behold this piteous sight !

O! the great stupidity that rises from ignorance of spiritual knowledge, and which has brought on this miserable condition on this self­-deluded prince.

I must not call him unfortunate, as long as he is my husband; though the deep darkness of his mind ¹⁰ hath brought to this miserable plight. ¹¹

I must try my best to bring him to the knowledge of truth, which will no doubt restore him to his sense of enjoyment here, and of his liberation hereafter, and change his figure to his another form altogether.

I must advance nearer to him to instil understanding in his mind, or else my words will make no effect in him; who treats me always as his young and silly wife.

I will therefore admonish my husband in the figure of a devotee, and it is possible that my admonition delivered in this manner, will make its effect in him; who is now grown hoary with age; ¹².

It is possible that good senses may dawn in the clear understanding, which is not perverted from its nature; saying so the princess cudala took the shape of a Brāhman boy on herself.

She reflected a little on the Agni-soma-­mantra, and changed her form as the water turns to a wave; and then alighted on the earth, in the shape of a Brāhman's lad.

She advanced toward her lord with a smiling countenance, and the prince Sikidhwaja beheld the Brāhman boy advancing towards him.

He appeared to, come from some other forest, and stood before him in the form of devotion itself; his body was as bright as the molten gold, and his person was ornamented with a string of pearls.

The white sacrificial thread graced his neck, and his body was covered with two pieces of milk white vests; he held the sacred water pot on one hand, and with his pupils staff in the other, he made his approach to the prince. ¹³

His wrist was entwined by a string of beads, and a long and double chain of rosary hang from his neck to the ground. ¹⁴

His head was covered over by long and ­flowing jet black hairs, in the manner of the strings of black bees, fluttering about the tops of white lotuses; and the radiance of his, shed a lustre on the spot.

His face ornamented with earrings, glowed as the rising sun with his lustre of rosy rays, and the knotted hair on the top of his head with the mandara flower fastened on it, appeared as pinnacle of a mountain with the rising moon above it.

The husband that sat quiet with his tall stature, and his limbs and senses under his subjection; appeared as a mount of ice with the ashes rubbed all over his body.

He saw the Brāhman boy appearing before him, as the full moon rising on the laureate mount of Meru; and rose before him with the respect. ¹⁵

Thinking his guest as the son of some God, the prince stood with his bare-feet before him; and addressed him saying, obeisance to you O you son of a God, take this seat and sit yourself there.

He pointed out to him with his hand the leafy bed that was spread before him, and offered him a handful of flowers which he poured into his hands.

The Brāhman boy responded to him saying; "I greet you in return, O you son of a king! that lookest like a dew drop or the beaming moon­light sparkling on a lotus leaf." He then received the flowers from his hand and sat upon the leafy bed.

Sikhidhwaja said- Tell me O you heaven born boy, whence you comest and whither you goest, as for me it is lucky day that has brought you to my sight.

Please accept this pure water, and fragrant flowers and this honorarium also; and receive this string of flowers, that I have strung with my hands; and so be all well with you.

Vasistha related- So saying, Sikhidhwaja offered the flowers, the wreathed blossoms, the honorariums and other offerings; as directed by the ceremonial law to his worshipful lady.

Cudālā said- I have travelled far and wide over many countries on the surface of this earth, and have never met with so hearty a reception and such honours; as I have now received from you.

Your humility, courtesy and com-placence bespeak you to be highly favoured of the Gods, and betoken you to be attended with long life on earth. ¹⁶

Tell me O devotee, whether you have ever applied your mind towards the acquirement of your final liberation and extinction; after the abandonment of all your earthly desires, by the magnanimity and tranquilization of your soul for a long time. ¹⁷

You have, my dear Sir, chosen a very painful alternative for your final liberation, that you have made the vow of your undergoing the hardship of this forest life, by forsaking the care of your large dominion. ¹⁸

Sikhidhwaja replied- I wonder not that you must know all things, being a God yourself and you wearest this form of the Brāhman boy, yet the supernatural beauty of your person, bespeaks you to be an all-knowing deity.

Me things these members of the body, are bedded with the ambrosial beams of moon-light, or how could your very appearance shed such nectarous piece even at the first sight.

O handsome boy! I see in your person a great resemblance of the features of my beloved one, who is now reigning over my kingdom. ¹⁹

Please now to refresh your fair and fatigued frame, with wearing these flowery chaplet from the head to foot; as the vest of a hoary cloud, invests a mountain from its top to bottom.

I see your face as beautiful, as the stainless moon; and your limbs as delicate, as tender petals of flowers; and I find them now waning and fading under the solar gleams.

Know pretty youth that I was for the service of the Gods, that I had wreathed the flowers together; and now I offer and bequeath them to you, that are no less a God to me.

My life is crowned to day with its best luck by its service of a guest like yourself, for it is said by the wise that attendance on guests is meritorious than the merit of attending on the Gods. ²⁰

Now deign O moon faced Deva: (deity) to reveal unto me what God you are, and the progeny of what deity that dost deign to dignify me with your visit; please tell me all this and remove the doubts that disturb my breast.

The Brāhman boy replied:- Hear me, prince relate to you all that you requirest to know of me; for who is there so uncivil, that will deceive and not comply to the request of his humble suppliant.

There lives in this world, the well known the holy saint Nārada by name; who is the snowy spot of pure camphor, on the face of those that are famed for the purity of their lives.

It was at one time that this Godly saint sat in his devotion in a cavern of the golden mountain; where the holy river of Gangā, fast flows with her running current and huge billows dashing against the shore.

The saint stepped out once to the beach of the river, to see how it glided on in its course; like a necklace of gems turned down from the mountain on high.

He heard there at once the tinkling sound of trinkets and bracelets, and a mixed murmur of vocal voice; and felt the curiosity to know what it was and whence it came.

He lightly looked towards the sacred stream and observed there an assemblage of young ladies, who equalled the celestial nymphs Rambhā and Tilottamā in the beauty of their per­sons; who had come out to sport by and bath in the clear waters of the holy river.

They plunged and played in the waters removed from the sight of men, and were all naked with their uncovered breasts; blooming as the buds of golden lotuses in the lake.

These were jogging to and fro and dashing against one another like the ripened fruits of trees, and seemed to be filled with flavoured liquor for the gidding of their observers.

Their swollen bosoms formed the sanctuary of the God of love, and were washed by the pure waters of the sacred river.

Their fullness with luscious liquor, put to blush the sweet waters of the sacred river of Gangā; they were as mound in the garden of paradise, and as the wheels of the car for the God Kāma to ride upon.

Their buttocks were as pillars of the bridge in water, obstructing and dividing the free passage of the waters of the Ganges; and their upper part of the body, gives a lustre of world's beauty.

The shadow of one another's body was clearly visible to the naked eye, on the limpid waters of the Gangā; like a Kalpa tree in rainy season, with all its branches.

The thick verdure of the verdant season, had put to shade the light of the day; and the flying dust of flowers, had filled the forest air with fragrance.

Water-fowls of various kinds were sporting on the banks, as they do by the sea side and about the watering places round the trees; while the budding breasts of these dames, had put to blush the blooming buds of lotuses.

They held up their faces, which were as beautiful as a bud of lotuses; while their loosened hairs hang by them, like swarms of bees; and the loose glances of them eye-balls, were playing as the fluttering black-bees.

Their swollen breasts resembling the laureate lotuses, which were used by the Gods as golden cups to hide their ambrosial nectar; therein for fear of its being ravished by the demons and demigods.

They were now seen to be hide themselves in the secret bowers and caverns of the mountain, like lotuses hidden under foliage; and now hastening to the cooling beach of the river, to leave their lovely limbs in its limpid stream.

The saint saw the bevy of the young ladies, resembling the body of the full moon complete with all its digits; and his mind was ravished with their beauty; ²¹.

He lost the balance of his reason, and became elated with giddiness; and his breath of his life throbbed in his heart, by impulse of the delight that raged and boiled in his breast.

At last the excess of his rapture, gave effusion of his passion; as the fullness of a cloud in summer, breaks out in water in the rainy weather.

The saint turned as wan waning noon, and as the pale moon-light in frost; and like a fading plant, torn from its supporting trce.

He faded as the stalk of a creeper parted in two, and withered away as a sapling after it has lost its juicy sap.

Sikhidhwaja asked- How is it that the pure and pure-less saint, who is liberated in his life time and acquainted with all knowledge; who is void of desires and devoid of passions, and who is as pureas the clear air both in the inside as well as outside of his body.

How is it that even he the holy Nārada himself, could loose his patience and countenance who leads his life of celibacy all along?

Cudālā replied- Know, O princely sage ! that all living beings in the three worlds not excepting even the Gods; have their bodies composed of both ingredients ²² by their very nature.

Some remain in ignorance, and other in knowledge to the end of their lives; and some remaining in happiness, and others in misery to the end of their days.

Some thrive in happiness with their virtue of contentment and the like, and are enlightened in their minds like a room by the light of the lamps; and as the bosom of the sea by the light of the luminaries of heaven.

Some are tormented by their hunger and poverty, and are involved in misery like the face of nature under the darkness of clouds.

The true and pure reality of the soul ²³, being once lost to one's sight ²⁴; makes its appearance before him, like a dark and thick cloud of rainy weather.

Though one may be employed in his continuous investigation into spirituality, yet a moments neglect of his spiritualism is sure to darken his spiritual light; as the apparition of the world appears to sight.

As the succession of light and darkness makes the course of the day and night, so the return of the pain and pleasure indicates the progress of life. ²⁵

Thus the two states of pleasure and pain, are known to accompany over lives from birth to death; as the results of our prior acts ²⁶.

This impression of past, life marks the lives of the ignorant entirely, as the red colouring sticks forever in a cloth; but it is not so wish the intelligent, whose knowledge of truth wipes off the stigma of their pristine acts.

As the eternal hue of a gem, whether it be good or bad, is exhibited on the outside of it; and also as a crystal stone however clear it may be, takes the colour of the outward object in it; ²⁷.

But it is not so with the intelligent knower of truth (tatwajna), whose soul is free from all inward and outward impressions in his life time; and whose mind is never tinged like that of the ignorant, by the reflexion of anything about him. ²⁸

It is not only the contiguity or presence of things or pleasures, that taint the minds of the ignorant; but the absence and loss also are causes of great regret, from the stain they live in the memory; as it is not only a new paint that paints a thing, but also the vestiges that it leaves behind, give it also a colouring. ²⁹

Thus as the minds of the ignorant are never cleansed from the taint of their favourite objects, so they are never from their bondage in this world; like the liberated sage by his want of earthly attachment. Because it is the parvitude of our desires that contributes to our liberation, while the amplitudes of our wishes lead us to our continued bondage in this world. ³⁰

Sikhidhwaja said- Tell me my lord, why men feel sorry or joyous at their pain or pleasure, to which they are bound by their birth in this world; and for what is far off from them: ³¹

I find your words my lord to be as clear as they are petty and full of meaning, and the more I hear them so much the more do I thirst to listen to them; as the peacock is insatiate with the roarings of clouds.

Cudālā answered- It is pleasant to inquire into the cause of our birth, and how the soul being accompanied with the body, derives its knowledge through the senses, and feels thereby a delight which is apparent in babies: ³².

But the living soul ³³, which is contained in the heart and runs through the Kundalinī artery as the breath of life, is subject to pain and sorrow by its very birth. ³⁴

The living soul or vital spirit ³⁵, come to be confined in the arterial chains of the prison houses of the different bodies; by its entering into the lungs breathing with the breath of life. ³⁶

The breath of life circulating through the body, and touching its different parts or the organs of sense, raise their sensations in the soul; and as the moisture of the ground grows the trees and shrubs on earth, so doth our vitality produce the sensations of the pleasure and pain in the soul.

The living soul being confined in the arteries of different bodies, gives a degree of happiness and steadiness to some, which the miserable can never enjoy. ³⁷

Know that the living soul, is said to be liberated in the same proportion as it manifests its tranquilized state; and know also that it is bounded bondage in the same degree, as it appears to be sorry in the face and choked in its breathing. ³⁸

The alternate feeling of pain and pleasure, is likewise the bondage of the soul and no other, but this and it is the want of these alternations, that constitutes its liberation; and these are the two states of the living soul.

As long as the deceptive senses, do not bring the false sensations of pain and pleasure unto the soul; so long does it rest in its state of sweet composure, and the calm tranquility of the positive rest.

The invisible soul coming in sight of some transient pleasure or want of pain, becomes as joyous as the cheerful sea passing the reflexion of the bright moon-beams in its bosom.

The soul equally exults at the sight of pleasure, as it grieves at the knowledge of its unsteadiness; as a foolish cat rejoices to see of fish, which it has not the power to catch or hold fast in its clutches.

When the soul, has the pure knowledge of the intelligible and the cognition of itself; it comes to know, that there is no such thing as positive pain or pleasure; and has thereby its calm and quiet composure forever, and under every circumstance.

When it comes to know that it has no concern with any pain or pleasure; and that its living is to no purpose at all; it is then said to be awakened in itself, and to rest in its quietude of nirvāna-­extinction; ³⁹.

When the living soul comes to know by its internal intuition, that pain and pleasure are unreal in their nature; it is no longer concerned about them, but rests quiet by within itself.

When the soul comes to the belief, that the visible world is no other than the vacuity of Intellect or Brahmā himself; it gets its rest in its quietness, and becomes as cool as an oil-less and extinguished lamps. ⁴⁰

The belief that all nature is vacuity, and all existence is the one unity together with the thought of an infinite inanity; is what leads the soul to its unconsciousness of pain and pleasure. ⁴¹

The thoughts of pleasure and pain therefore are as false, as the false appearance of the world; and this error is inherited by the living soul from Brahmā the first of living beings in the world. ⁴²

Whatever was thought and ordained by the first creative power in the beginning, the same has taken root in the living soul; and is going on even to the present time as its nature.

Sikhidhwaja asked- It is only when one feels some pleasure in his mind, that it runs in the blood through his veins and arteries; but the holy Nārada could not be affected by the sight, nor drop his semen from him.

Cudālā replied- The animal soul being exited ⁴³, excites the living breath of prāna to motion; and the whole body obeys the dictate of the mind, as the body of soldier obeys the command of their commander.

The vital airs being put to motion, they move the internal sap and serum from their seats; as the blowing winds bear away the fragrance of flowers and the dust of leaves, and drop down the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees.

The semen being put to motion falls downwards as the clouds being driven together burst into the rain water.

Sikhidhwaja said- O you divine boy! that knowest both the past and present states of things, as it appears from your instructive discourse; please to instruct me at present, what you mean by the nature of things by the Brahmic power of Brahmā.

The semen then passes out of the body by the canals of the veins and arteries, as the running waters pass through the channels and canals of a river.

Cudālā replied- Nature is that intrinsic character, which is implanted in the constitution of things at the beginning of their creation; and the same which continues to this day the essential part of the ghata, pata, and all other things.

It comes on by a kākātālya or accidental course of its own, as it compared by the learned with the rise and fall of waves and bubbles in the water; and the marks of the lacunas in wood and iron. ⁴⁴

It is under the power of this nature, that all things move about in the world in the various forms; and with all their properties of change and persistence. It is only the indifferent and inappetent soul that is liberated from the subjection of nature, while the apparent is fast bound to its chains and wander with their prurient nature in repeated transmigrations.

Footnotes

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