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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 13 - Anecdote of Indra, and an Account of the Atomic World
Bhuśunda said: The universe which contains the totality of existence, and appears as a wide extended sphere; is not in need of any preexistent place or time as recipients of its substance just as the etherial light 1, requires no prop or pillar in the heavens for its support. 2
The fabrication of this triple world, 3, is the mere thought or working of the mind; and all this is more quiet and calm, more minute and light, and much more translucent than the odour residing in the air.
The world is a wondrous phenomenon of the intellect, which though it is as minute as a particle of fragrance borne by the wind; appears yet as big as a mountain to the sensation of the outward organs of sense. 4
Every one 5 views and thinks the world, in the same form and light as it presents unto him; just as the operations of the mind and visions in a dream, appear as they occur to their recipients and to no other besides. 6
Here I will instance an old legend, of what happened to Indra-the lord of Gods, when he was confined in a minute particles in times of yore.
It came to pass once upon a time, that this world grew up as a small fig fruit on a branch of the Yuga-tree, in the great arbor of a kalpa age. 7
The mundane fruit was composed of the three compartments of the earth, sky and infernal regions, containing the gods and demigods of heaven, the hills and living creatures on earth, the marshy lands below, with troops of gnats and flies 8.
It is a wondrous production of the intellect 9; and is as high as handsome full-blown buds with the juice of desire 10. It is odorous with all kinds of flavourous frangrances, that we can feel and tempting to the mind by the variety of its savours that are sweet to taste. 11?
This tree grew upon the Brahma-tree 12, which was over hung by millions of creepers and orchids; egoism is the stalk of the fruit, which appeared beautiful to sight.
It is encompassed around with oceans, seas and arteries, and whose face-light is the principal door. It is salvating the starry heaven above and the moistearth below.
It is ripened at the end of the Kalpa age, when it becomes the food of black crows and cuckoos 13; or if it falls below there is an end of it, by its absorption in the indifferent Brahma.
There lived at one time the lord of Gods-the great Indra in that fruit, just as a big mosquito resides in an empty pot in company with the small gnats as their great leader.
But this great lord was weakened in his strength and valour by his study of and the lectures-of his preceptor on spiritualism; which made him a spiritualist, and seer in all past and future matters.
It happened once on a time, when the valiant god Nārāyana and his heavenly host, had been reposing in their rest; and their leader Indra was so debilated in his arms; that the demigods rose in open rebellion against God.
Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire, and fought with the fighting Asuras for a long time; but being at last defeated by the superior strength, he fled away in haste from the field.
He ran in all the ten directions, and was pursued by the enemy wherever he fled; he could get no place of rest, as a sinner has no resting place in the next world; 14.
Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, he availed to himself of that opportunity; he compressed the thought of his big body in his mind, and became of a minute form on the outside of himself. 15
He then entered into the womb of an atom, which was glittering amidst the expanse of solar rays; as a bee enters into the cup or seed vessel of a lotus bud, by means of the consciousness of his personal minuteness.
He had his instant rest in that state, and then his hope of final bliss in the next; by utter forgetfulness of the warfare, and attainment of the ultimate beatitude of the nirvāna turpitude in the end. 16
He instantly conceived in his imagination, his royal palace in that lotus, and he sat upon his lotiform seat (padmāsana) within it, as if he was resting on his own bed.
Then Indra otherwise called Hari, being seated in that mansion, saw an imaginary city in it, containing a grand edifice in the midst; with its walls studded with gems, pearls and corals.
Hari 17 beheld from within the city, a large country extending about it, and containing many hills and villages, pasture grounds for kine, forests and human habitations.
Indra then felt the desire of enjoying that country, with all the lands and hills, the seas to their utmost boundaries, as he had formed in his imagination.
Śakra (Indra) afterwards conceived the desire, of possessing the three worlds to himself, together with all the earth and ocean, sky and the infernal regions, the heavens, planetary spheres above and the ranges of mountains below.
Thus did Indra remain there as the lord of gods, and in possession of all abundance for his enjoyments; and their was born to him afterwards, a son named Kunda of great strength and valour.
Then at the end of his life time, this Indra of unblemished reputation, forsook his mortal frame, and became extinct in his nirvāna dissolution, as when a lamp is extinguished for want of oil.
Kunda reigned over the three worlds 18, and then having given birth to a boy he departed to his ultimate state of bliss, after expiration of the term of his life.
That son also reigned in his time 19, and then departed at the end of his life time, to the holy state of supreme felicity, by leaving a son after him.
In this manner a thousand generations of the grandsons of the first Indra, have reigned and passed away in their time; and there is still a prince by name of Anśaka, reigning over the state of the lord of gods.
Thus the generations of the lord of immortals, still hold their sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra; in that sacred particle of sunbeam in empty air, although that atomic practical is continually going to decay and waste in this long course of time: 20.
Footnotes
1. of the twilight
2. The simultaniety of the seeming containers - time and space, and their apparent contents- the wide world and the broad light, disproves the priority of the receptacles with regard to their occupants, as it is commonly understood to be. So the verse - Here there is no container or contained, nothing first or last; But all is one that fills and contains this all. Gloss
3. containing the celestial, terrestial and infernal regions
4. This is the effect of the deception of the senses
5. animal being
6. The deceptive senses and dreams, depict objects in different aspects to different persons
7. The periods of a Yuga and kalpa are represented as a tree and forest by metaphor
8. fluttering about the fig tree of the world, and representing the diseases and dangers that hover over it
9. which is its architect
10. it is full of all delights, that the heart can desire
11. Does it allude to the forbidden fruit which was enticing to sight and sweet to taste, and meant the world itself that was to be avoided
12. otherwise called the udumbara or fig tree
13. messengers of dark-some death
14. but continues to rove about in never ending transmigrations of his soul
15. It is the inner thought that moulds the outer body, according to the inner type
16. All action is warfare, and cessation from it gives peace and rest
17. the Indra
18. of and like his father
19. like the sire
20. yet the imagination of its existence has laid a firm hold on the minds of their posterity forever
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