CHAPTER XXIX.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
77. Do not allow yourself, O Ráma, to ramble about like other men, who wander like senseless beasts in their native forests of the Jambudwípa.
78. Do not plunge yourself like the foolish buffets, in the bog of your relatives and friends; it appears to you as a cold bath for a while, but daubs you with its mud and mire afterwards. (The circle of relatives may appear as a limpid lake at first; but dive in it, and you will be daubed with its dirt afterwards).
79. Drive afar your desire of bodily enjoyments from you, and follow the steps of respectable men; and having well considered thy sole object of the soul (from the great sayings of the sástras), attend to thyself or soul only. (Consider the objective soul in thy subjective self).
80. It is not proper that you should plunge yourself, into a sea of intolerable cares and troubles, for the sake of your impure and frail body, which is but a trifle in comparison with the inestimable soul.
81. The body which is the production of one thing (i.e. the product of past deeds), and is possessed by another (i.e. the demon of egoism); which puts another one (i.e. the mind) to the pain of its supportance, and affords its enjoyment to a fourth one (i.e. the living soul), as a complicate machinery of many powers to the ignorant. (The human frame is a mechanism of the body and mind, its egoism and living principle).
82. As solidity is the only property of the stone, so the soul has the single property of its entity alone; and its existence being common in all objects, it is impossible for any thing else to subsist beside it. (The soul being the only ens, it is of its nature the all in all; the minds etc. being but its attributes).
83. As thickness is the property of stone, so are the mind and others but properties of the soul; and there being nothing which is distinct from the common entity of the soul, it is impossible for any thing to have a separate existence.
84. As density relates to the stone, and dimension bears its relation to the pot; so the mind and other are not distinct from one common existence of the soul: (which pervades and constitutes the whole).
85. Hear now of another view of spiritual light, for dispelling the darkness of delusion; as it was revealed to me of yore, in a cavern of mount Kailása. (The former seat of my devotion).
86. There is a mountain peak, bright as the collected mass of moon-beams, and penetrating the vault of heaven, where the god with the semi-circular moon on his fore-head, delivered this doctrine to me for appeasing the miseries of the world.
87. This mountain peak is famed by the name of Kailása, on which the god Hara—the consort of Gouri, wearing the crescent moon on his head, holds his residence.
88. It was to worship this great god, that I had once dwelt on that mountain long ago; and constructed my hermit-cell on the bank of the holy stream of Ganges. (Which ran down by its side).
89. I remained there in the practice of ascetic austereties, for the performance of my holy devotion; and was beset by bodies of adepts, dis-coursing on subjects of the sacred sástras.
90. I made baskets for filling them with flowers for my worship, and for keeping the collection of my books in them; and was employed in such other sacred tasks, in the forest groves of the Kailása mountain.
91. While thus I had been passing my time, in discharging the austereties of my devotion; it happened to turn out once on the eighth day of the dark side of the moon of the month of srávana.
92. And after its evening twilight was over, and the sun light had faded in the face of the four quarters of the sky, that all objects became invisible to sight, and stood rapt in their saint like silence.
93. It was then after half of the first watch of the night had fled away, there spread a thick darkness over the groves and wood lands, and required a sharp sword to sever it. (Asich' hedyá tami-srá-tenebra ensis encesibelia).
94. My intense meditation was broken at this instant, and my trance gave way to the sight of outward objects, which I kept looking upon for sometime; when I observed a flaming fire suddenly rising in the forest to my view.
95. It was as bright as a big white cloud, and as brilliant as the shining orb of the moon; It illumed the groves on all sides, and struck with amazement at the vision.
96. As I viewed it by the sight of my understanding, or the mental vision which was glowing in my mind; I came to see the god Siva with the crescent of the moon on his fore-head, standing on the table land and manifest to view.
97. With his hand clasping the hand of Gaurí, he was led on ward by his brace attendant Nandí walking before him; when I after informing my pupils about it, proceeded forward with the due honorarium in my hand.
98. Led by the sight, I came to the presence of the god with a gladsome mind; and then I offered handfuls of flowers to the three eyed-god from a distance, in token of my reverence to him.
99. After giving the honor (Arghya), which was worthy of him, I bowed down before the god, and accosted him; when he cast his kind look upon me, from his moon-bright and clear sighted eyes.
100. Being blest by his benign look, which took away all my pain and sin from me; I did my homage to the god that was seated on the flowery level land, and viewed the three worlds lying open before him.
101. Then advancing forward, I offered unto him the honorarium, flowers and water that I had with me, and scattered before him heaps of mandára flowers, that grew there abouts.
102. I then worshipped the god with repeated obeisances and various eulogiums; and next adored the goddess Gaurí with the same kind of homage together with her attendant goddesses and demigods.
103. After my adoration was over, the god having the crescent moon on his head, spoke to me that was seated by him, with his speech as mild as the cooling beams of the full-moon.
104. Say O Bráhman, whether thy affections are at peace within thyself, and have found their rest in supreme spirit, and whether your felicitous feelings are settled in the true object of divine essence.
105. Whether your devotion is spading unobstructed by the demons of your passions, and whether felicity attends on you.
106. Have you obtained the obtainable one, that is alone to be obtained, and are you set above the fears, that incessantly hunt after all mankind?
107. After the Lord of gods and the sole cause of all created beings, had spoken in this manner; I replied to him submissively in the following words.
108. O Lord! there is nothing unattainable, nor is there anything to be feared by any one, who remembers the three eyed god at all times in his mind; and whose hearts are filled with rapture by their constant remembrance of thee.
109. There is no one in the womb of this world, in any country or quarter, or in the mountains or forests, that does not bow down his head before thee.
110. Those whose minds are entirely devoted to their remembrance of thee, get the rewards of the meritorious acts of their past lives; and water the trees of their present lives, in order to produce their manifold fruit in future births and lives.
111. Lord! thy remembrance expands the seed of our desire, thou art the jar of the nectar of our knowledge, and thou art the reservoir of patience, as the moon is the receptacle of cooling beams.
112. Thy remembrance, Lord! is the gate way to the city of salvation, and it is thy remembrance which I deem as the invaluable gem of my thoughts.
113. O Lord of creation! thy remembrance sets its foot on the head of all our calamities (i.e. tramples over them). (Because Siva is called Sankara for his doing good to all, by removal of their misfortunes).
114. I said thus far, and then bowing down lowly before the complacent deity, I addressed him, O Ráma, in the manner as you shall hear from me.
115. Lord! it is by thy favour that I have the fulness of my heart's content on every side; yet as there is one doubt lurking in my mind, I will request thee to explain it fully to me.
116. Say with your clear understanding, and without hesitation and weariness, regarding the manner of the adoration of gods, which removes all our sins and confers all good unto us. (The query was quite appropriate as the Tantras of Siva treat principally of such formularies).