CHAPTER CLXXXIII. Description of the seven continents.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument:—Brahmá’s relation of the contending sides of blessing and imprecation.
Kunda-Danta rejoined:—I then asked the hermit of Gaurí’s asylum, whose head was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades of withered grass.
2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; how then could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord of earth at one and the same time.
3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquer the seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietly at home).
4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curse on the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as the cool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine?
5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, which is as impossible as the container and contained to become the same thing? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, must counteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything).
6. The Hermit of the asylum returned:—Attend, O holy man, to my relation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see the sequence of their contrary fates.
7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days from this place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will live happily for some time.
8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families at home: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodies burnt by their friends and relations.
9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air for a little while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in the insensibility of sleep.
10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space of their minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; and also the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on them at this time.
11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom they were done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume their particular forms, in order to make their appearance before them.
12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies, having four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and other weapons in each of them.
13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, and holding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a dark terrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance.
14. The Blessings will vauntingly say:—Avaunt thou accursed curse! it is now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their parts at their proper times.
15. The curse will say in his turn:—Be afar from here; ye blessed blessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as any one of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting its wonted course.
16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but a creature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; now as preference is given to the first born God of light, over a human being (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should have our precedence here (in the present case).
17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage got enraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation of a God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consort Rudrání—the Fury.
18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portion of Rudra’s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, as high as the exalted summit of a mountain.
19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse; the personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and then made his reply in his speech of well weighed words.
20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the end of this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination of all this altercation of ours.
21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourable decision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even now what must come to be finally determined by him.
22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied, well, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline to accept the reasonable proposal of a person.
23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahmá; in company with the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are always resorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.
24. They bended down before Brahmá, and related all that had occurred between them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides, replied to them in the following manner.
25. Brahmá said:—Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse, and let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed of intrinsic merit and essence.
26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both entered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound their understandings, and descry their respective parts.
27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one another, and having known their respective characters; came out in presence of the God, and besought him by turns.
28. The curse said:—I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my adversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the curses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and the strong thunderbolt.
29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at any time.
30. The Blessing replied:—The intellectual blessing, which its giver (the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is here present before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered unto them).
31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, and it is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing that is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is in his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his wandering at all times and places. (i.e. The consciousness of one’s merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy or suffer their results accordingly).
32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind of the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self, overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (i.e. Firm good will, turns away the evil ones).
33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it; becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly fostered in one’s self. (i.e. A good given us by others, is of no good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).
34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness, and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become perfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It is the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man, be it a holy or accursed one).
35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’s consciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded, never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts of the blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of the curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter, though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture, supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;—
36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the blessing of the god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedence over the latter).
37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them have their joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing being conjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.
38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double or divided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairy city in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens (without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has a different idea of himself, in different states of his life).
39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths before thee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave of thee, and depart to my place.