CHAPTER XIX. Story of a former Vasishtha and his wife.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
This Bráhman was equal to his namesake—the sage Vasishtha, in his age and attire, in his learning and wealth, and in all his actions and pursuits, except in his profession. (The one being a secular man, and the other the priest of the royal family).
2. His name was Vasishtha, and that of his wife Arundhatí; who was as fair as the moon, and as the star of the same name on earth.
3. She resembled her namesake the priestess of the solar race, in her virtues and parts and in all things, except in her soul and body.
4. She passed her time in true love and affection in his company, and was his all in the world, with her sweet smiling face resembling the Kumuda flower.
5. This Bráhman had been sitting once under the shady sarala trees, on the table land of his native hill, when he saw the ruler of the land, passing with his gaudy train below.
6. He was accompanied by all the members of the royal family and his troops and soldiers, and was going to a chase, with a clamour that resounded in the hills and forests.
7. The white flappers shed a stream of moon light, and the lifted banners appeared as a moving forest, and the white umbrellas made the sky a canopy to them.
8. The air was filled with dust raised by the hoofs of horses from the ground, and lines of elephants with their high haúdás, seemed as moving towers, to protect them from the solar heat and sultry winds.
9. The wild animals were running on all sides at the loud uproar of the party, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool, and shining gems and jewels were flashing all about on the persons of the party.
10. The Bráhman saw the procession and said to himself, “O how charming is royalty, which is fraught with such splendour and prosperity.”
11. Ah! how shall I become the monarch of all the ten sides, and have such a retinue of horse and elephants and foot soldiers, with a similar train of flags and flappers and blazing umbrellas.
12. When will the breeze waft the fragrance of kunda flowers, and the farina of lotuses to my bed-chamber, to lull me and my consorts to sleep.
13. When shall I adorn the countenances of my chamber maids with camphor and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of the four quarters with my fair fame, as the moon-beams decorate the night.
14. With these thoughts, the Bráhman was thenceforth determined to apply himself with vigilance, to the rigid austerities of his religion for life.
15. He was at last overtaken by infirmities which shattered his frame, as the sleets of snowfall, batter the blooming lotuses in the lake.
16. Seeing his approaching death, his faithful wife was fading away with fear, as a creeper withers at the departure of spring, for fear of the summer heat.
17. This lady then began to worship me (the personification of Wisdom) like thyself, for obtaining the boon of immortality which is hard to be had.
18. She prayed saying:—Ordain, O goddess! that the spirit of my lord may not depart from this sepulchre after his demise: and I granted her request.
19. After sometime the Bráhman died, and his vacuous spirit remained in the vacuity of that abode.
20. This aeriform spirit of the Bráhman, assumed the shape of a mighty man on earth, by virtue of the excessive desire and merit of acts in his former state of existence.
21. He became the victorious monarch of the three realms, by subjugating the surface of the earth by his might, by laying hold on the high steeps (of the gods) by his valour, and his kind protection of the nether lands (watery regions) under his sway.
22. He was as a conflagration to the forest of his enemies, and as the steadfast Meru amidst the rushing winds of business on all sides. He was as the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of the virtuous, and as the god of the makara ensign (Kama or Cupid) to the eyes of women.
23. He was the model of all learning, and the all giving Kalpa tree to his suitors; he was the footstool of great Pandits, and as the full-moon shedding the ambrosial beams of polity all around.
24. But after the Bráhman was dead, and his dead body had disappeared in the forms of elementary particles in air, and his airy spirit had reposed in the aerial intellectual soul within the empty space of his house.
25. His Bráhmanic widow (born of the priestly class), was pining away in her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain as the dried pod of Simbi.
26. She became a dead body like her husband, and her spirit by shuffling off its mortal coil, resumed its subtile and immortal form, in which it met the departed ghost of her husband.
27. She advanced to her lord, as rapidly as a river runs to meet the sea below its level; and became as cheerful to join him, as a cluster of flowers to inhale the vernal air.
28. The houses, lands and all the immovable properties and movable riches of this Bráhman, are still existent in that rocky village, and it is only eight days past, that the souls of this loving pair, are reunited in the hollow vault of their house.