CHAPTER LXX. Conduct of Visúchí, or the Adventures of the Needle.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument. The gradual leanness of Súchí, and her entrance in Human bodies.
Vasishtha continued:—Now this Súchí who had been as tall as a mountain-peak, and a Rákshasí of the blackest kind, resembling a thick and dark cloud of the rainy season; began gradually to fade away, and grow leaner and leaner day by day.
2. Her gigantic cloud-like form, was soon reduced to the shape of the branch of a tree, which afterwards became of the figure of a man, and then of the measure of a cubit only.
3. It next became of the length of a span in its heighth, and then of a finger’s length in all. Growing by degrees thinner and thinner like a corn or grain, it became at last as lean as a needle or pin.
4. She was thus reduced to the thinness of a needle, fit only to sew a silken robe; and became as lean as the filament of the lotus flower by her own desire; which can change a hill to a grain of sand. (This passage bears reference to the microcosm of human soul).
5. The unmetallic Súchí, was thus transformed to the form of a black and slender iron needle; which containing all her limbs and organs of her body in it, conducted her in the air and everywhere as she liked. (Thus the gross human body being reduced to its subtle átiváhika or spiritual form, it is possible for the Yogi to traverse through the air, as we perceive in the course of our minds).
6. She viewed her person as an iron pin, and having neither any substance nor length or breadth of her body. (The false idea of length and breadth of the soul is a fallacy of our understanding; because the soul like a geometrical line, has no dimension nor substance whatever in it).
7. Her mind with its power of thought, appeared as bright as a golden needle (pointing to the point); and as a streak of the sapphire impregnated by solar ray.
8. Her rolling eye-balls, were as dark as the spots of black clouds, moved to and fro by the winds; and her sparkling pupils were gazing at the bright glory (of God); piercing through their tenuous pores. (It is explained also as fixing the eye-sight to some chink (as that of a wall or other), through which the light of God enters the sensory of sight, and then penetrates into the soul as in Yoga meditation).
9. She had observed the vow of her taciturnity (mauna-vrata), for reducing the plumpness of her person, and was gladdened in her face, to become as lean as the filament of a feather. (The vow of keeping silence is said to be of great good, by increasing the power of thought; for he who speaks little thinks much, and who so talks much, must talk in vain. It is the practice of munis or saints to remain silent, whence the vow has its name).
10. She beheld a light alighting on her, from the air at a distance; and she was glad in her face to find her inward spirit, to be sublimated as air. (The internal light and lightness of the body are results of yoga practice).
11. With her contracted eye brows, she beheld the rays of light extending to her from afar; which caused the hairs on her body, to stand up like those of babies at bathing.
12. Her grand artery called Brahmanádí or susumna, was raised about its cavity in the head called the Brahma-randhra; in order to greet the holy light, as the filaments of the lotus, rise to receive the solar light and heat.
13. Having subdued the organs of her senses and their powers, she remained as one without her organic frame, and identified with her living soul; and resembled the intelligent principle of the Bauddhas and Tárkikas, which is unseen by others. (i.e. In her spiritual form only).
14. Her minuteness seemed to have produced the minutiae of minute philosophers, called the siddhárthas; and her silence was like that of the wind confined in a cave. Her slender form of the puny pin, resembled the breath of animal life, which is imperceptible to the eye.
15. The little that remained of her person, was as thin as the last hope of man (which sustains his life). It was as the pencil of the extinguished flame of a lamp; that has its heat without the light.
16. But alas! how pitiable was her folly, that she could not understand at first, that she was wrong to choose for herself the form of a slender pin, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite.
(This is a ridicule to Yogis and students, that emaciate themselves with intense study and Yoga, only with a desire to pamper their bodies afterwards, with luxuries and carnal enjoyments).
17. Her object was to have her food, and not the contemptible form of the pin; her heart desired one thing, and she found herself in another form, that was of no use to her purpose.
18. It was her silliness, that led her make the injudicious choice of needleship for herself; and so it is with the short witted, that they lack the sense of judging beforehand, about their future good.
19. An arduous attempt to accomplish the desired object, is often attended by a different result; and even success on one hand, becomes a failure on another; just as the mirror is soiled by the breath, while it shows the face to the looker. (Disappointment lurks in many a shape, and often stings us with success).
20. How be it, the Rákshasí soon learnt to be content with her needleship, after she had relinquished her gigantic form; although she viewed her transformation as worse, than her dissolution itself. (Utter annihilation is more desirable to the Yogi than his metamorphosis to meaner forms).
21. Lo! the contrariety in the desires of the infatuated, who distaste in a trice, what they fondly wished at one time; as this fiend was disgusted at her pinship in lieu of her monstrous figure. (And so they wilfully shun the object of their former fondness, as the suicides and dying people quit their fond bodies without remorse).
22. As one dish of food is easily replaced by another, suiting the taste of the voluptuary; so this fiend did not hesitate to shun her gigantic body, which she took to taste the heart blood of animals in her pinnate form.
23. Even death is delectable to the giddy headed, when they are overfond of some thing else; as the minim of a meagre needle was desirable to the monstrous fiend for the gratification of her fiendish desire.
24. Now this needle took the rarefied form of air, and moved about as the colic wind (colica flatulenta), after all living beings, in quest of her suction of animal gore.
25. Its body was that of fiery heat, and its life the vital breath of animals; its seat was in the sensitive heart, and it was as swift as the particles of solar and lunar beams.
26. It was as destructive as the blade of the deadly sword, and as fleet as the effluvia flying in air. It penetrated into the body in the form of the minutiae of odor.
27. It was ever bent to do evil, like an evil spirit, as she was now known by that name; and her sole object was to kill the lives of others at her pleasure.
28. Her body was afterwards divided into two halves; one of which was as fine as a silken thread, and the other as soft as a thread of cotton.
29. Súchí ranged all about the ten sides of the world, in these two forms of hers; and pierced and penetrated into the hearts of living beings, with all her excruciating pains.
30. It was for the accomplishment of all these purposes of hers, whether they be great or little; that Karkatí forsook her former big body, and took the form of the acute and small needle. (Because humbleness and acuteness are the means of success in every project).
31. To men of little understanding, a slight business becomes an arduous task; as the foolish fiend had recourse to her austerities, in order to do the mean work of the needle.
32. Again men however good and great, can hardly get rid of their natural disposition; and it was for this reason that the great Rákshasí, performed her austere devotion, in order to become a vile pin for molesting mankind.
33. Now as Súchí was roving about in the sky, her aerial form which was big with her heinous ambition, disappeared in air like vapour, or as a thick cloud in autumn.
34. Then entering in the body of some sensualist or weak or too fat a person, this inward colic flatulence of Súchí, assumed the shape of Visúchiká or cholera.
35. Sometimes she enters in the body of some lean person, as also in those of healthy and wise people; and appearing at first as a colic pain, becomes a real cholera at last.
36. She is often delighted, to take her seat in the hearts of the ignorant; but is driven back afterwards by the good acts and prayers, and mantras and medicines of the wise.
37. In this manner she continued many years in her rambles; her bipartite body kept sometimes flying up in the air, and oftentimes creeping low on the ground.
38. She lies concealed in the dust of the ground, and under the fisted fingers of hands; she hides herself in the sun-beams, in air and in the threads of cloths. (All this refers to the pestilential air).