The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of...

Argument. Extinction of the Spiritual life of Lílá, and Restoration of Padma’s Life.

Vasishtha continued:—It was in the meantime that the goddess of wisdom, stopped the course of Vidúratha’s life, as we stop the flight of our minds at will.

2. Lílá said:—Tell me, goddess, what length of time has expired, since the corpse of the king was laid in this tomb, and I was absorbed in my deep meditation.

3. The goddess replied:—A month has passed since these maid servants of thine have been waiting here for watching thy body, which they thought lay asleep in the room.

4. Hear excellent lady! what has become of thy body, after it was rotten in a fortnight and evaporated in the air.

5. Seeing thy lifeless corpse lying as cold as frost on the ground, and turning as dry as a log of wood, or rather as a withered leaf on the floor;—

6. The royal ministers thought thee to be dead of thyself (a suicide), and removed thy putrid carcase out of the room.

7. And what more shall I say, than they laid thy corpse on a heap of sandal wood, and having set fire to the pile with the sprinkling of ghee, they reduced it to ashes in a short while.

8. Then the family raised a loud cry that their queen was dead, and wept bitterly for sometime, after which they performed thy funeral ceremonies.

9. Now when they will behold thee coming here in thy same body, they must be astonished to think thee as returned from the next world of the dead.

10. Now my daughter, when thou shalt appear before them in this thy purer and spiritual form, they must look upon thee with astonishment.

11. For thou hast not thy former form at present, but it is changed to a purer one, agreeably to the tenor and temperament of thy mind. (Lit. according to the desire in thy heart).

12. For every body beholds every thing without him, according to his inward feelings; as for example the sight of shadowy ghosts is frequent to children, that have a fear of devils at heart.

13. Now, O beauteous lady! Thou art an adept in spiritualism, and hast a spiritual body on thee, and hast forgotten and forsaken thy former body, with all the desires connate with it.

14. The view of material bodies, is lost to the sight of spiritualists; and the intelligent view them in the light of autumnal clouds, which are void of substance. (i.e. The flimsy clouds which are without rain-water in them).

15. On attainment of the spiritual state, the material body becomes as an empty cloud, and as a flower without its odor.

16. When a man of pure desire, is conscious of his attaining the spiritual state; he loses the remembrance of his material body, as a youth forgets his embryonic state.

17. It is now the thirty first day that we have arrived at this place; and I have caused the maid servants here, to fall into a fast sleep this morning.

18. Now Lílá! let us advance before the wilful Lílá, and then discover to her at our will, the form of the truthful Lílá, and her manner and conduct to thee.

19. Vasishtha said:—So saying, they wished themselves to be perceived by the wilful Lílá, and stood manifest to her sight in their etherial forms of the goddess and her inspired dame.

20. At this instant the Lílá of Vidúratha, looked upon them with her staring eyes; and found the room lighted up by the full lustre of their bodies.

21. The apartment seemed to be lighted by the bright orb of the moon, and its wall washed over with liquid gold; the ground floor shone as paved with ice, and all was full of splendour.

22. After seeing the brightness of the bed chamber, Lílá looked up at the goddess and the other Lílá, and rising respectfully before them, she fell at their feet.

23. Be victorious, O ye goddesses! she said, that have blessed me with your visit, and know that know all, that I have come here first as a preparer of your way. (Lit. as the sweeper of your path).

24. As she was speaking in this manner, they received her with good grace, and then all the three sat together on a bedding in their youthful bloom, like luxuriant creepers on the snow capt top of Meru.

25. The goddess said:—Tell us daughter, how you came here before ourselves, how you have been, and what you have seen on your way hither.

26. The younger Lílá answered:—As I lay insensible on that spot (upon the shock of my death), I was enveloped in darkness like the new moon, and felt myself burnt away by the flame of a conflagration (i.e., funeral fire).

27. I had no sense nor thought of anything good or bad, but remained with my eyes closed under my eye-lids.

28. Then I found myself, O great goddess! after I had recovered from my anaesthesia of death, to assume (by mistake a new body agreeably to my former impression), and to be translated at once into the midst of the sky.

29. I mounted on the vehicle of winds, and was borne like fragrance to this mansion through the etherial space.

30. I found this house guarded by its warders, and lighted with lamps, and having a costly bedstead placed in the midst of it.

31. I am looking here upon this corpse, as my husband Vidúratha, who has been sleeping here with his body covered under the flowers, like the vernal god in a flower garden.

32. I thought he was taking his rest, after the fatigue of the warfare, and did not like to disturb his repose in this place.

33. I have now related to you, my gracious goddesses! all that I have seen and thought of, since I have been restored to my new life.

34. The goddess spake:—Now I tell thee Lílá, that hast such beautiful eyes, and movest like a swan, that I will raise the corpse of the king to life from his bed in this bier.

35. Saying so, she breathed the breath of life as the lotus lets off its fragrance; and it fled into the nostrils of the carcase, like a creeping plant crawls into a hole.

36. It entered into the heart through the vital sheath, as the wind penetrates into the hole of a bamboo; and the breath of life was fraught with desires, as the waves of the sea sparkle with pearls.

37. The infusion of life, added to the colour of the face and body of king Padma; as the rain-water refreshes the fading lotus in a drought.

38. By degrees the members of the body became renovated, like a garden with its returning flowering season; and as the sides of a hill become virescent, with fresh grown bushes and creepers.

39. The person of the king shone as the queen of the stars, with all her digits of the full moon, when she enlightens the whole world, with the beams of her radiant face.