CHAPTER XXXVI. HYMN TO THE SOUL.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument. Prahláda getting the light of his internal soul, delights himself as one in the company of his sweet-heart.
Prahláda continued:—I thank thee, O lord and great spirit! that art beyond all things, and art found in myself by my good fortune.
2. I have no other friend, O my Lord, in the three worlds except thee; that dost vouchsafe to embrace and look upon me, when I pray unto thee.
3. It is thou that preservest and destroyest all, and givest all things to every body; and it is thou, that makest us move and work, and praise thy holy name. Now art thou found and seen by me, and now thou goest away from me.
4. Thou fillest all being in the world with thy essence; thou art present in all places, but where art thou now fled and gone from me?
5. Great is the distance between us, even as the distance of the places of our birth, it is my good fortune of friend! that has brought thee near me today, and presented thee to my sight (so fleeting is spiritual vision).
6. I hail thee, thou felicitous one! that art my maker and preserver also; I thank thee that art the stalk of this fruit of this world, and that art the eternal and pure soul of all.
7. I thank the holder of the lotus and discus, and thee also that bearest the crescent half moon on thy forehead—great Siva. I thank the lord of gods—Indra, and Brahmá also, that is born of the lotus.
8. It is a verbal usage that makes a distinction betwixt thee and ourselves (i.e. between the Divine and animal souls); but this is a false impression as that of the difference between waves and their elemental water.
9. Thou showest thyself in the shapes of the endless varieties of beings, and existence and extinction are the two states of thyself from all eternity.
10. I thank thee that art the creator and beholder of all, and the manifester of innumerable forms. I thank thee that art the whole nature thyself.
11. I have undergone many tribulations in the long course of past lives, and it was by thy will that I became bereft of my strength, and was burnt away at last.
12. I have beheld the luminous worlds, and observed many visible and invisible things; but thou art not to be found in them. So I have gained nothing (from my observations).
13. All things composed of earth, stone and wood, are formations of water (the form of Vishnu), there is nothing here, that is permanent, O god, beside thyself. Thou being obtained there is nothing else to desire.
14. I thank thee lord! that art obtained, seen and known by me this day; and that shalt be so preserved by me, as never to be obliterated (from my mind).
15. Thy bright form which is interwoven by the rays of light, is visible to us by inversion of the sight of the pupils of our eyes, into the inmost recesses of our heart.
16. As the feeling of heat and cold is perceived by touch, and as the fragrance of the flower is felt in the oil with which it is mixed; so I feel thy presence by thy coming in contact with my heart.
17. As the sound of music enters into the heart through the ears, and makes the heart strings to thrill, and the hairs of the body to stand at an end; so is thy presence perceived in our hearts also.
18. As the objects of taste are felt by the tip of the tongue, which conveys their relish to the mind; so is thy presence felt by my heart, when thou touchest it with thy love.
19. How can one slight to look and lay hold on his inner soul which shoots through every sense of his body; when he takes up a sweet scenting flower, perceptible by the sense of smelling only, and finally decorating his outer person with it.
20. How can the supreme spirit, which is well known to us by means of the teachings of the Vedas, Vedánta, Sidhántas and the Puránas, as also by the Logic of schools and the hymns of the Vedas, be any way forgotten by us?
21. These things which are pleasant to the bodily senses, do not gladden my heart, when it is filled by thy translucent presence.
22. It is by thy effulgent light, that the sun shines so bright; as it is by thy benign lustre also, that the moon dispenses her cooling beams.
23. Thou hast made these bulky rocks, and upheld the heavenly bodies; thou hast supported the stable earth, and lifted the spacious firmament.
24. Fortunately thou hast become myself, and I have become one with thyself, I am identic with thee and thou with me, and there is no difference between us.
25. I thank the great spirit, that is expressed by turns by the words myself and thyself; and mine and thine.
26. I thank the infinite God, that dwells in my unegoistic mind; and I thank the formless Lord, that dwells in my tranquil soul.
27. Thou dwellest, O Lord! in my formless, tranquil, transparent and conscious soul, as thou residest in thy own spirit, which is unbounded by the limitations of time and space.
28. It is by thee that the mind has its action, and the senses have their sensations; the body has all its powers, and the vital and respirative breaths have their inflations and afflations.
29. The organs of the body are led by the rope of desire to their several actions, and being united with flesh, blood and bones, are driven like the wheels of a car by the charioteer of the mind.
30. I am the consciousness of my body, and am neither the body itself nor my egoism of it; let it therefore rise or fall, it is of no advantage or disadvantage to me.
31. I was born in the same time with my ego (as a personal, corporeal and sensible being); and it was long afterwards that I had the knowledge of my soul; I had my insensibility last of all, in the manner of the world approaching to its dissolution at the end.
32. Long have I travelled in the long-some journey of the world; I am weary with fatigue and now rest in quiet, like the cooling fire of the last conflagration. (i.e. Of the doomsday).
33. I thank the Lord who is all (to pan), and yet without all and everything; and thee my soul! that art myself likewise. I thank thee above those sástras and preceptors, that teach the ego and tu (i.e. the subjective and objective).
34. I hail the all witnessing power of that providential spirit, that has made these ample and endless provisions for others, without touching or enjoying them itself.
35. Thou art the spirit that dwellest in all bodies in the form of the fragrance of flowers, and in the manner of breath in bellows; and as the oil resides in the sesamum seeds.
36. How wonderful is this magic scene of thine, that thou appearest in everything, and preservest and destroyest it at last, without having any personality of thy own.
37. Thou makest my soul rejoice at one time as a lighted lamp, by manifesting all things before it; and thou makest it joyous also, when it is extinguished as a lamp, after its enjoyment of the visibles.
38. This universal frame is situated in an atom of thyself, as the big banian tree is contained in the embryo of a grain of its fig.
39. Thou art seen, O lord, in a thousand forms that glide under our sight; in the same manner as the various forms of elephants and horses, cars and other things are seen in the passing clouds on the sky.