CHAPTER XLVII. VERIFICATION OF GÁDHI’S VISION.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument. Gádhi learns from a guest the report of the Keri people, and goes out to inquire into the fact on the spot.
Vasishtha resumed:—Gádhi was soon afterwards relieved from the perturbation of his mind at the delusions of the world; and he was set at rest from his perturbed state, like the disturbed sea after subsidence of its waves.
2. His mind being freed from its painful thoughts, regained its repose after the troublesome dream, had passed away, and he resumed his calmness, as the god Brahmá had his rest, after the labour of his creation was over at the end of the kalpa (the time of his creative will or the duration of creation).
3. He regained his senses slowly, as a man upon waking from his sleep; and as one gains his sobriety after the passing off of his ebriety.
4. He then said to himself, I am the same Gádhi and in the same function (of my sacred ablution in the water). All this is nothing that I had been seeing so long, and this I see as clearly as men see things after dispersion of the shade of night.
5. Remembering himself what he was (i.e. coming to himself), he lifted his feet from amidst the water (i.e. got out of it); as the lotus-bud lifts its head above the water, after the frost is over in spring.
6. He said again, this is the same water, sky and earth (where I stood before); but what I was just seeing, is quite astonishing to me.
7. What am I and what do I see now, and what was I and had been doing all this time? With these thoughts he remained a long time with his knitted brows and staring eyes.
8. It was my weakness, said he, that showed me this delusion; and knowing it for certain, he came out of the water, as the rising sun appears above the horizon.
9. Then rising on the bank, he said:—Ah! where is that mother and wife of mine, who attended on me at the moment of my death.
10. Or were my parents dead in the ignorant state of my boyhood, like the parent plant of a young shoot, cut off by the sword of death?
11. I am unmarried and know not the form of a wife, and am as ignorant of conjugal love, as a Bráhman is stranger to the pernicious taste of forbidden liquors.
12. I am too far from my country and know none of my friends and relatives; unto whom I shall return and there to die.
13. Therefore all these scenes that I have come to see, are no more than the forms of the fairy land pictured in my fancy.
14. Be it as it may, all this is but delusion and dream, and we are living dead among our friends; it is all magic and delusion, and nothing is true or real herein.
15. Our minds are as wild beasts, roaming furiously in the forest of error; which presents endless scenes of delusion to living beings at large.
16. Reflecting on these delusions in his mind, Gádhi passed some days at his own house amidst the woods.
17. Once on a time he happened to entertain a Bráhman at his house as his guest, who resorted there to take his rest from his travels.
18. He was highly gratified with feasting upon fruits and syrup of flowers, and was as refreshed supplied with sap as the tree which is supplied by the bounteous spring, and shoots forth in its foliage and fruitage in time.
19. They then performed their evening service, and turned their beads, and afterwards took to their beds made of tender leaves and grass.
20. There they began to talk on divine subjects, with which they were conversant; and the words fell from the lips, like the sweets of the vernal season.
21. Then Gádhi asked his guest in the course of their conversation, saying: why is it sir, that you are so thin and lean and appear to lie so very weary.
22. The guest replied:—Hear me sir, relate to you the cause both of my leanness and weariness, and I will tell you the true facts, and not as a travelling teller of tales deals and lies.
23. There is on the surface of this land, and in the woody tracts of the north, the great district of the Kir (Kirgis?), which is far renowned for its richness. (Kir the land of the Gees in Afghanistan).
24. I lived in the city there; and was honoured by its inhabitants, and the gust of my soul and mind were mightily pleased with the variety of dainty food that I used to get there.
25. There it was once related to me by some one in the way of gossip, that a chandála had once been the king of that country for the space of eight years.
26. I inquired of the village people about the truth of this report, and they all told me with one voice, that a chandála, had really reigned there for full eight years.
27. But being discovered at last as such, he immolated himself on the burning pile; which was followed by the self-immolation of hundreds of Bráhmans on the funeral pyre.
28. Hearing this news from their mouths, I departed from that district, intending, O Bráhman, to do my penance, by making a pilgrimage to Prayága (Allahabad, on the doab or confluence of the two sacred streams of Gangá and Jamuna).
29. I made my chándráyana fast for three days and nights, and had to break my fast only this day. It is for this reason, that have become so very thin and lean, as you find me at present.
30. Vasishtha said:—Gádhi on hearing this, made a hundred inquiries of his guest about the matter, to which he answered everything in verification of the fact.
31. Gádhi was quite surprised at this narration, and passed the night till sunrise in great palpitation of his heart.
32. Waking in the morning, he made his ablution and discharged his matins; then took leave of his guest, and began to reflect in himself with his bewildered understanding.
33. He said to himself, what I saw in my delusion, is ratified as a fact by my Bráhman guest. I am puzzled to think, whether this be a magic, or a fascination of the conjurer Sambara.
34. What I saw about my death amidst my relatives, was undoubtedly a delusion of my mind; but the latter part of my vision (of becoming a Chandála), is verified by the Bráhman’s observance of the penance Chándráyana for his having entered the Chandála city.
35. I must therefore learn fully the particulars of the Chandála, and proceed immediately to the Bhuta country (Bhutan?) with an undaunted mind.
36. Thus determined, Gádhi rose to visit the distant district, as the sun rises over the horizon to visit all the sides of Sumeru (the Altain chain, at the bottom of which the country of the Kirgis is situated).
37. He travelled onward, and obtained at last the sight of the country he had seen in his dream; as intelligent and wayfaring men, reach to their desired destinations in distant regions.
38. Finding everything, however unattainable it may appear at first, to be attained by perseverance, Gádhi was resolved to make a test of the truth of his delusive dream.
39. He had proceeded from his home, with the swiftness of a current rivulet in the rainy weather; and traversed through many unknown countries, as a cloud passes over distant realms on the back of its airy steed.