CHAPTER CXXXX. Workings of Imagination.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at that place, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that way from a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode.
41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, and took his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal he sat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night.
42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands and mountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, which were pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects.
43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect, which is infinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the form of cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.
44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a flood of light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever he said on this and other subjects.
45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the person which contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Virát himself, I was eager to come out of the same.
46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way for my exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wandering amidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans.
47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations; and entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with the vital breath.
48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Viráta’s body, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of its outer movements as also of its inner thoughts.
49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled at my station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with his breath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.
50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth; and mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward, and beheld all that lay before me.
51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto of a mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myself sitting in my padmásana among them. (He saw the sight to which he was habituated all along his life).
52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and were employed in their duty of taking care of my person in its state of anaesthesia.
53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had been residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back, after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village.
54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing about it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for my own amusement.
55. I got to ＜the＞ region of vitality which was situated within the heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before, and I left behind.
56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together with the positions of the world.
57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state, the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed ＜to＞ be dislocated from its place.
58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I know where they were taken.
59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew to view.
60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.
61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them save in the memory of men.
62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all away.
63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening sky.
64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and unscathed by the burning flame.
65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as the flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over the burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of the lands (sthala padma).