CHAPTER CXXXI. Bhása’s Account of the Worlds and his Journeys throughout.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. I was once born as a jackal, in the woods of Kalenjara mountains, and roved about the blossoming gunja and karanja forests; here I was trodden down by an elephant, and was about to expire, when I beheld that elephant to be killed by a lion in his turn.
41. I was at one time transformed to the form of a celestial nymph, and accursed by a siddha to dwell alone in some other sphere; where I lived for the period of half a yuga upon the sahya mountain, smiling with the blooming blossoms of santanaka arbours.
42. I next lived as a Valmika bird of raven, in my nest amidst the karavíra plants, growing on the marshy grounds at the foot of a mountain; and there I passed my solitary life of a hundred years, with a fearful breast and ceaseless scrambles on the dreary rocks.
43. I saw afterwards a level plain somewhere, with shady bowers of sylvan creepers under the shade of sandal trees; and beheld some females amusing there with swinging, like fruits on the branches of trees, and to be ravished away by the passing siddhas.
44. At another time, I passed my days as an anchorite, under the shade of Kadamba trees at the foot of a mountain; where I dwelt on the meditation of the single object of my devotion, and thus foolishly met my end with the pain of not meeting my object.
45＜a＞. I saw also this universe to be full of beings, which fill it as fishes people the ocean on every side; the air, sky and light, are all inhabited by beings, as well as this earth of ours.
45＜b＞. There is another wonder which fills this universe, as the shadow of the sky fills the ocean on all sides; it pervades in the air, water, sky and light, as well in all forms of things on earth. (This is the reflexion of Brahma in all creation, as that of the sky in water. Gloss).
46. I also ＜saw＞ another wonder in a woman, who contains the three worlds in her ample womb; and who is pictured with the forms of hills and all things, resembling their reflexions in a mirror.
47. I asked her saying: O thou big bodied and big bellied one! tell me who thou art; to which she replied and said:—know me sir, to be the pure and clear Intellect, that contains all these worlds within herself.
48. She added and said:—O sir, as you see me so wondrous in my form, so must you know all things in the world to be of the same kind; but people who view them in their natural form find them otherwise, unless they look into them in their spiritual light, when the gross forms vanish into nothing.
49. These numberless beings on earth, are continually hearing, even without the directions of the Vedas and sástras, a warning voice arising from some part of their bodies, bidding them what is right or wrong for them to do. (This is called anáhata dhwani or the voice of conscience).
50. Nature reigns over all elements like anáhata dhwani. The elements appear immovable at sight, but in fact, they possess inherent mobile forces; no one can assign any cause over them except delusion or máyá.
51. I once went to a place, where there were no females to be found, nor had the people any desire for them; and yet many among the living there were fastly passing away, and many others newly coming to existence.
52. I have seen the wonder of some portentous clouds in the sky, charging against each other with a jarring noise; and pouring down their rains with fragments of things on all sides, which were picked up and used as weapons by men.
53. I have ＜seen＞ another wonder somewhere that, these earthly cities and buildings, were passing in their aerial course, amidst a mist of thick darkness; and then vanishing in the air, returning to be your habitations here below.
54. Another wonder that I saw was, that all these men and gods and reptiles, having left their differences of species, came to be of one kind in common with all other beings. (All distinctions are lost in the end). Because all things proceed at first from vacuum, and to this they return at last.
55. I also beheld a spot which was full of light, and shone forth brightly without the lights of the sun, moon and stars. I remember well that effulgent glory, before which there was ＜neither＞ darkness nor day and night, and nothing else in existence.
56. I saw also a place never seen before, which was devoid of gods and demons, men and animals of all kinds, it was without the vegetable creation, and habitation of any kind of being; and a world where the present and future, and all worlds are blended into eternity.
57. In short, there is no place which I have not seen, nor any side (of the compass) where I have not been; there is no act or event which I have not known, and in a word there is nothing unknown to me, that is unknown to the knower of all. (The soul that becomes one with Omniscient soul, becomes all-knowing like the same).
58. I remember to have heard the jingling sound of the armlets of Indra, which resembled the noise of the rattling clouds on high; or likened the jangling jar of the gems, which glistened on the peaks of the Mandara mountain, in its trepidation of churning the milky ocean.