| Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (3): Utpatti-Prakarana |
Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 3: Utpatti-Prakarana (Evolution of the World). Chapter 75 - Sūcī's Regaining her Former Frame
Vasistha continued : After the lapse of a thousand years of long and painful devotion, the great father of creation (Brahmā), appeared to her under his pavilion of the sky, and bade her accept the preferred boon.
Sūcī who was absorbed in her devotion, and her vital principle of life, remaining dormant in her, wanted the external organs of sense (to give utterance to her prayer), and remained only to cogitate upon the choice she should make.
She said to herself : "I am now a perfect being, and am delivered from my doubts what blessing therefore is it, that I have need of asking (either for myself or others), beyond this state of beatitude; which I already possess in my peace and tranquility, and the bliss of contentment and self resignation."
"I have got the knowledge of all that is to be known, and am set free from the web of errors; my rationality is developed, and what more is requisite to a perfect and rational being?
Let me remain seated as I am in my present state, I am in the light of truth; and quite removed from the darkness of untruth; what else is there for me to ask or accept?
I have passed a long period in my unreasonableness, and was carried away like a child, by the demon of the evil genius of earthly desires. (As a child wants to have everything he sees, not knowing whether it is good or bad for him to have it).
This desire is now brought under subjection by my power of ratiocination, and of what avail are all the objects of my desire to my soul? (There is nothing of any good to the soul, for nothing temporal is of any spiritual good).
The lord of creatures kept looking on Sūcī sitting with her mind fixed in her silent meditation and resigned to her destiny; and quite abstracted from all external sensations, and the use of her bodily organs.
Brahmā with the kindness of his heart, again accosted the apathetic dame, and said unto her; "Receive your desired blessing, and live to enjoy for sometime longer on earth".
Then having enjoyed the joys of life, you shall attain the blissful state from which you shall have no more to return here; and this is the fixed decree destined for all living being on earth.
Be your desire crowned with success, by merit of this devotion of yours, O best of the woman-kind! Resume your former corpulence, and remain as a Rāksasī in this mountain forest.
Regain your cloud-like shape whereof you are deprived at present, and revive as a sprout from your pinnate root, to become like a big tree growing out of its small root and little seed.
You shall get an inward supply of serum from your pinnate tendon, as a plant gets its sap from the seeded grain; and the circulation of that juice will cause your growth like that of a germ from the ingrained seed.
Your knowledge of truth has no dear of following into the difficulties of the world; while on the contrary, the righteousness of your soul will lead you like a huge cloud, that is heavy with its pure water high in the heaven, notwithstanding the blasting gusts of wind. 1
If by your constant practice of Yoga meditation, you has accustomed yourself to a state of habitation (death like Samādhi), for your intellectual delight, and has there by become assimilated to the anaesthesia of your meditation (to the state of a stock and stone).
But your meditativeness must be compatible with your worldly affairs, and the body like the breeze, is nourished best by its constant agitation. 2
Therefore my daughter! you do act contrary to nature, by withstanding the action which your nature requires; nor can there be any objection to your slaughter of animal life under proper bounds. (Because the carnivorous are made to live upon flesh, as the omnivorous man upon all kinds of food).
Act therefore within the bounds of justice, and refrain from all acts of injustice in the world; and stick steadfastly to reason, if you should like to live liberated in this life. (Justice is the source of liberty, but injustice leads to bondage).
Saying so far, the god disappeared from below to his heavenly sphere, when Sūcī said to him "be it so and I have nothing to oppose to this". Then thinking in her mind, that she had no cause to be dissatisfied with the decree of the lotusborn Brahmā, found herself immediately in possession of her former body.
She came to be of the measure of a span at first, and then of a cubit; and next a full fathom in length; and increasing fastly in her height, she grew up as a tree; till at last she was of the form of a cloud. She had all the members of the body added to her instantly, in the manner of the growth of the arbour of human desire. 3
From the fibrous form of Sūcī (the needle), which was without form or feature, body, blood, bones, flesh or strength, there grew up all the parts and limbs at once. Just so the fancied garden of our desire, springs up on a sudden with all its verdant foliage and fruits and flowers from their hidden state.
Footnotes
1. The pure and contrite spirit goes on its wonted course, in spite of the tribulations of the world.
2. Meditation must be joined with utility, and the body with its activity.
3. Our growing desires and their increase, are compared with the growth and ramifications and fructification of trees.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
