Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

MEDITATION OF THE SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE. Argument. Origin and Nature of Duality and the Manner of its Extinction. Thus Ráma! there is one true essence, which appears many by our mistake; and this variety is caused by the production of one from the other, as one lamp is lighted from another. 2. By knowing one’s self as nothing as it was before its coming to being, and by considering the falsity of his notions (of his reality), no one can have any cause of grief (at its loss). (The Sruti:—The knower of the true-self, is above all grief and sorrow). 3. Man is but a being of his own conception, and by getting rid of this concept, he is freed from his idea of the duality of the world (as a distinct existence); just as one with his shoes on, perceives the whole earth he treads upon, to be covered over with skin. 4. As the plantain tree has no pith except its manifold coats, so there is no substantiality of the world beside our false conceptions of it. 5. Our births are followed by childhood, youth, old age and death one after the other, and then opens the prospect of a heaven or hell to our view, like passing phantoms before the flighty mind.

6. As the clear eye sees bubbles of light in the empty sky, so the thoughtless mind views the firmament full of luminous bodies (which are but phantoms of the brain). 7. As the one moon appears as two to the dimsighted eye, so the intellect, vitiated by influence of the senses, sees a duality in the unity of the supreme spirit. 8. As the giddiness of wine presents the pictures of trees before the drunken eye, so does the inebriation of sensation, present the phantoms of the world before the excited intellect. 9. Know the revolution of the visible world, to resemble the revolving wheel of a potter’s mill; which they turn about in play as the rotatory ball of a terrestrial globe. 10. When the intellect thinks of another thing (as matter) beside itself, it then falls into the error of dualism; but when it concentrates its thoughts in itself, it then loses the sense of the objective duality. 11. There is nothing beside the Intellect except the thoughts on which it dwells; and its sensations are all at rest, as it comes to know the nihility of objects. 12. When the weak intellect is quiet by its union with the Supreme, and by suppression of its functions, it is then called sansánta—or quiescent or insouciant.

13. It is the weak intellect that thinks of the thinkables, but the sound understanding ceases from all thoughts; as it is a slight intoxication that makes one rave and revel about, while deep drinking is dead to all excitements. 14. When the sound and consummate understanding, runs in one course towards its main reservoir of the supreme; it becomes divested of its knowledge of the knowables, and of its self-consciousness also in the presence of the one and no other. 15. The perfected understanding finds the errors, to which it is exposed by its sensation of the sensibles; and comes to know, that birth and life and all the acts and sights of the living state, are as false as dreams. 16. The mind being repressed from its natural flight, can have no thought of any thing; and is lost in itself; as the natural heat of fire and motion of the wind being extinct, they are annihilated of themselves. 17. Without the suppression of mental operations, the mind must continue in its misconceptions, as that of mistaking a rope for a snake through ignorance. 18. It is not difficult to repress the action of the mind and rouse our consciousness; in order to heal our souls of the malady of their mistaken notion of the world.

19. If you can succeed to suppress the desires of your restless mind at any time, you are sure to obtain your liberation even at the very moment and without fail. 20. If you will but turn to the side of your subjective consciousness only, you will get rid of the objective world, in the same manner as one is freed from his fear of snake in a rope, by his examination of the thing. 21. If it is possible to get rid of the restless mind, which is the source of all our desires; it is no way impossible to attain to the chief end of liberation to any. 22. When highminded men are seen to give up their lives as straws (in an honorable cause), there is no reason why they should be reluctant to abandon their desires for the sake of their chief good of liberation. 23. Remain unfettered by forsaking the desires of your greedy mind; for what is the good of getting sensible objects, which we are sure to lose (some time or other). 24. The liberated are already in the sight of the immortality of their souls and of God, as one who has got a fruit in his hand, or sees a mountain palpable before him.

25. It is the Spirit of God alone, that abides in everything in these phenomenal worlds, which rise to view like the waves of the waters of the great deluge. It is his knowledge that is attended with the summum bonum of liberation, and it is ignorance of that supreme Being, that binds the mind to the interminable bondage of the world.

LECTURE ON TRUTH. Argument. Nature of the Active and Living Soul (Jíva) and its Sensations. Ráma said:—Leaving the mind please tell me more about the nature of the living soul; what relation it bears to the Supreme soul, how it sprang from the same and what is its essence. 2. Vasishtha replied:—Know Brahma is omnipresent, and the Lord of all at all times; He manifests himself in whatever attribute he assumes to himself at his free will. Ex arbitrio suo. 3. The attribute which the universal soul assumes to itself in the form of perception (chétana), is known by the term living soul, which possesses the power of volition in itself. 4. There are two causal principles combined with the living soul, namely: its predestination resulting from its prior acts and volitions; and its later free will which branch forth severally into the various causes of birth, death and subsistence of beings. 5. Ráma said:—Such being the case, tell me, O thou greatest of sages, what this predestination means and what are these acts, and how they become the causal agents of subsequent events.

6. Vasishtha replied:—The intellect (chit) is possest of its own nature of the properties of oscillation and rest, like the vacillation and stillness of the winds in the air. Its agitation is the cause of its action, otherwise it is calm and quiet as a dead lock—quietus itself. 7. Its oscillation appears in the fluctuation of the mind, and its calmness in the want of mental activity and exertions; as in the nonchalance of Yoga quietism. 8. The vibrations of the intellect lead to its continual transmigrations; and its quietness settles it in the state of the immovable Brahma. The oscillation of the intellect is known to be the cause of the living state and all its actions. (The moving force of the mind is the animism of Stahl, and its rest is the quietus of Plato). 9. This vibrative intellect is the thinking Soul, and is known as the living agent of actions; and the primary seed of the universe. (This is the anima mundi or moving force of the world,—the doctrine of Stahl).

10. This secondary soul then assumes a luminous form according to the light of its intellect, and afterwards becomes multifarious at its will, and by means of the pulsations of the primary intellect all over the creation. (This luminous form is represented by the red body of Brahma and the red clay of which Adam was formed. (It was the All—to pan of Pantheism, and the Principium hylarchicum or first principle of Henry Moore)). 11. The pulsative intellect or soul, having passed through many transformations (or transmigrations), is at last freed from its motion and migration. And there are some souls which pass into a thousand births and forms, while there are others which obtain their liberation in a single birth (by means of their Yoga meditation or unification with God, which is the final aim of Platonism and of the Chinese Laosin). 12. So also the human soul being of its own nature prone to assume its dualism of the motive intellect, becomes by itself the cause of its transmigration and sufferings, as also of its transient bliss or misery in heaven or hell. (There is no rest for the restless soul, until it rests in the bosom of the all-tranquil and Universal soul).

13. As the same gold is changed to the forms of bracelets and other things, and as the same gross matter appears in the different forms of wood and stone; so the uniform soul of God appears as multiform according to his various modes and attributes. (The soul modifies itself into many forms of activity and passivity). 14. It is the fallacy of the human mind, that views the forms as realities, and causes one to think his soul which is freed from birth and form, to be born, living and dead, as a man sees a city to rise and fall in his delirium. (The appearances and forms of things are objective and false fabrications of the intellect). 15. The varying intellect erroneously conceives its unreal egoism and meitatem as realities, from its ignorance of its unity with the unchangeable reality of God, and also from its felicity of enjoyments peculiar to its varied state. (The भोगाशा or desire of fruition is the cause of the revolution of the soul in endless states of beings). 16. As Lavana the King of Mathura, falsely deemed himself as a Chandála, so the intellect thinks on its own different states of existence and that of the world (from its desire of enjoying its pleasures which are deeply rooted in itself).

17. All this world is the phantom of an erroneous imagination, O Ráma! it is no more than the swelling of the waters of the deep. (The world is the expansion of the self-same soul and its evolution is the volition of Brahma). 18. The intellect is ever busied with the intellection of its own intelligences, and the innate principles of its action; in the same manner as the sea is seen to swell with its waters moving in waves of themselves. (The continuation of the intellect in the association of its preconceived ideas, is carried on by law of continuity). 19. The intellect is as the water in the wide expanse of Brahma; its inflation raises the waving thoughts in the mind, resembling the bubbles of water, and produces the revolutions of living souls like eddies in the sea of this world. 20. Know thy soul, O gentle Ráma! as a phenomenon of the all pervading Brahma, who is both the subject and object of his consciousness, and who has posited in thee a particle of himself, like the breath of a mighty lion.

21. The intellect with its consciousness, constitutes the living soul, and that with the will forms the mind; its knowing power is the understanding, and its retentiveness is called its memory: its subjectivity of selfishness is styled egoism, and its error is called máyá or delusion. (Consciousness is perception qua mens de presenti suo statu admonitur. The living soul is psyche or animus. The intellect is the mover of the will. The intellectus est prior voluntate, non enimést voluntas &c. The understanding has the power to acquire knowledge, and memory has the power of retention &c.). 22. The mind by its imagination stretches out this world, which is as false as the phantom of Utopia—Gandharva-nagaram or an air drawn city. 23. The objective knowledge of the world in the mind, is as false as the appearance of chains of pearls in the sky, and as the visionary scenes in a dream. (The objective is the feigned fabrication of the mind, and therefore unreal). 24. The soul which is ever pure and self sufficient in its nature, and remains in its own state of tranquility; is not perceived by the perverted mind dwelling on its delusive dreams.

25. The objective world is referred to waking—Jágrat, because it is perceived in the waking state of the soul; and the subjective mind is allied to sleep—swapna, because the mind is active during the sleeping and dreaming states. The ego is related to deep sleep—sushupta, when we are unconscious of ourselves, and the fourth or pure Intellect—turíya or turya, is the trance or hybernation of the soul. 26. That which is above these four conditions, is the state of ultimate bliss, ecstasis; and it is by reliance on that supremely pure essence of God, that one is exempted from all his causes of grief and sorrow (in his ecstatic delight). 27. Everything is displayed in Him and all things are absorbed in Him also; this world is neither a reality here or there; it presents only the false appearance of strings of pearls in the sky. (Sensible forms are empty appearances, and are only believed as real by materialists).

28. And yet God is said to be the cause and substratum, of all these unobstructed phantoms rising to the view, as the empty air is said to be the receptacle of the rising trees. Thus the uncausal God is said to be the cause of this uncaused world, which only exists in our illusive conceptions, and presents itself to our delusive sensations of it. 29. As a polished piece of iron gets the reflexion of a grosser piece, so do our finer or inner sensations take the representations of the gross forms of their particular objects (though the senses and sensible objects are both untrue, as mere delusive and delusions). 30. These sensations are conveyed to the mind, and thence again to the living soul and intellect, in the same manner as the roots supply the sap to the stem, and thence to the branches, and lastly to the fruits of trees. (i.e. The Divine Intellect is the last receptacle of the impressions of the senses). 31. As the seed produces the fruit, and the same contains the seed in itself; so the intellect producing the mind and its thoughts can not get rid of them; but is contained in, and reproduced by them in successive transmigrations.

32. There is some difference however in the simile of the insensible seed and tree; with the sensible intellect and mind (which are freed from reproduction by their attainment of liberation); but the thoughts of the creator and creation like the seed and tree, are reproductive of one another without end. (Because the thought of the creator accompanies that of the creation, and so the viceversa; owing to the unbroken chain and interminable concatenation of the ideas of causality and its effect). 33. But there is this difference between the insensible seed and sensible intellect, that the former is continually productive of one another, while the latter ceases in its process upon its attainment of liberation; yet the ideas of the creator and creation are reproductive of each other adinfinitum. 34. Yet our understanding shows it as clearly—as the sun light sets forth the forms and colours of objects to view; that there is one eternal God of truth, who is of the form of intellectual light, which shows the forms of all things, that proceed from Him (as the colours of objects originate from the solar light, and are shown again by the same to our optical vision).

35. As the ground which is dug presents a hollow, so the reasoning of every system of sound philosophy establishes the existence of the transcendental void as the cause of all. (An unknown first cause without any attribute, is the unanimous conclusion, arrived at every rational system of Philosophy. See Kusumánjali. Here Vasishtha establishes his vacuous rather than a personal cause). 36. As a prismatic crystal represents various colours in its prisms, without being tinged by the same; so the transparent essence of Brahma shows the groups of worlds in its hollow bosom without its connection with them. (This variety of vision is caused by our optical deception). 37. The universal soul is the source, and not the substance of all these vast masses of worlds; just as the seed is the embryo, and not the matter of the trees and plants and their fruits and flowers that grow from the same. (The to on is the only principle called God, all other objects are but phenomenal modifications of his essence).

38. Ráma said:—Oh how wonderful is this world, which presents its unreality as a reality in all its endless forms unto us; and though situated in the Divine self, appears to be quite apart from it. O how it makes its minuteness seem so very immense to us. (What are these worlds but as particles subsisting in the divine essence, when they are compared with the immensity of the Divine spirit and mind—the finite with the Infinite). 39. I see how this shadowy scene of the world appearing in the Divine soul, and becoming as an orb, by virtue of the ideal tanmátras or particles of the divine essence in it. I find it as a snow ball or icicle made of frozen frost. 40. Now tell me Sir, how the spiritual particles increase in bulk, and in what manner the body of the self born Brahmá was produced from Brahma. Say also in what manner do these objects in nature come to existence in their material forms. (Brahmá the Demiurgus was an emanation of God according to Gnostics; and Vaishwánara was the same as the soul of the world according to Plotinus).

41. Vasishtha replied:—Too incredible is this form and without a parallel, which sprang of itself from its own essence. It is altogether inconceivable how some thing is produced of its own conception. 42. Just fancy, O Ráma! how the unexpanded phantom of a Vetála or ghost, swells in bigness to the sight of fearful children; and conceive in the same manner the appearance of the living spirit from the entity of Brahma. (Evolution of the Living God from the inert Brahma, is as the springing of the moving spirit from the dormant soul). 43. This living spirit was a development of Brahma—the universal soul; it was holy and a commensurable and finite being, and having a personality of its own; it remained as an impersonal unreality in the essence of the selfexistent God. Being separated afterwards from its source, it had a different appellation given to it. (This is the Holy spirit or ghost in one sense, as also the Divine Logos in another, and in whom there was life).

44. As Brahma the all extended and infinite soul, became the definite living soul at will; so the living spirit, became the mind by its volition afterwards. (There is a trinity or triple division of the soul into soma or the universal soul, the pneuma or anima or the living spirit, and the nous or mens or mind). 45. The mind which was the principle of intellection, took a form of its own; and so likewise the life assumed an airy form in the midst of vacuity. (The mind is the state of the impersonal soul with a sense of its personality, and life is animation or the vital principle in the form of the vital breath). 46. The wakeful living god (who had no twinkling of his eyes), whereby we measure time was yet conscious of its course by means of his thoughts; and had the notion of a brilliant icicle of the form of the future mundane egg in his mind. See Manu’s Genesis of the World. I. 47. Then the living soul felt in itself the sense of its consciousness, and by thinking ‘what am I,’ was conscious of its egoism. (Why is the non-ego of the objective world put before the ego? The objective orb of the world should follow the subjective consciousness).

48. This god next found in his understanding the knowledge of the word taste, and got the notion of its becoming the object of a particular organ of sense, to be hereafter called “the tongue.” (Rasaná or the instrument of the perception of rasa or flavour. Rasa abiding in water is reckoned first of the elements on account the Spirit of God resting on it before creation, wherefore God is himself called rasa in the Sruti—rasa vaitat). 49. The living soul then found out in his mind the meaning of the word ‘light,’ which was afterwards to sparkle in the eye—the particular organ of sight. (The Bible says, lux fiat et lux fit—Light to be the first work of creation; though the Vedas give Priority to water as in the passages “apa eva sasarjádau”, Manu. Yasrishtih Srasturádyá. Sakuntala). 50. Next the god came to know in his mind the property of smell, and the organ of smelling; as also the substance of earth to which it appertains as its inseparable property. (The Nyaya says: prithví gandhavatí—the earth is smelling. It followed the creation of light).

51. In this manner the living soul, came to be acquainted at once with the other sensations, and the organs to which they appertain as their inseparable properties and objects. (The word bhavitá means the spontaneous growth of these faculties in the soul or mind, and kákatálíya signifies the simultaneous occurrence of the senses, and sensible objects, and their sensations in the mind). 52. The unsubstantial living spirit which derives its being from the essence of the substantial Brahma, comes next to acquire the knowledge of sound, the object of the organ of hearing, and the property of air. (So Nyáya:—“ákásh sabdádharah”; and “yá Sruti visaya gunáh”—Sakuntala). 53. It then comes to understand the meaning of the word touch (twak) as the medium of feeling, as also to know the tongue as the only organ of taste. (According to schoolmen, taste is the object of the palate and not of the tongue). 53. It finds the property of colour to be the peculiar object of the eye—the organ of sight; and that of smell to be an object peculiar to the nose—the organ of the sense of smelling (ghránendriya).

54. The living soul is thus the common receptacle of the sensations, and source of the senses, which it developes afterwards in the organs of sense in the body. It perceives the sensation of sensible objects through the perceptive holes, that convey their perceptions into the sensorium of the mind. (The common sensory is variously placed in Western philosophy, such as the heart, brain, pineal gland, the ventrialis &c.). 55. Such, O Ráma! as it was with the first animated being, is still so with all living animals; and all these sensations are represented in the Soul of the world—anima mundi, in its spiritual form—átiváhika, known as the súkshma or lingadeha—the subtle body. (The spiritual body has 17 organs of sense viz, 5 Internal, 5 External, the mind and Intellect and others (called the saptadasha lingátmaka linga saríra)). 56. The nature of this abstruse essence, is as undefinable as that of the spirit; it appears to be in motion, when it is really at rest, as in our idea of the soul. (Spiritual bodies are said to move and fly about, because the spirit is the motive, and life the animating principle as the soul is that of consciousness).

57. As measure and dimensions are foreign, to our notion of Brahma—the all conscious soul, so are they quite apart from that of the spirit also, which is no more than the motive power of the soul. (Magnitude, figure, motion, rest, number, place, distance, position, &c. are all objects of the senses). 58. As the notion of the spiritual, is distinct from that of all others which are material and corporeal; so the notion of Brahma is quite apart from every thing, except that of his self-consciousness. (God says in the Scripture, “I am that I am,” which proves his consciousness of himself to constitute his essence). 59. Ráma said:—If consciousness is self-same with Brahma, and our consciousness of ourselves as Brahma, make us identic with Brahma Himself; then what is the use of devising a duality of the soul (as the divine and human souls), or of talking of the liberation and final absorption of the one in the other? (If what the Sruti says, Brahmásmi—I am Brahma; as the scripture declares—“In Him we live and move,” then what means our redemption or return to Him?).

60. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, your question is irrelevant at this time, when I was going to prove another thing. Nothing can be appropriate out of its proper time and place, as the untimely offering of flowers to gods is not acceptable to them. (A question beside the mark is apropos de bottes, and brought in by the head and shoulders). 61. A word full of meaning, becomes meaningless out of its proper place; like the offering of flowers to gods and guests, out of their proper season. (So all intempestivous acts, go mal a propos, unless they are done in proper time). 62. There is a time for the introducing of a subject, and another to hold silence over it; so every thing becomes fruitful in its proper season. (Tempus coronat opus). 63. But to resume our subject; the living soul afterwards appeared from Him, as the human soul appears in dreaming; and thought in himself that he was the great father of created beings in time to come. (i.e. He would become the Maker of the world).

64. He uttered the syllable Om (on or ens), and was conscious of the verification of its meaning in his mind, which soon displayed all forms of beings to his mental vision. (i.e. The All One became many, which displayed themselves in the mind of the living God as visions in a dream). 65. All these were unrealities, that were displayed in the empty sphere of the divine mind; and the shadowy world seemed as a huge mountain, floating before him in the air. 66. It was neither born of itself, nor was made by Brahmá; nor is it destroyed at any time by any other power. It was Brahma himself, appearing as the phantom of an aerial city. 67. As the living Brahmá and other spiritual beings, are unreal in their nature; so also are the essences of other beings, from the big giant to the little emmet, but mere unrealities in their substance. 68. It is our erroneous understanding, that represents these unrealities as real ones unto us; but the clear understanding will find all things, from the great Brahmá down to the minutest insect, to vanish entirely from its sight. (Errors of the mind breed errors in the brain; and these lead to errors of vision again).

69. The same cause that produces Brahmá, produces the insects also; and it is the greater depravity of the mind, that causes its transmigration, into the contemptible forms of worms. 70. The living being that is possest of a rational soul, and is devoted to the cultivation of the mind, attains to the state of man; and then acts righteously for attaining a better state in after life. (These are the states of gods and angels in heaven). 71. It is wrong to suppose one’s elevation, to be owing to the merit of his acts, and his degradation to the condition of worms, to result from his former acts of demerit; because there is the same particle of intellect in both of them, and this being known, will destroy the mistaken difference between the great and small. 72. The notions of the measurer, measure and measurable, are not separate from the intellect (or mind); therefore the controversy of unity and duality, is as futile as the horns of a hare or a lake of lotuses in the air. (This means the ideas of the producer, production and product, are always one in the Absolute subjective. Schelling).

73. It is our misconception of the blissful Brahma, that produces the wrong notion of solid substances in us; and this imagination of our own making, binds us as fast as the silk-worms are fast bound in the cocoons; formed by their own serum (or ichor or serosity). 74. It is the case of the knower, to perceive everything in his mind, as it is revealed in it by Brahma; and also to meet with every thing as it is allotted by God to his share. (God is the revealer and giver of all things. Or—Man meets his fate, as it is meted to him by his Maker). 75. It is the immutable law of nature, that nothing can be otherwise than what it is ordained to be; and there is nothing in nature, which can change its nature for a minute in a whole kalpa-age. (Nature derives her power from the will of her Maker, and her course is, according to the immutable order, fixed by the ordainer of all). 76. And yet this creation is a false phantom, and so is the growth and dissolution of all created beings, as also our enjoyment of them. (All visible Nature is the working of the invisible Spirit).

77. Brahma is pure, all pervading, infinite and absolute. It is for our misery only, that we take him for the impure matter and unreal substance; and as the definite and limited pluralities. 78. It is the vitiated imagination of boys, that fancies the water and its waves as different things; and makes a false distinction between them which are really the same things. (Hence whatever differences there appear in objects, they are all as the fallacy of a snake in the rope with the unknowing. There is no difference of antagonistic powers felt in the spirit of Brahma, who is equal in all, and to whom all things are equal; though there seems a constant opposition in the natures of things). 79. It is His undivided self which expanded itself in visible nature, and which appears as a duality, like that of the waves and the sea, and the bracelets and gold. Thus He of himself appears as other than himself. (i.e. The difference appearing in the visibles, disappears in the indifference of the Divine Mind).

80. We are led to imagine the visible and mutable world, to have sprung from the invisible and immutable spirit, which manifested itself in the form of the mind that produced the Ego. Thus we have the visible from the invisible, and the mind and the ego from the same source. (The absolute Brahma manifesting itself in two forms, the mind or ego and nature or non-ego. The Ego of the mind is infinite, which produced the finite ego or human soul, personified as the first male (Adimapurusha or Adam)). 81. The mind joined with the ego, produced the notions of elementary principles or elemental particles; which the living soul combined with its intellect, derived from the main source of Brahma, and of which it formed the phenomenal world. (These notions were the intentive concepts of the formal and reflexive world, existing primordially in the essence of Brahma, as its material cause or (upádánam). So says the Vedánta:—Yato viswamvá imámi bhutani &c.).

82. Thus the mind being realised from Brahma, sees before it whatever it imagines; and whatever the intellect thinks upon, whether it is a reality or unreality, the same comes to take place. The reflexion verily passes into reality. (The imagination is the faculty representative of the phenomena of internal and external worlds. It is both productive and reproductive. Sir Wm. Hamilton. Here intellect means the Supreme Intellect, the wisdom of God and his design in the works of creation. All beings and things are manifestations of one Eternal and original mind God).

DESCRIPTION OF A RÁKSHASÍ (OR FEMALE FIEND). Argument. Story of Karkatí the female fiend, and her austerities for extirpation of Human Kind. Vasishtha said:—Hear me relate to you, Ráma! an old anecdote bearing upon this subject, and relating to a difficult proposition adduced by the Rákshashí for solution. 2. There lived on the north of Himálaya a heinous Rákshashí, by name of Karkatí—a crooked crab; who was as dark as ink and stalwart as a rock, with limbs as strong as could split the sturdy oak. 3. She was also known by the title of Visúchí or cholic pain, by which she was ever afflicted, and which had reduced her frame like that of the Vindhyá hill, which was cowered down (by the curse of Agastya). 4. Her eye-balls were as blazing as fires; and her stature reaching half way to the sky, was girt by a blue garment, like the shade of night wrapping the atmosphere. 5. A white mantle formed the covering of her head, like the fragment of a cloud; and the long erect hairs of her head, stood like a sable cloud on her crest.

6. Her eyes flashed as lightnings, and her sharp hooked nails glistened as sapphires; her legs were as long as tamála trees, and her loud laughter was as a burst of frost. 7. A string of dried bones decorated her body, like a wreath of flowers; and the relics of dead bodies, adorned every part of her body. 8. She frolicked in the company of Vetálas, with human skulls hanging down her ears as ear-rings; and stretched out her arms aloft, as if she was going to pluck the sun from his sphere. 9. Her huge body being in want of its necessary aliment, caused her culinary fire to blaze like the submarine flame, which the waters of the deep are unable to quench. (The latent heat in water). 10. Nothing could ever satiate the insatiable hunger, of this big bellied monster; nor satisfy her lickerish tongue, which was always stretched out like a flame of fire. 11. She thought in herself saying:—Oh! if I could but once go to the Jambudwípa—the land of Asia, I would devour all its men in one swoop, and feast on them continually, like the submarine fire upon the waters.

12. As the clouds cool the burning sands by their rain, so will I allay the burning fire of my hunger there. It is settled as the best plan to support my life, at this critical moment. 13. All men are well guarded by means of their mantras, medicines, austerities, devotions and charities, from all evils of the world; whence it is impossible for any body to destroy the indestructible devotee. (My all destructive devotion will destroy all; but render me indestructible). 14. I will perform the most rigorous austerities, with an unflinching heart and mind; because it is by intensity of painstaking, that we may gain what is otherwise hard to be had. (Industria vincit omnia.—Labour conquers all). 15. Having thought so, she repaired to an inaccessible mountain, for the purpose of destroying all animal beings. (The Rákshasa cannibals are devourers of all flesh; and are of the omnivorous kind). 16. She climbed to the top of the mountain, by scrambling over it with her hands and feet; and stood on it with her body resembling a cloud, and her eye-balls flashing as lightnings. (i.e. Her body and eyesight, were similar to the cloud and lightning on the mountain top).

17. Having got to the summit, she made her ablution and then sat at her devotion; with her steadfast eyeballs resembling the two orbs of the sun and moon, and fixed on one object. 18. She passed there many a day and month, and saw the course of many a season and year. She exposed her huge body to the rigor of heat and cold, like the hill itself (on which she sat). 19. She with her huge black body, remained unmoved as a thick sable cloud, on the mountain top; and her jet black hairs stood up as if to touch the sky. 20. Seeing her body beaten by the blasts, and covered with nothing but her ragged skin; and her hairs standing up to their end, to be tossed to and fro by the raging winds; while the twinklings of her eyelids, shed a whitish glare on her sable frame, the god Brahmá made his appearance before her.

STORY OF VISÚCHIKÁ—(continued). Argument. Brahmá’s boon to Visúchí, and the mantra against her Power. Vasishtha resumed:—After the lapse of a thousand years, Brahmá appeared to her, in order to put an end to the ardour of her austerities, and crown her with success or the reward of her devotion. (Ardent devotion has the power of displacing even the gods from their heavenly seats). 2. She saluted him internally in her mind, and remained fixed in her position; thinking about the boon she should beg of him, for allaying her keen appetite. 3. She soon recollected a certain request, which she should prefer to her complying god; and it was to transform her soft and flexible form to the shape of an inflexible iron-nail, wherewith she could torment all living beings. (i.e. To make her fleshy form as stiff as a poker, so as to be able to pierce all others without being pierced herself). 4. At Brahmá’s bidding, she bethought in herself: “I will become as thin as a minute pin, in order to enter imperceptibly into the hearts of animals, as the odor of flowers enters the nostrils.”

5. “By this means will I suck the heart-blood of beings, to my heart’s satisfaction; in this way will my hunger be satiated, and the gratification of my appetite, will give the greatest delight to my soul.” 6. As she was thinking in this manner, the God discovered her sinister motives, contrary to the character of a yogi; and accosted her in a voice resembling the roaring of clouds. 7. Brahmá said:—Daughter Karkatí, of the Rákshasa race, that sittest here like a cloud on the inaccessible top of this mountain; know that I am pleased with thy devotion, and bid thee now to raise thyself, and receive the boon that thou desirest of me. 8. Karkatí answered:—“O Lord of the past and future! If thou art inclined to grant my request, then please to confer on me the boon, of transforming my unironlike body to the form of an iron needle.” 9. Vasishtha said:—The God pronounced “Be it so,” and joined, “thou wilt be as a pin, and shalt be called the cholic pain, for thy giving pain to all bodies.” 10. “Thou shalt be the cruel cause of acute pain and pang to all living being; and particularly to the intemperate and hard-working fools, and loose libertines, who are destined to be thy devoted victims.”

11. “Moreover shalt thou molest the dwellers of unhealthy districts, and the practicers of malpractices; by entering their hearts with thy infectious breath, and by disturbing their sleep, and deranging the liver and other intestinal parts of the body.” 12. “Thou shalt be of the form of wind (in the bowels), and cause bile and flatulence under the different names of colic diseases, and attack the intemperate both among the wise and unwise.” 13. “The wise when attacked by thee, will be healed by repeating this runic mantra, which I will here propound for their benefit.” 14. The mantra runs thus:—“There lives Karkatí, the Rákshasí, in the north of the snowy mountain; her name is Visúchiká, and it is for repelling her power that I repeat this mantra; “Om, I bow to hring, hrang and ring, rang—the powers of Vishnu, and invoke the Vaishnavi powers to remove, destroy, root out, drive away this colic pain, far beyond the Himálayas, and afar to the orb of the moon. Om, (amen) and swáhá (soho), be it so.” Let these lines be held on the left arm as an amulet.

15. “Then rub the painful part with the palm of that hand, and think the colic Karkatí to be crushed under the mallet of this amulet, and driven back beyond the hills with loud wailing.” 16. “Let the patient think the medicinal moon to be seated in his heart, and believe himself to be freed from death and disease; and his faith will save his life and heal his pain.” 17. “The attentive adept, who having purified himself with sprinkling the water in his mouth, repeats this formula, he succeeds in a short time to remove the colic pain altogether.” 18. The lord of the three worlds then disappeared in the air, after delivering this efficacious amulet to the Siddhas attending upon him. He went to his splendid seat in heaven, where he was received by the god Indra, who advanced to hail him with his hosannas.

CONDUCT OF VISÚCHÍ, OR THE ADVENTURES OF THE NEEDLE. Argument. The gradual leanness of Súchí, and her entrance in Human bodies. Vasishtha continued:—Now this Súchí who had been as tall as a mountain-peak, and a Rákshasí of the blackest kind, resembling a thick and dark cloud of the rainy season; began gradually to fade away, and grow leaner and leaner day by day. 2. Her gigantic cloud-like form, was soon reduced to the shape of the branch of a tree, which afterwards became of the figure of a man, and then of the measure of a cubit only. 3. It next became of the length of a span in its heighth, and then of a finger’s length in all. Growing by degrees thinner and thinner like a corn or grain, it became at last as lean as a needle or pin. 4. She was thus reduced to the thinness of a needle, fit only to sew a silken robe; and became as lean as the filament of the lotus flower by her own desire; which can change a hill to a grain of sand. (This passage bears reference to the microcosm of human soul).

5. The unmetallic Súchí, was thus transformed to the form of a black and slender iron needle; which containing all her limbs and organs of her body in it, conducted her in the air and everywhere as she liked. (Thus the gross human body being reduced to its subtle átiváhika or spiritual form, it is possible for the Yogi to traverse through the air, as we perceive in the course of our minds). 6. She viewed her person as an iron pin, and having neither any substance nor length or breadth of her body. (The false idea of length and breadth of the soul is a fallacy of our understanding; because the soul like a geometrical line, has no dimension nor substance whatever in it). 7. Her mind with its power of thought, appeared as bright as a golden needle (pointing to the point); and as a streak of the sapphire impregnated by solar ray.

8. Her rolling eye-balls, were as dark as the spots of black clouds, moved to and fro by the winds; and her sparkling pupils were gazing at the bright glory (of God); piercing through their tenuous pores. (It is explained also as fixing the eye-sight to some chink (as that of a wall or other), through which the light of God enters the sensory of sight, and then penetrates into the soul as in Yoga meditation). 9. She had observed the vow of her taciturnity (mauna-vrata), for reducing the plumpness of her person, and was gladdened in her face, to become as lean as the filament of a feather. (The vow of keeping silence is said to be of great good, by increasing the power of thought; for he who speaks little thinks much, and who so talks much, must talk in vain. It is the practice of munis or saints to remain silent, whence the vow has its name). 10. She beheld a light alighting on her, from the air at a distance; and she was glad in her face to find her inward spirit, to be sublimated as air. (The internal light and lightness of the body are results of yoga practice).

11. With her contracted eye brows, she beheld the rays of light extending to her from afar; which caused the hairs on her body, to stand up like those of babies at bathing. 12. Her grand artery called Brahmanádí or susumna, was raised about its cavity in the head called the Brahma-randhra; in order to greet the holy light, as the filaments of the lotus, rise to receive the solar light and heat. 13. Having subdued the organs of her senses and their powers, she remained as one without her organic frame, and identified with her living soul; and resembled the intelligent principle of the Bauddhas and Tárkikas, which is unseen by others. (i.e. In her spiritual form only). 14. Her minuteness seemed to have produced the minutiae of minute philosophers, called the siddhárthas; and her silence was like that of the wind confined in a cave. Her slender form of the puny pin, resembled the breath of animal life, which is imperceptible to the eye. 15. The little that remained of her person, was as thin as the last hope of man (which sustains his life). It was as the pencil of the extinguished flame of a lamp; that has its heat without the light.

16. But alas! how pitiable was her folly, that she could not understand at first, that she was wrong to choose for herself the form of a slender pin, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite. (This is a ridicule to Yogis and students, that emaciate themselves with intense study and Yoga, only with a desire to pamper their bodies afterwards, with luxuries and carnal enjoyments). 17. Her object was to have her food, and not the contemptible form of the pin; her heart desired one thing, and she found herself in another form, that was of no use to her purpose. 18. It was her silliness, that led her make the injudicious choice of needleship for herself; and so it is with the short witted, that they lack the sense of judging beforehand, about their future good. 19. An arduous attempt to accomplish the desired object, is often attended by a different result; and even success on one hand, becomes a failure on another; just as the mirror is soiled by the breath, while it shows the face to the looker. (Disappointment lurks in many a shape, and often stings us with success).

20. How be it, the Rákshasí soon learnt to be content with her needleship, after she had relinquished her gigantic form; although she viewed her transformation as worse, than her dissolution itself. (Utter annihilation is more desirable to the Yogi than his metamorphosis to meaner forms). 21. Lo! the contrariety in the desires of the infatuated, who distaste in a trice, what they fondly wished at one time; as this fiend was disgusted at her pinship in lieu of her monstrous figure. (And so they wilfully shun the object of their former fondness, as the suicides and dying people quit their fond bodies without remorse). 22. As one dish of food is easily replaced by another, suiting the taste of the voluptuary; so this fiend did not hesitate to shun her gigantic body, which she took to taste the heart blood of animals in her pinnate form. 23. Even death is delectable to the giddy headed, when they are overfond of some thing else; as the minim of a meagre needle was desirable to the monstrous fiend for the gratification of her fiendish desire. 24. Now this needle took the rarefied form of air, and moved about as the colic wind (colica flatulenta), after all living beings, in quest of her suction of animal gore.

25. Its body was that of fiery heat, and its life the vital breath of animals; its seat was in the sensitive heart, and it was as swift as the particles of solar and lunar beams. 26. It was as destructive as the blade of the deadly sword, and as fleet as the effluvia flying in air. It penetrated into the body in the form of the minutiae of odor. 27. It was ever bent to do evil, like an evil spirit, as she was now known by that name; and her sole object was to kill the lives of others at her pleasure. 28. Her body was afterwards divided into two halves; one of which was as fine as a silken thread, and the other as soft as a thread of cotton. 29. Súchí ranged all about the ten sides of the world, in these two forms of hers; and pierced and penetrated into the hearts of living beings, with all her excruciating pains. 30. It was for the accomplishment of all these purposes of hers, whether they be great or little; that Karkatí forsook her former big body, and took the form of the acute and small needle. (Because humbleness and acuteness are the means of success in every project).

31. To men of little understanding, a slight business becomes an arduous task; as the foolish fiend had recourse to her austerities, in order to do the mean work of the needle. 32. Again men however good and great, can hardly get rid of their natural disposition; and it was for this reason that the great Rákshasí, performed her austere devotion, in order to become a vile pin for molesting mankind. 33. Now as Súchí was roving about in the sky, her aerial form which was big with her heinous ambition, disappeared in air like vapour, or as a thick cloud in autumn. 34. Then entering in the body of some sensualist or weak or too fat a person, this inward colic flatulence of Súchí, assumed the shape of Visúchiká or cholera. 35. Sometimes she enters in the body of some lean person, as also in those of healthy and wise people; and appearing at first as a colic pain, becomes a real cholera at last. 36. She is often delighted, to take her seat in the hearts of the ignorant; but is driven back afterwards by the good acts and prayers, and mantras and medicines of the wise.

37. In this manner she continued many years in her rambles; her bipartite body kept sometimes flying up in the air, and oftentimes creeping low on the ground. 38. She lies concealed in the dust of the ground, and under the fisted fingers of hands; she hides herself in the sun-beams, in air and in the threads of cloths. (All this refers to the pestilential air). 39. She is hid in the intestines, entrails and genitals, and resides in the bodies of pale and ash coloured persons; she abides in the pores, lines and lineaments of the body; as also in dry grass and in the dried beds of rivers (All these are abodes of malaria). 40. She has her seat among the indigent, and in the naked and uncovered bodies of men; as also in those which are subject to hard breathings. She dwells in places infested by flies and of obstructed ventilation, as also in green verdures excepting only of the mango and woodapple (bel) trees. 41. She lurks in places scattered with bones and joints of animal bodies, and such as are disturbed by violent winds, and gusts of air, she lies in dirty places, and in cold and icy grounds and likewise in polluted cloths and places polluted by them.

42. She sits in holes and hollow places, withered trees, and spots infested by crows, flies and peacocks. Also in places of dry, humid and high winds, and in benumbed fingers and toes. 43. As also in cloudy regions, in cavernous districts of the form of rotten bodies; in regions of melting and driving snows, and in marshy grounds abounding in ant hills and hills of málúra trees. (Málúra is Kapitha or kath-bel, which is deemed unwholesome). 44. She exhibits herself in the mirage of desert sand, and in wildernesses abounding with ravenous beasts and snakes. Sometimes she is seen in lands infested by venomous reptiles, and disgusting leeches and worms. 45. She frequents the stagnate pools, soiled by dry leaves and those chewed by the Pisáchas; and haunts the hovels beside the cross ways, where passengers halt and take shelter from cold. 46. She rambles in all places, ever where the leeches suck the blood of men, and vile people tear them with their nails and hold them in their fists for feeding upon them. (Here is a relation between the blood sucking Súchí or Needle and the leeches). 47. In this manner she passes in all places, that we view in the landscape of cities in drawings; until she is tired with her long journey through them.

48. She then stops in her course like a tired bullock, whose body is heated by travelling through towns, with loads of cotton and utensils on their backs. 49. She afterwards lays her down to rest in some hidden place, like a needle tired with continued sewing; and there drops down like it, from its bridling thread in the hand of the sewer. 50. The hard needle held in the hand of the sewer, never hurts his finger; because a servant however sharp he may be, is never faithless or is injurious to his master. 51. The iron needle growing old in its business of stitching, was at last lost by itself; like the rotten plank of a boat, bearing the burthensome ballast of stones in it. 52. It wandered about on all sides of its own accord, and was driven to and fro like chaff by the driving winds, according to the course of nature (with all things). 53. Being taken up by some one, it is fed with the fag end of a thread put into its mouth, as the malady of cholera is caught by those human parasites, who glut themselves with food supplied by the sap of another.

54. The malady of colic, like the needle, is ever fond of feeding on the pith of others with its open mouth; and continually finds the thread-like heartstring of some body put into its hole. 55. Thus the strong bodies of greedy and heinous beings, are nourished by the sap of the weak and innocent, as the colic disease preys on the lean bodies of the poor; and the sharp needle is supported by the thin thread of the needy (who cannot afford to buy new suits). 56. Though the heart of Súchí like the hole of the needle, was to receive the thread-like sap of the patient’s heart; yet her power to pierce it, was like that of the sewing needle, which is as potent as the piercing sun-beams, to penetrate into the toughest substances. 57. At last Súchí came to find on a sudden, the fault of her wrong choice of the puny body (of the needle); which was to be filled with her scanty fare of a bit of thread, and then she began to repent for her folly. 58. She continued however with all her might, to trudge on in her wonted course, of pricking and piercing the bodies of others; and notwithstanding her great regret, she could not avoid the cruelty of her nature.

59. The sewing man cuts and sews the cloth; agreeably to his own liking; but the weaver of destiny weaves the long loom of lengthened desires in all bodies, and hides their reason under the garb of her own making. 60. The colic Súchí went on like the sewing needle, in her business of piercing the hearts of people by hiding her head; as it is the practice of robbers to carry on their rogueries, by covering their faces. (All the three are sly boots, and carry on their trades under the seal of secrecy). 61. She like the needle with the sewing thread behind it, raises her head to make and look at the loop-hole, that she should penetrate in the manner of burglars, making and marking the holes in the wall for their entry. 62. She entered alike in the bodies of the weak and strong, like the needle stitching cloths of all textures (whether silken, linen or fibrous); as it is the custom of the wicked to spare neither the just nor unjust (from their calumny and villainy).

63. The colic pain like the piercing needle, being pressed under the fingers, lets off its griping, like the thread of the needle in its act of sewing. (So the wicked when caught in the act, let out and give up their wickedness). 64. The acute and unfeeling colic, being as ignorant as the stiff and heartless needle, of the softness or dryness of the object; pierces the hardiest breast, without deriving any sweetness from it. (So the unfeeling ruffians molest the moneyless, to no benefit to themselves). 65. The needle is compared with a rich widow, being both equally stern and full of remorse; both equally veiled and speechless, and with their eye of the needle, are empty in their joyless hearts. 66. The needle hurts no body (but rather does good in clothing mankind, by mending their tattered habits); and yet she is dragged by the thread, which is no other than the thread of her fate (woven by the fatal sisters for her drudgery). 67. Slipt from the finger of her master, the needle sleeps in peace after her trudging, in company with her fellows of dirt and dregs; for who is there that does not deem himself blest, in the company of his equals, when he is out of employ?

68. The herd of common people, is ever fond of mixing with the ignorant rabble in their modes of life; because there is no body that can avoid the company of his equals. (Kind flies with its own kind; or, Birds of one feather fly together). 69. The lost needle when found by a blacksmith and heated in the hearth, flies to heaven by the breath of the bellows, after which it disappears in the air. (So the society of the good elevates one to heaven, which leads at last to his final liberation). 70. In this manner the current of vital airs, conducts the breath of life in to the heart; which becomes the living spirit, by force of the acts of its prior states of existence. 71. The vital airs being vitiated, in the body, cause the colic pains known by different names; such as flatulence, bile and the like. 72. The colic caused by vitiation of the Vyána air, produces many diseases, and affects all the members of the body with a watery fluid. When it comes by breathing of the lungs, it causes the Váya súla or pulmonary colic of lungs, and is attended by disfigurement of the body, and insanity or hysteria known as the hysteric colic.

73. Sometimes it comes from the hands of sheepkeepers, and by the smell of the sheep’s wool in blankets; and at others it seizes the fingers of children, and causes them to tear their bed cloths therewith. 74. When it enters the body by the foot, it continues in sucking the blood; and with all its voracity, becomes satisfied with very little food. 75. It lies in the glandular vessel of the faeces, with its mouth placed downward; and takes at pleasure any form, it likes to assume as its prerogative. 76. It is the nature of the malicious, to show the pervertedness of their hearts by doing injury to others; as it is characteristic of the base people to raise a row for their pleasure, and not for any gain or good to themselves. 77. The miserly think much of their gain of even a single cowry: so deeprooted is the avaricious selfishness of human nature. (All little gain is no gain, compared with the wants of men).

78. It was but for a particle of blood, or as much as could be picked out by the point of a pin, that the colic Súchí was bent on the destruction of men: so the wise are fools in their own interests (and so do cut-throats kill others for a single groat). 79. How great is my master-stroke, says the needle, that from stitching the shreds of cloth, have come to the pitch of piercing the hearts of men; so be it and I am happy at my success. 80. As the rust of the lazy needle passes off in sewing, without being rubbed with dust; so must it take the rust, unless it is put in the action of piercing the patient and passive shreds. (The rolling stone gathers no moss). 81. The unseen and airy darts of fate, are as fatal as the acts of the cruel Vísúchi; though both of them have their respite at short intervals of their massacres. 82. The needle is at rest after its act of sewing is done; but the wicked are not satisfied, even after their acts of slaughter are over.

83. It dives in the dirt and rises in the air, it flies with the wind and lies down wherever it falls; it sleeps in the dust and hides itself at home and in the inside, and under the cloths and leaves. It dwells in the hand and ear-holes, in lotuses and heaps of woolen stuffs. It is lost in the holes of houses, in clefts of wood and underneath the ground. (Compare the adventures of a pin in Gay’s Fables). 84. Válmíki added:—As the sage was speaking in this manner, the sun went down in the west, and the day departed to its evening service. The assembly broke after mutual salutations, to perform their sacred ablution; and joined again on the next morning, with the rising beams of the sun to the royal palace.

REMORSE OF SÚCHÍ. Argument. Remorse of Karkatí at her transformation to a Needle from her former gigantic form. Vasishtha continued:—After the carnivorous fiend—Karkatí, had feasted for a long period on the flesh and blood of human kind; she found her insatiable voracity to know no bounds, and never to be satisfied with anything. 2. She used to be satisfied erewhile, with a drop of blood in her form of the needle; and she now became sorry, at the loss of the insatiable thirst and appetite of her former state. 3. She thought in herself, O pity it is! that I came to be a vile needle; with so weak and slender a body, that I can take nothing for my food. 4. How foolish I have been to forego my former gigantic form, and change my dark cloudy figure for something as the dry leaf of a forest tree. 5. O wretch that I am, to have foregone my dainty food of flesh flavoured with fat. (The Ráskshasa cannibals are raw flesh-eaters and feeders on the fat of animals). 6. I am doomed to dive in dirt, and drop down on the ground; to be trodden and trampled over under the feet of people, and soiled and sullied in the filth.

7. O me miserable, helpless and hopeless thing, and without any support or status of mine; from one woe I fall to another, and one danger is succeeded by another unto me! 8. I have no mistress nor maidservant, nor my father nor mother; I have got no son nor brother, nor any one to serve or befriend me. 9. I have no body nor abode, nor any refuge nor asylum anywhere; nor have I a fixed dwelling in any spot, but am driven about, like the fallen leaves of forest trees by the driving winds. 10. I am subject to all accidents, and exposed to every kind of calamity; I wish for my extinction, but it wishes not to approach unto me. (Death flies from the destitute). 11. What else have I done to have given away my own big body, in the foolishness of my heart; than parted like a madman, with a precious jewel for a paltry piece of glass. 12. One calamity is enough to turn the brain out of order; but what will be my case when it is followed by other calamities in endless succession.

13. I am hung up (with the cloth) to be suffocated by the smoke, and dropped down in the streets to be trodden under foot; I am cast away with the dirt, and hid under the grass to my great distress. 14. I serve at another’s will, and am guided by my guide; I am stark naked while I sew for others, and am ever a dependant on another’s guidance. 15. Long do I drudge and trudge for a paltry gain, and stitching alone is all the work that I have to perform for life. O unlucky that I am, that my ill luck even is so very luckless. 16. I see the demon of despair rising before me, upon my penitence of this day; and threatening to make an end of this body, of which I have made an offering to him. 17. What better fate can await on me, after my loss of so big and bulky a body by my foolishness; than to be annihilated into nothing, rather than be a thing which is good for nothing. 18. What man will pick me up, who am as lean as a mollusk (or thread worm); from the heap of ashes, under which I lie buried by the wayside.

19. No keensighted man will take into his consideration a wretched and a forlorn being; as nobody living on a high hill, ever stoops to take notice of the grass growing on the ground below. 20. I cannot expect to raise myself higher, while I am lying in the sea of ignorance; what blind man can perceive the glorious sun-light, who is guided by the flash of fireflies? 21. I know not therefore how long I shall have to labour under my difficulties, when I find myself already drowned in a sea of misery. 22. When shall I be restored again to the form of the daughter of Anjanágiri mountain; and will stand as a pillar over the ruins of the nether and upper worlds? 23. When shall I have my arms reaching to the clouds, and my eyes flashing as lightning; my garb becoming as white as snow, and my hairs touching the sky. 24. My big belly resembling a huge cloud, and my long breasts hanging below as pillows; shaking with the motion of my body, in its dancing like the pinions of a peacock. 25. The ash-white light emitted by my laughter, cast the light of the sun into the shade; and my former high stature, threatened to devour the terrible god of death.

26. My hollow sockets deep as the holes of mortars, flashed erewhile with living fire; like the rays of the sun; and my large legs moved as two monumental pillars in my rambling. 27. When shall I have my big belly, with its large cavity like a pot-belly; and when shall I have again my soft black nails, resembling the dark and humid clouds of autumn. 28. When will those tender smiles return to me, whereby I moved the great Rákshasas to my favour; and when shall I dance in my giddy circles, at the music of the tabor amidst the forests. 29. When will that big belly of mine, be filled with potfuls of fattened liquor; and be fed with heaps of the flesh and bones of dead bodies. 30. When shall I get me drunk, with drinking the blood of human gores; and become merry and giddy, until I fall fast asleep. 31. It was I who destroyed my former brilliant body, by my bad choice of austerities, and accepted this petty needlish form, like one taking the sulphate of gold, instead of that precious metal.

32. Ah! where is that huge body which filled all sides, and shone as the sable hill of Anjanágiri; and what is this puny and pinny form of the shape of a spider’s leg, and as thin and lean as a tender blade of grass. 33. The ignorant are found to throw away a golden jewel, as useless on the ground as a piece of glass; and so have I cast aside my shining body, for a bit of this blackest needle. 34. O great Vindhyá with thy hollow and snow covered caves! why dost thou not destroy thy dull elephants by thy native lions? It is I that am as silly as an elephant—gaja múrkha. 35. O my arms! which used to break down mountain peaks, why do ye fail to pluck the butter-like moon with thy moony nails? 36. O my breast! which was as fair as the side of the snowy mountain, even without my glassy ornaments; why dost thou not show thy hairs, which were as large as leeches that feed on lion’s flesh? 37. O my eyes! that used to dispel the darkness of the darkest night, and kindle the dry fuel with your glaring fire; why do ye cease to lighten the air with your effulgence?

38. O my shoulder blades! are ye broken down and levelled with the earth? or are ye crushed and smashed or mouldered and worn out by age? 39. O my moonbright face! why dost thou not shine over me with thy bright beams; resembling the everlasting light of the orb of the moon, now at an end for ever? 40. O my hands! where is your strength fled today? See ye not, how I am transformed to an ignoble needle, that is moved about by the touch of the foot of a fly? 41. Alas! the cavity of my navel, which was as deep as a well, and beset by hairs resembling rows of beautiful plants about it; and my protuberant posteriors, which likened to the bottom of the Vindhyá hills. 42. Where is that towering stature reaching to the sky, and what is this new earned contemptible form of the needle; where is that mouth, hollow as the vault of the sky, and what is this hole of the needle? Where is that heap of my flesh meat, and what is this drop of watery food? Ah! how lean have I grown, but who is to be blamed for an act of my own doing?

FERVOUR OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION. Argument. Ardour of Súchí’s austerities and Indra’s Inquiry of it. Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards Súchí became silent and motionless, and thought of resuming her austerities for the sake of regaining her long lost body. 2. With this intention she returned to the Himálayas; and there abstaining from her desire of human gore, she sat reiterating her castigations. 3. She saw in her mind her form of the needle, entering into her heart with her breathings. 4. Thus meditating on her mental form of the needle, she was wafted by her vital breath to the top of the hill, and alighted on it like a vulture from high. 5. There she remained alone and apart from all living beings, and sat amidst burning fires, with her form of an ash-coloured stone (i.e. besmeared by ashes like a yogi). 6. She sat there as a sprout of grass, springing in that dry and grassless spot; but soon faded away, to a blade of withered hay in the sandy desert. 7. She remained standing on tip-toe of her only one foot, and continued in the castigation of her own self. (Standing of the one legged needle, represented the posture of devotees standing on one leg).

8. She lightly touched the ground with her tiptoe stature, and avoiding all sidelong looks, gazed on the upper sky with her upraised face and uplifted eyes. 9. The acute point of the black iron needle, firmly preserved its standing posture by penetrating the ground; while it fed itself upon the air, which it inhaled by its uplifted mouth. 10. The scarcity of food in the forest, made it look up as in quest of some prey coming from a distance; while its lower part shaking with the wind, enticed the unwary to approach towards it. 11. The ray of light issuing as a pencil from the needle hole, became like its attendant guard on the hinder part. 12. As men are kindly disposed towards the mean, that are favourites to them; so was the needle attached to the pencil of ray, that became its constant attendant. 13. The needle had another constant companion, of its devotion in its own shadow; but the blackness of its person, made it always to remain behind the back. (The shadow of a thing ever remains behind it). 14. Thus the shadowy needle and pencil of ray, having firmly adhered themselves to the iron needle; these three have always become intimate friends, like all good people mutually assisting one another.

15. The trees and plants of the mountain forest, felt compassion for Súchí on seeing her in this plight; for who is there, that bears no sympathy for the pious devotee, or her penances and austerities? 16. The needle that was thus stuck fast to the ground by its foot, and had sprung up like some faculty of the mind; was fed with the fragrance of the fruitage, blown and borne by the breeze to its uplifted mouth. 17. The woodland gods and demigods, continued to fill its mouth with the dust; of blown and unblown flowers in the woods. 18. But it did not swallow the powdered dust of meat; which the god Indra had caused to be thrown into its mouth, for the purpose of frustrating the efficacy of its devotion. 19. Its fixity of purpose, did not permit it to swallow the delicious powder; because a person however mean he may be, is sure of success by his firmness of mind. 20. The god of winds, with his power of uprooting the mountains; was astonished to find the needle, averse to swallow the food, ministered to it in the form of the pollen of <flowers>.

21. The resolute devotee is never to be shaken from his purpose, though he is plunged in the mud or drowned in water, or scattered by the winds and thrown into the burning fire. 22. Or when he is shattered by showers of hailstones, or struck by the lightning or battered by rain drops, and intimidated by thunder claps. 23. The resolute mind is not changed in a thousand years, and the feet of the firm, like those of the drowsy and dead drunk, never move from their place. 24. The holy hermit who is devoted to his purpose, loses in time the motion of his external organs; but obtains by the exercise of his reason, the light of true knowledge in his soul. 25. Thus did Súchí gain the light of knowledge, and become a seer of the past and future. She became cleansed of the dross of her sins, and her Visúchí or impurity was turned to Súchí or purity. 26. She came to know the truly knowable, in her own understanding; and she felt true bliss in her soul, after the removal of her sins by devotion.

27. She continued for many thousand years in her austere devotion, to the great astonishment of seven times seven worlds, that got affrighted at her austerities. (The cause of their fright was, lest she should take possession of their happy states, by the merit of her devotion). 28. The great mountain was set in a blaze, by the fervour of her devotion; and that flame spread to all the worlds, like the blaze of a portentous meteor. 29. This made Indra the god of heaven, to ask Nárada respecting the cause of this intense devotion; saying “Who is it that engrosses to her the fruition of worlds, by her austere devotion”? To whom Nárada thus replied: 30. “It is Súchí, who by her continued devotion of thousands of years, has attained her highest state of enlightenment; and it is that light that now enflames all the worlds.” 31. It is Súchí’s devotion, O lord of gods, that makes the Nágás to sigh and the hills to tremble. It causes the celestials to fall down, and the sea to overflow on earth. It dries up all things, and casts to shade the bright orb of the sun itself.

NÁRADA’S RELATION OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION. Argument. Description of Súchí’s austerities, and Indra’s Inquiry about them. Vasishtha related:—Indra having learnt about the austere devotion of Karkatí, had the curiosity to know more of her through Nárada, whom he asked about the matter. 2. Indra said:—I know Súchí to have acquired her fiendish practice (of blood sucking), by means of her devotion; but who is this apish Karkatí that is so greedy of her gain (of flesh and bones). 3. Nárada replied:—It is Karkatí the malevolent fiend, that became Jíva Súchí or colic pain of the living, and assumed the shape of an iron needle as its support or fulcrum. 4. Having afterwards forsaken that prop, it entered into the human body as its landing place; and then it flew up to the heart on the vehicle of vital breath, and is seated in the car of the current air in atmosphere. (The resting place locus standi, point d’appui or powsto of the diseases of life). 5. This colic of life—Jíva Súchí, having entered into the bodies of vicious lives, passes through the canals of their entrails and the pores of their flesh, fat and blood, and then nestles as a bird in the interior part.

6. It enters the intestines with the breath of the air, and there settles in the form of flatulent colic; afterwards being seated at the end of the nyagrodha artery, it forms the plethoric colic with fulness of blood and inflammation. 7. It also enters the body through other parts and organs, and receives different names according to its situation; and then feeds itself upon their flesh and marrow (as the best food for living beings). 8. Fastened to the knots of wreathed flowers and stuck to the leafy garlands, decorating the breasts and cheeks of fond damsels, she steeps enraptured with them, on the bosoms of their loving spouses. (i.e. The menial needle is blessed in the company of her mistress). 9. She flies to the bodies of birds in wood-land retreats, which are free from worldly sorrow and strife; and flutters on the tops of flowers of the Kalpa arbours of Paradise, or rolls on beds of lotuses in the lakes. 10. She flies over the high hills of the gods, in the forms of fluttering bees; and sips the honey drops, perfumed with the fragrance of the pollen of mandara flowers.

11. She devours in the form of vultures, the entrails of the dead bodies of warriors, through the notches made in them, by blades of swords in warfare. 12. She flies up and down in the pellucid and glassy paths of the firmament, and pierces through all the pores and arteries or inlets into the human body; as the inflated winds pass in every creek and corner on all sides. 13. As the universal vital air (prána-váyu), runs in the heart of every living being, in the form of the pulsation of air; so does Súchí oscillate in every body, as it were her own habitation. 14. As the intellectual powers are lodged in every person, in the manner of blazing lamps in them; so does she reside and blaze as the mistress of every body; answering her dwelling house. 15. She sparkles as the vital spark in the particles of blood, and flows as fluidity in liquid bodies; she rolls and trolls in the bowels of living beings, as whirl pools whirl about in the bosom of the sea.

16. She rests in the milk white mass of flesh, as Vishnu reclines on his bed of the serpent Vásuki; she tastes the flavour of the blood of all hearts, as the goddess (Kálí) drinks the liquor of her goblet of wine. 17. She sucks the circulating red hot blood of hearts, as the winds absorb the internal and vivifying juice, from the hearts of plants and trees. 18. Now this living Súchí, intending to become a devotee, remains as motionless as an immovable substance, and as fixed and steady in her mind. 19. The iron-hearted needle, being now rarefied as the invisible air, is traversing to all sides, on the swift wings of winds resembling its riding horses. 20. It goes on feeding on the flesh and drinking the blood of all living beings; and carrying on its various acts of giving and receiving, and dancing and singing all along. 21. Though the incorporeal Súchí has become aeriform and invisible as vacuum, yet there is nothing which she is unable to accomplish by the powers of her mind, outstripping the swiftness of the winds. 22. But though she runs mad with her meat, and turns about giddy with her drink; yet she is curbed by fate, like an elephant in chains from running at random.

23. The living body like a running stream, moves apace with billows in its course; and the painful and destructive diseases under which it labours, are as greedy sharks lying hid underneath. 24. This frail body like the formless Súchí, being disabled by infirmity to gorge its fleshy food, begins to lament its fate, like old and sickly rich folks, for their want of hunger and appetite. 25. The body with its members, moves about like the beasts of the forest (for their prey); and it plays its parts like an actress on the stage, with goodly apparel and ornaments on her person. 26. The body is moved to and fro by its internal and external winds, and its natural weakness (immobility), is always in need of being moved by the vital airs, as the immovable fragrance requires to be wafted by the breeze. 27. Men in vain rely in mantras and medicines, in austerities and charities, and in the adoration of idols for relief; while their bodies are subject to diseases like the sea to its surges.

28. The unseen force of mobility, is soon lost in the solid body, as the light of the lamp is lost in darkness. So the living Súchí came to be lost in the iron needle, in which she had her rest. (i.e. The living body is lost and transformed to a spirit, wherein it finds its rest after death). 29. Every one aspires to a state according to his natural propensity; as the inclination of the Rákshasi led her to choose the needleship upon herself. 30. A man being tired by travelling far and wide, returns at last to take his rest at home; so the big and living Súchí turned to the form of the thin iron Súchí to execute her repose; but like ignorant people, who prefer the grosser pleasure of the body to the nicer delights of the soul; she still panted for her grosser enjoyments, that were now lost to her. 31. With the intention of satisfying her thirst, she travelled to all parts and quarters (in her form of the poor needle); but derived more of the mental pleasure of experience, than the satisfaction of her corporeal appetites.

32. When the container is in existence, it is possible to fill it with its contents and not otherwise; so one having his body, can seek and get every pleasurable object to give it delight. 33. Remembering now the past enjoyments of her former body, she became sorrowful in her mind, that was so highly pleased and satisfied with filling its belly before. 34. She was then resolved to betake herself to austere devotion, for the purpose of recovering her former body; and with this object in view, she chose for herself the proper situation for her castigations. 35. The living soul of Súchí, thought of entering into the heart of a young vulture flying in the air; and thus soared to it and rested herself in the air like that bird, by the help of her vital breath. (i.e. The greedy spirit was turned to the form of a hungry vulture to shriek and seek for carrion). 36. The vulture being thus filled with the malevolent spirit of the colic Súchí in itself, began to think of executing the purposes that Súchí had in her mind.

37. Thus the vulture bearing the insatiate Súchí within its body, flew to its intended spot on the mountain. It was driven there like a cloud by the wind, and it was in this place that Súchí was to be released from her needleship. 38. It sat there on a spot of the solitary forest in its state of asceticism, seeming to be freed from all desires of the world. 39. It stood there on one of its legs, supported on the tip of its toe and appeared as the statue of some deity, consecrated on the top of the mountain by some one in the form of Garuda. 40. There standing on one leg, supported on an atom of dust; she remained as the mountain peacock, that stands on one leg with the head raised to the sky. 41. The bird seeing the living Súchí coming out of his body, and standing on the mountain as a statue, fled away and disappeared from that place. 42. Súchí issued from the body of the bird, in the manner of the spirit coming out of it, and the intellect aspiring to higher regions; and as the particles of fragrance fly upon the wings of winds, in order to meet the breath of the nostrils to be borne into the nose.

43. The vulture fled to his own place after leaving Súchí at that place, like a porter disburthening himself of his load; and found himself relieved of his lickerish diseases on his return. 44. Now the iron Súchí, being seated in her devotion, in the form of the living Súchí; appeared as graceful as a right man engaged in the performance of his proper duty. 45. And as the formless spirit is unable to do anything, without a formal support or instrument; so the living Súchí supported herself on the tip of her toe, for performance of her devotion. 46. The living Súchí has sheathed the iron needle (in her heart), as an evil spirit (Písáchí) enwraps a Sinsapá tree; and as the winds enfold the particles of odor, which they bear away in their bosom. 47. Thenceforwards, O Indra! has she betaken herself to her protracted devotion, and passed many years in the solitary wilderness in her steady position and posture of body. 48. It now behoves you, O Indra! that art skilled in stratagems, to devise some plan, in order to delude her from her object, or else her devotion will destroy the people, you have so long preserved.

49. Vasishtha said:—Indra having heard these words of Nárada, sent Maruta (Eolus) the god of winds to her search, in all quarters of the globe. 50. The god Maruta then proceeded in quest of her, in his spiritual form of intelligence; and having traversed the etherial regions, alighted upon the nether world. The winds and all other elemental and physical powers, are believed to be endued with intelligence also; and not as mere brute forces, on account of the regular discharge of their proper functions, which they could never do without intelligence. (Hence the imagination and adoration of the Marutgana in the elemental worship of the Veda). 51. He beheld everything instantly at a glance of his intelligence; which perceived all things at one view; as the sight of the Supreme Spirit sees through all bodies without exception or hindrance. (i.e. The sight of the spirit like its breath, sees through and supports all things). 52. His sight stretched to the Lokáloka mountain in the polar circle, far beyond the seven seas of the earth, where there is a large tract of land abounding with gems. (It is doubtful whether the polar mountain or sea abounds with gems).

53. He viewed the circle of the Pushkara continent, surrounded by a sea of sweet water; and containing mountains with their dales and valleys. 54. He next saw the Gomeda islands, surrounded by the sea of liquor with its marine animals; and the land abounding with cities and towns. 55. He beheld also the fertile and peaceful continent of Kraunchadwípa, bounded by the sweet Saccharine sea, and beset by a range of mountains. 56. Further on was the Swetadvípa (Albion island), with its subsidiary isles surrounded by the Milky (Atlantic) ocean, and having the temple of Vishnu in the midst of it (meaning perhaps the ancient Kelts to be colony of the Hindus). 57. After that appeared the sea of butter, surrounding the Kushadwípa island; and having chains of mountains and cities with buildings in them. (Butter milk &c., are fictitious names and not this really). 58. Then came the Sákadwípa in view amidst the ocean of curds, containing many countries and many large and populous cities in them. (The sákadwípa is said to be Scythia or the land of the saccae or sakas). 59. Last appeared the Jambudwípa girt by the sea of salt, having the Meru and other boundary mountains, and many countries in it. (This is Asia stretching to the polar mountains on the north and south).

60. Thus the intelligence of air (Marut), having alighted on earth upon the wings of winds, spread himself afterwards to its utmost ends with rapidity (or spread himself rapidly to its utmost limits afterwards). 61. The god of air then directed his course to Jambudwípa (Asia), and having arrived there, he made his way to the summit of the snowy mountain. (Himálaya, where Súchí was performing her devotion). 62. He saw a great desert on the highest top of the summit, which was as extensive as the expanse of the sky, and devoid both of living creatures and the vestiges of animal bodies. (i.e. There were neither any living being not fossil remains to be found on the mountain peak). 63. It was unproductive of greens or grass owing to its nighness to the sun; and was covered over with dust, like that composing this earth. 64. There spread a wide ocean of the mirage to excite the thirst, like the lucid waters of a river; and allure the longings of men by its various hues, resembling the variegated colours of rain-bow. 65. Its wide expanse reaching almost to infinity, was unmeasurable even by the regents of the quarters of heaven, and the gusts of wind, blowing upon it, served only to cover it with a canopy of dust.

66. It resembled a wanton woman, besmeared with red powder as the sunbeams, and sandal paste like the moonbeams; and attentive to the whistlings of the breeze. (Thinking them to be hissings of men). 67. The god of the winds having travelled all over the seven continents and their seas, and being tired with his long journey on the surface of the earth; rested his gigantic body which fills the infinite space in all directions, on the top of that mountain; like a butterfly resting on the twig of a tree, after its wearied flight in the air.

CONSUMMATION OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION. Argument. Return of the god of winds to the Indra, and his narration of the Devotion of Súchí and her desired Boon. The god of the winds beheld Súchí standing erect, like a crest on the summit of the mountain, amidst that vast tract of the desert all around. 2. She stood upon one leg fixed in her meditation and roasted by the burning sun over her head; she was dried up to a skeleton by her continued fasting, and her belly was contracted to the shrunken skin. (i.e. She was threadbare as skin in all her body and belly). 3. Now and then, she inhaled the hot air with her open mouth, and then breathed it out, as her heart could not contain the repeated influx of air. (Respiration of air is practised by Yogis, to sustain their lives therewith for want of solid food). 4. She was withered under the scorching sunbeams, and battered in her frame by the hotter winds of the desert; yet she moved not from her stand-point, as she was relieved every night by the cold bath of moonbeams.

5. She was content with covering her head under the particles of dust, and did not like to change her state for a better fortune. (i.e. She preferred her poverty to high dignity). 6. She gave up the possession of her forest to other living beings, and lived apart from all in the form of a crest of hair. Her breathings being withdrawn to the cranium, appeared out of it as a tuft of hairs or bushes clapped on her head. (Air confined in the cranium, is said to keep the body alive for ages). 7. The god of air was astonished to see Súchí in this state; he bowed down to her and was struck with terror as he beheld her more earnestly. (The countenance of the holy is awful to the sight of the unholy). 8. He was so overawed by the blaze of her person, that he durst not ask her anything, such as:—“O saintly Súchí! why dost thou undertake thyself to these austerities”? 9. He only exclaimed, O holy Súchí, how wondrous is this sight of thy devotion! Impressed with veneration for her holiness, the god made his departure to heaven whence he came.

10. He passed the region of the clouds, and reached the sphere of the still air (sthíra váyu); and then leaving the realm of the Siddhas behind him, he arrived to the path of the sun—the ecliptic. 11. Then rising higher in his airy car, he got into the city of Indra, where he was cordially embraced by the lord of gods, for the merit of his sight of Súchí. (Visit to sacred persons and holy shrines, is believed to impart a share of holiness to the visitant). 12. Being asked what he saw, he related all that he had seen, before the assembled gods in the synod of Sakra or Indra. 13. Pavana said:—There is the King of mountains the high Himalaya, situate in the midst of Jambudwípa (in Asia); who has the lord Siva, that bears the crescent of the moon on his forehead, for his son-in-law. 14. On the north of it, is a great peak with a plain land above it, where the holy Súchí holds her hermitage, and performs her rigorous devotion. 15. What more shall I relate of her, than that she has abstained herself even of her sustenance of air, and has made a mess of her entrails coiled up together.

16. She has contracted the opening of her mouth to a needle hole, and stopped even that with a particle of dust, in order to restrain it even from the reception of a cold dewdrop for its food. 17. The fervour of her devotion, has made the snowy mountain to forsake its coldness; and assume an igneous form which it is difficult to approach. (The blaze of holiness is said to set mountains on fire, as the presence of the Holy spirit set the sacred mount of Sinai on flame). 18. Therefore let all of us rise and repair soon to the great father of creatures for redress; or know this fervent devotion of hers must prove to our disadvantage in its result. 19. Hearing these words pronounced by Pavana, the lord Indra in company with the other gods, proceeded to the abode of Brahmá, and prayed unto him for their safety. 20. Brahmá answered:—“I am going even now to the summit of the snowy Himalaya, to confer to Súchí her desired boon.” Upon this assurance of Brahmá, the gods all returned to their celestial abodes. 21. During this time Súchí became perfect in her holiness, and began to glow with the fervour of her devotion on the mountain of the immortals.

22. Súchí perceived very clearly the revolution of the time (of her castigation), by fixing her open eyes on the sun, and by counting the days by the rays of solar light penetrating the opening of her mouth:—the needle hole. 23. Súchí though flexible as a bit of thread, had yet attained the firmness of the mountain Meru, by her erect posture. 24. She beheld by the ray of sun light, which penetrated the eye of the needle, that the shadowy attendant upon her erect posture, was the only witness of her upright devotion. 25. The shadow of Súchí which was the only attendant on her devotion, hid herself under her feet for fear of the midday heat, so do people in difficulty find their best friends forsake their company in times of adversity. 26. The union of the three persons of the iron, the ascetic and shadowy Súchí, like the meeting of the three rivers (Asi, Varaná and Gangá from three sides), described a triangle in the form of the sacred city of Benares (or a delta of Gangá or the triune divinity).

27. This union of the three, like the confluence of three rivers of a Trivení (as Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvatí), purifies the sins of men by the three different hues of their waters, viz. the blue, black and white. 28. A person becomes acquainted with the unknown cause of all, only by suchana or reasoning in his own mind; and by means of his selfconsciousness (of the truth or untruth of a thing). It is the cogitation of one’s own mind that is best guide in all things or else, O Ráma! there is no other better preceptor for men.

SÚCHÍ’S REGAINING HER FORMER FRAME. Argument. Brahmá’s appearance, admonition and blessing to Súchí and her resuscitation to life. Vasishtha continued:—After the lapse of a thousand years of long and painful devotion, the great father of creation (Brahmá), appeared to her under his pavilion of the sky, and bade her accept the preferred boon. 2. Súchí 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. 3. 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.” 4. 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?

5. 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? 6. 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). 7. 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). 8. The lord of creatures kept looking on Súchí 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. 9. Brahmá with the kindness of his heart, again accosted the apathetic dame, and said unto her: “Receive thy desired blessing, and live to enjoy for sometime longer on earth”.

10. Then having enjoyed the joys of life, thou shalt attain the blissful state from which thou shalt have no more to return here, and this is the fixed decree destined for all living beings on earth. 11. Be thy desire crowned with success, by merit of this devotion of thine, O best of the womankind! Resume thy former corpulence, and remain as a Rákshasí in this mountain forest. 12. Regain thy cloud-like shape whereof thou art deprived at present, and revive as a sprout from thy pinnate root, to become like a big tree growing out of its small root and little seed. 13. Thou shalt get an inward supply of serum from thy pinnate tendon, as a plant gets its sap from the seeded grain; and the circulation of that juice will cause thy growth like that of a germ from the ingrained seed. 14. Thy knowledge of truth has no fear of following into the difficulties of the world; while on the contrary, the righteousness of thy soul will lead thee like a huge cloud, that is heavy, with its pure water high in the heaven, notwithstanding the blasting gusts of wind. (i.e. The pure and contrite spirit goes on its wonted course, in spite of the tribulations of the world).

15. If by thy constant practice of Yoga meditation, thou hast accustomed thyself to a state of habitation (death like Samádhi), for thy intellectual delight, and hast there by become assimilated to the anaesthesia of thy meditation (to the state of a stock and stone). 16. But thy meditativeness must be compatible with thy worldly affairs, and the body like the breeze, is nourished best by its constant agitation. (i.e. Meditation must be joined with utility, and the body with its activity). 17. Therefore my daughter! thou dost act contrary to nature, by withstanding the action which thy nature requires; nor can there be any objection to thy 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). 18. Act therefore within the bounds of justice, and refrain from all acts of injustice in the world; and stick steadfastly to reason, if thou shouldst like to live liberated in this life. (Justice is the source of liberty, but injustice leads to bondage).

19. Saying so far, the god disappeared from below to his heavenly sphere, when Súchí 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 lotus-born Brahmá, found herself immediately in possession of her former body. 20. 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. (Our growing desires and their increase, are compared with the growth and ramifications and fructification of trees). 21. From the fibrous form of Súchí (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.

REFRAINING FROM UNLAWFUL FOOD. Argument. Advice of the god of winds to Karkatí; and her resort to the Abode of Kiráta—flesh eaters. Vasishtha continued:—Súchí the needle now became the fiend Karkatí again; and her leanness turned to bulkiness, in the manner of a flimsy cloud; assuming a gigantic form in the rainy season. 2. Now returning to her natal air and element, she felt some joy in herself; but renounced her fiendish nature by the knowledge she had gained; as a snake throws off its old slough. (She was regenerated to a new life in the very same body). 3. There seated in her lotiform posture, she continued to reflect on her future course; and relying on the purity of her new life and faith, she remained fixed as a mountain peak. (Unmoved by the stormy temptations of the world). 4. After six months of her continued meditation, she got the knowledge of what she sought; as the roaring of clouds rouses the peacock, to the sense of an approaching rain. 5. Being roused to her sense, she felt the pains of her thirst and hunger; because the nature of the body never forsakes its appetites as long as it lasts in the same state. (There cannot be a thorough change of innate nature in the same person).

6. She was sorrowful at last, not to find out what food she should take to herself; because she thought the killing of animal life for food, was unlawful and repugnant to her nature. 7. The food forbidden by the respectable and got by unjust means, must be rejected even at the expense of one’s valuable life. (Respectable men abhor the flesh of unclean animals and forbidden meat). 8. If my body, said she, should perish for want of lawful food, I do not transgress the law in that; but the guilt lies in my taking of unlawful food; for the sustenance of my life. (Hence no man is guilty of his legal gain and lawful food). 9. Whatever is not obtained according to the customary rules of society, is not worth taking; and if I should die without my proper food, or live upon improper fare, it amounts to the same thing whether I live or die (because unrighteous living is moral death). 10. I was only the mind before, to which the body is added as a base appendage. It vanishes upon the knowledge of self; hence its care and neglect are both alike. (The soul forming our true essence, must be preserved pure in expense of the impure body).

11. Vasishtha resumed:—As she was uttering these words, in silence to herself, she heard a voice in the air, coming from the god of winds, who was pleased at the renunciation of her fiendish disposition. 12. “Arise Karkatí”, it said, “and go to the ignorant and enlighten them with the knowledge thou hast gained; for it is the nature of the good and great, to deliver the ignorant from their error. 13. “Whosoever will not receive this knowledge (of lawful food), when it is imparted to him by thee, make him verily the object of thy derision, and take him as being a right meat and proper food for thee.” 14. On hearing these words she responded, “I am much favoured by thee, kind god!”; and so saying, she got up and descended slowly from the height of the craggy mountain. 15. Having passed the heights, she came to the valley at the foot of the mountain; and thence proceeded to the habitation of the Kiráta people, who inhabit the skirts at the bottom of the hills.

16. She saw those places abounding in provisions of all sorts; such as human kind and their cattle with their fodder and grass. There were vegetable as well as animal food, with various kinds of roots and plants. There were eatables and drinkables also, with the flesh of deer and fowls, and even of reptiles and insects. 17. The nocturnal fiend then walked her way, under the shade of the deep darkness of night, towards the habitation at the foot of Himálaya, in her form of the sable mount of Anjanágiri (unperceived by the inhabitants).

DELIBERATION OF KARKATÍ. Argument. Description of the dark night. The Rákshasi’s meeting a rája and his minister. Her trial of and argumentation with them. Vasishtha resumed:—It was a deep dark night, black as ink and as thick as tangible pitch; hiding the habitation of the Kirátas under its nigrescent umbrage. (Kirátas are the present Kirántis of the Himalayas, and the ancient Kerrhoides of Ptolemy). 2. The sky was moonless, and overcast by a veil of sable clouds; the woodlands were obscured by tamála trees, and thick masses of black clouds were flying about in the air. 3. The thick furze and bushes besetting the hilly villages, obstructed the passages by their impervious darkness, and the flitting light of fireflies gave the homesteads an appearance of the bridal night. 4. The thick darkness spreading over the compounds of houses, shut out the passage of the light of lamps, which made their way of or from the chinks of the dwelling in which they were burning. 5. Karkatí beheld a band of Pisáchis, dancing about her as her companions; but she became motionless as a block of wood, on seeing the giddy Vetálas, moving about with human skeletons in their hands.

6. She saw the sleeping antelopes by her, and the ground matted over by the thick snow falls; while the drizzling drops of dew and frost, were gently shaken by the breeze on the leaves of trees. 7. She heard the frogs croaking in the bogs, and the night ravens cawing from the hollows of trees; while the mingled noise of jocund men and women, were issuing from the inside of the houses. 8. She saw the ignis fatuus burning in the swamps, with the lustre of portentous meteors; and found the banks and bournes, thick with thorns and thistles, growing by their sides, and washed by the waters gliding below them. 9. She looked above and saw the groups of stars shining in the firmament, and beheld the forest about her shaking their fruit and flowers by the breeze. 10. She heard the alternate and incessant cries of owls and crows in the hollows of trees; and listened also the shouts of robbers in the skirts, and the wailings of the villagers at a distance. 11. The foresters were silent in their native woods, and the citizens were fast asleep in the cities; the winds were howling in the forests, and the birds were at rest in their sylvan nests.

12. Furious lions lay in their dens; and the deer were lying in their caves also. The sky was full of hoarfrost, and the woodlands were all still and quiet. 13. The lightnings flashing from amidst the dark inky clouds, resembled the reflexions of ray from the bosom of a crystal mountain. The clouds were as thick as solid clay, and the darkness was as stiff as it required to be severed by a sword. 14. Blown by the storm, the dark cloud fled like the sable Anjaná mountain in the air, and it deluged a flood of pitchy rain, like a water-fall from the bosom of a mountain. 15. The night was as dark as the pit of a coal-mine, and as jet black as the wing of the black bee—bhramara; and the whole landscape lulled to sleep, appeared as the world lying submerged under ignorance. (Sleep and ignorance are twin brothers, and a reversion of the comparison of ignorance with sleep. Such reversed similes are not uncommon in oriental poetry, as that of the moon with the beauteous face &c.). 16. In this dreadful dead of night, she saw in the district inhabited by Kirátas, a prince and his minister, wandering together in the forest.

17. The prince was named Vikrama, and was as brave and valorous as his name and conduct implied him to be. He came out undaunted from within the city, after the citizens had fallen fast-asleep. 18. Karkatí beheld them roving in the forest with the weapons of their valour and fortitude, and searching the Vetálas infesting the neighbourhood. 19. Seeing them, she was glad to think that she had at last got her proper food; but wanted to know beforehand, whether they were ignorant folks or had any knowledge of their souls, or whether their weariness under the burthen of their bodies, had exposed them to the dangers of the darksome night. 20. The lives of the unlearned (said she), are verily for their perdition in this world and the next; it is therefore meet to put an end to these, rather than leave them to live to their peril in both worlds. (The earlier the ignorant die, the sooner do they rid themselves of their miseries and responsibilities). 21. The life of the untutored is death, without spiritual knowledge, and physical death is preferable; in as much as it saves the dying soul from its accumulation of sin. (Living in the sinful world is sin, unless it is averted by spiritual knowledge).

22. It is the primeval law ordained by our prime father—the lotus-born Brahmá, that ignorant souls and those without knowledge of their selves, should become the food of the heinous. (i.e. Of voracious and envious animals, which devour the body and not the soul). 23. Therefore there is no harm in my feeding upon these two persons, who have offered themselves for my food; because it is silliness to let slip, a ready prize or proffered gift from the hand. (A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or a self-given gift is not to be lost). 24. But lest they should prove to be men of parts and good and great souls, I cannot in that case feel disposed of my own nature, to put an end to their valuable lives. 25. I must therefore make a trial of them, and see if they are possessed of such parts; that I may decline from making my mess of them, because I feel averse to molest the intelligent. 26. For those that expect to have true glory and real happiness, with the length of their lives on earth; must always honour the learned with honorariums, adequate to their parts and desires.