Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

8. They were fully impressed with the disbelief of their own existence, and that of all other things in the world, and were altogether absorbed in the thought of an absolute privation of every thing at large. 9. They lost the remembrance of the phantom of the phenomenal world, which is as unreal as the horn of a hare. 10. What was a non ens at first, is even so a not-being at present, and what appears as existent, is as inexistent as the water in a mirage. 11. The two ladies then became as quiet as inert nature herself, and as still as firmament before the luminous bodies rolled about in its ample sphere. 12. They then began to move with their own bodies, the goddess of wisdom in her form of intelligence, and the queen in her intellectual and meditative mood. 13. With their new bodies they rose as high as one span above the ground, then taking the forms of the empty intellect, they began to mount in the sky. 14. The two ladies then with their playful open eyes, ascended to the higher region of the sky, by their nature of intellectual knowledge. 15. Then they flew higher and higher by force of their intellect, and arrived at a region stretching millions of leagues in length.

16. Here the pair in their etherial forms, looked about according to their nature in search of some visible objects; but finding no other figure except their own, they became much more attached to each other by their mutual affection.

THE AERIAL JOURNEY. Vasishtha continued:— Thus ascending higher and higher and reaching by degrees the highest station, they went on viewing the heavens, with their hands clasped in each other’s. 2. They saw a vast expanse as that of the wide extended universal ocean, deep and translucent within; but soft with etherial mildness, and a cooling breeze infusing heavenly delight. 3. All delightsome and pleasant was the vast Ocean of vacuity, into which they dived, and which afforded them a delight far greater in its purity, than what is derived from the company of the virtuous. 4. They wandered about all sides of heaven, under the beams of the full moon shining above them; and now halted under the clear vault of the clouds, covering the mountain tops of Meru, as if under the dome of a huge white washed edifice. 5. And now they roved by the regions of Siddhas and Gandharvas, breathing the charming fragrance of Mandára chaplets; and now passing the lunar sphere, they inhaled the sweet scent exhaled by the breeze from that nectarious orb (Sudhákara). 6. Now tired and perspiring profusely, they bathed in the lakes of showering clouds, fraught with the blushing lotuses of lurid lightnings flashing within them.

7. They promenaded at random of their free will on all sides, and now alighted like fluttering bees on the tops of high mountains, appearing as filaments of the lotus-like earth below. 8. They roved also under the vaults of some fragments of clouds, which were scattered by the winds, and raining like the cascade of Ganges, thinking them as shower-bath-houses in the air. 9. Then failing in their strength, they halted in many places, with their slow and slackened steps, and beheld the vacuum full of great and wondrous works.

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAVEN. 10. They saw what they had never seen before, the tremendous depth of vacuity, which was not filled up by the myriads of worlds which kept revolving in it. 11. Over and over and higher and higher, they saw the celestial spheres filled with luminous orbs adorned with their ornamental stars, roving one above and around the other. 12. Huge mountainous bodies as the Meru moved about in the vacuous space, and emitted a rubicund glare, like a flame of fire from within their bowels on all sides. 13. There were beautiful table-lands, like those of the Himálayas, with their pearly peaks of snow; and also mountains of gold, spreading an aureate hue over the land. 14. They saw in some place mountains of emerald, tinging the landscape with verdant green, as it were a bed of grass; and in others some dark cloud, dimming the sight of the spectator, and hiding the spectacle in dark blackness. 15. They beheld also tracts of blue sapphire, with creepers of párijáta flowers, blooming with their blossoms as banners in the azure skies.

16. They saw the flights of Siddhas (or departed holy spirits), the flight of whose minds outstripped the swiftness of the winds; and heard the vocal music of the songs of heavenly nymphs in their aerial abodes. 17. All the great bodies in the universe (the planetary system), were in continual motion; and the spirits of the gods and demigods, were moving about unseen by one another. 18. Groups of spiritual beings, as the Kushmándas, Rákshasas and Pisáchas, were seated in aerial circles at the borders; and the winds and gales blowing with full force in their etherial course. 19. Loud roarings of clouds, as those of the crackling wheels of heavenly cars, were heard in some places; and the noise of rapid stars, resembled the blowing of pneumatic engines. 20. There the half burnt Siddhas, were flying from their burning cars under the solar rays, by reason of their nearness to the Sun; and the solar embers were flung afar by the breath of the nostrils of his horses. (It means the falling of the burning meteors and meteorolites from the sky). 21. In some places they beheld the rulers of men, and trains of Apsaras, hurrying up and down the air; and in others, the goddesses roving amidst the smoky and fiery clouds in the firmament.

22. Here they saw some sparks of light, falling like the jewels of celestial nymphs, in their hurried flight to their respective spheres; and there they beheld the lightsome spirits of lesser Siddhas dwindling into darkness. 23. Flakes of mists were falling off from the clouds, as if by friction of the bodies of turbulent spirits, rushing up and down the skies; and shrouding the sides of mountains as with sheets of cloth. 24. Fragments of clouds, beset by groups in the shapes of crows, owls and vultures, were flying about in the air; and there were seen some monsters also, as Dákinis heaving their heads in the forms of huge surges, in the cloudy ocean of the sky. 25. There were bodies of Yoginís too, with their faces resembling those of dogs, ravens, asses and camels, who were traversing the wide expanse of the heavens to no purpose. 26. There were Siddhas and Gandharvas, sporting in pairs in the coverts of dark, smoky and ash coloured clouds, spread before the regents of the four quarters of the skies. 27. They beheld the path of the planets (the zodiac), which resounded loudly with the heavenly music of the spheres; and that path also (of the lunar mansions), which incessantly marked the course of the two fortnights.

28. They saw the sons of gods moving about in the air, and viewing with wonder the heavenly stream of Ganges (the milky way), which was studded with stars, and rolling with the rapidity of winds. 29. They saw the gods wielding their thunderbolts, discuses, tridents, swords and missiles; and heard Nárada and Tumburu singing in their aerial abodes on high. 30. They beheld the region of the clouds, where there were huge bodies of them mute as paintings, and pouring forth floods of rain as in the great deluge. 31. In some place they saw a dark cloud, as high as the mountain-king Himálaya, slowly moving in the air; and at others some of a golden hue as at the setting sun. 32. In some place there were flimsy sheets of clouds, as are said to hover on the peaks of the Rishya range; and at another a cloud like the calm blue bed of the Sea, without any water in them. 33. There were tufts of grass seen in some places, as if blown up by the winds and floating in the stream of air; and swarms of butterflies at others with their glossy coats and wings.

34. In some place, there was a cloud of dust raised by the wind, and appearing as a lake on the top of a mountain. 35. The Mátris were seen, to be dancing naked in their giddy circles in some place, and the great Yoginís sat at others, as if ever and anon giddy with intoxication. 36. There were circles of holy men, sitting in their calm meditation in one place; and pious saints at others, who had cast away their worldly cares at a distance. 37. There was a conclave of celestial choristers, composed of heavenly nymphs, Kinnaras and Gandharvas in one place; and some quiet towns and cities situated at others. 38. There were the cities of Brahmá and Rudra full with their people, and the city of illusion (Máyá) with its increasing population. 39. There were crystal lakes in some places and stagnant pools at others; and lakes with the Siddhas seated by them, and those embosomed by the rising moon. 40. They saw the sun rising in one part, and the darkness of night veiling the others; the evening casting its shadow on one, and the dusky mists of dusk obscuring the other.

41. There were the hoary clouds of winter in some places, and those of the rains in others; somewhere they appeared as tracts of land and at another as a sheet of water. 42. Bodies of gods and demigods, were roving from one side to the other; some from east to west, and others from north to the south. 43. There were mountains heaving their heads to thousands of miles in their height; and there were valleys and caves covered in eternal darkness. 44. There was a vast inextinguishable fire, like that of the blazing sun in one place; and a thickly frost covering the moon-light in another. (The burning heat of the tropics and the cold of the frigid zone). 45. Somewhere there was a great city, flourishing with groves and arbours; and at another big temples of gods, levelled to the ground by the might of demons. 46. In some place there was a streak of light, described by a falling meteor in the sky; in another the blaze of a comet with its thousand fiery tails in the air. 47. In one place there was a lucky planet, rising with its full orb to the view; in another there spread the gloom of night, and full sunshine in another.

48. Here the clouds were roaring, and there they were dumb and mute; here were the high blasts driving the clouds in air, and there the gentle breeze dropping the clusters of flowers on the ground. 49. Sometimes the firmament was clear and fair, and without an intercepting cloud in it, and as transparent as the soul of a wise man, delighted with the knowledge of truth. 50. The vacuous region of the celestial gods, was so full with the dewy beams (himánsu) of the silvery orb of the moon (sweta-váha), that it appeared as a shower of rain, and raised the loud croaking of the frogs below. 51. There appeared flocks of peacocks and goldfinches, to be fluttering about in some place, and vehicles of the goddesses and Vidyádharis thronging at another. 52. Numbers of Kártikeya’s peacocks were seen dancing amidst the clouds, and a flight of greenish parrots was seen in the sky appearing as a verdant plain. 53. Dwarfish clouds were moving like the stout buffaloes of Yama; and others in the form of horses, were grazing on the grassy meadows of clouds. 54. Cities of the gods and demons, appeared with their towers on high; and distinct towns and hills, were seen at distances, as if detached from one another by the driving winds.

55. In some place, gigantic Bhairavas were dancing with their mountainous bodies; and great garudas were flying at another, as winged mountains in the air. 56. Huge mountains also, were tossed about by the blowing of winds; and the castles of the Gandharvas, were rising and falling with the celestial nymphs in them. 57. There were some clouds rising on high, and appearing as rolling mountains in the sky, crushing down the forests below; and the sky appeared in some place, as a clear lake abounding in lotuses. 58. The moon-beams shone brightly in one spot, and sweet cooling breezes blew softly in another. Hot sultry winds were blowing in some place, and singeing the forest on the mountainous clouds. 59. There was a dead silence in one spot, caused by perfect calmness of the breeze; while another spot presented a scene of a hundred peaks, rising on a mountainlike cloud. 60. In one place the raining clouds, were roaring loudly in their fury; and in another a furious battle was waging between the gods and demons in the clouds. 61. In some place the geese were seen gabbling in the lotus lake of the sky, and inviting the ganders by their loud cackling cries.

62. Forms of fishes, crocodiles and alligators, were seen flying in the air, as if they were transformed to aerial beings, by the holy waters of their natal Ganges. 63. They saw somewhere the eclipse of the moon, by the dark shadow of the earth, as the sun went down the horizon; and so they saw the eclipse of the sun by the shadow of the moon falling on his disk. 64. They saw a magical flower garden, exhaling its fragrance in the air; and strewing the floor of heaven, with profusion of flowers, scattered by showers of morning dews. 65. They beheld all the beings contained in the three worlds, to be flying in the air, like a swarm of gnats in the hollow of a fig tree; and then the two excellent ladies stopped in their aerial journey, intent upon revisiting the earth. NOTE. Most part of the above description of the heavens, consists of the various appearances of the clouds, and bears resemblance to Shelly’s poetical description of them. All this is expressed by one word in the Cloud-Messenger of Kálidása, where the cloud is said to be “Káma rúpa” or assuming any form at pleasure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH. These ladies then alighted from the sky in their forms of intelligence, and passing over the mountainous regions, saw the habitations of men on the surface of the earth. 2. They saw the world situated as a lotus, in the heart of the first male Nara (Brahmá); the eight sides forming the petals of the flower, the hills being its pistils, and the pericarp containing its sweet flavour. 3. The rivers are the tubes of its filaments, which are covered with drops of snow resembling their dust. The days and nights rolling over it, like swarms of black-bees and butterflies, and all its living beings appearing as gnats fluttering about it. 4. Its long stalks which are as white as the bright day light, are composed of fibres serving for food, and of tubes conducting the drink to living beings. 5. It is wet with moisture, which is sucked by the sun, resembling the swan swimming about in the air. It folds itself in sleep in the darkness of night in absence of the sun.

6. The earth like a lotus is situated on the surface of the waters of the ocean, which make it shake at times, and cause the earthquake by their motion. It is supported upon the serpent Vásuki serving for its understalk, and is girt about by demons as its thorns and prickles. 7. The mount Meru (and others) are its large seeds, and the great hives of human population; where the fair daughters of the giant race, propagated (the race of men), by their sweet embrace (with the sons of God). 8. It has the extensive continent of Jambudwípa situated in one petal, the petioles forming its divisions, and the tubular filaments its rivers. 9. The seven elevated mountains, forming the boundary lines of this continent, are its seeds; and the great mount of Sumeru reaching to the sky, is situated in the midst. (i.e. The topmost north pole). 10. Its lakes are as dewdrops on the lotus-leaf, and its forests are as the farina of the flower; and the people inhabiting the land all around, are as a swarm of bees about it. 11. Its extent is a thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded on all sides by the dark sea like a belt of black bees.

12. It contains nine varshas or divisions, which are ruled by nine brother kings, resembling the regents of its eight petalled sides, with the Bhárata-varsha in the midst. 13. It stretches a million of miles with more of land than water in it. Its habitable parts are as thickly situated as the frozen ice in winter. 14. The briny ocean which is twice as large as the continent, girds it on the outside, as a bracelet encircles the wrist. 15. Beyond it lies the Sáka continent of a circular form, and twice as large as the former one, which is also encircled by the sea. 16. This is called the milky ocean for the sweetness of its water, and is double the size of the former sea of salt. 17. Beyond that and double its size is the Kusadwípa continent, which is full of population. It is also of the size of a circle, and surrounded by another sea. 18. Around it lies the belt of the sea of curds, delectable to the gods, and double the size of the continent which is encircled by it. 19. After that lies the circle of the Krauncha dwípa, which is also twice the size of the former one, and surrounded by a sea in the manner of a city by a canal.

20. This sea is called the sea of butter, and is twice as large as the continent which is girt by it. Beyond it lies the Sálmali dwípa, girt by the foul sea of wine. 21. The fair belt of this sea resembles a wreath of white flowers, like the girdle of the Sesha serpent, forming the necklace hanging on the breast of Hari. 22. Thereafter is stretched the Plaxa dwípa, double the size of the former, and encircled by the belt of the sea of sugar, appearing as the snowy plains of Himálaya. 23. After that lies the belt of the Pushkara dwípa, twice as large as the preceding one, and encircled by a sea of sweet water double its circumference. 24. Hence they saw at the distance of ten degrees, the descent to the infernal regions; where there lay the belt of the south polar circle, with its hideous cave below. 25. The way to the infernal cave is full of danger and fear, and ten times in length from the circle of the dwípas (continents). 26. This cave is encompassed on all sides by the dreadful vacuum, and is half covered below by a thick gloom, appearing as a blue lotus attached to it.

27. There stood the Lokáloka Kumeru or South Polar mountain, which is bright with sun-shine on one side, and covered by darkness on the other, and is studded with various gems on its tops, and decked with flowers growing upon it. 28. It reflected the glory of the three worlds (in the everlasting snows), which are clapped as a cap of hairs on its top. 29. At a great distance from it, is a great forest, untrodden by the feet of any living being; and then proceeding upward, they saw the great northern ocean encompassing the pole on all sides. 30. Further on they beheld the flaming light of the aurora borealis, which threatened to melt the snowy mountain to water. 31. Proceeding onward, they met with the fierce Boreas or north winds, blowing with all their fury and force. 32. They threatened to blow away and uproot the mountains, as if they were dust or grass; and traversed the empty vacuum with their noiseless motion. 33. Afar from these they saw the empty space of vacuum, stretching wide all about them. 34. It spreads around to an unlimited extent, and encompasses the worlds as a golden circlet encircles the wrist (i.e. the belt of the zodiac).

35. Thus Lílá, having seen the seas and mountains, the regents of the worlds, the city of the gods, the sky above and the earth below in the unlimited concavity of the universe, returned on a sudden to her own land, and found herself in her closet again.

MEETING THE SIDDHAS Vasishtha said:—After the excellent ladies had returned from their visit of the mundane sphere, they entered the abode where the Bráhman had lived before. 2. There the holy ladies saw in that dwelling, and unseen by any body, the tomb or tope of the Bráhman. 3. Here the maid servants were dejected with sorrow, and the faces of the women were soiled with tears. Their countenances had faded away, like lotuses with their withered leaves. 4. All joy had fled from the house, and left it as the dry bed of the dead sea, after its waters were sucked by the scorching sun (Agastya). It was as a garden parched in summer, or a tree struck by lightening. 5. It was as joyless as the dried lotus, torn by a blast or withering under the frost; and as faint as the light of a lamp, without its wick or oil; and as dim as the eyeball without its light. 6. The house without its master, was as doleful as the countenance of a dying person, or as a forest with its falling and withered leaves, and as the dry and dusty ground for want of rain.

7. Vasishtha continued:—Then the lady with her gracefulness of divine knowledge, and the elegance of her perfections, and her devotedness to and desire of truth, thought within herself, that the inmates of the house might behold her and the goddess, in their ordinary forms of human beings. 9. The dwellers of the house then beheld the two ladies as Laxmí and Gaurí together, and brightening the house with the effulgence of their persons. 10. They were adorned from head to foot, with wreaths of unfading flowers of various kinds; and they seemed like Flora—the genius of spring, perfuming the house with the fragrance of a flower garden. 11. They appeared to rise as a pair of moons, with their cooling and pleasant beams; infusing a freshness to the family, as the moonlight does to the medicinal plants in forests and villages. 12. The soft glances of their eyes, under the long, loose and pendant curls of hair on their foreheads, shed as it were a shower of white málati flowers, from the dark cloudy spots of their nigrescent eyes. 13. Their bodies were as bright as melted gold, and as tremulous as the flowing stream. The current of their effulgence, cast a golden hue on the spot where they stood, as also over the forest all around.

14. The natural beauty of Laxmí’s body, and the tremulous glare of Lílá’s person, spread as it were, a sea of radiance about them, in which their persons seemed to move as undulating waves. 15. Their relaxed arms resembling loose creepers, with the ruddy leaflets of their palms, shook as fresh Kalpa creepers in the forest. 16. They touched the ground again with their feet, resembling the fresh and tender petals of a flower, or like lotuses growing upon the ground. 17. Their appearance seemed to sprinkle ambrosial dews all around, and made the dry withered and brown boughs of tamála trees, to vegetate anew in tender sprouts and leaflets. 18. On seeing them, the whole family with Jyeshtha Sarmá (the eldest boy of the deceased Bráhman), cried aloud and said, “Obeisance to the sylvan goddesses,” and threw handfuls of flowers on their feet. 19. The offerings of flowers which fell on their feet, resembled the showers of dew-drops, falling on lotus leaves in a lake of lotuses. 20. Jyeshtha Sarmá said:—Be victorious, ye goddesses! that have come here to dispel our sorrow; as it is inborn in the nature of good people, to deliver others from their distress.

21. After he had ended, the goddesses addressed him gently and said, tell us the cause of your sorrow, which has made you all so sad. 22. Then Jyeshtha Sarmá and others related to them one by one their griefs, owing to the demise of the Bráhman pair. 23. They said:—Know O goddess pair! there lived here a Bráhman and his wife, who had been the resort of guests and a support of the Bráhminical order. 24. They were our parents, and have lately quitted this abode; and having abandoned us with all their friends and domestic animals here, have departed to heaven, and left us quite helpless in this world. 25. The birds there sitting on the top of the house, have been continually pouring in the air, their pious and mournful ditties over the dead bodies of the deceased. 26. There the mountains on all sides, have been lamenting their loss, in the hoarse noise (of the winds) howling in their caverns, and shedding showers of their tears in the course of the streams issuing from their sides. 27. The clouds have poured their tears in floods of rainwater, and fled from the skies; while the quarters of the heavens have been sending their sighs in sultry winds all around.

28. The poor village people are wailing in piteous notes, with their bodies mangled by rolling upon the ground, and trying to yield up their lives with continued fasting. 29. The trees are shedding their tears every day in drops of melting snow, exuding from the cells of their leaves and flowers, resembling the sockets of their eyes. 30. The streets are deserted for want of passers-bye, and have become dusty without being watered. They have become as empty as the hearts of men forsaken by their joys of life. 31. The fading plants are wailing in the plaintive notes of Cuckoos and the humming of bees; and are withering in their leafy limbs by the sultry sighs of their inward grief. 32. The snows are melt down by the heat of their grief and falling in the form of cataracts, which break themselves to a hundred channels by their fall upon stony basins. 33. Our prosperity has fled from us, and we sit here in dumb despair of hope. Our houses have become dark and gloomy as a desert. 34. Here the humble bees, are humming in grief upon the scattered flowers in our garden, which now sends forth a putrid smell instead of their former fragrance.

35. And there the creepers that twined so gayly round the vernal arbors, are dwindling and dying away with their closing and fading flowers. 36. The rivulets with their loose and low purling murmur, and light undulation of their liquid bodies in the ground, are running hurriedly in their sorrow, to cast themselves into the sea. 37. The ponds are as still in their sorrow, as men sitting in their meditative posture (Samádhi), notwithstanding the disturbance of the gnats flying incessantly upon them. 38. Verily is that part of the heaven adorned this day by the presence of our parents, where the bodies of heavenly choristers, the Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Vidyádharas, welcome them with their music. 39. Therefore, O Devis! assuage this our excessive grief; as the visit of the great never goes for nothing. 40. Hearing these words, Lílá gently touched the head of her son with her hand, as the lotus-bed leans to touch its offshoot by the stalk. 41. At her touch the boy was relieved of all his sorrow and misfortune, just as the summer heat of the mountain, is allayed by the showers of the rainy season.

42. All others in the house, were as highly gratified at the sight of the goddesses, as when a pauper is relieved of his poverty, and the sick are healed by a draught of nectar. 43. Ráma said:—Remove my doubt, sir, why Lílá did not appear in her own figure before her eldest son—Jyeshta Sarmá. 44. Vasishtha answered:—You forget, O Ráma! to think that Lílá had a material body, or could assume any at pleasure. She was in her form of pure intellect (lingadeha), and it was with her spiritual hand that she touched the inner spirit of the boy and not his body. (Gloss). Because whoso believes himself to be composed of his earthly body only, is verily confined in that; but he who knows his spirituality, is as free as air: (and it was in this aerial form that Lílá was ranging about and touched her son). 45. Belief in materialism leads one to think his unreal earthly frame as real, as a boy’s belief in ghosts makes him take a shadow for a spirit. 46. But this belief in one’s materiality, is soon over upon conviction of his spirituality; as the traces of our visions in a dream, are effaced on the knowledge of their unreality upon waking.

47. The belief of matter as (vacuous) nothing, leads to the knowledge of the spirit. And as a glass door appears as an open space to one of a bilious temperament, so does matter appear as nothing to the wise. 48. A dream presents us the sights of cities and lands, of air and water, where there are no such things in actuality; and it causes the movements of our limbs and bodies (as in somnambulation) for nothing. 49. As the air appears as earth in dreaming, so does the non-existent world appear to be existent in waking. It is thus that men see and talk of things unseen and unknown in their fits of delirium. 50. So boys see ghosts in the air, and the dying man views a forest in it; others see elephants in clouds, and some see pearls in sun-beams. 51. And thus those that are panic-struck and deranged in their minds, the halfwaking and passengers in vessels, see many appearances like the aforesaid ghosts and forests, as seen by boys and men in the air, and betray these signs in the motions and movements of their bodies.

52. In this manner every one is of the form of whatever he thinks himself to be; and it is habit only that makes him to believe himself as such, though he is not so in reality. 53. But Lílá who had known the truth and inexistence of the world, was conscious of its nothingness, and viewed all things to be but erroneous conceptions of the mind. 54. Thus he who sees Brahma only to fill the sphere of his intellect, has no room for a son or friend or consort to abide in it. 55. He who views the whole as full with the spirit of Brahma, and nothing produced in it, has no room for his affection or hatred to any body in it. 56. The hand that Lílá laid on the head of Jyeshtha Sarmá—her eldest son, was not lain from her maternal affection for him, but for his edification in intellectual knowledge. 57. Because the intellect being awakened, there is all felicity attendant upon it. It is more subtile than ether and far purer than vacuum, and leads the intellectual being above the region of air. All things beside are as images in a dream.

PAST LIVES OF LÍLÁ. The two ladies then disappeared from that place, leaving the Bráhman family at their house in the mountainous village. 2. The family exclaimed “We are highly favoured by the sylvan goddesses;” and then forgetting their grief, they betook themselves to their domestic employments. 3. Then the etherial goddess spake to the aerial-Lílá, who stood fixed in air, over the mansion of the Bráhman, in a state of mute astonishment. 4. They then conversed as familiarly with each other, as persons having the same thoughts and desires, agree with one another in their views and acts; and as the dreamers of the same dream hold their mutual correspondence, like Usha and Aniruddha (the Cupid and Psyche of India). 5. Their conversation in their immaterial forms, was of the same intellectual (psychical) kind, as we are conscious of in our dreams and imaginations. 6. Sarasvatí said:—Now you have fully known the knowable, and become acquainted with whatever is visible and invisible: such is the essence of Brahma; say now what more you want to know. 7. Lílá said:—Tell me the reason why I was seen by my son, and not where the spirit of my departed lord is reigning over his realm.

8. Sarasvatí replied:—Because you were not then perfect by your practice of Yoga to have your wish fulfilled, nor had you then lost your sense of duality, which is a preventive of perfection. 9. He who has not known the unity, is not entitled to the acts and benefits of his faith in the true God; as no one sitting in the sun, can enjoy the coolness of shade. 10. You were not practiced to forget your identity as Lílá, nor learnt that it is not your will, but the will of God that is always fulfilled. 11. You have afterwards become of pure desire, and wished that your son might see you, whereby he was enabled to have your sight. 12. Now if you should return to your husband, and do the like, you will undoubtedly be successful in your desire. 13. Lílá said:—I see within the sphere of this dome (of my mind), the Bráhman to have been my husband before; and I see also in it, that he died and became a ruler of the earth afterwards. 14. I see in it that spot of the earth, that city and that palace of his where I sat as his queen.

15. I see within myself my lord to be reigning in that place, and I see even there how he died afterwards. 16. I see herein the glory of the sovereign of so many countries on earth, and I see also the perfect frankness of his conduct through life. 17. I see the worlds in the inner sky of my mind, as they are placed in a casket, or as the oil is contained in a mustard seed. 18. I see the bright orb of my husband ever roving before me, and now I pray you to contrive any how to place me by his side. 19. The Goddess replied:—Tell me Lílá, to what husband you shall go, as there are hundreds of them that you had, and shall have in your past and future lives, and now there are three of them confined in this earth. 20. The nearest of the three, is the Bráhman who is here reduced to ashes; the next is the prince lying in state and covered with flowers in the inner apartment. 21. The third is now a reigning prince in this earth, and has been buffeting in the waves of error in the vast ocean of the world.

22. His intellect is darkened and disordered by the splashing waves of worldliness, his intelligence is perverted to stupidity, and he is converted to a tortoise in the ocean of the world. 23. The management of his very many disordered state affairs, has stultified him to a lubbard, and he is now fast asleep amidst the turmoils of business. 24. He is fast bound to subjection by the strong chain of his thoughts, that he is a lord, is mighty, accomplished, and that he is happy and is to enjoy his estates for ever. 25. Now say, O excellent lady! to what husband you wish to be led, in the manner of the fragrance of one forest borne by the breeze to another. 26. Here you are in one place, and there they in others amidst this vast world; and the state of their lives and manners differs widely from one another. 27. These orbs of light in the heaven, though they appear to be placed so near us (both to our eyesight and in the mind), are yet situated millions of leagues apart from one another; and the departed souls are carried in them (in their endless transmigrations).

28. And again all these bodies are as vacuous as air, though they contain the great mounts Meru and Mandara in themselves. 29. All bodies are formed by the combination of atoms, incessantly proceeding from the Great Intellect, like particles of sun-beams over the universe. 30. The great and stupendous fabric of the world, is no more (in the eye of intelligence), than a quantity of paddy weighed in the balance. 31. As the spangled heavens appear like a forest full of brilliant gems in it, so the world appears as full of the glory of God to the contemplative mind, and not as composed of earth or other material bodies in it. 32. It is intelligence alone, that shines in the form of world in the intelligent soul, and not any material body, which was never brought into being before. 33. As billows in the lake, rise and set and rise again, so the rising and falling days and nights present these various scenes to our knowledge. 34. Lílá said:—So it is, O mother of mankind! and so I come to remember now, that my present birth (state) is of a royal (rájasika) kind, and neither of too pure nor gross a nature. (Sattvika or Támasika).

35. I having descended from Brahmá, had undergone a hundred and eight births (in different shapes); and after passing various states, I find myself still in existence. 36. I recollect, O goddess! to have been born in another world before, and to have been the bride of a Vidyádhara, when I used to rove about as freely as a bee over flowers. 37. Being debased by my libertinism, I was born in this mortal world, and became the mate of the king of the feathered tribe (an eagle). 38. And then having been a resident in the woods, I was turned to a woodman’s mate, wearing a vest of leaves on my loins. 39. Growing fond of my life, I sported wantonly about the forest, and was changed to the guluncha plant, delighting the woods with my leafy palms and flowering eyes. 40. This arboret of the holy hermitage, was held sacred by the society of saintly sages; and then I was regenerated in the form of an anchorite’s child, after the woods were burnt down by a wild-fire.

41. Here I was initiated in the formularies for removing the curse of womanhood, and became as a male being in the person of the handsome prince of Suráshtra (Surat), where I reigned for a hundred years (or for a whole century). 42. I was then denounced to become a weasel, and covered with leprosy, in the lowlands of Táli, on account of my misconduct in the government. 43. I remember, O goddess! how I became a bullock at Surat, and was goaded by thoughtless cowherd boys, in their merry sport for full eight years. 44. I bear in mind when I was transformed to a bird, and with what difficulty I broke the net, that was laid by birdcatchers for my destruction. It was in the same manner as we release ourselves from the snares of sinful desires. 45. I remember with pleasure when as a bee, I lighted lightly on the leaflets of blossoms, sipped the honey of the blooming buds, dined on the pistils, and slept in the cups of lotus flowers. 46. I wandered about in pleasant wood-lands and lawns, with my exalted and branching horns and beautiful eyes, in the form of an antelope, till I was killed by the dart of a huntsman in my mortal part.

47. I have been in the form of a fish, and was lifted up by the waves of the sea above the surface of the water. I saw how a tortoise was killed by the blow of a club on the neck, when it failed to break its back-bone. 48. I was a Chandála huntsman once, roving by the side of Charmanvatí (the river Chenab), when I used to quench my thirst with cocoa water, as I was tired with roaming. 49. I became a stork also, delighting in lakes with my mate, and filling the air with our sweet cries. 50. In another birth, I rambled about in groves of palm and tamála trees, and fixed my eyes with amorous looks and glances upon my lover. 51. I had next been a fairy Apsará, with a form as bright as melted gold, and features as beautiful as those of the lotus and lily, in which the celestials like bees and butterflies, used to take delight. 52. I remember to have decked myself in gold and pearls, and in gems and rubies upon earth, and to have sported with my youthful consorts in pleasure gardens and groves, and on hills and mountains.

53. And I remember also to have lived long as a tortoise on the borders of a river, and to have been carried away by the waves, sometimes under an arbour of creepers, over-hung with clusters of beautiful flowers; and at others to some wild cave washed by the waves. 54. I see how I acted the part of a goose with my covering of feathers, swimming on the high heaving waves on the surface of a lake. 55. Then seeing a poor gnat hanging on the moving leaf of a Sálmali branch, I became its associate and as contemptible a thing like itself. 56. I became an aquatic crane also, skimming playfully over the waters gushing from the hills, and slightly kissing the crests of the waves rising over the rapid torrent. 57. I remember also how I slighted the loves of amorous youths, and spurned off from me the Vidyádhara boys on the Gandha Mádana and Mandara hills. 58. I remember likewise the pangs of a lovelorn lass, when I lay pining in my bed, strewn over with the fragrance of camphor, and how I was decaying like the disk of the waning moon.

59. Thus I passed through many births, in the wombs of higher and lower animals, and found them all to be full of pain. And my soul has run over the billows of the irresistible current of life, like the fleet antelope, pacing its speed with the swiftness of the wind (Vátapramí).

EXPOSITION OF LÍLÁ’S VISION. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, in what manner the goddesses broke out of the strongholds of their bodies, and the prison-house of this world (where their souls were pent up), and passed through infinite space, to survey the scenes beyond its confines. (i.e. How does the mind and the flight of imagination, reach to regions unknown and unseen before). 2. Vasishtha replied:—Where is the world and where is its support or solidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the goddesses. 3. They saw in it the hilly tract, where the Bráhmana Vasishtha had his abode and his desire of royalty (pictured it in their minds). 4. They saw in a corner of it the deserted mansion of the Bráhman, and they saw in it the surface of the earth stretching to the seas (i.e. in their mental view). 5. They beheld in that imaginary spot of earth the city of the prince, and the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati his consort (in his imagination). 6. How she was born under the name of Lílá, and worshipped the goddess of wisdom—Sarasvatí; by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the delightful region of the sky.

7. It was in the mansion situated in that hilly village, that she beheld the world placed within the space of a span of her mind. 8. Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself seated in her house, as one finds himself lying in his own bed, after his rambling from one dream to another. 9. All that she saw was mere vision and void; there was no world nor earth, nor a house nor the distance thereof. 10. It was the mind which showed them these images, as it presents the objects of our desire to our view; or else there was neither any world nor earth in actuality. 11. The sphere of intelligence is infinite, and without any covering; and being agitated by the powers of one’s intellect, it presents all the objects of nature to his view, as the sky when agitated by heat produces the winds. 12. The sphere of the intellect is uncreated (being a mode of the Divinity itself); it is ever calm everywhere; and is supposed as the world itself by deluded minds. 13. He who understands rightly, views the world to be as unsubstantial as air; but whoso is misled by his wrong judgment takes it to be as a solid mountain.

14. As a house and a city are manifested to us in our dream, so is this unreal world presented as a reality to our understandings. 15. As is the misconception of water in the mirage, and the mistake of gold in a bracelet; so does all this unreality appear as a substantiality to the mistaken mind. 16. Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming ladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINOUS HABITATION. 17. Being unseen by the village people, they viewed the mountain which stood before them, kissing the vault of heaven, and touching the orb of the sun with its lofty peaks. 18. It was decorated with flowers of various colours, and covered with a variety of woods of various hues. There were waterfalls gushing with their tremendous roarings on one side, and groves resounding with the warbling of birds in another. 19. The clouds were variegated by the many coloured clusters of flowers sweeping over them, and cranes and storks sat screeching on the cloud-capt top of gulancha trees. 20. There were the robust reeds, hedging the banks of rivers with their wide stretching stems and roots, and the strong winds tossing about the tender creepers, growing out of the rocky caves, for want of support. 21. The tops of trees covered with flowers, were over-topped by the sheds of clouds hanging from the vault of heaven; which shed profusely their pearly drops of rain water upon them, and formed the current streams below. 22. The banks of the streamlets were continually laved by the waves, raised by the winds playing upon the shaking arbours on them; and a continued cooling shade was spread by the branching trees all around.

23. Standing on that spot, the ladies beheld the hilly hamlet in the lawn, likening a fragment of heaven fallen upon the ground. 24. There the purling rills were softly gliding by, and here the brimming brooks wabbled in the ground. The birds of the air were chirping on the sprays and aquatic fowls were flying about the holes of the sea shore. 25. There they saw the herds of kine slowly moving and grazing in the plains, and filling the echoing woods with their loud lowing; and beheld the space, interspersed with shady groves and arbours and verdant meadows all about. 26. The cliffs were whitened with snow, impenetrable by sun-beams; and the tops of hills were covered with bushy brambles, forming as braids of hair upon their craggy heads. 27. Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, and scattering their pearly particles afar, memorialized the churning of the milky ocean by the Mandara mountain. 28. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruits and flowers, appeared as waiters upon the goddesses, and standing to welcome their approach with their rich presents. 29. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees, were shedding showers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods and people.

30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping from the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and shots of archers. 31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed by the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky. 32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall tála (or palm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their sweetmeat. 33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their heads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam and nimba trees. 34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the way, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear dress. 35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats, and conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear one another. 36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and hands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the flowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.

37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and fro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks on the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed. 38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and curds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of sufficient food. 39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their wristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men were seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying the loosened knots of their hair. 40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the offerings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were strewn over with the sacred kuru and kurunta leaves. 41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about the precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with heaps of flowers to the depth of the heels. 42. There were the chouri kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of the forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under the gunja groves.

43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their ears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and upon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths. 44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by driving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering asokas (asoka Jonesia); and their rooms were painted with lacdye. 45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum to bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the beds of green grass below. 46. The Ketaka (keya) arbour was blooming white by removal of its weeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring tune. 47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds rested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of water, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons. 48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the ground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened like twinkling stars in the azure sky. 49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the whitened ground.

50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household compound, like the chirinti (or kulína) girls, that never forsake the abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the roof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place of lights. 51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds, confined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was graced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in their numerous flights. 52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled by the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves of trees as they passed along the lawn. 53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful parrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes of the Kokila, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches. 54. The palma and tamála trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest trees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around them.

55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one side, and the fragrance of the efflorescent Kandala and silindhra plants, exhaled on the other. The tapering tála and tamála trees rising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the flower plants in the gardens. 56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs, and garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and beautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees on the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers without alternation. 57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of kunda flowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding the humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was reddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses (sthala padmas) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra’s palace in the sky. 58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from the hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue of kundu flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in the compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds singing joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.

59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful damsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet. The ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs and blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping of creepers about the clumps of reeds. 60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and fragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated by wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over the houses, terrified the women within. 61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets about, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green grazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the house-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as if they were the showers of rain water. 62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of the fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending their lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with ceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears of men on the bank.

63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground, from the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty of the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting charms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets.

ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF LÍLÁ A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady. The two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the two states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of the man knowing the Divine spirit. 2. Lílá, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure intelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three times presenting themselves before her. 3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived pleasure in relating the events of her former life and death. 4. Lílá said:—I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of this place, all what I did and thought of in my past life. 5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become lean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Bráhmaní here, and had my body scratched by the dried sacrificial grass (kusa), which I had to meddle with. 6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was employed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for butter and ghee). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess to my guests.

7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Bráhmans and good people, and rubbed my body with cow milk and ghee: I was employed in cleaning the frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house. 8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of conch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and daughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals. 9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all day and night; and ‘haste and hasten,’ were the words I used to repeat to myself. 10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I never thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what was this world, although I had been the wife of a Bráhman. 11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial wood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in a worn out blanket. 12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.

13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh green grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white tints of pasted and powdered rice (gundi). 14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to keep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers. 15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age. 16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with Sarasvatí about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the goddess. 17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn pátala plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas. 18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to the trees; and this is my pet calf Karniká, which has refrained from browzing the leaves (in my absence).

19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her appearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes daubed in tears. 20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and where I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and received the things to and from my attendants. 21. This is my eldest son Jyeshtha Sarmá, weeping in the house; and this is my milch cow, now grazing on the grassy plain in the forest. 22. I see this portico and these windows, once dear to me as my person, and besmeared with the dry powder of the huli festival of the vernal season. 23. I see these pulpy plants of gourd planted with my own hands, and dear to me as myself, now spreading themselves over the oven place. 24. I see these relatives of mine, who had been the bonds of my life before, now smoking in their eyes with tears, and carrying the fuel for fire, with beads of rudráksha seeds on their bodies. 25. I see that stony shore, baffling the force of the waves, which have been pelting their pebbles against it, now covered by bushes of the beach.

26. The verdant meadows were full of leafy plants, with pendant dew drops on their tips; and the plains were whitened by the hailstones falling on them in showers. 27. The mid-day was mantled by sun beams, as by a white mist of frost, and the arbours resounded with the humming of bees, fluttering about their clustering flowers. 28. The blooming palása glowing as reddish corals, had covered the trees and the land with heaps of crimson flowers. 29. The village rill was flowing with the floating fruits, which it bore from shore to shore; and the rustic lads jumbled together with loud noise, eager to lay hold on them. 30. The cool shady beach of the rill, was strewn over with pebbles, washed and carried away by the current, and covered by leaves falling from the trees. 31. There I see the altar of my house, which is so beautifully ornamented with the flowering creepers, and which is overhung on its windows by clusters of fruits and flowers. 32. Here lived my husband, whose life has fled to the sky in its aerial form, and became afterwards the lord of the earth, reaching to the surrounding seas.

33. I remember, how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal dignity, and how ardently he looked forward on its attainment. 34. I see, O goddess! his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed to be of so long a duration (as eighty years) before. 35. I see the soul of my Lord, residing in the empty space of this mansion, as in his former kingly state; although it is invisible to all as the current air in the sky, and as the odours borne by the winds. 36. It is in this vacuous space, that his soul is contained in the form of a thumb; which contains in its bosom, the whole extent of the realm of my lord, stretching to thousands of leagues in its circumference. 37. I see also O goddess! the spacious kingdom of my lord, in the space of my intellect, which makes room for thousands of mountains by the miraculous power of God, styled as illusion. (máyá). 38. I wish now, O Goddess! to see the earthly city of my lord again; let us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to the resolute.

39. Vasishtha said:—Having said so, she bowed down to the goddess and entered into the shrine, and then like a bird, she flew into the air with the goddess. 40. It was a region devoid of darkness, and as fair as a sea of moonlight. And then it was as azure as the person of Náráyana, and as bright as the back of a locust. 41. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, as also beyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon. 42. They passed beyond the path of the north polar star, and the limits of the circuits of the sádhyas and siddhas and other celestial beings. 43. Thence they ascended to the higher heavens of Brahmá and the Tushita divinities, and then upward to the sphere of Golaka (the zodiac); and thence again to the Sivaloka, and the sphere of the Pitris or the departed souls of the dead. 44. Passing thus beyond the spheres of the embodied living beings, and bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the unknown regions of empty space. 45. Having passed the etherial sphere, they beheld nothing there, except the sun, moon and the stars shining below them.

46. There was only a deep darkness to be seen, filling the whole vacuity of space, and appearing as the basin of the waters of universal deluge, and as compact as the impenetrable cavity of a rock. 47. Lílá said:—Tell me, O goddess! what became of the light of the sun and other luminaries, and whence came this dense darkness as to be compressed under the fist (mushti-gráhya). 48. The goddess replied: you have got to a spot so remote from the spheres of heaven, that the light of the luminaries can never reach to it. 49. And as one in a deep dark pit, can see no light of a fire fly flitting over it; so the solar light is invisible to one behind the great belt of heaven. 50. Lílá said:—Oh! the great distance that we have come to, whence the great luminary of the sun also, appears as small as an atom below. 51. Tell me mother, what sort of a place is that which lies beyond this region, and how can we come to it after traversing this gloomy expanse. 52. Sarasvatí said:—Behind this is the great pole of the universe, which is scattered over with innumerable nebular stars in the form of the particles of dust.

53. Vasishtha said:—As they were talking in this manner, they glided imperceptibly to that pole, as the bee saunters over the solitary hut on the height of a mountain. 54. They then were at no pains to come down from that precipice, as there is no pains to effect what must certainly come to pass in the end, though it appeared difficult at first. (Or) that which is certain must come to pass, however hard it might seem at first. 55. They saw the system of the universe, laid naked to their sight, as the bold navigator beholds a world exposed to his view beyond the wide expanse of waters. 56. They saw the watery expanse to be ten times greater than the earth, and enveloping it in the shape of the crust of the walnut fruit. 57. Then there is a latent heat which is ten times as great as the water, and the circumambient air which is as much greater than the water; and then the all encompassing vacuum of which there is no end. 58. There is no beginning, middle or end of that infinite space; and it is productive of nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring.

59. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without beginning, middle or end, and is situated in the Supreme spirit. 60. Its immensity is as immeasurable as if a stone is flung with full force from its top, or if the phœnix would fly up to it with all his might, or if he would traverse through it in full velocity, it is impossible for him to reach from one end to the other, in a whole Kalpa age.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE EGG—(BRAHMÁNDA). They passed in a moment beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire, water, and vacuum, and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres. 2. They reached the boundless space, whence the universe appeared as an egg (ovum). 3. They beheld under its vault millions of luminous particles floating in the air (nebulæ). 4. These were as innumerable bubbles, floating on the waters of the unlimited ocean of the sphere of the Intellect. 5. Some of them were going downward, and others rising upward; some turning round, and others appeared to their understanding to remain fixed and immovable. 6. These different motions appeared to them with respect to their own situations, as they saw them in their different sides. 7. Here there were no ups and downs and no upside or below, nor any going forward or backward. Here there are no such directions as men take to be by the position of their bodies. 8. There is but one indefinite space in nature, as there is but one consciousness in all beings; yet everything moves in its own way, as wayward boys take their own course. 9. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why do we call upward and downward, forward and backward, if there are no such things in space and nature.

10. Vasishtha said:—There is but one space enveloping all things, and the worlds which are seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of vacuity, are as worms moving on the surface of water. 11. All these bodies that move about in the world by their want of freedom (i.e. by the power of attraction), are thought to be up and down by our position on earth. 12. So when there is a number of ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below which are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs. 13. Such is this ball of the earth in one of these worlds, covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by devas, demons and men walking upon it. 14. It is covered also by cities, towns and mountains, and their inhabitants and productions, like the walnut by its coat. 15. Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan mountains, do these worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space. 16. Every thing that is any where, is produced from and subsists in space. It is always all in all things, which are contained as particles in it.

17. Such is the pure vacuous space of the Divine understanding, that like an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds, which like the countless waves of the sea, are revolving for ever in it. 18. Some of these are hollow within, and others as dark as the darkness in the end of a kalpa age: and they are all moving about in the ocean of vacuity, like the waves of the sea. 19. Some of these are whirling about with a jarring noise for ever, which is neither heard by nor known to any body. It is like the motion of men addicted to earthly pursuits by their nature. 20. Some of these are now growing in form, as if they were newly created, and are in the course of their development, like sprouts in the cells of seeds newly sown in the ground. 21. Some of these are melting away as icicles under heat, like the mountains that were melted down by the burning sun and heavenly fire, at the dissolution of the world. 22. Others have been continually falling downward without gaining the ground, till at last they dwindle away, and melt into the divine Intellect.

23. Others are as immovable in the air, as the animalculae in the water, which are moved to and fro by the wind, without any sign of motion or sensation in them. 24. Again nothing is stable in nature, but every thing is as changeful as the acts and usages enjoined in the Vedas and sástras, are altered and succeeded by others. 25. There are other Brahmás and other patriarchs, and many Vishnus and many Indras one after the other. We have different kings of men, and sometimes no ruler of them. 26. Some are as men and lords of others (Ishas), in this multiform creation, and some are creeping and crooked living beings on earth; some kinds are as full as the waters of the ocean, and others have become quite extinct in the world. 27. Some are as hard as solid stones, and others as soft as the poor insects and worms; some are of godly figures as the giants, and others of puny human forms. 28. Some are quite blind and suited to darkness (as owls and moles and bats); others are suited to light (as men, birds and beasts), and some to both (as cats and rats).

29. Some are born as gnats sucking the juice of the fruits of the fig tree; while others are empty within, and fly about and feed upon the air. 30. The world is thus filled with creatures beyond the conception of Yogis, and we can not form even a guess-work of the beings that fill the infinite vacuum. 31. This world is the sphere of these living beings; but the great vacuum spreading beyond it, is so extensive, that it is immeasurable by the gods Vishnu and others, were they to traverse through it, for the whole of their lives. 32. Every one of these etherial globes, is encircled by a belt resembling a golden bracelet; and has an attractive power like the earth to attract other objects. 33. I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best knowledge, any thing beyond this, is what I have no knowledge of, nor power to describe. 34. There are many other large worlds, rolling through the immense space of vacuum, as the giddy goblins of Yakshas revel about in the dark and dismal deserts and forests, unseen by others.

ALIGHTING OF THE LADIES ON EARTH. Vasishtha said:—After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey, the ladies alighted from there, and quickly entered the inner apartment of the king. 2. There they saw the dead body of the king lying in state amidst heaps of flowers, accompanied by the spiritual body of Lílá, sitting beside the corpse. 3. It was the dead of night, and the inmates had fallen into sound sleep one by one; and the room was perfumed with the incense of resin, camphor and sandalwood and saffron. 4. Lílá, seeing the house of her latter husband, and wishing to enter into it, alighted in her assumed body (sankalpadeha) on the spot of his sepulchre. 5. She then passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord (sankalpasansára), by breaking out of the confines of her body and cranium called the earthly and worldly environs in Yoga terminology (sansára and Brahmánda-ávaranas). 6. Then she went again with the goddess to the bright and spacious temple of the world (Brahmánda-mandapa), in which she quickly entered. 7. She saw her husband’s imaginary world to lie as a dirty and mossy pool, as the lioness beholds the mountain cave covered by darkness and clouds.

8. The goddesses then entered into that vacuous world with their airy bodies, as weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the wood-apple or bel-fruit. 9. There they passed through regions of cloudy hills and skies, and reached the surface of the earth, consisting of tracts of land and basins of water. 10. They then came to the Jambudwípa (Asia), situated amidst the ninefold petals of the other dwípas (or continents), and thence proceeded to the territories of Lílá’s husband in the varsha land of Bharata (India). 11. At this interval of time they beheld a certain prince—(the ruler of Sinde), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this part which was the beauty of the world. 12. They beheld the air crowded by people of the three worlds, who had assembled there to see the conflict. 13. They remained undaunted, and saw the air crowded by aerial beings in groups like clouds. 14. There were the Siddhas, Cháranas, Gandharvas, Vidyádharas, Súras, celestials and Apsarás in large bodies. 15. There were also the goblins of Bhútas and Pisáchas, and Rákshasa cannibals; while the Vidyádhara females were flinging handfuls of flowers like showers of rain on the combatants.

16. The Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmánds, that were looking at the affray with pleasure, took themselves to the shelter of hills, to avoid the flying darts and weapons. 17. The imps were flying from the air, to keep themselves from the way of the flying weapons; and the spectators were excited by sound of the war-whoop of the combatants. 18. Lílá who was standing by with a flapper (or fan) in her hand, was frightened at the imminent dreadful conflict, and smiled to scorn their mutual vauntings.

SIGHT OF A BATTLE ARRAY IN EARTH AND AIR. 19. Virtuous people who were unable to endure the horrid sight, betook themselves to prayers, with the chief priests for averting the calamity. 20. The messengers of Indra, were ready with their decorated elephants (called loka-pálas), for bearing the souls of mighty heroes to grace the seats of heaven. 21. The cháranas and Gandharvas, were singing praises of the advancing heroes; and heavenly nymphs that liked heroism, were glancing at the best combatants. 22. Voluptuous women were wishing to embrace the arms of the brave; and the fair fame of the heroes, had turned the hot sunshine to cool moonlight. 23. Ráma asked:—Tell me, sir, what sort of a warrior is called a hero, that becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent. 24. Vasishtha answered:—He who engages in a lawful warfare, and fights for his king, and whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field, is called a hero, and goes to heaven. 25. Whoever kills men otherwise in war and dies afterwards, in an unjust cause, is called an insurgent, and goes to hell at last. 26. Whoever fights for unlawful property, and dies in battle, becomes subject to everlasting hell fire.

27. Whoso wages a just warfare, that is justified by law and usage, that warrior is called both loyal as well as heroic in deed. 28. Whoever dies in war, for the preservation of kine, Bráhmans and friends with a willing mind, and whoso protects his guest and refugee with all diligence, he verily becomes an ornament in heaven after his death. 29. The king who is steadfast in protecting his subjects and his own country, is called the just, and those that die in his cause are called the brave. 30. They that die fighting on the side of riotous subjects, or in the cause of rebellious princes or chiefs, are doomed to fire. 31. They that die fighting unjustly against their kings, lawgivers and rulers, are subjected to the torments of hell. 32. A war which is just, serves to establish order; but the giddy that are fearless of the future, destroy all order (by their unjust warfare). 33. The hero dying, goes to heaven, is the common saying; and the sástras call the lawful warrior only a hero, and not otherwise. 34. They who suffer wounds on their bodies, for the protection of the righteous and good, are said to be heroes, or else they are insurgents (dimbhavas).

35. It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the damsels of the gods, were standing in the air, and talking to themselves of becoming the spouses of such warriors. 36. The air was as decorated as by an illumination on high, and by rows of the beautiful heavenly cars of gods and Siddhas, and presence of celestial maidens, who sang in sweet notes, and decorated their locks with mandára flowers.

ONSET OF THE WAR. Vasishtha said:—Lílá standing with the goddess of wisdom in air, saw the Apsarás dancing there, at the eagerness of the combatants for war below. 2. She beheld the assemblage of the forces in her own territory once governed by her lord; and saw the field of the air not less formidable by the assembled ghosts (and its encircling belt composed of the lion, scorpion, crab and the archer). 3. The meeting of the two forces made the ground appear as a billowy sea; like the meeting of two clouds in the sky, giving it the appearance of two hostile forces. 4. The battle array of armoured warriors, flashing as the fire of heaven, was succeeded by their commingled blows, resembling the rattling of thunders above, deafening the ears and dazzling the sight. 5. Then darts and javelins, spears and lances, and many other missiles (prásas) began to fall on both sides, like showers of raindrops, hailstones and meteorolites from the skies. 6. Showers of shafts fell with a force, that would pierce the pinions of garuda, and struck out the glare of sunbeams, by hitting at the armours of the warriors.

7. The combatants standing face to face with their lifted arms, and staring at each other with steadfast looks, seemed as they were pictures in a painting. 8. The armies drawn in long regiments, standing in lines opposite to each other, were heard to answer one another by their repeated shouts. 9. The battalia of both armies, and the drums on both sides, were put to a stop by the warnings of their leaders, against striking the first blow. 10. The intermediate space of the breadth of two bows, that separated the hostile forces like a bridge from one another, appeared as the gap, caused by the winds in the midst of the ocean at the universal deluge. (Or more like the partition of the waters of the Red sea by the rod of Moses). 11. The leaders were drowned in thoughts for fear of bloodshed and massacre; and the cowardly soldiers groaned in their hearts, with the hoarse noise of croaking frogs. 12. There were numbers of bravoes, eager to yield up their precious lives in a trice; and the bowyers stood with their bowstrings drawn to the ear, and ready to let loose their pointed arrows at the foe.

13. Others stood dreadfully fixed to strike their arms upon the enemy, and many were looking sternly at their adversaries, with their frowning looks. 14. The armours were clashing by mutual concussion, the countenances of the bravoes were burning with rage, and the faces of cowards were turned towards sheltered retreats for flight. 15. The lookers stood in doubt of their lives until the end of the war, and old men like big elephants, were covered with horripilation on their bodies. 16. The silence which ensued at the expectation of the first blow, resembled the calm of the stormy main, and the deep sleep of a city at the dead of night. 17. The musical instruments, the drum and conch-shell were all silent, and a thick cloud of dust, covered the face of the earth and sky. 18. The retreaters were flying from their stronger assailants, who kept running after them, in the manner of sharks pursuing the shoals of fishes in the sea. 19. The glittering fringes of the flags, put the etherial stars to blush, and the lifted goads in the hands of the elephant-drivers, made a forest of tapering trees in the sky.

20. The flinging arrows were flying like flocks of the winged tribe in air, and the loud beating of drums and blowing of pipes, resounded amidst the air. 21. There was a phalanx in a circular form, attacking a host of wicked demons, and here was a squadron in the form of Garuda, with its right and left wings, attacking a body of elephants. 22. Somewhere a great howling was heard to rise from the vanguard of a body of troops, disconcerted by a cohort in the form of eagles: and at another many were seen to fall upon one another with mutual shouts. 23. Thus a tremendous noise was raised by the warriors of the many legions, and a multitude of big mallets were seen to be raised on high by the hands of the combatants. 24. The glaring of sable steel, shaded the sunbeams like a cloud, and hissing darts in the air, emitted a sound, resembling the rustling of breeze amidst the dry leaves of trees. 25. Now the brunt of battle, began like the dashing of clouds upon clouds at the end of a Kalpa, and the war raged like the raging sea ruffled by a hurricane. 26. Big elephants were falling in the field like coal-black rocks, hurled down by gusts of wind.

27. It seemed that the infernal spirits were let loose from their caves of hell, to rage in the battle field with their horrid and dismal figures. 28. The day light was obscured by the sable cloud of swords, and the mallets and lances were raised up by the black Kunta warriors, who seemed bent upon converting the earth to an ocean of bloodshed.

COMINGLED FIGHTING. Ráma said:—Sir, relate to me in short and promptly, about this warfare, as my ears are delighted with narratives of this kind. 2. Vasishtha said:—These ladies then, in order to have a better view of the battle below, ascended in their imaginary aerial cars vimánas, to a more retired spot in the higher regions of the sky. 3. At this interval, there began a mingled fight of the forces face to face, with a commingled shout of the two armies, as the dashing of the waves against one another in the raging sea. 4. At this instant, Vidúratha the lord of the realm, (formerly Padma—the husband of Lílá), seeing a daring warrior of the hostile force attack one of his soldiers, struck him impatiently on the breast, with the blow of a ponderous mallet. 5. Then the battle raged with the impetuosity of the rolling waves of the stormy main, and the arms on both sides, flamed with living fire and flash of fiery lightnings. 6. Now the edges of waving swords (larattarat), glittered in the sky, and cracking and clashing noise (Kanakana), filled the air with a hideous crackling (kadkada). 7. Then flew the winged arrows, overshadowing the beams of the sun, and emitting a booming noise (hunkára), which hushed the rattling clamour (gharghara) of summer clouds.

8. Armours clashed against armours (Kankata), with a clanking noise (tankára), and shot forth the sparks of glistening fire (Kanatkana); and arms, hashing (ch’hina-bhinna) and slashing (Khanda-khanda) against arms, filled the air with their fragments flying like birds in the air. 9. The shaking (dodulya) shanks and arms of the army, appeared as a moving forest (dordruma) on the land, and the twangings of their bows (tankára), and rumbling of the disks (krenkára), drove away the birds of the air, and crackled like the rattling drive of wheels (dravat) in heaven. 10. The hissing of their loosened strings (halhala), resembled the (ghunghuna) buzzing of bees, heard in the samádhi yoga (by shutting the ears). 11. Iron shafts like sleets of hailstones, pierced the heads of the soldiers, and the (ranat) crashing of armours (sanghatta), broke the arms of the warriors in mail (Kankata sankata). 12. Weapons struck on brazen armours with a howling noise (hunkára), made a clanking sound by the stroke (tánkára), and flying like drifts of rain water (tartara), pierced the face of the air on all sides: (literally, denticulated—dantura dingmukha).

13. The striking of steel on one another (sanghatta), made the hands ring with a jingling sound (jhanjhanat); and the continued rapping on the arms (ásphota), and clapping of hands, (karasphota), raised a pattering and chattering sound (chat chat and pat pat). 14. The whizzing noise of unsheathing the sword (shitkára), and the hissing of the sparks of fire (sansana); the flinging of arrows in all ways (sadatkára), and the flying of darts, likened the rustling of falling leaves (Kharkhara) in autumn. 15. The spouting of life blood (dhakdhak), from the throats separated from the bodies, the mangled limbs and heads, and the broken swords filled the whole space. 16. The flame of fire flaring (sphurat) from the armours; emblazoned the hairs of the warriors, and the fighting and falling (ranatpatat) of swordsmen, raised a giddy and loud jingling of their weapons (jhanjhana). 17. The lofty elephants pierced by the spears of the Kunta lancers, poured out torrents of red-hot blood; while the tusky tribe was goring whole bodies of them with their shrill cries (chitkára). 18. Others crushed by the ponderous maces of their antagonists, creaked grievously under the blows; while the heads of the slain soldiers, swam in the rivers of blood over the plain.

19. Here the hungry vultures were pouncing from above, and there the sky was covered by a cloud of dust; and the weaponless combatants, were engaged in Kesákesí fighting, by holding each other down by the hairs.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE. Now the generals and ministers of the belligerent powers, and the aerial spectators of the war, were thus talking among themselves. 2. Lo! here the ground has become a lake of blood, with the heads of the slaughtered hosts floating as lotuses upon it; and there the air has become as the starry heaven, glittering with broken weapons, flying like birds in the sky. 3. Behold the air is reddened with the particles of vermeil blood, borne above by the winds, and the sky presenting the evening clouds, with the glow of the setting sun at midday. 4. What are these, says one, that are flying as straws in the firmament? They are, says the other, no straws, but the flight of arrows, that have filled the atmosphere. 5. As long as the dust of the earth, cries another, is moistened by the bloodshed of the brave, so long are the heroes entitled to glory, and have their abode in heaven for myriads of years. 6. Fear not these sable swords, says the sástra, whose blades are worn by the brave like petals of blue lotuses about their necks and breasts; and bravoes are favourites in the eyes of the goddess of fortune. (Fortune favours the brave).

7. The heavenly nymphs that beheld the fighting, felt a desire to embrace the brave, and the god of the flowery bow (Káma or Cupid), was busy to loosen their waist bands. (Cupid by inversion is Dípuc, another name of the Indian Káma. And Fairies or Paries and Huries are said to fall to the lot of the fighters in Jehad-battle. So says Dryden: “None but the brave deserve the fair”). 8. They beckoned their welcome by the waving of their reddish palms, in the shaking of the ruddy leaves of trees, and by the round glances of their eyes, in the blooming blossoms of plants, and by the perfume of their breath in the honied fragrance of flowers. 9. The geniuses of the garden of Paradise, were singing sweetly in the notes of the sylvan choir, and betook themselves to dancing in the wagging tails of peacocks. 10. As the brave warrior was breaking the line of the enemy with his hardy axe; so was his beloved breaking his hard heart and spirit, with the soft glances of her eyes. 11. It is by my lance, says the lancer, that I have severed the head of my adversary with the rings in his ears, like the head of the ascending node of Ráhu, approaching the disk of the sun.

12. Lo! There is a champion, hurling the blocks of stones, attached to the end of a chain reaching his feet; and another whirling his wheel with a wondrous log of wood, held in his uplifted arm. 13. There comes that combatant in the form of Yama, appearing from the region of Pluto (Preta), and spreading a horrid devastation all around. Come let us go hence as we came. 14. Look there the ravenous birds, greedily plunging their long necks in the cells of bodies just separated from their heads, and glutting themselves with the gushing blood; and see there the headless trunk of the slain, moving to and fro in the field of battle. 15. The eloquent among the spectators were talking to one another, about the frailty of human life, and the uncertainty of the time of their meeting in the next world. 16. Oh! the stern cannibal of death, says one, that devours in one swoop, whole bodies of the assembled armies, now weltering in blood; and levels the levelling hosts to the ground. 17. The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble the showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to their frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks of cliffs.

18. While the headless body of the beheaded, was groveling grievously on the ground for want of its head, the pate flying on high as a bird of air, proclaimed its immortality in heaven. 19. The army harassed by stones slung on their heads, cried to entrap the enemy in the snares set at their feet. 20. Wives that had become Apsarás (heavenly nymphs) after death, were now eager to claim their husbands, who were restored to their youth, by virtue of their falling in the field of battle. 21. The glaring light of the line of lances that had reached the skies, seemed as a flight of stairs or golden vistas, for the ascent of the brave to the gates of heaven. 22. The wife of the slain soldier, seeing now a heavenly goddess, taking possession of her husband’s fair gold-like breast, was looking about in search of another. 23. Generals, wailing loudly with their uplifted arms, over their fallen armies in the field, appeared as the cliffs of rocks, resounding to the clamorous surges below. 24. They cried out to fight the foremost in war, and to remove the wounded to the rear; and not to trample over the bodies of their own soldiers, now lying low on the ground.

25. Behold! there the Apsarás eagerly tying their loosened locks, and advancing with sobbing bosoms to receive the departed warriors, joining their company in their celestial forms. 26. Ah! receive them says one, who are our guests from afar, on the banks of the rivers of Paradise, decorated with lotus blossoms of golden hue, and entertain them with fresh water and cooling breeze. 27. Look! there the groups of weapons, broken into pieces like bones by their concussion, are huddled in the air with a jingling sound (kanatkára), and shining as stars in the sky. 28. Lo! the stream of deceased souls, flowing in arrowy currents and rolling in whirlpools of the flying disks, is rapidly gliding with the pebbles and stones, flung from the slings in the air. 29. The sky is become as a lake of lotuses with the lotiform heads of warriors flung aloft in the air, while the flying weapons are floating like their stalks in it, with the broken swords as their thorns all around. 30. The flying fragments of the flags, forming the folia of the plants, and the darts sticking to them, appear as big black bees fluttering about the flowers moving with the breeze.

31. The arrows sticking to the dead bodies of elephants, are as emmets on mountain tops, and as timid girls clinging to the bosoms of men. 32. The winds unfurling the curling locks of Vidyádhara females, indicate their approaching spousals, as the unfolding plumage of fowls are predictions of success in augury. 33. The lifted umbrellas are shining as so many moons on high and the moon shining above in the form of fair fame, spreads her light as a white canopy on earth. 34. The brave warrior, soon after his death, assumes a celestial form framed by his own merit, as a man in his sleep, attains to a state, he has imagined to himself in his waking. 35. The flying spears and lances and clubs and disks are hurtling in the air, like shoals of restless fishes and sharks, moving about incessantly in the troubled waters of the sea. 36. The milk-white rags of umbrellas, tattered and shattered by arrowy shafts, are flying as cranes in the crowded air, and appearing as the disk of the moon broken into a thousand pieces. 37. These waving flappers flying in the air with a hoarse gurgling (gharghara), seem as the waves of the sea lifted in the air, and undulating with a babbling noise in the ocean of the sky.

38. Those slips of the flappers and umbrellas, hashed by the slashing arms, appear as the laurels of glory flung aloft and flying in the regions of air. 39. Behold ye friends! how these flying arrows and showering spears, are approaching to us with hits of their spoil, like bodies of locusts, bearing away their verdant booty in the air. 40. Hearken to the clanking sound of the striking steel, in the uplifted arm of the armoured soldier, resounding like the loud larum of the regent of death. 41. Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an all destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of mountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on the ground. 42. Lo! there the drivers of war chariots are stopped in their course, and striving to make their way through the puddles of blood, in which the wheels and horses of the car, are huddled together as in a bog of quagmire. 43. The jingling of arms and armours, and the jangling of swords and steel, resound, as the tinkling of the lute at the dancing of the dire and dreaded dame of death.

44. See the skirts of the sky reddened by the roseate particles, borne by the winds from the streams of blood, issuing out of the wounds in the bodies of men, horses and elephants lying dead in the field. 45. Look at the array of arrows formed in the air as a wreath of blossoms, and falling as the rays of lightnings from the dark black clouds of weapons hanging on high. 46. Lo! the surface of the earth filled with blood-red weapons, appearing as faggots of fire strewn over the ground in an universal conflagration. 47. The multitudes of commingled weapons, clashing with and breaking one another into pieces, are falling down in showers, like the innumerable rays of the sun. 48. The fighting of one man among the motionless many, is like the magic play of a magician where the conjurer acts his parts amidst the bewitched beholders, Lo! there the indifferent spectators viewing the warfare as a dream (by their prajna or inward vision of the mind). 49. The field of battle, where all other sounds are hushed under the clashing of arms, resembles the stage of the martial god Bhairava, chanting his pitiless war song in jarring cacophony.

50. The battlefield is turned to a sea of blood, filled with the sands of pounded weapons, and rolling with the waves of broken discuses. 51. All the quarters under the regents of the sky, are filled with martial music loudly resounding on all sides; and the rebellowing hills seem to challenge one another, in their aerial flight and fighting (as in contest of the gods and titans of old). 52. Alas for shame! says one, that these arrows flung with such force from the bow strings, and flying with such loud hissing, and glittering as red hot lightnings in the air, are foiled in their aim of piercing the impenetrable armours, and driven back by them to hit at the stony hills. 53. Hear me friend, that art tired with the sight, that it is time for us to depart from this place, ere we are pierced in our bodies by these sharp arrows flashing as fire, and before the day runs its course of the fourth watch (evening).

DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD. Vasishtha said:—Then the waves of horse troops mounting to the sky, made the battlefield appear as a raging sea. 2. The moving umbrellas floated as its foam and froth, and the feathered silvery arrows glided like the finny pearly fishes in it, while the high flight and rush of the cavalry, heaved and dashed as surges of the sea. 3. The rushing of the weapons resembled the running of its currents, and the circles of the soldiers were as vortices of its waters. The elephants were as its islets and their motions resembled the moving rocks in it. 4. The whirling disks were as its eddies, and the flying hairs on the heads likened its floating weeds. The sparkling sands were as its shining waters, and the flash of swords like its glassy spray. 5. The gigantic warriors were its whales and alligators, and the resounding caverns like its gurgling whirlpools. 6. The flying arrows were like its swimming fishes, and the floating flags likened its uprising waves and bores. 7. The shining weapons formed the waters of this ocean and their whirlpools also, while the long lines of forces appeared as the huge and horrible bodies of its whales.

8. Soldiers clad in black iron armour, were as the dark blue waters of the deep, and the headless bodies groveling in dust were as the eddies of the sea, with the encircled equipments as the sea weeds. 9. The showers of arrows had obscured the skies with a mist, and the confused rattlings of the battlefield, were as the roarings of the clouds. 10. The flying and falling heads of the slain soldiers, resembled the large drops of rain, and their bodies were as pieces of wood, whirling in the eddies of the disks. 11. The bold bowyer, bending his strong bow in the form of a curve, and leaping above the ground, resembled the spouting sea, rising from underneath the ground with his heaving waves on high. 12. The unnumbered umbrellas and flags, that were moving up and down in the field, were as the foaming and frothing sea, rolling in waves of blood, and carrying away the beams and timbers of the broken cars in its current. 13. The march of the army resembled the flowing of the sea waters, and the blood spouting from the wounds of the elephants likened its bubbles, while the moving horses and elephants represented the sea animals in their motion.

14. The battlefield had become like the wondrous field of the air, where the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook the hills like moving clouds in the sky. 15. Here the waves were undulating like flights of birds in the air, and the groups of elephants falling aground like rocks, and the cowardly ranks were murmuring like herds of the timorous deer. 16. The field is turned to a forest of arrows, and wounded soldiers are standing fixed on the ground as trees, with the arrows flying as locusts, and the horses moving like antelopes in it. 17. Here the loud drum sounded as the humming of bees in the hollows of trees, and the army appearing as a mist, with the bold warrior sprawling like a lion in it. 18. The dust was rising in clouds and the forces falling as rocks; the huge cars broken down as hills, and the flaming swords shining on all sides. 19. The rise and fall of the foot soldier’s feet flitted like the falling flowers on the ground, and the flags and umbrellas o’ertopped it as clouds; it was overflown by streams of blood, and the high-sounding elephants falling as thundering showers of rain.

20. The war was as the last doom of death ready to devour the world, and destroy the flags and banners, the umbrellas and chariots in a confused chaos. 21. The shining weapons were falling like fragments of the refulgent sun, and burning all things as a burning pain inflames the soul and mind. 22. The out-stretched bows were as rainbows, and the falling arrows as showers of rain; the flying sabres resembled the forky lightnings, and their falling fragments like the sparkling hailstones. 23. The dire massacre made a sea of blood, with the hurling stones as its shoals and rocks; while the flying arms resembled the falling stars from heaven. 24. The sky was as a sea full of the whirlpools of the groups of disks and circlets, that were hurled in the air; and there were the burning fires, that performed the funerals of the slain. 25. The missiles were as bolts of thunder, which struck the rock-like elephants dead in the field, to block the passage of men. 26. The earth and sky were obscured by a thick cloud of showering arrows, and the army below was a sea of tempestuous warfare and bloodshed.

27. The destructive weapons were flying on all sides, like huge dragons of the sea, carried aloft by gusts of wind from the stormy main. 28. The flying arms of bolts and swords, disks, pikes and lances, were blazing and breaking one another in the air with such hideous noise, that it seemed to be a second deluge, when the last tornado blew up everything on high scattering them in all directions, and crushing and smashing them with a tremendous peal.

COLLISION OF EQUAL ARMS AND ARMIGERENTS. The heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground, drove the cowards and the wounded afar from the field. 2. The hills of the dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving in promiscuous heaps, and appearing as clouds fallen upon earth, invited the Yakshas and Rákshasas, and the carnivorous Pisáchas, to come and sport in the wide ocean of blood. 3. Now there commenced a commutual contest, betwixt men of rank and virtue, and those of good character, valour and strength on both sides; not excepting even the holy and household people, all of whom took part in the combat (that is, no condition of life, nor age nor sex, could escape the contagion of a warfare). 4. Duels were fought between these, like the clashing of one cloud with another; and like the confluence of two streams discharging their fury against each other. 5. As a rib is joined to another, and one side with the other, so met the horse against the horse, and elephant opposed the elephant in mutual conflict. 6. As one forest clasps and clings to another, and one hill is linked with the other in a range, so the duelists strove together, as one wave dashes against the other.

7. Footmen fought with footmen, as the reeds crush the reeds, and bamboos clash against one another, and the contrary winds struggle between themselves. 8. Cars falling upon cars, and chariots running against chariots, broke one another to pieces; and the citizens beat the rustics, as the Devas smote the demons of old. 9. The sky which had been erewhile clouded by the flight of arrows, was now emblazoned by the banner of the bowyer, resembling the rainbow of various colours. 10. At last the warriors who were overpowered in their conflict with unequal arms, fled away from the field, as they do from the fire of a conflagration. 11. Now the armigerents with discuses, met the thwarters of disks (chakras) in contest; and bowyers were opposed to bowmen, and swordsmen challenged the sword fighters in the field. So met the hookers and crookers with their co-rivals with crowbars (bhusundis) in hand. 12. Maces were opposed to maces (musalas), and lancers were set against the lance bearers (kuntas) in fighting. Spearmen braved the spearmen (rishtis), and the throwers of missiles were crossed with missives (prásas) in hand.

13. Mallets militated against mallets (mudguras), and clubs were contravened by clubmen in the conflict. Combatants with pikes (saktis), encountered the pikemen (sakti-dharas) face to face; and iron rods were crossed to pointed rods (súlas) in the strife. 14. Pugilists with missive weapons, counteracted the missiles of their antagonists (prásas), and those fighting with battle axes (parasus), baffled the poleaxes and pickaxes (paraswadhas) of their foes. 15. Trappers with their traps and snares, attacked the darters of nooses and lassos (pásas); and the darters of javelins (sankus), withstood the darts of the dartsmen on the other side. Daggers were opposed to daggers (kshurikas), and cudgels were presented before the cudgels (bhindipálas of the enemy). 16. Combatants with iron gloves contravened the boxers with iron fistcuffs (Vajramushtis), and those with iron cranes, pursued the fighters with crooked goads (ankusas) in hand. Warriors with ploughshares attacked the ploughmen, and those with tridents, fell upon the trident holders (trisúlins) in contest. 17. Champions with chained armours set upon the soldiers attired in mail (srinkhala jála); and they poured upon the field as flights of locusts, or as the waves in the troubled sea.

18. The air also seemed as a sea, with flying disks whirling as whirlpools (chakravartas), and the flight of reeds whistling like gusts of wind; while the range of running weapons seemed as sharks and dolphins moving about it. 19. The hollow of the heaven became as the great deep of the sea, impassable by the celestials, owing to the waving weapons, moving as sea monsters in the air. 20. Thus the armies of the two belligerent potentates, each composed of eight ranks or battalions, were furiously engaged with one another, as described below.

CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES. 21. Now hear me relate to you, the forces on the side of Padma, now named Vidúratha, and the allied powers that came to his side, from the Central and Eastern districts. 22. There came the hardy warriors of Kosala (Oudh) and Kási (Benares); those of Magadha (Behar) and Utkala (Orissa), situated in the east; and the Mekhalas (of Vindhya range), the Karkars (of Karnatic), and the Madras (of Madura) in the south. 23. The chiefs of Hema (Imaus) and Rudras and the Támraliptas (Tamils) from the south; the Prágjyotishas (of east Assam), and the horse faced Osmuks and Ambashtha cannibals. 24. Then there joined the Varna-koshthas and Viswotras, and the eaters of raw food and flesh and the fish eaters (piscivori); and those with faces like tigers, the Kiratas (Kirrhoids and Kira-antis), with the Sauviras and one legged people. 25. Next came the mountaineers of Mályavána, Sibira and Anjanagiri; and others having the ensigns of bulls and lotuses, and the people of the sun rising mountain (Udaya-giri) in the east. 26. Those that joined from the south east (prágdaxina), are the following, namely; the Vindhyaris, the Chedis, the Vatsas, the Dasárnas (near the confluence of the ten streams); and the Angas, Bangas and Upabangas (of Upper and Lower Bengal).

27. They that met from the south were, Kalingas and Pundras, the Jatharas, Vidarbhas and the hill people (on the Karnatic coast); the Sabaras, the outcasted savages, the Karnas and the Tripura people. 28. Those named Kantakas from their thorny district, the unenlightened Komalas (of Comilla?); the Karnas (Canarese), the Ándhras, the Cholas and the people on the borders of the Charmanvati river. 29. The Kakos or bald-headed and bearded people, and those of the Hema-kuta hills; the frizzled and long necked people, and the inhabitants of Kishkindha and cocoa forests. 30. The princes that joined with Lílá’s husband from the south, were as follows viz. the Vindhyans, the Kusumians (of Patna), the Mahendras and the Darduras (of the hills of the same names). 31. The Malays and the solar race, and the Prince of the (33) united states and the rich and united cities of Avanti and Sámbavati. 32. And those of Dasapura (or ten cities) of Katha (Kota), Chakra, Reshika Cutch and others, and the foresters of Upagiri and Bhadragiri hills. 33. The prince of Nagore and the chiefs of Dandaka forest, and the joint states of the people; the Sahas, Saivas, and the hill people of the Rishyamuka and Karkota and the Vimbila foresters.