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Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 5: Upaśama-Khanda (On Quietism). Chapter 39 - Admonitions of Hari to Prahlāda

Vasistha continued:- Thinking thus within himself, Hari started from his abode in the Milky Ocean with his companions, and moved like the immovable Mandāra mountain with all its accompaniments.

He entered the city of Prahlāda resembling the metropolis of Indra, by a subterranean passage lying under the waters of the deep. ¹

He found here the prince of the Asuras, sitting under a golden dome in his hypnotic trance, like Brahmā sitting in his meditative mood in a cavern of the Sumeru mountain. ²

There the Daityas being tinged in their bodies, by the bright rays of Visnu's person, fled far away from him, like a flock of owls from the bright beams of the rising sun. ³

Hari then being accompanied by two or three Daitya chiefs entered the apartment of Prahlāda, as the bright moon enters the pavilion of the sky at eve, in company with two or three stars beside her. ⁴

There seated on his eagle and fanned with the flapper of Laksmi, and armed with his weapons, and beset by the saints hymning his praise:

He said, O great soul! rise from your trance; and then blew his pañca janya shell, which resounded to the vault of heaven.

The loud peal of the Conch, blown by the breath of Visnu, roared at once like the clouds of the sky, and the waves of the great deluge with redoubled force.

Terrified at the sound, the Daityas fell flat and fainting on the ground; as when the flocks of swans and geese, are stunned at the thundering noise of clouds.

But the party of Vaisnavas, rejoiced at the sound without the least fear; and they flushed with joy like the Kurci flowers, blooming at the sound of the clouds. ⁵

The lord of the Danavas, was slowly roused from his sleep; in the manner of the kadamba flowers, opening their florets by degrees at the intervals of rain.

It was by an act of the excretion of his breathing, that he brought down his vital breath, which was confined in the vertical membrane of the cranium; in the manner that the stream of Ganges gushes out from the high-hill, and mixes and flows with the whole body of waters into the ocean. ⁶

In a moment the vital breath circulated through the whole body of Prahlāda; as the solar beams spread over the whole world soon after they emanate from the solar disk at sun rise.

The vital breath, having then entered into the cells of the nine organs of sense; his mind became susceptible of sensations, received through the organs of the body like reflexions in a mirror.

The intellect desiring to know the objects, and relying in the reflexions of the senses, takes the name of the mind; as the reflexion of the face in the mirror, refracts itself again to the visual organ.

The mind having thus opened or developed itself, his eyelids were about to open of themselves; like the petals of the blue lotus, opening by degrees in the morning.

The breathings then, by conveying the sensations to the body, through the veins and arteries, give it the power of motion; as the current breeze moves the lotuses.

The same vital breath, strengthened the powers of his mind in a short time; as the billows of a river, become more powerful when it is full of water.

At last his eyes being opened, his body shone forth with vivacity, by its mental and vital powers; as the lake blushes with blooming lotuses at the sun's, rising above the horizon.

At this instant, the lord bade him awake instantly at his word; and he rose as the peacock is awakened, at the roar of a cloud.

Finding his eyes shining with lustre, and his mind strong with its past remembrance; the lord of the three worlds, spoke to him in the manner, as he had formerly addressed the lotus-born Brahmā himself.

O holy youth! remember your large (dominions), and bring to your mind your youthful form and figure; then think and ponder, why you ceaselessly transform yourself to this torpid state.

You who have no good to desire nor any evil to shun, and look on want and plenty in the same light; you must know that what is destined by God, is all for your good.

The life is to stay here till the end of Kalpa. We know the destiny as to what will happen in a graceful manner.

You shall have to live here, in the living liberated state of your mind, and in full possession of your dominions, for a kalpa period; and shall have to pass your time with this body of yours, and without any anxiety or earthly trouble whatever.

The body being decayed by this time, you shall have still to abide with your greatness of soul to the end; till the body being broken down like an earthen vessel, the vital life like the contained air of the pot, come to mix with the common air of vacuum.

Your body which is liberated in its life time, is to endure in its purity to the end of the kalpa, and will witness generations passing before it without any diminution of itself.

The end of the kalpa or dooms day, is yet too far when the twelve suns will shine together; the rocks will melt away, and the world will be burnt down to ashes. Why then do you waste away your body even now?

Now the winds are not raging with fury, nor is the world grey with age and covered with ashes over it. The marks on the foreheads of the immortals are still uneffaced, why then waste your body before its time?

The lightnings of the deluging clouds, do not now flash nor fall down like asoka flowers, why then do you vainly waste your precious body so prematurely?

The skies do not pour out their showers of rain-water on earth, so as to over-flood the mountain tops, nor do they burst out in fire and burn them down to ashes; why then do you waste away your body in vain?

The old world is not yet dissolved into vapour, nor fused to fumes and smoke; neither are the deities all extinct, after leaving Brahmā, Visnu and Śiva to survive them; why then do you waste yourself in vain? ⁷

The earth on all sides is yet so submerged under the water, as to present the sight of the high mountains only on it, why then waste you away your body in vain, ⁸.

The sun yet does not dart his fiery rays, with such fury in the sky, as to split the mountains with hedious cracks; nor do the diluvian clouds rattle and crackle in the midway sky; ⁹.

I wander everywhere on my vehicle of the eagle, and take care of all animal beings lest they die before their time; and do not therefore like your negligence of yourself.

Here are we and there the hills, these are other beings and that is yourself; this is the earth and that the sky, all these are separate entities and must last of themselves; why then should you neglect your body, and do not live like the living?

The man whose mind is deluded by gross ignorance, and one who is the mark of afflictions, is verily led to hail his death. ¹⁰

Death is welcome to him, who is too weak and too poor and grossly ignorant; and who is always troubled by such and similar thoughts in his mind. ¹¹

Death is welcomed by him, whose mind enchained in the trap of greedy desires and thrills between its hopes and fears; and who is hurried and carried about inquest of greed, and is always restless within himself.

He whose heart is parched by the thirst of greed, and whose better thoughts are choked by it, as the sprouts of corn are destroyed by worms; is the person that welcomes his death at all times.

He who lets the creeping passions of his heart, grow as big as palm trees, to overshadow the forest of his mind, and bear the fruits of continued pain and pleasure, is the man who hails his death at all times.

He whose mind is festered by the weeds of cares, growing as rank as his hair on the body; and who is subject to the incessant evils of life, is the man that welcomes death for his relief.

He whose body is burning under the fire of diseases, and whose limbs are slackened by age and weakness, is the man to whom death is a remedy, and who resorts to its aid for relief.

He who is tormented by his ardent desires and raging anger, as by the poison of snake biting, is as a withered tree, and invites instant death for his release.

It is the soul's quitting the body that is called death; and this is unknown to the spiritualist, who is quite indifferent about the entity and non­entity of the body.

Life is a blessing to him, whose thoughts do not rove beyond the confines of himself; and to the wise man also who knows and investigates into the true nature of things.

Life is a blessing to him also, who is not given to his egotism, and whose understanding is not darkened by untruth, and who preserves his evenness in all conditions of life.

His life is a blessing to him, who has the inward satisfaction and coolness of his understanding, and is free from passions and enmity; and looks on the world as a mere witness, and having his concern with nothing.

He is blest in his life, who has the knowledge of whatever is desirable or detestable to him, and lives aloof from both; with all his thoughts and feelings confined within himself; ¹².

His life is blest, who views all gross things in the light of nothing, and whose heart and mind are absorbed in his silent and conscious soul. ¹³

Blessed in his life, who having his sight represses it from viewing the affairs of the world, as if they are entirely unworthy of him.

His life is blessed, who neither rejoices nor grieves at what is desirable or disadvantageous to him; but has his contentment in every state of his life whether favourable or not.

He who is pure in his life, and keeps company with pure minded men; who spreads the purity of his conduct all about, and shuns the society of the impure; is as graceful to 'behold, as the hoary swan with its snow white wings, in the company of the fair fowls of the silvery lake.

Blessed in his life, whose sight and remembrance, and the mention of whose name, give delight of all persons.

Know the life of that man, O lord of demons to be truly happy, whose lotus like- appearance is as delight-some to the, beelike eyes of men, as the sight of the full moon is delightful to the world.

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