Chapter IX - Description of sukra’s body

Argument. The departed spirit of Sukra, remembers the state of its former body.

Vasishtha related:—

1. [Sanskrit available]
As Sukra was indulging his reveries in this manner, he passed insensibly under the flight of a series of years, which glided upon him in the presence of his father.

2. [Sanskrit available]
At last his arboraceous body withered away with age, under the inclement sun and winds and rain; and it fell down on the ground as a tree torn from its roots.

3. [Sanskrit available]
In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to forest.

4. [Sanskrit available]
He underwent repeated births and deaths, in his wanderings in the world in search of its enjoyments; and seemed as some thing whirled about in a turning mill or wheel; till at last he found his rest in the cooling beach of the rivulet.

5. [Sanskrit available]
Now the disembodied spirit of Sukra, remained to reflect on his past transmigrations, in all the real and ideal forms of his imagination.

6. [Sanskrit available]
It thought of its former body on the Mandara mountain, and how it was reduced to a skeleton of mere bones and skin by the heat of the sun and his austerities. (i.e. of the five fires pancha-tapas of his penance).

7. [Sanskrit available]
It remembered how the wind instrument of its lungs, breathed out the joyous music of its exemption from the pain of action (to which all other men were subjected). (It refers to the breathing of so-ham hamsah in yoga, which is the sweet music of salvation).

8. [Sanskrit available]
Seeing how the mind is plunged in the pit of worldly cares, the body seems to laugh at it, by showing the white teeth of the mouth in derision.

9. [Sanskrit available]
The cavity of the mouth, the sockets of the eyes, the nostrils and ear-holes in the open face, are all expressive of the hollowness of human and heavenly bodies (i.e. they are all hollow within, though they seem to be solid without).

10. [Sanskrit available]
The body sheds the tears of its eyes in sorrow for its past pains and austerities, as the sky rains after its excessive heat to cool the earth.

11. [Sanskrit available]
The body was refreshed by the breeze and moon-beams, as the woodlands are renovated by cooling showers in the rainy season.

12. [Sanskrit available]
It remembered how its body was washed on the banks of mountain rills, by the water-falls from above, and how it was daubed by the flying dust and the dirt of sin.

13. [Sanskrit available]
It was as naked as a withered tree, and rustling to the air with the breeze; yet it withstood the keen blasts of winter as unshaken devotion in person.

14. [Sanskrit available]
The faded face, the withered lungs and arteries, and the skinny belly, resembled those of the goddess of famine, that cried aloud in the forest, in the howlings of the wild beasts.

15. [Sanskrit available]
Yet the holy person of the hermit was unhurt by envious animals, owing to its freedom from passions and feelings, and its fervent devotion; and was not devoured by rapacious beasts and birds.

16. [Sanskrit available]
The body of Bhrigu's son was thus weakened by his abstinence and self-denial, and his mind was employed in holy devotion, as his body lay prostrate on the bed of stones.