Canto X - Conversation between a father and son

Jaimini asks the Birds for instruction how living beings come into existence and die, and how the fœtus lives and develops—The Birds repeat the explanation that a wise young brahman Sumati, who was nick-named Jaḍa^[1] because of his apparent stupidity, but who remembered his former existences, gave his father—He explains how death occurs, and describes the after-existences through which a living being passes according as it has lived well or ill—He describes incidentally the hell Raurava.

Jaimini spoke:

Declare my doubt, when I enquire, O powerful brahmans, wherein the appearance and disappearance of living beings consist. How is an animal produced? How too does it develop? How, again, is it placed when contained within the womb, pressed upon by the limbs? How, again, when it has issued from the womb, does it grow? And how at the moment of departure is it deprived of the sentient state? Every dead person also experiences the results of both his good and his bad deeds, and how then do those deeds bring about^[2] their results to him? Why does the foetus not become digested there in the stomach, as if it were converted into a morsel of food? In the female’s belly, where the various foods consumed are digested although highly indigestible, how is it that the little animal is not digested there? Declare all this to me, free from doubtful terms; this very matter is a transcendant mystery, where men do err.

The birds spoke:

Unparalleled is this burdensome question that thou hast propounded to us; it is difficult to be imagined, touching as it does the existence and death of all living beings. Listen to it, Sir! as a son, most thoroughly righteous, named Sumati,^[3] once declared it to his father.

A certain highly intelligent brāhman of Bhṛgu’s line addressed his son Sumati who had undergone his initiation, and who was tranquil, and in appearance stupid. “Study the Vedas, O Sumati, in order from the beginning, he zealous in obedience to thy guru, make thy food of victuals collected by begging. After that taking upon thee the duties of a householder, and performing the chiefest sacrifices, beget the desired offspring. Next resort to the forest, and then living in the forest, my son, he a wandering ascetic,^[4] free from family ties. Thus shalt thou attain that highest object of religious knowledge, the Supreme Being, reaching which thou shalt not grieve.”

The birds spoke:

Thus frequently counselled, he through his stupidity never replied: still the father again and again repeatedly admonished him affectionately. He thus frequently exhorted by his father, through paternal love, alluringly and in pleasant terms, spoke thus at length with a laugh:—

“Father! I have repeatedly studied this that thou enjoinest me today, the other Śāstras also, and the various mechanical arts. Ten thousand births and more have passed into my memory; disgusts and gratifications have sported in the decay and the rise of my mind. I have seen partings and meetings among enemies, friends and wives; I have seen mothers of various kinds, and fathers of various kinds also. I have tasted joys and sorrows thousands of times. Many kinsmen have I gained, and fathers of divers kinds. I have also dwelt in women’s wombs, slimy with ordure and urine; and thousands of times have the pains of sicknesses also taken grievous hold of me. Many sufferings have I endured in my stomach in childhood, and youth and old age: all those do I remember. I have been begotten of brāhmans, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas, and even śūdras; and again of cattle and insects, of deer and birds. I have been born moreover in the houses of kings’ dependants, and of kings resplendent in battle, and in thy dwelling also. I have teen a servant and a slave frequently to men. I tave teen a master and a lord, and a poor man as well. I tave given blows, and I have received blows from otters, and my own blows have procured me blows in return. Otters have given me gifts, and I have given gifts to otters many a time. I have teen gratified also by the deeds of fatter, mother, friend, trotter, wife and otter relatives. And often have I fallen into misery with my face wasted with tears. Whilst thus wandering, O fatter, in the crowded circle of mundane existence, I have gained this knowledge, which procures final emancipation from existence. That being known, all this tody of religions rites, called Ṛc Yajus and Sāman, is worthless, and does not appear fittingly to me. Of what use consequently are the Vedas to me, who am mature in wisdom, satiated with the knowledge of the gurus, void of desires, virtuous in soul? I will gain, O brāhman! the highest seat, that Supreme Soul, which is exempt from the qualities of the sixfold actions, pain, pleasure, joy, and love. Hence, O fatter, I will abandon this well-known series of pains which is tainted by love, joy, fear, inquietude, anger, resentment and old age, and which is tampered with hundreds of nooses in close contact ensnaring one’s own self as game, and I will depart. Does not the duty enjoined ty the three Vedas, which abounds in unrigtheousness,^[5] resemble the result of sin?”

The birds spoke:

Healing that his declaration, which was interrupted by joy and surprise, the eminent father with gladsome mind addressed his son.

The father spoke:

“What is this thou sayest, my son? Whence arose thy wisdom? How came thy stupidity before, and thy awakening now? Is this a curse-wrought change inflicted on thee by a Muni or god, since thy wisdom which was obscured has become manifest?”

The son spoke:

“Listen, father, how this happened to me, entailing pleasure and pain on me, and who I was in another birth, and what is beyond myself.

I was formerly a brāhman, my soul fixed on the Supreme Being; I attained the highest perfection in the consideration of the knowledge of the Supreme Being. While continually occupied in devotion, through constant application to study, through association with the good, through my own natural disposition, through deliberation, behaviour and purification, while occupying myself in this indeed I experienced the sublimest joy at all times, and I gained the position of a spiritual guide, the most successful remover of the doubts of disciples. A long while afterwards I attained absolute perfection; and my good disposition warped by ignorance fell into calamity through carelessness. Beginning from the time of my departure I had no failure of memory, until a year had passed and had returned to my recollection of my births. Being such, I, keeping my organs under control, will strive indeed, O father, by means of that my former study, so to act that I may not have another existence. For this is the result of learning and liberality that I remember former existences; this indeed is not obtained, O father, by men who apply themselves to the duty enjoined by the three Vedas. Being such I, from my former hermitage indeed, recurring to the duty of perfection, will attain to devotion to one object and will strive for the final emancipation of my soul. Declare thou then, Sir! what is perplexing in thy heart: and to this extent let me, bringing the joy, discharge my debt.”

The birds spoke:

Thereupon the father spoke to his son that speech of a man of faith, which relates to the perfection of mundane existence, and which we have been asked by thee, Sir.

The son spoke:

“Listen, O father, how I have often perceived the truth; the circle of mundane existence is ever young, the duration of which is not known. I then tell thee the whole, with thy permission, O father, commencing from the period of departure, as no one else will tell thee.

“Hot moisture is excited in the hody; it is set in motion by a strong vital air; blazing without fuel it pierces the sites of the vital organs. And then the vital air, called Udāna, passes upwards, impeding the downward course of the water and food consumed.

“Hence he, who has offered presents of water and has given food and drink, obtains joy therefrom in adversity. He also, who has bestowed food with a mind purified by faith, is then satisfied even without food. He, who has not spoken untruth, nor caused a breach of amity, a faithful believer, meets a happy death. Men who have been intent on the worship of the gods and brāhmans, and who are unspiteful,^[6] fair, charitable, shamefast, die happily. He who would not forsake righteousness through lust, or anger or hatred, who acts up to his words and is gentle, meets a happy death. Men who do not give away water, nor give away food, endure then, on the approach of death, burning thirst and hunger. Those who give away fuel overcome cold; those who give away sandal overcome heat; and those who do not inflict distress overcome the woeful life-ending pang. Those who cause error and ignorance suffer grievous terror; base men are oppressed with intense pains. A false witness, a liar, and he who teaches evil, they all and also blasphemers of the Vedas die in delusion.

“Then Tama’s officers, terrific, foul-smelling, carrying hammers and maces, hard-hearted, approach the false man. When they meet his eyesight, trembling seizes him, and he bewails without ceasing his brother, mother, and children. His voice seems thick, O father! and monotonous; and his sight wanders through terror; and his mouth grows dry with his breathing; his breathing grows loud; his sight fails; next he is pervaded with pains; then he quits the body. Preceded by the vital airs he assumes another body, similar to the former, produced by the actions of the former, intended for chastisement, born of no mother and father, like the previous one, with the periods of life and death conformable thereto.

“Thereupon Tama’s messenger speedily binds him with cruel fetters; drags him, bewildered as he is with the blows of his staff, to the southern region. And so, to some place which is rough with kuśa grass, thorns, ant-hills, stakes, and stones, where a fire is raging, which abounds in hundreds of holes, and which is heated by the blazing sun, which is scorched by his rays, he is haled by Yama’s emissaries, terrible through their ghastly cries. Being dragged about by those fearful servants, being eaten by hundreds of she-jackals, he, the evil-doer, proceeds by an awful road to Tama’s abode. Men who give umbrellas and shoes, and who bestow garments, those men pass along that road in ease; and so also do those who give away food. Thus encountering afflictions, the man oppressed with sin is led in twelve days to the city of king Tama.

“While the body is being burnt, he experiences a great burning; also while it is being beaten, and while it is being divided into pieces, terrible agony. While the body is being wetted a living being endures a very long pain, even while it is inhabiting another body, through the consequences of its own acts. There the deceased feeds on the water that his relatives offer together with the sesamum seed and the cake that they offer. The anointing with oil by relations, and the kneading of the limbs that they perform,—a living being is nourished thereby, and by what his relations^[7] eat. A living being does not encounter excessive affliction on the earth through his deceased relatives; and so when dead he is nourished by his relatives who make gifts.

“Being led off he sees his own abode for twelve days and he enjoys the water, cake &c. that are offered on the earth. After twelve days, the man who is being carried off, next sees Tama’s city, awful, made of iron, terrible in appearance. Immediately he has gone there he beholds Tama, with fiery red eyes, like to a mass of broken collyrium; in the midst of Death, the destroyer Time and others; his mouth gaping with projecting teeth, his countenance dreadful with frowns; a lord, surrounded by hundreds of deformed, horrible and crooked diseases; busy in awarding punishment, with long arms, a noose in his hand, very formidable. Then the living being takes the happy or miserable course decreed by him. But the false witness goes to Raurava, and the man who is untruthful. Listen while I describe the nature of that Raurava.

“Raurava^[8] is in truth two thousand yojanas in size. Then there is a chasm, just knee-deep, very difficult to pass over: in it charcoal is heaped up and made level with the ground. It burns vehemently with its glowing surface of kindled charcoal. In its midst Yama’s servitors cast the evil-doer. He runs about there, being burnt by the violent flame; and at each step, his foot is wasted and consumed again and again; day and night he continues on the move.

“When he has thus passed over a thousand yojanas he is released, and then enters another similar hell Niraya,^[9] to purge away his sins. Afterwards when he has passed through all the hells, the sinner enters the brute creation, among worms, insects and birds; among carnivorous animals; among mosquitoes and such like. After having been born among elephants, trees and such like, among cattle, and among horses also; and among other evil and noxious creatures; he attains humanity, and is born a man, contemptible as a hunch-back or a dwarf; among caṇḍālas, pukkasas and such-like castes; and then accompanied by the remainder of his sin and merit, he enters the castes in ascending order, such as sūdras, vaiśyas, kings and so on; also the position of brāhmans, the gods and Indra. Sometimes in descending order, and thus evil-doers fall headlong into the hells.

“What happens to righteous-doers, listen while I declare that. They take the holy course decreed by Yama. Bands of Gandharvas singing, bevies of Apsarases dancing, brilliant with various celestial garlands, bedecked with strings of pearls and anklets and gay with music,^[10] and heavenly chariots beyond compare go forth quickly to them. And when they descend therefrom, they are born in the family of kings and other high-souled men: there observing upright conduct, they experience vigorous^[11] pleasures, and afterwards they go upwards; and otherwise, when they take the downward path, they become men as before.

“This has all been declared to thee, how a living being perishes. Next listen, O Brahmarshi, how the foetus begins.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See Canto XIV.

[2]:

For sampādayanti read sampādayatī (neuter, dual, present participle)?

[3]:

For Samatir read Sumatir.

[4]:

For parivrāta read parivrāṇ.

[5]:

A pun on dharma and a-dharma. Prof. Monier-Williams gives trayī-dharma as masc. only.

[6]:

For anuśuyavaḥ read an-asūyavaḥ.

[7]:

For sa bāndhavāḥ road sva-bāndhavāḥ?

[8]:

Terrible.

[9]:

Devoid of happiness.

[10]:

For -śobhitāni read -śobhitā?

[11]:

Ugra; or noble.