Chapter LXIX - Story of visuchika (continued)

^[1]

Argument. Brahma's boon to Visuchi, and the mantra against her Power.

Vasishtha resumed:—

1. [Sanskrit available]
After the lapse of a thousand years, Brahma appeared to her, in order to put an end to the ardour of her austerities, and crown her with success or the reward of her devotion. (Ardent devotion has the power of displacing even the gods from their heavenly seats).

2. [Sanskrit available]
She saluted him internally in her mind, and remained fixed in her position; thinking about the boon she should beg of him, for allaying her keen appetite.

3. [Sanskrit available]
She soon recollected a certain request, which she should prefer to her complying god; and it was to transform her soft and flexible form to the shape of an inflexible iron-nail, wherewith she could torment all living beings (i. e. to make her fleshy form as stiff as a poker, so as to be able to pierce all others without being pierced herself).

4. [Sanskrit available]
At Brahma's bidding, she bethought in herself: "I will become as thin as a minute pin, in order to enter imperceptibly into the hearts of animals, as the odor of flowers enters the nostrils."

5. [Sanskrit available]
"By this means will I suck the heart-blood of beings, to my heart's satisfaction; in this way will my hunger be satiated, and the gratification of my appetite, will give the greatest delight to my soul."

6. [Sanskrit available]
As she was thinking in this manner, the God discovered her sinister motives, contrary to the character of a yogi; and accosted her in a voice resembling the roaring of clouds.

Brahma said:—

7. [Sanskrit available]
Daughter Karkati, of the Rakshasa race, that sittest here like a cloud on the inaccessible top of this mountain; know that I am pleased with thy devotion, and bid thee now to raise thyself, and receive the boon that thou desirest of me.

Karkati answered said:—

8. [Sanskrit available]
"O Lord of the past and future! If thou art inclined to grant my request, then please to confer on me the boon, of transforming my unironlike body to the form of an iron needle."

Vasishtha said:—

9. [Sanskrit available]
The God pronounced "Be it so,"and joined, "thou wilt be as a pin, and shalt be called the choleric pain, for thy giving pain to all bodies."

10. [Sanskrit available]
"Thou shalt be the cruel cause of acute pain and pang to all living being; and particularly to the intemperate and hard-working fools, and loose libertines, who are destined to be thy devoted victims".

11. [Sanskrit available]
"Moreover shalt thou molest the dwellers of unhealthy districts, and the practicers of malpractices; by entering their hearts with thy infectious breath, and by disturbing their sleep, and deranging the liver and other intestinal parts of the body."

12. [Sanskrit available]
"Thou shalt be of the form of wind (in the bowels), and cause bile and flatulence under the different names of colic diseases, and attack the intemperate both among the wise and unwise."

13. [Sanskrit available]
"The wise when attacked by thee, will be healed by repeating this runic mantra, which I will here propound for their benefit."

The mantra runs thus said:—

14. [Sanskrit available]
"There lives Karkati, the Rakshasi, in the north of the snowy mountain; her name is Visuchika, and it is for repelling her power that I repeat this mantra; Om, I bow to hring, hrang and ring, rang—the powers of Vishnu, and invoke the Vaishnavi powers to remove, destroy, root out, drive away this choleric pain, far beyond the Himalayas, and afar to the orb of the moon. Om (amen) and swaha (soho), be it so". Let these lines be held on the left arm as an amulet.

15. [Sanskrit available]
"Then rub the painful part with the palm of that hand, and think the colic Karkati to be crushed under the mallet of this amulet, and driven back beyond the hills with loud wailing."

16. [Sanskrit available]
"Let the patient think the medicinal moon to be seated in his heart, and believe himself to be freed from death and disease; and his faith will save his life and heal his pain."

17. [Sanskrit available]
"The attentive adept, who having purified himself with sprinkling the water in his mouth, repeats this formula, he succeeds in a short time to remove the colic pain altogether."

18. [Sanskrit available]
The lord of the three worlds then disappeared in the air, after delivering this efficacious amulet to the Siddhas attending upon him. He went to his splendid seat in heaven, where he was received by the god Indra, who advanced to hail him with his hosannas.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

It is a curious fact in the theological works of Vedānta, that princes and ladies, employed themselves much more to the cultivation of their minds, and to the investigation of mental and spiritual Philosophy, than other persons and tribes. So we see Surūchi, Līlā, Visūchī and Sarasvātī were all female interlocutors in this work and some Upanishads also, though female education was subsequently abrogated by law.