Chapter CIII - Return of kumbha to the hermitage of sikhidhvaja

Argument: Chudala's return after three days, and her rousing the Prince from his trance.

Vasishtha said:—

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Now hear me relate to you about Sikhidvaja, sitting a block of wood on one side, and the reappearance of Chudala to him from the other.

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After Chudala had hypnotized her husband Sikhidvaja, in her guise of the sagely Kumbha; she disappeared from her, and traversed into the regions of air.

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She forsook her form of the son of the Divine sage in the empty sky, and which she had took upon her by her magic spell. The enchanted form melted away in the air, and she appeared in her female form of beauteous fair.

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She bent her airy course to her palace in the city, where she showed herself as their queen, before her assembled attendants and courtiers, and discharged the royal duties of her absent lord.

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After three days she took again to her aerial journey, retook her enchanted form of Kumbha, and advanced to the hermitage of Sikhidvaja in the forest.

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She saw there the prince in his woodland retreat, and sitting in his posture of deep meditation and resembling a figure carved in wood.

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Seeing him thus, she exclaimed repeatedly in herself; O heyday! that he is reposing here in his own soul, and is sitting quiet and tranquil in himself.

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I must now awaken him from his trance in the supreme Being, or else his soul will soon forsake its mortal frame, owing to his disregard of it, and the end of his worldly bondage by his excessive devotion.

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It is desirable that he should live some time longer, either with his royalty in the palace or with devotion in this forest; and then we both of us will depart together, by shuffling our mortal coils.

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It would be difficult to instruct him, in all (seven) stages of devotion (saptama bhumi); and as there is no end of these things, I will try to train him in the practical part of yoga only.

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Thus pondering in herself she made a loud shout, which startled the wild beasts; but did not rouse the entranced prince, though she repeated her loud shouts before him.

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When neither her shouts and shrieks could rouse him, who remained unshaken as a stone in the rock; she shook him with her hands, to bring him back to his sense.

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Though shaken and moved and thrown down on the ground, yet the prince neither awoke nor came to his senses; then Chudala thought on another expedient in his guise of Kumbha.

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She said, Ah! I see my lord is absorbed in his prophetic trance, and I must find some expedient to rouse him to his sense.

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Or why should I try to rouse him deified spirit back to its sensation, when he so well absorbed in his state of disembodied or abstract meditation (in which he enjoys himself and has forgotten his embodiment in the material frame and become as the disembodied or videha spirit).

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I also wish to get rid of my female form, and to reach that state of supreme beatitude like him, which is free from further births and transmigrations.

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Thus thinking in herself, Chudala was about to abandon her own body; when her better understanding recalled her undertaking that attempt.

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Let me feel the body of the prince at first, she said, whether there is an end of his life, or there is any feeling or pulsation in his heart.

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Should he be alive, he must come back to his sense; as the juicy root of trees, recalls the flowers in the flowering season of spring.

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If he is alive he will walk about like myself, in his state of a living liberated soul; but if he be found to be no longer living, then I shall follow him to the next world.

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With this mind Chudala felt his person, and examined it with her eyes; and then perceiving him to be living, she thus said rejoicingly to herself:

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He has still the relic of his life, pulsating in his breast, the beating of the pulse and the throbbing of his breast, show his life to be not yet extinct.

Rama said:—

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How can the little spark of the vital flame, be known to reside in the body of the self distracted yogi; whose mind is as cold as stone, and whose body becomes as callous as a clod of earth or a block of wood.

Vasishtha replied:—

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The relic of life remains in the heart, as an imperceptible atom and in the manner of sensibility; just as the future fruits and flowers, are contained in their seeds.

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The calm and cold yogi, who is devoid of his knowledge of unity and duality, and views all things in the same light; who remains as quiet as a rock and without the pulsation of his heart, has yet the vibration of his intellect within him; (which keeps him alive).

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The body of the temperate and tranquil minded man, never wastes or swells in bulk; it never decays nor grows up in heights, but ever remains in the same state.

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The man whose mind vibrates with its thoughts of unity and duality (i.e. which perceives the difference of things); has the change and decay of his body, which is never the case with the yogi of unchangeful mind. (The action of the mind impairs the body, but its inaction preserves it entire).

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The action of the heart, is the spring of the life of every body in this world, just as the honey in the flower cup, is the cause of its future fruit.

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These frail bodies of mortals, are notwithstanding subject to the fits of joy and anger, and of the quickness and dulness every moment; and these, O Rama! are the seeds of repeated births, and are hard to be checked or subdued.

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The mind being still and quiet, the body becomes as dull as it were lifeless;when it is subject to no passion nor change whatever; but remains as even as the still and clear firmament which nothing can disturb.

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The man of even and dispassionate mind, is never ruffled nor tainted by any fault; but remains as calm as the waters of the billowless and breezeless ocean.

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The body is never lifeless, nor is its life ever imperceptible, unless the mind is defunct in its action;and is in course of long practice, that the mind becomes inexcitable and numb in itself.

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The body which is without the action of its mind and vitality, quickly melts away to rottenness; as the snow melts away under the solar heat.

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The body of Sikhidvaja was felt to be hot, though it was without its active mind; it was therefore known to be possessed of its vitality, which prevented it from wasting and rotting away.

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The noble lady, having perceived the body of her husband to be in that plight;held it fastly with her hands, and began to consider what to do with it.

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She said, I will try to raise him by infusion of my intellection into his mind;and this will no doubt bring him back to his senses.

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If I do not raise him now, he must rise himself after sometime; but why should I wait till then, and must remain alone all the while.

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Having thought so, Chudala left her body—the frame work of the senses; and entered into the body of the body and joined with the intellectual essence of the same.

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She then gave a vibration to the intellection of her living lord, and after putting it in its action and motion, she returned to her own body; as a bird flits on the twig of a tree which is shaken thereby, it comes back to its own nest again.

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She rose in her figure of the Brahman boy Kumbha, and sat upon a flowery bed, where she began to chaunt her hymns of the sama veda (psalmody); with her soft tunes resembling the melodious chime of buzzing bees.

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The prince felt an intellectual exhilaration, on hearing the tuneful chime of the psalms;and his dormant life was awakened to its sensibility, as the lotus bud comes to bloom by the breath of the vernal season.

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His eyelids oped to light, as the lotus bud blooms at the sunlight; and the whole body of the prince, became vivid with his renewed life.

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He beheld the Brahman boy Kumbha, singing sama psalms before him;and appeared in his divinely fair form, as the divinity of music was present in person.

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O fortunate am I, said he, to have found my friendly Kumbha again before me; and so saying, he picked up some flowers and offered them to him.

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O how great is my good fortune, said he to his guest, to be thus recalled to your gracious memory; or what else is it, that could cause a divine personage like yourself, to be so favourably disposed towards me.

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It is only the cause of my salvation, that has caused you to come to and call at mine, or else what else can it be to bring a godson down to revisit me.

Kumbha spoke:—

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O sinless prince, my mind was ever intent on thee, ever since I departed from thee; and now it has come back to me, to have found thee well in this place.

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I do not reap so much delight in the ever delightful region of heaven, as I do here in your presence; because I have the great work of your redemption not pending before me.

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I have no friend or companion, that is dearer to my soul than yourself; nor have I any faithful pupil, nor confidential disciple like you in this world.

Sikhidvaja replied:—

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Ah! I see now that the arbours of this mountain, are about to yield the fruits of my meritorious acts, that have made a retired recluse like yourself to condescend to desire my company.

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If these woods and trees and myself who am so devoted to you, should find favour in your sight than the bliss of your heavenly abode, then may you please to take your residence with me in this lonely forest.

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For my part who am so blest with the gift of thy samadhi, that I have always my perfect repose in God even in this place; have no desire for heavenly delights (which cannot be better than my absorption in the Divine spirit).

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Reclining in that state of pure effulgence, I enjoy my fill of heavenly bliss even in this earth below.

Kumbha interrogated said:—

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Have you ever had your repose in the state of supreme felicity, and were you ever freed from the infelicity, which is ever attendant on the knowledge of duality.

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Have you ever felt a disgust to all temporary enjoyments, and have rooted out your taste for insipid pleasures of this earth.

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Has your mind ever rested in that state of even indifference, which has no liking for the desirable nor dislike to what is undesirable, but is ever content with whatever awaits upon it at any time?

Sikhidvaja replied:—

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It is by your favour sir, that I have seen all what transcends human sights; that I have reached beyond the verge of the universe, and obtained the best obtainable and most certain bliss.

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It is after long that I am freed from decay and disease, and gained all which is to be gained, and wherewith I am quite content.

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I require no further advice, from anyone for my edification; I feel fully gratified with every thing in all places, and am quite at ease and out of disease everywhere.

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I have nothing to know that is unknown to me, and nothing to obtain that is not obtained by one; I have forsaken whatever is not worth having, and my soul has its reliance in the supreme essence.

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I rest quite aloof of all, being devoid of my fear and error and apathy at any thing; I am always manifest in the even and equal tenor of my mind, and in the equality of my soul with all others; I am free from all imagination, as the clear sky is free from all taint and cloud.