Chapter CCXVI - Conclusion of the celestial messenger's message of liberation

Argument:—Acknowledgment of the obligation of Arishtanemi and others, to their preceptors and preachers.

Valmiki continued to say said:—

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I have thus related to you, O prince, whatever the poet born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes; and it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as they did by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge.

The prince arishtanemi replied:—

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O Venerable sir, your kind look is enough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence that I am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this world by your favour.

The heavenly messenger said:—

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After saying so, the said prince seemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak these words to me with a graceful voice.

The prince said:—

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I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wish all safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of the good is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferred upon me.

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Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and well know that, I am both gladdened as well as grown insouciant of worldly concerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.

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I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feeling any anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of all that I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quite surprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince).

He said:—

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I have never heard before, such words and fraught with so much knowledge, as I have come now to hear from thee; It has filled my inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of an ambrosial draught just now.

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I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding of Valmiki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me. And now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra.

The fairy said:—

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I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunate emissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and my knowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benign influence.

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I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain from sorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to your destination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.

So saying suruchi said:—

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the best of fairies, continued to keep her seat on the slope of the Himalayas, and contiguous to the Gandhamadana mount of fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divine knowledge).

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Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha, you are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well their purport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main object of man, both in this life as well as in the next).

Karanya said:—

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The remembrance of the past, the sight of the present, and the talk of future events, together with the existence of the world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water in mirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman.

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I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is left undone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasion and without any assiduity on my part.

Agasti said:—

Karunya said:—

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The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in the aforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge of his duties, as they occured to him from time to time.

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And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regarding the acts, that you shall have to perform after your attainment of divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on you afterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, as selfishness takes away its merit.

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Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles the duplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their combination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with due submission to him.

Sutikshana said:—

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Any action done in ignorance of the actor, is reckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledge to be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob, bear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done with reason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All our acts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions of stage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mental and corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).

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It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the action of our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is the malleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries. (Hence we should never reject the one for the other).

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As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the boisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave and move in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fills all the great and small alike.

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I submit to and bear with all that befals to me, because there is no escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages; and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowable One to thy good grace only.

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I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow down prostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the doleful pit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitude to my venerable preceptor.

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Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to his obligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by means of offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind and the words of his mouth.

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It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over the Rubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all these worlds, and am set free from all my doubts.

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I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the Sama-veda, as filling all this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep; and whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.

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I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form of incarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss of divine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in the unity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculate One, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all states and conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quite devoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) i.e. There is no known quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity. The qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique as own nature.

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Here ends the Maharamayana of the sage Vasishtha, with its continuation by his recorder Valmiki, and the speech of the celestial messenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirvana or the ultimate Extinction of the living soul. FINIS.