Chapter LV - Meeting of vasishtha and dasura

Argument. Dasura's reception of Vasishtha, their conversation and Parting.

Vasishtha said:—

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Hear me, Rama, that art the delight of Raghu's race, and shinest as the moon in the firmament of Raghu's family; that after I heard the conversation that was going on between Dasura and his son:—

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I alighted from the sky on the top of the Kadamba tree, which was decorated with its verdant leaves, and beautiful fruits and flowers; and then with my spiritual body, I sat myself slowly and silently on the top of the tree, as a light cloud alights on the summit of a mountain.

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I beheld Dasura there, sitting as a giant by subduing the organs of his body, and shining with the lustre of his devotion, as the fire blazing with its flame.

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The lustre issuing from his body, had strewn his seat with purple gold, and lighted that spot, as the sun-beams emblazon the world.

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Seeing me presenting myself before him, Dasura spread a leafy seat for me to sit down, and then honoured me according to the rules of ceremonial law.

6. Then I joined with the luminous Dasura in continuation of his discourse, which was meant for the edification of his son, and salvation of mankind from the miseries of life.

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I then with permission of Dasura, looked into the hollow of the tree, and the herds of stags pasturing fearlessly about it, and grazing and gathering about it.

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It was as delightful as a bower overhung with creepers, where the smiling flowers were shedding their light, and breathing their fragrance to the winds.

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The chowry deer flapped their long hairy and moon-bright tails, against the herbaceous arbour, as the white flimsy clouds sweep over the sky.

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The tree was adorned with fringes of pearly dewdrops, and arrayed all over with the flowery garb of his blossoms.

11. Smeared with the dust of its flowers, it appeared to be anointed with sandal paste; while its blowsy bark mantled it in roseate red.

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Decorated with flowers, the tree seemed to stand in its bridal attire; and resembled the bridegroom in mutual embrace with the twining brides.

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The bowers of shrubberies all around, resembled the leafy huts of hermits, which with their overtopping blossoms, seemed as a city, flaring with flying flags (or banners) in festivity.

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Shaken by the stages in the act of rubbing their bodies, the trees darted their flowers in abundance upon the ground;and the border-lands were as shattered, as if they were broken by the horns of fighting bulls.

15. Peacocks daubed with dust of flowers, and flying on the top of the adjacent hill, appeared as evening clouds gliding over it.

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Here the goddess Flora seemed to be sporting in the lawns, with the roseate flowers in her hands, and smiling sweetly in the blooming blossoms; she revelled with the nectarine honey of flowers; and shed her beauty on all sides.

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The closing buds resembling her eyelids, were lulled to sleep by the forest breeze, breathing incessantly with the fragrance of the flowers. The clusters of flowers forming her breasts, were hid under the bodice of leaves.

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She sat at the window of her alcove, formed by the twining plants and creepers, and was dressed in the purple garb of the flying farina of flowers.

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She swang in her swinging cradle of bluish blossoms, and was adorned with various floral ornaments from her head to foot.

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She moved about the flowers in the garb of the sylvan goddess and looking with her cerulean eyes of fluttering blue-bees on all sides; and sang to them in the sweet notes of the black kokila in the arbours.

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The bees tired with their labour of love, refreshed themselves with sipping the dew-drops trickling on the tops of the flowers, and then making their repast on the farinaceous meal, slept together with their mates, in the cells of the flower cups.

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The couples of bees dwelling in the cells of flowers, and giddy with sipping the honey of the flower cups; were humming their love tunes to one another.

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The sage remained attentive for a moment to the murmur, proceeding from the village beyond the forest; and now he listened with pricked up ears, to the busy buzz of blue-bees and flies at a distance.

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The sages then beheld with their down cast looks on moon-beams, which were spread like a sheet of fine linen on the blades of grass upon the ground below.

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They beheld the beautiful antelopes, which slept in their leafy beds on the ground, below the stretching boughs of shady trees, as if they were the progeny of their native forest.

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They saw the fearless birds chirping upon the branches, and others sleeping confident in their nests; and they beheld the ground covered by living creatures, feasting on the ripe fruits fallen below.

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They saw the long lines of black-bees, lying mute on the ground like strings of beads, and blackening it with their sable bodies.

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The forest was redolent with fragrance, and the sky was overhung by a cloud of flowers; the dust of Kadamba blossoms tinged the ground with ambergrease, and the Kadamba fruits covered the face of the land.

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What need is there of saying more, than that there was no part of the tree, which was not useful to living beings.

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Here the deer were sleeping on the fallen leaves and there were others resting on the barren ground;the birds sat on the banks and beaches of the rivulets all about that lofty tree.

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As they were viewing in this manner the beauties of the forest, the night passed away as soon as a night of festivity.

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The son of the hermit kept conversing with me on many subjects, and derived many useful instructions from my teaching.

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As we had been conversing with one another on different subjects, the night passed away as soon as that of a conjugal pair.

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Now it began to dawn, and the blushing flowers commenced to ope their petals; while the host of the stars on high, disappeared from their arena of the sky.

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I then took my departure, and was followed by the hermit and his son to some distance from their Kadamba tree, where I left them for my aerial course to the heavenly stream.

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There having performed my holy ablution, I came down under the vault of heaven, and then entered the celestial region of the sages, which is situated in the midway sky.

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Now I have related to you, Rama, this story of Dasura, that you may learn from his instance the unreality of the apparent world, and as it is but a shadow of the ideal one (in the Divine mind).

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It was for this reason, that I have given you the narrations of Dasura, by way of explanation of the phenomenal world, as a shadow of the noumenal.

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Now therefore know the Spirit like Dasura, and imitate his example in the magnanimity of your soul. Forsake the unreal, and pursue the reality for your permanent delight.

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Rub out the dirt of desire from your mind, and see the image of truth in it as in a mirror; you will thus attain to the highest state of knowledge, and be honoured in all worlds as a perfect being.