Chapter LXV - Story of bhasa and vilasa

Argument. Account the Lives and Actions of Bhasa and Vilasa or the Sahya pupils.

Vasishtha continued:—

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As long as one does not come to perceive his soul, by breaking down his mind of his own accord; and so long, lotus-eyed Rama, one does not get rid of his egoism and meism (i.e., selfishness).

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There is no end of his worldly misery, as there is no setting of the painted sun; and his adversity becomes as extended, as the vast ocean itself.

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His misfortunes are as interminable, as the succession of the waves in the sea; and the appearance of the world is as gloomy to him, as the face of the sky, covered by the dark clouds of the rainy season.

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Here will I recite an old story, containing a discourse between two friends Bhasa and Vilasa, in some region of the Sahya mountain.

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Now this is a mountain mightier than the three worlds in his superior strength. In his height he surmounted the sky, and in his extent he got the better of the ground, and with his foot he reached the infernal region.

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It was fraught with various flowers, and furnished with innumberable water falls; its precious stones were watched ever by the Guhya mountaineers, and named as Sahya or moderate being situated in the temperate zone; yet it was intolerable as a tropic mountain (by the intense heat on its top).

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Its girdle of sun-stones, seemed to studded with pearls, by the sloping beams of the sun falling upon them; and its base with its pavement of gold, looked as the gold island (of Lanka).

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Here a hill was full of flowers, and there another filled with minerals; there were lakes with flowering water plants on one side, and gemming stones lying on another.

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Here the cascades were hurling and gurgling in foaming froths, and there the old bamboos were blowing through their hollow pipes; on one side the winds were howling in the mountain caves, and on another the bees were buzzing on the clustering flowers.

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The Apsaras were singing in concert on the mountain tops, and the wild beasts were growling in the forests; there the birds were chirping in the groves, and the clouds were roaring on the peaks of mountains, while the birds of the air crying and flying about the sky.

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The vidyadharas rested in the mountain grottos, and the black bees were humming on the lotus beds; the border lands resounded with the chorus of Keratas, and the woodlands were resonant with the melodies of singing birds.

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It appeared as the abode of the triple world, having the seats of the gods on its top, the residence of men at its foot, and the holes of snakes under its bottom.

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There were the siddhas dwelling in its caverns, and precious metals lying hid in its bosom; its sandal woods were the resort of snakes, and its peaks were the haunts of lions.

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It was crowned with wreaths of flowers hanging on high over its head; and its body was besmeared with the dust and pollen of flowers; it was fanned by the fragrant breeze of flowers, and was all flowery with the fallen flowers.

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It was daubed with the grey dust of its metallic ores, and stood on its footstool of precious stones; it was often resorted to by heavenly damsels, frequenting its bowers to cull the Mandara flowers.

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Its peaks were veiled by the blue mantle of clouds, and decorated with the gems hidden under them; they appeared as beauties beaming with the golden beams of the sun, and rising to meet their loving gods in heaven.

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There was a table land on the northern edge of that mountain, which was overhung by trees loaded with bunches of fruits, and also a gemming lake, formed by the waters of cataracts falling from high.

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The ground was strewn over with florets scattered by the waving stalks of amra trees; and its borders were decorated with the blossoming kolkara and punnaga plants, shining as cerulean lotuses about a lake.

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The sun beams were shut out by the embowering alcoves of creepers, and the ground sparkled with its gems like the floor of heaven; the Jambu fruits distilled their juice like the cooling moon beams, and all these made this spot as delightful as the moonlight sky.

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It was as delightful as the heaven of Brahma and the celestial seat of Siva; and here the sage Atri held his hermitage which blotted away the austerities of Siddhas.

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In this hermitage there dwelt two hermits, both of whom were as wise and knowing as Brihaspati and Sukra—the preceptors of gods and demigods.

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They were both as of one flesh and soul, and brought forth in time two boys, like two buds of lotuses growing in the same bed, and having their bodies as pure as the limpid lake from which they sprang.

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They were named Bhasa and Vilasa, who grew up in time like two orchids, upon the branching arms of their parents.

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They had one soul and mind in two bodies, which were united to one another as those of two loving brothers, and intimate friends. They remained in mutual union like the oil and seeds of sesamum, and as the flower and its fragrance.

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The fond parents were much more mutually attached in their hearts and minds, owing to their joint care and affection for their lads, and seemed as they were the one and same person in two different bodies.

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The two boys of graceful forms, remained also pleased with one another in the same hermitage;and moved about as two bees, over the same bed of lotuses in the same lake.

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They attained their youth after passing their boyhood and shone forth in a short time, as the two luminaries of the sun and moon rising together.

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The aged parents then left their infirm bodies, and went to heaven like a pair of birds quitting their broken nest. (Nest is in sanskrit nidas, Lat. nidus. Plato compares the departing soul, to the flight of a bird from its nest.)

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The demise of the parents made the youths as dejected as the drooping lotus in a dried-up channel; and the vigour of their bodies now gave way to their want of energy.

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They discharged the funeral rites, and remained long in their mourning; under the sad accidents of life, which are unavertible even by the good and great.

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After performance of the obsequies, they were so overpowered by their grief and sorrow, that they continued to wail over their memory with piteous cries and tears. They sat silent and inactive as pictures in a painting, with their melancholy countenances and hearts heavy with sobs and sighs.