Vasishtha

“ And as, although highly enraged, thou hast not cut off my sons, I, O pious one, shall confer on thee a mighty boon. Thou shalt be the author of the Purāna and Samhita, [15] and thou shalt attain a consummate knowledge of the celestials. And through my grace, O child, thy intelligence shall be clear and unobstructed as concerns the Present and the Past.' Then my grandsire, the reverend Vasishtha, said,—'What Pulastya hath uttered to thee, must be so.' At thy question I remember me in full of all that formerly had been said unto me by Vasishtha and the intelligent Pulastya. ”

“ Professor Oldenberg, the German Sanskrit scholar, is convinced, however, that there is no evidence in the Rigveda of the legendary rivalry between Vishwamitra and Vasishtha. He regards the Vasishthas as the family priests of the Bharata tribe and identical with the Tritsus. ”

“ On account of Vasishtha's curse the king used to become a cannibal every third night and travelling through the forests devoured many men. Once on a time he saw a pious sage engaged in dalliance with his wife. And beholding that terrible Rākshasa form they fled away in fear but he got hold of the husband whilst they escaping. Thereupon the wife of the Brāhman begged of him her husband again and again—"Thou art the great king Mitrasaha, the pride of Ikshwaku race—not the Rākshasa. It is not proper for thee who knowest the nature of women, to carry off my husband and devour him". ”

“ Moreover, every time we use soul-force we raise a great force of Karma against our adversary, the after-movements of which we have no power to control. Vasishtha uses soul-force against the military violence of Viswamitra and armies of Huns and Shakas and Pallavas hurl themselves on the aggressor. ”

“ By doing her bidding thou wilt not lose the state of the righteous. O Rāghava, by acting as Bharata, who is soliciting thee, says, thou having the morality of truth for thy prowess, wilt not be frustrated of the state of the pious." Thus sweetly addressed by his preceptor personally, that foremost of men, Rāghava, replied unto Vasishtha, seated with him, saying, "What his father and mother always do in behalf of their son, and what they effect by way of provision and sleep and clothing and constant swest speech, and sport, is difficult of being repaid. ”

“ Every tribe doubtless possessed a family of singers who attended the king, praising his deeds as well as composing hymns to accompany the sacrifice in honour of the gods. Depending on the liberality of their patrons, these poets naturally did not neglect to lay stress on the efficacy of their invocations, and on the importance of rewarding them well for their services. The priest whom a king appointed to officiate for him was called a purohita or domestic chaplain. Vasishṭha occupied that position in the employ of King Sudās ”

“ Persons like Vasishtha, on the other hand, who are entrusted with certain offices, do not immediately after death attain to moving on the path beginning with light, since the duties undertaken by them are not completely accomplished. ”

“ What also hath this child of thine, Gangadatta, done for which he shall have to live among men? Why also were the Vasus, the lords of the three worlds, condemned to be born amongst men? O daughter of Jahnu, tell me all.’
“Vaisampayana continued, ‘Thus addressed, the celestial daughter of Jahnu, Ganga, then replied unto the monarch, her husband, that bull amongst men, saying, ‘O best of Bharata’s race, he who was obtained as son by Varuna was called Vasishtha, the Muni who afterwards came to be known as Apava. He had his asylum on the breast of the king of mountains called Meru. ”

“ The king again faints; his minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes him revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and having dismissed his hunting company, he awaits the arrival of the great purohitas Vasishṭhas, by whose mediation he demands from the sun his daughter Tapatî to wife; the sun consents, and Vasishṭhas reconducts to Saṁvaraṇas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his legitimate wife. The husband and wife live together happily on the mountain of their loves ”

“ And should the guise thou hast come by in virtue of thy preceptor's curse, cling to thee yet, thou wilt bodily repair unto heaven in this form. And since appearing before Kuçika's son, thou hast taken his refuge, I consider heaven, O lord of men, as if within thy grasp.' Having said this, that exceedingly energetic one ordered his highly virtuous and profoundly wise sons to provide the sacrificial necessaries. And summoning his disciples, he said,—'Do ye by my command bring hither all the saints together with Vasishtha's sons ”

“ Vasishṭhas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw himself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without hurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn himself ”

“ Vasishta thought for a while and said, “In a former life, O Queen, you were a maid of a jungle tribe. Every Monday you used to fast yourself and offer the choicest fruits that you picked to the god Shiva. In return for them he has made you a queen, and he has entrusted the king’s children to you. Therefore look after them and be kind to them, and in the end he will take you to live with him in Kailas.” The rishi then blessed the third queen, and she prostrated herself before him. Then she ran off, her face all smiles, to play with the king’s children. ”

“ Like the dvija-rája or changeful moon, he gives delight to the dvija—or twice born Bráhmans, as that luminary gives the lilies to bloom; and like the luminous sun he destroys the darkness of his gloomy enemies. He is an ocean of the gems of goodness to all, and the support of his realm, like Vishnu the supporter of the world. ”

“ It is fanned and roused by the enkindling animal spirit, which blows over it as with the breath of the wind; it pervades the whole body without burning it, and shines as brightly as the sun in the form of our consciousness. ”

“ In this last state of the soul or mind, all outward objects from a straw up to a mountain, appear as mere atoms of dust in its presence; as the mind views the miniature of the world in profound meditation. ”

“ Here it glows in luminous bodies, and there it shows itself of impenetrable thickets and in accessible rocks; It shines as bright and white in one place, and is as dark and blue in another; It sparkles in the fire and dwindles in the earth, it blows in the air and spreads in the water. ”

“ Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevated objects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees and summits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon and the aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by the flames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret, notwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselves high in heaven. ”

“ The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles over it the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with the decoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantles the firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover it in clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. ”

“ The slight light which shines in the divine soul, is like the twilight that fills the etherial sphere; is the reflexion of the mirror of the supreme intellect, and is neither the dim light of the mind, nor any reflexion of the phenomenal world. ”

“ It is the intrinsic pleasure of the divine soul, to scatter the wandering worlds about it, as the odorous flower diffuses its immanent fragrance, and spreads its flying farina all around; they are not extrinsic or adventitious, but are born within itself like the lines and marks in a diamond or crystal. ”

“ The sun and moon are the two bright gems on her person, and the clusters of stars form her necklaces of lesser gems; the clear firmament is her white apparel, and the flashes of lightnings form the brocaded fringes of her garment. ”

“ The busy buzz of Creation being silent in the dead darkness of night, like the humming of bees over the surface of the waters, the hearts of men were closed in sleep as in death, like the petals of the lotus at night. ”

“ The southern stem of this tree has a protruding branch with its aureate leaves, and its blossoms blooming as clusters of brilliant gems; and presenting its fruit as lucid and luscious to view, as the bright and cooling orb of the moon. ”

“ The hairs on the body are as the moss and grass on the walls, and the porous skin resembles the netted covering of the palace; the thighs and legs are as the columns of the edifice, and the feet with the ancles and toes, are as pedestals of the pillars. ”

“ Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an all destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of mountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on the ground. ”

“ There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms to the infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing ad infinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreated and all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparent and without any change in itself. ”

“ How happily does the self-communing sage, sleep in his abstract contemplation of the clear and bright heavens in himself; and who views the whole universe in the light of the clear firmament, resounding with the sound of his own breathings or snoring. ”

“ Know your soul as a thread, passing through, and interwoven with every thing in existence; and like a string connecting all the links of creation, as so many gems of a necklace or the beads of a rosary. ”

“ All things are seen to rise and disappear in the vacuous sphere of the divine intellect, and the thoughts of our good and bad actions, are as the drops of rain which mix with the waters of the immeasurable ocean of the Divine soul. ”

“ The mind being cleared of the foulness of its internal relation with the externals, acquires the pellucidness of the cloudless firmament; and after clearance of all dirt and dross from within, the mind becomes one with the soul; like a bright gem shining with double effulgence with the lustre of a luminary, or like a blue streamlet, receiving the cerulean hue of the azure sky. ”

“ There was a close fight of both armies, with a confused noise filling the vault of the sky; which like the hollow of the Udumbara tree, resounded to the commingled hum of the gnats rumbling within it. ”

“ The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with their full blown champaka flowers blazing as fire, and the bees and clouds hovering over them as smoke; while the current winds are spreading above their dust and petals like the sparks of fire. ”

“ Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers of wild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea, dancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads. ”

“ The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble the showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to their frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks of cliffs. ”

“ From whatever cause it may have sprung, the world resembles a city rising to view in a vision; just as the thoughts and ideas appearing before the mirror of the mind, from some source of which we know nothing. ”

“ All sorts of beings living in the fourteen spheres of the world, are carried away as dust and ashes by the gust of death, to the hollow womb of air, where they disappear as empty clouds in the autumnal sky. ”

“ The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards like mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like flames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as extinguished cinders of fire. ”

“ Know, O red eyed Arjuna! the picture of the world in the empty vacuum is as void as the vacuity itself; it rises and sets in the mind, as the temporary scenes which appear in imagination at the fit of a delirium. ”

“ The divine soul is as a large mirror, showing the images of things upon its surface, like reflexions on the glass; and though these reflexions disappear and vanish in time, yet the mirror of the soul is never destroyed, but looks as it looked before. ”

“ Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, and blazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with the habitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on all sides. ”

“ This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside and outside of it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts, the outward and its inward images both in as well as out of it; and as the open air reflects and shows us the upper skies. ”

“ The nymphs of heaven are employed in fanning him with the breeze from all quarters, and flapping over him their chouries of the passing clouds, with their hands decorated with the variegated hues of heaven as their ornaments. ”

“ Vasishta, the king’s spiritual adviser, who had unbounded confidence in Vishwamitra’s power to protect the prince from all harm, strongly advised compliance with the ascetic’s request, and Dasahratha was prevailed upon to allow Rama and Lakshmana to leave Ayodhya with Vishwamitra.
The incidents of the journey reveal a very primitive state of society. The princes and their guide were all of them on foot, apparently quite unattended by servants and unprovided with even the most ordinary necessaries of life. ”