Vayu

“ The God of Wind, called Vāyu or Vāta, is not a prominent deity in the Rigveda, having only three entire hymns addressed to him. The personification is more developed under the name of Vāyu, who is mostly associated with Indra, while Vāta is coupled only with the less anthropomorphic rain-god, Parjanya. Vāyu is swift as thought and has roaring velocity. He has a shining car drawn by a team or a pair of ruddy steeds. On this car, which has a golden seat and touches the sky, Indra is his companion. Vāta, as also the ordinary designation of wind, is celebrated in a more concrete manner. ”

“ The other part belongs to the realm of wickedness and is impersonated by a demon of the same name. He accompanies the demon Astovidhotu in his work of bringing death unto creation. He is most pitiless and his path is most dreadful. A man may be able to traverse a path that is barred by a flowing river, or by a huge serpent, or by a terrible bear, or by an army, but no man can ever cross the path of Vayu and come out safe. [162] It is Vayu who hastens his victim to speedy death by smothering him when he is drowned or thrown in a burning fire. ”

“ As Vayu, the wind, surrounds and fills everything, so the king by his officers and spies should become acquainted with the affairs and circumstances of his whole people. As Yama judges men without partiality or prejudice, and punishes [Pg 5] the guilty, so should a king chastise, without favour, all offenders. As Varuna, the regent of water, binds with his pasha or divine noose his enemies, so let a king bind every malefactor safely in prison. As Chandra, [18] the moon, by his cheering light gives pleasure to all, thus should a king, by gifts and generosity, make his people happy. ”

“ By contemplating on oneself, by eating sparingly, and by practicing Siddhâsana for 12 years, the Yogi or Yogini obtains success. Other postures are of no use, when success has been achieved in Siddhâsana, and Prâna Vâyu becomes calm and restrained by Kevala Kumbhaka. Success in one Siddhâsana alone becoming firmly established, one gets Unmani at once, and the three bonds (Bandhas) are accomplished of themselves. There is no âsana like the Siddhâsana and no Kumbhaka like the Kevala. ”

“ Indrajit obtained a new chariot by offering up in sacrifice a black goat, and returning to the battlefield with his forces he shot arrows at Rama and Lakshmana. Then he threw a serpent noose, which bound the two brothers so that they were unable to move. Great was their peril, but Vayu, god of wind, sent to their aid the great Celestial bird Garuda, the serpent killer, and the snakes which formed the noose fled from before it, whereat the brethren, who had meantime fallen in a swoon, rose up again. ”

“ A vein* [3] (Shira) any way severed or injured is attended with a copious flow (haemorrhage) of deep red blood, resembling the hue of the cochineal insect, from the ulcer; and the deranged local Vayu readily exhibits all its essential characteristics, and ushers in diseases which have been enumerated under that head in the chapter on the description of blood.)
Similarly, an injured ligament gives rise to a crookedness or bending of, as well as to a gone feeling in the injured limb or organ, attended with pain and loss of function, and the incidental ulcer takes a long time to heal. ”

“ But an equally striking development of the Vedic idea is represented in the Siamese legend of Buddha, and in this case the Vedic Wind-god Vayu reappears by name for the Angels of Tempests, or Loka Phayu. The first [100] portent which preceded the descent of Buddha from the Tushita heavens was ‘when the Angels of the Tempest, clothed in red garments, and with streaming hair, travel among the abodes of mankind crying, ‘Attend all ye who are near to death; repent and be not heedless! The end of the world approaches, but one hundred thousand years more and it will be destroyed. ”

“ It is easy, however, to detect certain attributes more or less peculiar to each god. As among races far less forward in civilisation, each of the greater powers has his own special department, however much his worshippers may be inclined to regard him as really supreme sovereign. Thus Indra is mainly concerned with thunder and other atmospheric phenomena; these are his department; but Vayu is the wind or the god of the wind, and Agni as fire or the god of fire is necessarily not unconnected with the lightning. The Maruts, again, are the storm-winds, or gods of the storm-winds ”

“ Time, in the form of night and day, is made by the sun and the moon. That the Susumna devours this time (death) even, is a great secret. In this body there are 72,000 openings of Nadis; of these, the Susumna, which has the Sambhavi Sakti in it, is the only important one, the rest are useless. The Vayu should be made to enter the Susumna without restraint by him or her who has practices the control of breathing and has awakened the Kundali by the (gastric) fire. The Prana, flowing through the Susumna, brings about the condition of manonmani ”

“ And on all the men of Vaiau imprecate instant death;
And tempt her kings—for Vaiau was a rich and prosperous land,
And flatter—for who would attempt it but warriors mighty of hand?
And change in a breath again and rise in a strain of song,
Invoking the beaten drums, beholding the fall of the strong,
Calling the fowls of the air to come and feast on the dead.
And they held the chin in silence, and heard her, and shook the head;
For they knew the men of Taiárapu famous in battle and feast,
Marvellous eaters and smiters: the men of Vaiau not least. ”

“ When one has sailed along the lifeless, greyish-green shores of Malekula, Vao is like a sunbeam breaking through the mist. This change of mood comes gradually, as one notices the warm air of spring, and dry souls, weather-beaten captains and old pirates may hardly be aware of anything beyond a better appetite and greater thirst. And it is not easy to define what lends the little spot such a charm that the traveller feels revived as if escaped from some oppression. ”

“ All of evil was coming to the land because this had not been done. One Yutah slave belonged to the Quan clan, and a robe and shell beads must be given by the vote of the council to that clan. It would be a better thing to use the new Navahu who was made captive by the men of iron, but their new brothers would not listen to this wisdom.
When the sun looked over the edge of the mountain in the new day the sun must see the heart lifted high;––and the body must go to the murmuring river––then only could hope come that the evil magic be lifted from the land of the Te-hua people. ”

“ Then Dharma and Indra showed Yudhish-thira (the region appointed for sinners) . Then Yudhish-thira after leaving his human body by a plunge in the celestial Ganges attained to that region which his acts merited, and began to live in joy respected by Indra and all the gods. This is the eighteenth Parva as narrated by the illustrious Vyasa. The number of sections is five, and the number of slokas composed, O ascetics, by the great Rishi in this is two hundred and nine. ”

“ Divested of its impossibilities, the story of Wijaya’s ancestry which is contained in the Sinhalese histories is that a king of Vanga, who had married the daughter of a king of Kālinga, had a daughter who joined a caravan that was proceeding to Magadha. On the way, either a robber chief called Sīha, “Lion,” attacked and plundered the caravan, and carried off the Princess, or she joined a [41] member of the caravan who had that name. They settled down in a wild tract of country termed Lāḷa, near the western border of the Vanga territory. ”

“ The Maláyu, speaking of him as an inhabitant of this island, because I am unacquainted with the character of those living at a distance, is possessed of a little more courage and activity, fond of small trade and travelling, and but seldom a robber like the Javan, whom in other respects he very much resembles. A Maláyu, who is a little cunning, will, as soon as an opportunity offers, commit a fraud, especially when he has had some loss which he wishes to retrieve. ”

“ The Spirit of Hiwa bids you save your lives. Why should you die? Behold, the rightful moi kane, Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven, The Chosen of the Gods, cometh to his own! Ku thundered at his birth, and the rainbow covered him; therefore none shall be able to stand before him. Yet he is just and merciful. He will slay those who are taken with arms in their hands, fighting against him. ”

“ We had succeeded in crossing the stream and following the trail along the bank, faint in the dim moonlight, when we came to an opening in the dense cottonwoods, and there we ran into a camp of several hundred Indians. Gerard immediately took them to be our men and belonging to Reno’s command. He shouted: ‘Don’t shoot, boys; we are friends.’ The startled Indians cried out: ‘Lay non; wa-see-cha ah-he-pe ah-lo!’ (It is the enemy; the evil bad snows are upon us!) At this I dropped my blanket and ran, getting into the brush and away from the trail. ”

“ Now I beg to submit, in reply to this argument, that Vyasa does not exactly mean a recorder; but that it means one who expands or amplifies.* [10] The thing or doctrine explained or amplified by him, is a mystery to the uninitiated public. This term was applied to the Highest Guru in India in ancient times; and the author will be able to find in the "Linga Puran" that the author of the Mahabharata was the 28th Vyasa in the order of succession. ”

“ O son of Unjunee and Vayoo, the god of the winds! Thy strength is great, above all things in nature! Thou art the deliverer of Seeta. Thou art the destroyer of Lunka. Thou art the friend of Urjoon. Thy voice is so powerful, that it resounds throughout the universe; and thou canst leap over seven seas: thine eyes are yellow: thou worshippest the sun. Thou art the preserver of Ungud, Lukshmun, and the monkey-army. ”

“ Now you can command Inaa to wed me to Yellow Beard and so, those of you who hate Tiyo can laugh at him; those of you who hate the Man of Wisdom can laugh at him!
"Aliksai! Listen. One way you shall have Yahoya's death and Yellow Beard's, for they will go down over the cliffs together; you will have Inaa's death and Tiyo's and Strang's and Muyingwa's, and the deaths of many young men, the strongest in the tribe, for they will fall! Another way and you will have peace. And tomorrow you can have your election if you like, keeping Inaa where he is or putting another in his place. ”

“ Vyasa continued, 'Then Indra having heard these words of Suravi, was much surprised, and O thou of the Kuru race, he became convinced that a son is dearer than one's life! And the illustrious chastiser of Paka thereupon suddenly poured there a thick shower and caused obstruction to the husbandman's work. And as Suravi said, thy affections, O king, equally flow towards all thy sons. Let them be greater towards those that are weak! And as my son Pandu is to me, so art thou, O son, and so also Vidura of profound wisdom! ”

“ The Javanese are the finer flowers of the Malay race—a people possessed of a civilization, arts, and literature in that golden period before the Mohammedan and European conquests. They have gentle voices, gentle manners, fine and expressive features, and are the one people of Asia besides the Japanese who have real charm and attraction for the alien. They are more winning, too, by contrast, after one has met the harsh, unlovely, and unwashed people of China, or the equally unwashed, cringing Hindu. ”

“ She talked in Dutch and the regent and the raden-aju both answered in Malay. The Regent of Labuwangi, Raden Adipati Surio Sunario, was still young, just turned thirty: a refined Javanese face like the conceited face of a puppet; a little moustache, with the points carefully twisted; and, above all, a staring gaze that struck the beholder, a gaze that stared as though in a continual trance; a gaze that seemed to pierce the visible reality and to see right through it; a gaze that issued from eyes like coals, sometimes dull and weary, sometimes flashing like sparks of [72] ecstasy and fanaticism. ”

“ Inaction and waiting were the hardest of trials to this girl, child of the mountain as she was.
Patience, Rénée! The time for doing will come. The blood of heroes does not flow uselessly in your young veins; ‘to do’ comes by nature to hearts like yours; ‘to wait’ is a lesson taught by care Divine.
Some stray reports penetrated even to the far recesses of this valley, the most southern of all the Vaudois dwelling-places. Some wandering folk would come from Vigne or Villaro, outcasts like themselves, whom they might question. ”

“ To face p. 57. the old woman cared for them all and they grew and were strong, and after some years they married, and children were born to them, and people were many in Gavi as they had been before Abaia had slain those who fished in the waters of Wapogi. But though they are now thus many, yet must none of them draw near to the shores of the lake or will vengeance fall upon them as it did on their parents of old. And for this cause also do the men of Gavi eat of flesh meat, but never of fish, be their hunger what it may. ”

“ Vaisampayana said, ‘Vyasa continued, ‘In days of yore, the celestials had once commenced a grand sacrifice in the forest of Naimisha. At that sacrifice, O king, Yama, the son of Vivaswat, became the slayer of the devoted animals. Yama, thus employed in that sacrifice, did not (during that period) , O king, kill a single human being. Death being suspended in the world, the number of human beings increased very greatly. Then Soma and Sakra and Varuna and Kuvera, the Sadhyas, the Rudras, the Vasus, the twin Aswins,—these and other celestials went unto Prajapati, the Creator of the universe. ”