The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
51. The meek Yogis that dwell in their secluded and humble cells, are
seen also to move about the earth, and imparting the fruits of their
knowledge to others; as the bees residing in the cells of lotuses,
distribute their stores of honey after the rains are over. (The Yogis
and the bees remain in their cells during the four months of the
rainy season (varshá-chátur másya), after which they be-take to their
peregrinations abroad).
52. They preach about the lectures as the bees chaunt their rhyme all
about, saying; that the earth which is as a big port; it supplies
the wants of the needy, for making them a morsel in the mouth of the
goddess of death (_i.e._, the earth supports all beings for their
falling into the bowels of death).
53. The dreaded goddess Káli wearing the veil of darkness over her
face, and eying all with her eyeballs, as bright as the orbs of the sun
and moon, gives to all beings all their wants, in order to grasp and
gorge them in herself. (The black goddess Káli or Hecate, nourishes
all as _mátriká_ or _matres_, and then devours them as death, like the
carnivorous glutton, that fattens the cattle to feed and feast upon
them).
54. Her protuberant and exuberant breasts are as bountiful as the
bounty of God, to suckle the gods and men and all beings on earth and
hills and in the waters below. (But how can death be the sustainer of
all).
55. It is the energy of the Divine intellect, which is the
_mátriká-mater_ or mother (mater or materia of all, and assumes the
forms of density and tenuity and also of motion and mobility; the
clusters of stars are the rows of her teeth, and the morning and
evening twilights, are the redness of her two lips).
(She is called Ushá and sandhyá or the dawning and evening lights,
because of her existence in the form of the twilights, before the
birth of the solar and lunar lights. The Vedas abound with hymns to
_ushá_ and _sandhyá_ and these form the daily ritual of the Brahmans to
this day under the title of their _Tri-sandyá_--the triple litany at
sun-rise, sun-set and vertical sun).
56. Her palms are as red as the petals of lotuses, and her countenance
is as bright as the paradise of Indra; she is decorated with the pearls
of all the seas, and clad with an azure mantle all over her body (Hence
the goddess Kálí is represented as all black from her blue vest).
57. The Jambudwípa or Asia forms her naval or midmost spot, and the
woods and forests form the hairs of her body. She appears in many
shapes and again disappears from view, and plays her part as the most
veteran sorceress in all the three worlds. (The text calls her an old
hag, that often changes her paints and garments to entice and delude
all men to her).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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