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
6. The god is besmeared with powdered ashes on his body, as
emblematical of the particles of dust, to which the world was reduced
by the flame of his all destructive conflagration; while the stream
of water flowing from the Ganges on his head, is typical of the
current of his clear knowledge of all things. (Others make the burning
fire of his frontal eye _bhála netra_ to represent the flash of his
cognoscence--jnánágni).
7. His body is decorated with strings of blanched bones, which are
brighter far than the silvery beams of fair moon, and these serve as
necklaces of argent and pearly gems about his person. (Hence he is
named as Jala-padda-málika).
8. His vest is the open sky with its plates of folded clouds, which
are washed by the milk white beam of the moon, and studded with the
variegated spots of the stars. (This means the nudity of the god, hence
called Digamvara or sky attired).
9. He is beset by the prowling shakals, devouring the burnt carcasses
on funeral grounds, and holds his abode beyond the habitations of men,
in cemeteries and mortuaries in the outer skirts of cities. (Whence his
name of Smashána sáyí).
10. The god is accompanied by the Mátres, who are decorated with
strings of human skulls about their necks, and girt with the threads of
their entrails on their bodies; while the fat and flesh of dead bodies,
and the blood and moisture of putrid carcasses, form their delectable
food and drink.
11. Their bodies are soft and shining as gold, and moving about with
sparkling gem on their heads and bracelets of snakes curled round their
wrists.
12. The acts of this god are dreadful to relate, and strike terror in
hearts of the gods and demons, and all beings beside. One glance of his
eye (coup d'oeil) is enough to set the mountains in a blaze, and his
hunger grasps the whole world in one morsel.
13. The perpetual rest of his meditative mind in holy trance samádhi,
hath restored the world to rest; and the movement of his arms at
intervals, is attended with the destruction of demons.
14. His forms of the elements are intently lent on their fixed
purposes, without being deterred from them by the impulses of his
anger, enmity or affection; and the wind of his breath makes the
mountains to tremble, and turn the humid earth to arid ground.
15. His playmates are the devils with their heads and faces, resembling
those of bears and camels, goats and serpents; and such as have their
heads for hoofs, and their hoofs as their hands, and whose hands serve
as their teeth, and who have their faces and mouths set upon their
bellies and breasts.
16. His face shone brightly with the rays of his three eyes (whereby he
is denominated the triple eyed god _trinetra_); and the _mátres_ were
dependant on him as his dependant demoniac bands--_gana-devatás_.
17. The Mátres joined with the bands of demons, dance about him lowly
at his bidding, and feed upon the living bodies, that are born and dead
in all the fourteen regions of creation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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