The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol 4 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol 4 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
4. There are the snakes and reptiles, living in and moving about the
bowels of the earth; and there are huge rocks deeply rooted in the
subterranean cell; the waters are running within the bosom of the
ground, with as much freedom as the winds are flying all about the open
air.
5. The oceans are flowing with the fulness of their waters, and the
finny tribe moving slowly beneath and above their surface; and there are
infinite numbers of living creatures, that are incessantly born and
dying away in them.
6. It is in the cavity of the mundane stone, that the waters are gliding
below, as the winds are flying above; here the celestials are moving and
roving in the air, and the earth and the planetary bodies, revolving
with their unmoving mountains and other immovables.
7. There are also the gods, demigods and human beings, moving in their
respective circles, within the womb of this stone; and it is from the
beginning of creation, that the waters of rivers are running as those of
the oceans.
8. Again it is from the beginning of creation, that the sun has been
darting his beams from above; and strewing them like lotuses on the lake
like land, while the dark clouds of heaven are hovering over them like a
swarm of black bees, fluttering upon those blooming blossoms.
9. The moon spreads her light like sandal paste on all sides, and
effaces thereby the darkness, which overspreads the bosom of night, and
covers the face of the evening star.
10. The sun light is the lamp of his light in heavenly mansion, and
scatters its rays on all the ten sides of the skies, by means of their
conductor of air. (It is believed that the circumambient air is the
medium, through which the pencils of solar light pass in all
directions).
11. The wheel of the starry frame, is continually revolving in the air
by the will of God, like a threshing mill turning about its central axle
by means of a string.
12. This rotatory circle of celestial bodies, about its axis of the
pole, kills all things under its two valves of heaven and earth, as the
wheel of fate grinds them to dust. (So says Kabir the saint of Julpa
caste: “Every one is ground to dust, under the two disks of earth and
sky, as under the jaws of death”).
13. The surface of the earth is full of hills and mountains, and the
bosom of the sea is filled by rocks and islands; the upper sky contains
the celestial abodes, and the demons occupy the lower regions below the
ground.
14. The orbit of this earth, resembles the ear-ring of the goddess of
the three worlds; and the verdant orb of this planet, is as the pendant
gem of the ringlet, continually with the fluctuations of its
people.
15. Here all creatures are impelled by their desires to their mental and
bodily activities, as if moved to and fro by the flying winds, and are
thus led to repeated births and deaths (from which they have no
respite).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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