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
16. It runs with irresistible course to many a lake and brook as its
home, it flows in the currents of rivers, unless it is stopped by some
bridge or embankment.
17. The waters of the sea like ignorant men on earth, ran up and down
in search of the proper course; but failing to find the same, they
tumbled and turned about in eddies and whirlpools (of doubts).
18. I saw the water on the mountain-top, which thought it rested on
high, yet it fell owing to its restlessness in the form of a water-fall
in the cataract, where it was dashed to a thousand splashes. (So I found
myself to be hurled down by my sins, from my high position in heaven, to
a thousand devious paths on earth).
19. I saw the water rising from the earth in the form of vapour on high,
and then mixing with the blue ocean of the azure sky, or appearing as
blue sapphires among the twinkling stars of heaven.
20. I saw the waters ascending and riding on the back of the clouds, and
there joining with the lightnings as their hidden consorts, shining as
the cerulean god Vishnu, mounted on the back of the hoary
serpent—_Vásuki_.
21. I found this water both in the atomic and elementary creations, as
well as in all gross bodies on earth, and I found it lying unperceived
in the very grain of all things, as the omnipresent Brahma inheres in
all substances.
22. This element resides in the tongue; which perceives the flavour of
things from their particles, and conveys the sense to the mind. Hence I
ween the feeling of taste relates to the soul and its perception, and
not to the sensibility of the body. (The Divine Spirit is said to be
flavour—_rasovaitat_, and it is the human soul only that perceives it).
23. I did not taste this spiritual savour, by means of the body or any
of its organs; it is felt in the inner soul only, and not by the
perceptions of the mind, which are misleading and therefore false and
unreal.
24. There is this flavour scattered on all sides, in the sapidity of the
season’s fruits and flowers; I have tasted them all and left the flowers
to be sucked by the bees and butterflies.
25. Again the sentient soul abides in the form of this liquid, in the
bodies and limbs of all the fourteen kinds of living bodies (in some of
which it appears in the form of red hot blood).
26. It assumes the form of the showers of rain, and mounts on the back
of the driving winds; and then it fills the whole atmosphere, with
a sweet aromatic fragrance. (This sweet scent is called in Bengali
সেঁদোগন্ধ, which is a corruption of স্বাডু swádu or sweet).
27. Ráma! remaining in that state of my sublimated abstraction, I
perceived the particulars of the world in each individual and particular
particle.
28. Remaining unknown to and unseen by any body, I perceived the
properties of all things, as I marked those of water, with this my
sensible body, appearing as gross matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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