The Story of Līlā 2 part 2

2. The Story of Līlā

Part 2

On hearing these words, Līlā questioned her:

Oh Goddess, thou hast uttered untruth only. How can thy words hold? Where is the Jīva of the Brahmin who lived in this house? Where did we, who separated here, meet together?

How did those who were in the other world as well as its hells, the ten quarters, etc. join together and come to this pleasant habitation of ours?

Is it possible to bind the infuriated elephant of Indra within part of a mustard seed? Can the Mahāmeru mountain enter a lotus seed and be crushed by a small bee sitting over it? Can lions be vanquished in a war with angry gnats and then enter an atom?

Thy words are incredible and do not fit in with truth.

The Goddess replied:

I did not tell thee an untruth. I will now explain how my words are true. Persons like myself never transgress the laws of Īśvara, but hold to them as true.

The Brahmin’s Jīva lives invisibly in his own house in the city. His king­dom and regality are of the nature of Jñānākāśa only.

Now, Oh Līlā, Vāsiṣṭha of the nature of Cidākāśa, when he became overjoyed (by the sight of the king), saw all these things in the Manas-ākāśa.

This old thought (or creation) of Vāsiṣṭha, without manifesting itself as such to thee, now appears to thee as different (as Padma creation).

Just as the many events of the Jāgrat (waking) state are not enacted in the dreaming state, the Padma creation and its thought predominate without the reminiscences of the Vāsiṣṭha state.

Out of the above-mentioned, all-pervad­ing Jñānākāśa, shining through Sat which is its own power and forms part of that (Jñāna) Ākāśa, arose this terrible universe through the Saṁkalpa of the mind, like an image reflected in a glass.

All the shining universes are latent within the Jñāna Reality which is the illumined, supreme Atom. Therefore it is that the above-mentioned earth, etc. of the Brahmin will manifest themselves in and out of Jñāna. Now thou shalt know all these directly.

So said Saraswatī, when Līlā asked her:

It was stated by thee that the Brahmin expired on the eighth day. That period passed for me as millenniums. Please explain this to me.

Then the goddess continued:

Just as space which, as mentioned before, is nothing but a play (or mode) of consciousness, is not all-pervad­ing and hence not real, so also is time.

As it is the Jñāna light alone, devoid of the modifications of Māyā, that manifests itself as time and space, there is no such thing as the limit of time or space.

Through the illusion of death, the body became entranced for a moment and the Jīva parted from it. Becoming oblivious of all the thoughts of its former body, it is filled with the thoughts of this life only.

It is only when the Jīva revives from the fatal trance of such false conceptions as “I am greatly supported by these”, “My body is getting fat”, “He is my parent”, “I am going to die in so many years”, “My relatives are augmenting in number”, “This is my beloved seat” and so on—it is only then that the Jīva will begin to know its real state.

Therefore thou forgottest all about thy former birth, remembering only this birth.

After Saraswatī had spoken these words, Līlā said:

Having been blessed by thee with divine vision, I have understood all things truly. Now to gratify my desire, please show me the abode of Vāsiṣṭha and others.

To which Saraswatī of the form of the Vedas said:

This gross body of thine, bred put of Karmas, is an impediment in the way of thy getting such knowledge.

If thou should become entirely oblivious of thy body and know thyself as distinct from it and then become of the nature of the pure Bliss Enjoyer which is also Jñāna light and Sat, after being cleansed of ail Māyā impurities, then thou shalt be able to reach the hallowed state.

Thou shalt then know, with delusions removed from thy mind, that Brahman only is thyself and all the universe, like gold converted into many ornaments.

It is not worldly desires but the pure Vāsanās that tend to develop the true Jñāna. Thou art not yet free of desire for worldly objects. There­fore it is not possible for thee to attain Jñāna.

Persons like myself can easily enter into the pure Brahman. But those who are like thyself have a subtle (lunar) body of the nature of mind, replete with desire, and it, in turn, generates the gross body.

Just as snow melts with the rays of the sun and is converted into water, so thy gross body will be changed permanently into the subtle body through development of the true Jñāna and the abandoning of the Vāsanās.

This is the Jīvan-mukti state. Then Jñāna alone will prevail in thee. Therefore thou wilt have to perceive the former creation through thy original, subtle body (of Ātivāhika), after stilling (or entrancing) this body of thine.

When Saraswatī had blessed her thus, Līlā asked what efforts should be made to realize that end. To which Saraswatī replied thus:

Those only can cognize the higher states who have developed in them­selves Śrāvaṇa (hearing and study of spiritual books), Manana (contemplation) and Nididhyāsana (reflection from all standpoints),

uninterrupted bliss arising through concentration upon that ancient (one) Principle, renunciation of all, non-desire, and the intense reasoning practice, followed through the path of the Vedas, that this world is never existent.

Those only are on that path of Brahman, who are ever engaged in finding the certain knowledge that the universes, which are not other than “I” or “It”, do not really exist, as they did not exist from the very beginning,

and who are engaged in seeking liberation, through such knowledge, free from the seer and the seen and from attachment and hatred.

After one is convinced that that knowledge which renders, itself oblivious of visible things is the true one and the means to find the Ātman, ceaseless endeavour to gain the certainty of Brahman alone brings Liberation. With such practice, the pure Jñāna will dawn.

Saraswatī and Līlā who thus conferred together that night, went into Svarūpa Samādhi, free from the trammels of their body and remained motionless.

In this state, Saraswatī shining with her former Jñāna body, along with Līlā with her newly assumed Jñāna one, rose up in the Ākāśa, ten digits high.

Having penetrated far into the Ākāśa which is like a great ocean at the time of deluge, they observed there the following:

In the immeasurable, transparent and subtle Cidākāśa, there were to be found the hosts of Siddhas who journeyed fleeter than wind.

In it roamed, in all quarters, Rākṣasas and Piśāchas as well as innumerable Yogins with the faces of dogs, cows, camels and asses. There were also the multitudinous Dakinis (elementals), dancing about gleefully and the white Ganga with its fast current.

There the songs of Nārada and Tumburu were heard vibrating on their lyre. Clouds, as at the end of a Kalpa, rained down their waters without any noise, like a painted picture.

They saw bevies of fair women collected together. Then they passed through diverse places for ten Ghaṭikās distance, some full of gloom, inacces­sible to any, and others, radiant with the lustre of Agni (fire) or the Sun journeying on his swift car.

Thus passed they through the Ākāśa of the three worlds, wherein abode the myriads of Jīvas created by Brahma buzzing like swarms of flies collected on a ripe fig fruit.

Then to reach their longed-for place, they crossed. Brahma’s egg and arrived, at Girigrāma in the Loka, where Vāsiṣṭha lived.

As the visitors were invisible to the menials, relatives and offsprings of the Brahmin suffering from dire pain, Līlā of Satya-Saṁkalpa willed that the residents of the house should see her and her companion.

Thereupon, taking these two, who were like Lakṣmī and Pārvatī, to be some sylvan goddesses, the menials, etc. worshipped them and paid them respect.

The eldest son addressed them thus:

You should lighten the load of grief under which we are groaning since the demise of our parents. Oh ladies of great knowledge, are there any results not attainable through the visits of great personages like yourselves?

Thereupon the effulgent Līlā touched their forehead and relieved them of their grief. Then both of them disappeared from view that very instant.

Now that we have accomplished our object of seeing the different states of the universe according to our thought, please acquaint me with thy further wish.

So said Saraswatī to divine Līlā, at which the latter asked the former:

How came it that during our Samādhi, the persons seated in the regal assembly were unable to see me whilst those in the beautiful house alone were able to do so?

Saraswatī replied:

It is only through the develop­ment of Jñāna that the dual substances in this world will become non-dual.

As thou wert in possession of Jñāna (knowledge), not freed from the thoughts of “I” (or individuality), the true (or voluntary) Saṁkalpa did not arise in thee. Hence it was that those in the royal assembly were not able to see thee.

But in the second case, with the possession of the true Jñāna divested of all thoughts of individuality, thou created the conception of “I” through thy own Saṁkalpa and it was only then that the sons, etc. saw thee.

Then Līlā, overjoyed, spoke the following words:

Through thy grace, Oh Saraswatī, I have known all my former births as clearly as daylight. I have cleansed myself of all sins arising from the three Guṇas.

After being differentiated as a separate entity out of the One Brahman, I have undergone different births in 800 bodies. Like bees in a lotus flower, I have been inhabiting the many worlds created through Māyā-Vikalpa (or the modifications, of Māyā).

I was Born as a Vidyādhara lady and then as a human being through the force of Vāsanās:

In another Loka of Māyā -Vikalpa, I went through a series of births in the different bodies of Indrāṇī, a huntress clad in leaves, a bird rending the share in which it was enmeshed, a king of the Saurāṣṭra country and a mosquito.

Thus have I been wandering in many births, and having been tossed to and fro in the clutches of Māyā, like a straw in the ocean waves, I have now been landed safely on the shore of Mukti (liberation) through thy aid.

Thus did Līlā eulogize her and both then mounted up the Ākāśa.