The Story of a Siddha 8
8. The Story of a Siddha
Summary—Having shown that persons who have not cognized the seer believe the visual to be real, the author now proceeds to exemplify with this story the fact that time is but a mode of the mind; the visible, though illusory, is a manifestation of Cit.
Ajñānins (the ignorant) vacillate greatly in mind through their Saṁkalpa; but Jñānins never do so. May you, after clarifying, through your discrimination, your mind, free of all illusions, cognize the pure Truth!
Do not be appalled at the idea that you are under trammels, while in fact you are not so. Is it possible for the immaculate and indestructible Brāhmic Principle to be bound?
While Brahman alone is that which is not subject to the limitations of time, space and substance, is non-dual and is absolute Consciousness, devoid of heterogeneity, what is there in this world to be bound or to gain liberation?
All are but the expansion of Saṁkalpas (and Vikalpas). The expansion of the mind’s thoughts (towards objects) is bondage; while the renunciation of the same is emancipation.
Through the play of the mind in objects, proximity appears to be great distance and vice versa. Through the force of the mind, a Kalpa is reckoned by it as a moment and vice versa.
There is a story current which illustrates this idea well. From that it will be apparent to you that the legerdemain of the world is enacted by the mind and the mind alone.
Vāsiṣṭha continued:
A king who traced his lineage to Hariśchandra ruled over the country of Uttara Pāṇḍava. He commanded the eulogies of Lakṣmī (the goddess of wealth) and Saraswatī (the goddess of knowledge). On his arms rested Vijaya-Lakṣmī (the goddess of victory).
This personage, by name Lavaṇa, was once seated on his throne decked with the nine gems and encircled by his sagacious statesmen.
Into that stately assembly, walked in majestically one who was well versed in the art of Indrajāla (magical tricks). Having paid due respects to and eulogized the king, he entreated him to witness his feats.
He waved his bunch of peacock’s feathers dotted with moon-like eyes. Like Māyā which, through the immaculate Parabrahman, deludes men with the variegated creations of the world,
this Siddha performed several feats before the king by waving the large circle of peacock’s feathers, which the king no sooner saw than lo! before his mental vision he saw the following events enacted:
A messenger despatched by the king of Sindhu entered the scene with a high mettled charger like that of Indra and said that that victorious horse was intended by his master for the king Lavaṇa.
Then the Siddha asked the king to mount upon the same, since no other horse could vie with it. Acceding to his words, the king stared like a statue intently in the direction of the horse and was entranced for a Mūhurta, like Yogins in Samādhi.
Then those assembled before the king became seized with doubt and wonder, their faces being contracted like lotuses with closed petals.
After the courtiers had been thus in a state of mental perplexity and fear for about four Mūhurtas, the king’s body relaxed from its rigidity and began to fall prostrate before the throne, when those nearby propped it up.
Then the king gradually recovered consciousness and the obedient ministers asked him how his pure mind had lost its equilibrium.
After shaking off his stupor, the king replied:
When the Siddha revolved the circle of peacock’s feathers and uttered some words, I became giddy and noticed a horse, which I mounted with full memory and rode speedily a long distance for the chase.
Like Ajñānins who wallow in their wealth because of a non-discriminative mind, I entered on horseback a desolate waste with seething heat that scorched all things and even the senses.
There I and my charger became jaded by our peregrinations in the forest. I was despondent of heart and had ceaseless pain till the sun set in the west.
Like a Jñānin who frees himself from the load of Saṁsāra and proceeds onward on his path, after crossing the waste, I reached a delicious forest teeming with many kinds of trees such as Jambu, Kadamba and lime, and reverberating with the music of feathered songsters.
Whilst I was thus riding, a creeper high up in a tree twined round my neck and immediately the horse bolted out of my sight, like sins from a bather in the Ganga, leaving me rocking to and fro aloft in the air with the creeper encircling my neck.
Thus dangling, my body became numb on account of the cool winds blowing on it, and my mind paralyzed.
Without bath, worship, meditation or food during the day, I saw night approach with her grim attendants, darkness, pain and extreme shivering which set my teeth chattering.
At dawn of day the glorious orb arose, dispelling that darkness like Jñānins driving away their mental gloom.
Then I cast my eyes around and cut asunder the creeper that twined around my throat and then, having descended, looked about for some living person, but in vain.
After an hour and a half had elapsed, an outcaste girl, a stranger to me, arrived on the scene, like darkness facing the moon. This girl, who had a dark skin and dark vesture, approached me with some delectable food in her hand.
Unable to control my hunger, I entreated of her:
“Oh swan-like one, please bestow on me that which thou hast in thy hand.”
But I paid the penalty of all those poverty-stricken persons who go and beg of another in haste owing to their extreme hunger; for this girl did not vouchsafe to give it to me, as if I had not earned the right to get it through my Tapas, and took to her heels.
Then ensued a chase in which I hunted her throughout the forest and after reaching her, piteously complained to her of my extreme hunger.
To which the dark-skinned one replied:
I am an outcaste and it is not meet that thou should taste the food I have. But if thou deign to do so, thou should first promise to wed me in my own place before my parents and live with me there. If so, I will give thee this very instant what I have in my hand.
To this I nodded assent reluctantly; and instantly she handed, to me with great avidity what she had. After having partaken of a half of this nectar and tasted the juice of Jambu fruits to quench my thirst, my appetite was appeased.
Then she took my hand, saying that I was a good person and led me to her parents, like the subtle body of a person conducted to hell. There she asked leave of her father to bestow her hand upon this lover of hers.
Finding no obstacles in the way on the part of the father, we left this forest laden with ghosts, and were taken to the village, redolent with the stench of flesh, by this dark Nīca (outcaste) of a father who was like Yama’s servant.
In order to celebrate the marriage, he killed for flesh the bodies of monkeys, horses, fowl, crows and pigs and dried them like festoons on strings of nerves.
Birds pounced upon them as they were exposed. Swarms of flies buzzed around on the pieces of flesh held by boys in their hands as they trudged along on the streets.
In this hamlet bespattered with blood and bones, a shed was erected with plantain trees as the four pillars.
Then with great hilarity, the marriage festivities began. The old hunch-backed grandmother of the house surveyed, through her large fleshy eyes, me, the son-in-law, and was greatly pleased with the choice.
All the outcastes having assembled on the occasion, the drums were caused to be beaten. Toddy and flesh were distributed freely to the gathering.
Like sin which produces a Yātanā-śarīra (body of suffering) for men in hell, the Nīca father gave me this girl in marriage. As usual with these low-caste people, the wedding lasted seven days.
After it was over, I passed eight months in the company of this lady who was as if all sins had solidified themselves in her.
Through my union with her of budding breasts, a child was born like pain, the offspring of grim accidents. The complexion of this child was like that of a burnt brand and it grew up like the minds of the ignorant.
Then in the course of three years she bore me a son, like birth generating ignorance. Then again another child was born of her through me, as if human miseries arising out of excessive desires incarnated in the form of that child.
With this spouse and children I lived for a long time. Then, what with the cares of Saṁsāra and the pain my family and I had to undergo, my body became old and emaciated.
And when I was thus enfeebled, the earth near the base of the Vindhyā mountains became parched through drought and all there suffered through hunger.
Verdant foliage of trees with long branches, creepers, grass, etc. were not to be seen. The air was saturated with masses of dust produced by heat. Then one by one my new relatives began to perish and a few that were alive fled to foreign dominions.
In order to survive, my wife and I abandoned the country under the scorching rays of the sun, myself bearing two of my children on my shoulders and the third on my head.
Having crossed our country, I saw a big palmyra tree under the shade of which I dismounted my children and rested myself along with my wife for some time, like one who, having crossed the terrible hell of vicious deeds, enjoys the happiness resulting from his past good deeds.
There my wife expired in the very embrace of her children, having become weary through age and the efforts of long travel under the tropical sun, though to all appearances she lay like one in faint or sleep.
At this, my heart gave way. One of my younger children mounted on my lap without a wink of sleep, and weeping incessantly, with his eyes constantly trickling with tears, demanded of me flesh and blood to eat, as he was unable to endure his hunger.
Unable to find any means to appease the hunger of the child who was so distressed in my very presence, I was like a lifeless carcase ignorant of what to do.
The piteous and incessant weeping of my boy broke my heart and misgivings about his life rose to a certainty in me. Therefore I resolved to put an end to my life, by rearing a great forest fire and falling into it.
I approached the flames to throw myself into it, when I tumbled down from the throne here and woke up to see you, courtiers, lifting me up and pronouncing the words jaya (victory to thee), jaya and to hear the sound of musical instruments.
So I find myself here not as a Nīca but as the king Lavaṇa. I lost my senses only through the fascinating power of this Siddha. Now I have learnt that the ego of man has different states of experience to undergo.
Whilst he was saying this, the ministers in the court inquired who this Siddha was, whereupon Śāmbarika, the Siddha, disappeared from view in the twinkling of an eye.
Vāsiṣṭha continued:
This personage is no other than the Divine Māyā, sent here to illustrate clearly the fact that this universe is the mind itself. Know also, Oh valiant prince, that the wise say that the self-light of Parabrahman alone is, appearing as mind or this universe.