The Story of deceitful Indra 5
5. The Story of deceitful Indra
Summary—Having shown that the universe is but the mind manifesting as such through the potency of Brahman, the author now proceeds to illustrate, in this story the fact that the body with its organs, etc. is no other than mind.
The creator of the incomparable worlds and the slayer of Ātman (the Real) is the mind only. The actions of the mind alone are actions; but not so those of the body.
In the previous narrative of the ten Brahmins- related by the sun, they became Brahma, after performing Tapas in the Padma posture, and created the worlds.
Who other than Brahma can easily and truly understand the wonderful potency of the mind? The mind contemplating the body, becomes the body itself and then (enmeshed in it) is afflicted by it.
Jñānins, through the contemplation of Brahman within, are never affected by the pain assailing this body of nine gates. So indeed were, in days of yore, Indra and Ahalyā who were guilty of adultery.
Here Rāma asked Vāsiṣṭha as to who these two were.
Then Vāsiṣṭha continued thus:
In former times, there lived a king by the name of Indradyumna reigning over the country of Magadha. The lady who ministered to his enjoyment like his Prāṇa was called Ahalyā. In that town abode a person named Indra.
True to the tradition of adulterous intercourse which occurred in former times between the former Ahalyā and Indra which the present couple of the same name had heard, the living couple began to have sinful intimacy with one another.
Like, two lovers who come into contact after long parting, she passed some days alone, enjoying the company of her paramour.
The king’s subjects who were witnesses to this scandalous affair reported it to the just king. On hearing of it he waxed exceedingly wroth and caused the straying couple to be sunk in deep water.
Finding that this did not affect them in the least, he caused them to be subjected to many ordeals, such as having them trampled by rutting elephants with fierce tusks, bathing them in flames of fire and beating them with hammers, etc.
In spite of the infliction of such tortures, they did not evince the least symptom of pain, but merely laughed, regarding one another with firm minds as they sat opposite.
Bewildered at the marvellous manner in which, they baffled all his attempts to make them feel pain, he asked them how they were proof against tortures.
The exulting pair said:
Oh thou of broad shoulders, as our eyes regale themselves with the lunar ambrosia of one another’s face, we revel within in unimpeded bliss and hence are entirely oblivious of our body. This being so, is it possible for us to feel any pain or see our body?
We do not experience the slightest pain, even when the body is ripped open. When the mind is intensely fond of anything, there is no perception of pain, even when destruction awaits the body.
When the mind is completely lost in any object, who else is there to observe (and feel from) the actions of the body? Even the curses of Muni’s and the many Karmas cannot divert that mind from its condition within.
There is no end to the bodies which perished in vain (in the many previous births). All these bodies originate from the mind only. Without water, can a forest exist? It is the mind which transacts all business and is the highest of bodies.
Even should this gross body be dissolved, the mind will, assume fresh bodies to its liking, as speedily as actions done in dreams. Should this mind be paralysed, then the body will not evince any intelligence.
So said the adulterous couple, on hearing which, the king looked at them with pleasure.
Muni Bharata close by him remarked that the two gave expression to words of wisdom, notwithstanding their minds being under the thraldom of passions. Therefore he banished them both from his realm, so that they might enjoy themselves in foreign lands.