The sanskrit epics, p.943
The Sanskrit Epics, page 943
26. Tell me, O beautiful one, what the body would look like if what is revolting in it were not covered with a garment, if it were not regularly washed, or if it did not receive enhancement from decoration.
27. Dam up your mind like the torrent of a mountain stream, since it turns to your home, in your perception of the fresh youth that is yours, to obtain the objects of the senses; for youth goes swiftly never to return.
28. The seasons pass and come round again; the moon wanes and waxes again; but, once they have passed away, neither the water of a river nor the youth of a man returns.
29. When you see your face faded with white moustache, covered with wrinkles, with its brilliance gone, teeth broken and eyebrows with their curve lost, then you will find yourself overcome by old age and your intoxication will vanish.
30. A man may give himself up for many nights and dawns to the finest of intoxicating liquors yet at long last he returns to sobriety, but no man who is intoxicated with his strength, youth and beauty becomes disillusioned till he reaches old age.
31. As a sugar-cane stalk is thrown on the ground to be dried for burning after all the juice has been extracted by pressing, so the body, pressed in the mill of old age and with its vital force drained away, awaits the funeral pyre.
32. For as a saw, worked by two men, cuts a lofty tree into many pieces, so old age, ever brought nearer by the procession of day and night, brings about the fall of the exalted inhabitants of this world.
33. There is no foe of corporeal beings to equal old age, the thief of memory, the conqueror of beauty, the destroyer of pleasure, the robber of speech, hearing and eyesight, the source of weariness, the slayer of might and heroism.
34. Do not give way to ignoble pride, thinking ‘I am beautiful, strong or young’, and recognise that this great danger of the world known as old age but points the way to death.
35. Sinful delusion about the body that ‘it is I, it is mine’, obsesses your passion-ridden thoughts; cast off its stranglehold. If you were to act thus, tranquillity would be yours; for one incurs danger by thinking ‘this is I’ or ‘this is mine ‘.
36. Since no one has dominion over the body which is subject to manifold plagues, how can it be proper to recognise that abode of calamities called ‘the body’ as identical with you or as yours?
37. The man who would be so wrong-headed as to delight in the impure, transitory body, composed as it is of warring elements, is like a man who would delight in an ever unclean, dilapidated hovel, infested with snakes and always in need of repair.
38. Just as a bad king takes taxes in full from his subjects by force and yet neglects their protection, so too the body accepts the provision of clothes etc in full and yet is not compliant.
39. Just as grass grows on the earth without labour on the part of the cultivator but rice only with labour, so too sorrows arrive without effort on our part but pleasure can only be obtained by effort and not always then.
40. And there is no pleasure in the highest sense of the word for who has to drag about an unstable and afflicted body. For he determines pleasure to arise, when he follows remedies for suffering and when only slight suffering is present.
41. Just as the advent of the smallest suffering tortures a man sc that he takes no account of the longed for pleasure, however choice, sc too on the other hand a man never so experiences any pleasure as to disregard suffering that has come on him.
4.2. Again, if, because you enjoy the results, you fail to understand that the body is such, afflicted by much suffering and ephemeral, still you should hold back your restless mind from those enjoyments with the tethering-ropes of self-restraint as you would a cow that was eager to crop the corn.
43. For no one can ever have enough of the enjoyments of the passions, as a blazing fire is never satiated with oblations; the more prolonged the indulgence in the pleasures of the passions, the more does longing for the objects of the senses grow.
“. — And as a man afflicted by leprosy does not obtain relief by applying heat, so too he who with uncontrolled senses follows after the objects of the senses does not obtain tranquillity by means of the enjoyments of the passions.
45. For to find delight in the body, that vessel of much suffering, out of delusion and a desire for the objects of the senses would be like (purposely) becoming ill and avoiding the course capable of curing it out of a desire for the pleasure of physic.
46. He who desires the ill of another is said to be his enemy because of that act; ought not therefore the objects of the senses, the sole root of all ills, to be avoided like base enemies?
47. Murderous enemies in this world may come round in time to friendship with a man, but both in this world and hereafter the passions are causes of suffering only and do not enure to anyone’s advantage.
48. Just as eating a kimpaka fruit leads to death not to nourishment, though its taste, colour and fragrance be good, so application to the objects of the senses leads the man of unbalanced mind to disaster, not to prosperity.
49. Therefore with sinless soul recognise this advice to be salutary as bound up with the beginning of the Law of Salvation and follow ray opinion which is approved by the wise. Or else speak out and tell me your intention.’
50. Though the disciple, learned in the holy tradition, spoke much to him in this way for his weal, yet Nanda did not come to himself or obtain relief; for his feelings were blinded by intoxication like an elephant in full rut by ichor.
51. Then the mendicant, convinced that Nanda was irresolute in feeling and set on the pleasures of his home, not on the Law, reported the matter to the Buddha, the Knower of the Truth, Who was skilled in examining the dispositions, tendencies and feelings of all beings.
CANTO X. THE VISION OF PARADISE
1. WHEN THE Sage heard that Nanda had lost his constancy in his unhappiness and was proposing to break his holy vow and to go to his palace to see his wife. He summoned him in His desire to rescue him.
2. Nanda arrived there, stumbling in mind and having failed to take the path of Salvation, and on the Noble-minded One’s questioning him, he bent with shame and told his resolution to Him Who was full of self-respect and skilled in resolution.
3. Then the Blessed One, seeing Nanda to be wandering in the darkness which is called ‘wife’, grasped his hand and flew up into the sky to rescue him, like a cormorant which has caught a fish in the water and, wishing to bring it up, comes to the surface.
4. They shone in the clear sky with the sheen of gold and earth-coloured robes like a pair of sheldrakes rising out of a lake with wings outstretched in mutual embrace.
5. Quickly they came to Mount Himavat, supremely fragrant with deodars, possessing many rivers, lakes and torrents, full of gold ore and of divine seers.
6. Arriving there they stood, as on an island of the unsupported sky, on that holy mountain of the dwellingless end, of the world, which was frequented by Câranas and Siddhas and was clad with the smoke of oblations.
7. While the Sage stood there with unstirred senses, Nanda looked round him in amaze at the rifts and glades and forest-dwellers, the ornaments and protectors respectively of the mountain.
8. For a peacock lying there with outspread tail on the white far extending peak seemed like a bracelet of beryl on the arm of Bala of the long stout arms.
9. A lion stood out, with his shoulder turned the colour of safflower from contact with the red arsenic and other ores, like a shattered silver brooch of... inlaid with threads of refined gold.
10. A tiger, moving with stealthy gait as if stretched with fatigue and curling his tail widdershins, appeared as he went to drink at a mountain stream like a man going down to offer water to the Pitrs (with the sacred thread on his right shoulder).
11. On the slope of the mountain with its waving kadamba trees a yak was entangled in a hanging tree and could not cut off his tail which was caught in it, just as a man of noble conduct cannot give up a hereditary friendship.
12. Troops of Kirâtas, golden in colour and with limbs striped with gleaming peacocks’ gall, looked like tigers charging as they emerged from the caves, or as if vomited out by the mountain.
13. Swarms of Kinnaris, very beautiful with ravishing hips, breasts and waists, who lived in the ravines, appeared on all sides like creepers tressed with flowers.
14. Monkeys wandered along the mountains, keeping the deodars in perpetual commotion, and finding they bore no fruit departed from them, as from rich men whose favour is empty of gifts.
15. The Sage saw in that herd a female monkey, with one eye gone and its face red as if lac had been pressed on it, which was playing the laggard, and He said to Nanda: —
16. ‘Which, Nanda, in your eyes is the more entrancing in beauty and gesture, this one-eyed monkey or the person on whom you have set your affections?’
17. Thus addressed by the Blessed One, Nanda smiled a little and said, ‘What comparison can there be, Lord, between Thy sister-in-law, the finest of women, and this tree-tormenting monkey V
18. Then the Sage, hearing his reply, looked for some other incentive and, supporting Nanda as before, went to the pleasure grove of the royal bearer of the thunderbolt.
19. There some trees at every moment bear the appearance of their own season, while others exhibit the splendid glory of all six seasons in their entirety.
20. Some bear sweet-smelling noble garlands and wreaths of various kinds, ready for use, and posies so fitted for the ears that they seemed to rival earrings.
21. There are trees there which look like candelabra by flowering with red lotuses and others appear to have wide-open eyes, as they put forth full-blown blue lotuses.
22. There trees bear as fruit diaphanous clothes, without thread or interstices, shot with many colours, or white illumined with lines of gold.
23. Others bear ornaments of the kinds suited for Paradise, such as ropes of pearls, jewels, fine earrings, magnificent armlets and anklets.
24. And the lotus ponds, whose surfaces are ever unruffled, produce golden lotuses with stems of beryl and shoots and stamens of diamond, delightful to the touch and fragrant to the smell.
25. There the trees, gorgeous with gold and gems, assist the gods in their pastimes by bearing as fruit all kinds of musical instruments, of skin and string, hollow and solid.
26. There the Parijata tree rises shining with all the qualities of majesty, and plays the king over the mandara trees and other trees which are laden with the bloom of day-waterlilies and red lotuses.
27. Such are the trees that grow there, ever attentive to provide enjoyment for the dwellers in heaven, where the soil of the celestial fields is cultivated by the unwearying ploughs of asceticism and discipline.
28. There birds have beaks of the hue of red arsenic, eyes like crystal, dark brown wings tipped with scarlet and feet of the colour of red madder and half white.
29. Other birds called sinjirikas have brilliant golden wings and clear eyes blue as beryl and roam about, charming the mind and the ear with their songs.
30. Birds adorned with feathers red at the tips, golden yellow in the middle and the colour of beryl at the ends wander about there.
31. Other birds called rocisnus flit here and there, with glowing beaks which give them as it were the colour of a blazing Are, attracting the gaze with their beauty and charming the Apsarases with their sweet songs.
32. There those who have earned merit enjoy themselves, doing as they wish, ever joyful, free from affliction and grief, ever young, shining with their own light and having a lofty, middle or low station according to their deeds.
33. There the amorous Apsarases ravish the weary minds of the ascetics who had determined to purchase Paradise by first paying the price in austerities.
34. And Nanda, seeing that world to be in perpetual feast and free from exhaustion, drowsiness, disgust, grief or disease, deemed the world of men to be no better than a cemetery as being subject to old age and death and ever in distress.
35. And Nanda beheld the grove of Indra on all sides with eyes staring with surprise; and the Apsarases, full of joy and eyeing each other haughtily, came round him.
36. They were ever young, ever busied in love alone and enjoyed jointly by those who have earned merit; celestial beings, union with them was no sin. In them centred the reward of austerities of the divine world.
37. Some of them sang softly and proudly, some pulled lotuses to pieces for sport; others again danced because of their pleasure in each other with varied gesticulations, their pearl necklaces thrown into disorder by their breasts.
38. The faces of some with dangling earrings peeped from out of the forest glades, as lotus flowers, shaken by kârandava birds, peep out from the scattered leaves of the plants.
39. As Nanda saw them come out from the forest like lightning banners from a cloud, his body trembled with passion like moonlight trembling on rippling water.
40. Then he followed their celestial forms and graceful movements with his mind and with eyes full of excitement as if thirst for their embraces had engendered passion in him.
41. He longed to quench that thirst with the draught of the Apsarases, for he was afflicted by the despair which held him of possessing them. Confused with desire, that chariot of the mind, whose steeds are the restless senses, he could not control himself.
4.2. For just as a man makes dirty clothes dirtier by putting soda on them not to increase but to remove the dirt, so the Sage caused greater passion to him (in order to abolish it).
43. And as a physician who wishes to remove diseases of the body will set to work to cause it still greater pain, so the Sage in order to stamp out his passion led him into still greater passion.
“. — Just as the brilliance of the rising sun eclipses the light of a candle in the darkness, so the glory of the Apsarases renders invisible the lustre of women in the world of men.
45. Great beauty eclipses minute beauty, a great noise drowns a little noise, severe pain destroys a faint pain. Every great cause leads to the destruction of a (similar) small one.
46. And by the power of the Sage Nanda was able to bear that sight which others could not have borne; for the glory of the Apsarases beauty is such that it would burn up the mind of one who was weak from not having conquered passion.
47. Then the Sage, Himself free from passion, deemed that Nanda’s passion had been excited by them and that he had turned away from love of his wife, and spoke to him thus in order to combat passion with passion: —
48. ‘Look at these celestial women and, considering them well, answer me truly and precisely. How do their beauty and accomplishments compare with those of the person on whom you have set your mind?’
49. Then fixing his gaze on the Apsarases, with the fire of passion blazing in his heart and his feelings dominated by love, Nanda raised his hands in supplication and spoke falteringly thus: —
50. ‘Thy sister-in-law appears, Lord, as wretched in comparison with the beautiful Apsarases as she was superior to the one-eyed she-monkey.
51. For just as no other woman before moved me when I looked at my wife, so now I have no feeling for her when I look at their beauty.
52. Just as a man who is warmed by a little heat would be burnt by a great conflagration, so I who was but warmed previously by a feeble passion am now burnt up by this blaze of passion.
53. Cast on me therefore the water of Thy voice lest I be burnt up like the god of the fish-banner. For the fire of passion is about to consume me to-day just as a forest fire arises to consume the dry grass with the tree-tops.
54. Be merciful to me, I am sinking, rescue me, there is no firmness left in me, O Sage, Who art as firm as the earth. I shall yield up my life, O Thou Whose mind is freed, if Thou dost not grant me, who am dying, the elixir of Thy speech.
55. For I am stricken to the heart by the snake of love, whose coils are calamity, whose gaze is destruction, whose teeth are madness and whose fiery venom is mental darkness; therefore provide me with the antidote, O Great Physician.
56. For no man bitten by that viper of love remains active in himself; for instance, the mind of Vodhyu, who was unshakeable by nature, was deluded and wise Santanu became weak.
57. I take my refuge in Thee, the preeminent Refuge. Do Thou so act for me who implore Thee that I may not wander from birth to birth but may come into possession of that abode which is the destruction of misfortune.’
58. Then spoke Gautama, the Moon of great seers, Himself free from mental darkness and dispeller of the mental darkness of the world, desiring to dispel the darkness in Nanda’s heart, just as the moon, the dispeller of darkness, dispels the darkness that rises by night: —
59. ‘Listen to Me, embrace steadfastness of mind, shake off agitation, restrain your hearing and feelings. If you desire these women, practice strenuous austerities in this life in order to pay the fee for them.
60. For they are not to be gained by force or service or gifts or handsomeness of person; they are indeed only to be obtained by following the Law. If you find pleasure in them, practise the Law intently.
61. Residence here in heaven with the gods, these lovely groves and unaging women are the reward of your own good actions. No other can give this to you, nor can it be obtained without an efficient cause.
62. For a man on earth may obtain women by the use of his weapons or by other labours or else he may not. But it is certain that these women in heaven belong to the man who has acquired merit by practice of the Law.
63. Therefore if you desire to obtain the Apsarases, abide diligently and zealously in the observances, and I stand surety that, should you hold firmly to your vow, union with them will certainly be yours.’
64. On this he agreed, and with determination he placed the firmest reliance on the Supreme Sage. Then the Sage, holding him and flying down like the wind from the sky, returned to the earth.
CANTO XI. THE DRAWBACKS OF PARADISE
1. THEN NANDA tethered his fickle rebellious mind to the post of self-control, after seeing those women who wander in the grove of Nandana.
