II
GANDASHAILAKATHA - THE STORY OF GANDA HILL
[1]
The Sacred City of Sundara in
the country of Vanga was ruled by a wise King named Susena. His younger brother
MahaaSena was extremely loyal and revered his brother like Lakshmana devoted to
Sri Rama. Under the righteous rule of the King the citizens lived happily
without any problem. They adored their King like God.
Susena once performed the ‘Horse-Sacrifice’
or the ‘Ashva-Medha’ Sacrifice.
(This Sacrifice can be performed
only by the most powerful of Kings. A suitable horse chosen and dedicated for
Sacrifice is allowed to roam wherever it pleases. The King himself or his
chosen representative follows the horse at a distance accompanied by a retinue.
The horse is a challenge to the kings in whose country it roams; many battles
are fought until the horse is successfully brought back and the Sacrifice
performed.)
As ordained by the
scriptures, the horse was left free to wander as it pleased. Many valiant
princes accompanied by a huge army followed the horse. They conquered many a
king who opposed them and at last reached the banks of River Irrawaddy.
(The Ayeyarwady
River or Irrawaddy
River flows from north to south of Burma (Myanmar
One Royal Sage named GANA
was sitting on the river bank absorbed in penance.
The princes and their army
were too bloated in their heads by their victorious journey and did not even
bother to salute the Sage. They just ignored him and walked past him with
marked arrogance.
The Sage had a son aged about
ten years. He was playing on the river bank when he noticed the arrogant
behavior of the Princes and their army. He was infuriated by the insult
rendered to his Father. He caught the horse and ran away. All the soldiers were
annoyed by the child’s prank and chased him. He was soon surrounded by the
whole of the army. The child ran towards a small hillock called GANDA
situated nearby.
In front of their very eyes,
the boy entered that hillock and vanished from sight. The soldiers puzzled by
this magical feat went round and round the hillock searching for any hidden
door. Finding no entrance anywhere, they started to break the hill in anger.
Immediately the boy came out of it with a huge army, fought them all and
defeated them in no time. He took many prisoners of war, including all the
princes and re-entered the hill. Some wounded soldiers somehow escaped from
there and reported all that had happened to King Susena.
[2]
King Susena became anxious
about the whole thing. He called his younger brother MahaaSena and addressed
him thus:
“Dear brother! I am highly
anxious about the happenings at the banks of the River
The horse Sacrifice has to be
performed soon and there is no time to waste.
Do not in any way act
arrogantly towards the Sage. Do not become the object of his anger in any way.
If enraged, these Sages have the power to reduce the whole world to ashes.
Approach him with respect. Appease him with proper worship.
Your purpose is to bring back
the horse and the army. So be very careful as to how you behave.”
MahaaSena accepted his
assignment without hesitation and immediately left on his mission. Soon he
reached the place where Sage Gana was performing penance.
The Sage was deeply absorbed
in contemplation. He appeared devoid of thoughts and was like a deep calm ocean
where there danced no waves. MahaaSena was overcome by devotion and saluted the
Sage with all humility he could muster. He recited hymns in praise of the Sage
and praised him with wonderful words.
The Sage was not moved. But MahaaSena
continued his worship without a break.
Three days passed this way.
The Sage’s son was watching
all this unobserved by the visitor. He was highly pleased. He approached MahaaSena
and said:
“I am happy that you have
shown respect to my father. Tell me what you desire and I will immediately
fulfill it. I am the son of this Sage Gana, the Supreme ascetic.”
MahaaSena did not feel much
enthusiastic about the words uttered by the boy. He said he wanted to talk only
to the Sage and was waiting for him to wake up from his penance.
The boy patiently explained
to him everything.
“Listen O King! My father is
now in ‘Kevala Nirvikalpa Samaadhi’- the ‘contemplative trance state of Self
without the slightest vibration’!
He remains in that state for
twelve years before he wakes up. Now only five years have passed. You have to
wait seven years for him to wake up. So better tell me what you want! Do not
think degradingly of me. I am in every way a true son of my revered father.
Nothing is impossible for a Sage in penance! I will fulfill any request of
yours. Ask!”
MahaaSena understood the
greatness of the boy and immediately saluted him with due respect. He held the
hands of the boy and pleaded:
“O Child of the Great Sage! I
want only one thing! Please fulfill it! I want to request your father for
something urgently. Wake him from his contemplative state. Then I will ask him
what I want to ask. I cannot wait for seven years as you say!”
The boy patiently replied:
“O King! Your request is hard
to grant. But I cannot break my promise to you too! But wait for at least an
hour or so and be a witness to my Yogic powers. My father is in deep trance. He
cannot wake up by external efforts. I will have to enter his inner faculty and
wake him up”.
So saying he sat in a yogic
posture; withdrew his senses; united the in-going and
out-going breaths; exhaled
all the air out; and was motionless for a while. He entered his father’s mind
in a subtle form by Yogic power; created an agitation there and returned to his
own body.
Next moment the Sage woke up.
He saw MahaaSena sitting in front of him in a humble posture. MahaaSena recited
hymns in praise of the Sage and saluted him. The Sage understood immediately
all that had happened. A gentle smile appeared on his face and he called his
son near him. Seating him on his lap with affection said:
“Child! What you have done is
not the right thing. Anger is an obstacle to penance. We Rishis can peacefully
perform penance because the king protects us from all dangers. The king is now
performing a Sacrifice and we should not cause any hindrance to it wantonly. Be
a good boy and return the horse and the princes immediately. Do not delay
because the Sacrifice needs to be completed in the appointed hour.”
The boy consented to his
father’s command and immediately went to the hill. He entered inside and
brought back the horse and the princes. He handed them over to MahaaSena and
sat happily on his father’s lap.
MahaaSena ordered the princes
to return to the city with the horse quickly.
[3]
He saluted the Sage once
again and enquired in wonderment:
“O Lord! The hill is so
small. Moreover there is no visible entrance also anywhere on it. Then how was
it possible for your son to hide the horse and the army inside the hill?”
The compassionate Sage
replied:
“Listen O King! In the past,
I was an emperor ruling the kingdom bound by oceans on all sides. I was an
ardent worshipper of Tripuraa Devi. Soon Her Grace descended on me and I got
disinterested in all worldly affairs. All the wealth and luxuries appeared
worthless like trash to me. I handed over the Kingdom to the care of my sons
and retired to the forest. My wife also accompanied me. We passed many years in
austerities and penance.
But one day my wife was
overcome with passion and embraced me when I was absorbed in the contemplative
trance. She gave birth to this child. She was struck with remorse. She woke me
up, deposited the child in my hands and gave up her life. I brought up this
motherless child with extreme care and affection.
When he grew up a little he
heard that I was an emperor in the past. He requested me that he too wants to
be an emperor. I initiated him in Yoga. He practiced it diligently and attained
all the Siddhis. By his own power, he created a world inside this hillock and
rules it. That is where he took the horse and the princes. This is the secret
of the hill”.
The Sage smiled and embraced
his son affectionately.
MahaaSena’s curiosity now
knew no bounds.
He asked the Sage
eagerly: “Ah! What a wonderful account!
Such a small hill and a world inside it! Can I be permitted to see it? Will you
please grant my request?”
The Sage nodded his head and
addressed his son thus:
“Son! Take him wherever he
wants and satisfy his curiosity”.
The Sage relapsed back into
his ‘Trance state’.
The boy took MahaaSena’s hand
in his hand and went near the hill. As soon as he reached the rocky wall, he
just entered inside and vanished.
MahaaSena was stranded
outside. He stood there stupefied. He called out for the Sage’s son from
outside the hill. The boy shouted back from the inside.
He came out and said:
“Listen King; this won’t do!
You do not seem to possess enough Yogic power to enter the hill. We have to use
some other technique. I cannot disobey my father. You saw how I used my Yogic
power to wake up my father. You have to do something similar to it. So leave
your gross body in a hole and cover it with bushes so it is safe from animals
and insects. Then enter the hill along with me only covered by ‘Manomaya Kosha’-
the ‘Mind sheath’.”
The King prepared a hole and
sat there. He covered the hole with bushes and controlled his breath. Nothing
happened.
He called out to the boy and
said:
“I am not capable of moving
out of my gross body. If I forcibly block my breath I will die. Tell me how to
walk out of this body and obtain the subtle form!”
The boy laughed aloud and
said:
“You do not seem to know any
proper Yogic methods. I will help you. First close your eyes.”
The King closed his eyes and
became unconscious within seconds by the Yogic power of the boy .Then the boy
entered the King’s inner faculty in a subtle form, dragged the subtle form of
the King which was desirous of seeing the Kingdom inside the hill.
The gross body of the King
lay in the hole covered with bushes as if lifeless.
The boy entered inside the
hill along with the subtle body of the King. Once inside, he woke up the
sleeping mind of the King to the dream state.
The King woke up to see a
wide expanse of space all around him. He was overcome with fear. He pleaded
with the boy not to forsake him in that infinite space to perish. The boy was
amused by the behavior of the frightened King and laughed aloud.
He consoled the King saying:
“Do not be frightened. I will
not forsake you. Just observe everything fearlessly and enjoy the journey.”
The King gathered up courage
and looked all around him.
He understood that he was now
in his subtle body and had more freedom to float anywhere without meeting any
obstacle.
He looked up.
Above him was the dark sky
filled with innumerable stars. He ascended into the night sky and looked down
below. He floated towards the moon and shivered in cold. He was frozen. He
floated towards the sun and felt its scorching rays. He was burnt.
The boy used his powers to
make the King feel normal.
Then guided by the boy, the
King understood that the region where they were was a counterpart of heaven.
The boy took him to the summit of the Himalayas
and the king saw the Earth below it. The boy gave him yogic vision and now the king
was able to see the entire Earth. He could see distant lands and even other
worlds beside this one.
In some worlds there was only
darkness; In some worlds everything was gold; there were oceans and island
continents traversed by rivers and mountains; there were heavens peopled by Indra and the Gods, the
Asuras, human beings, the Rakshasas and other races of celestials.
He witnessed a huge court
room where the boy was sitting on a diamond studded throne as the ‘Emperor of
that world’. The court room was filled with ministers and other attendants. He
saw an enormous fortress where a huge army was waiting to do any bidding of the
emperor. He saw a beautiful city where people moved about doing their various
errands. He also observed with wonder that the boy had divided himself as
Brahma in Satya Loka, Vishnu in Vaikunta and Shiva in Kailaasa while all the
time he remained as his original-Self, the emperor ruling in the present world.
‘Such a small hill; and
inside it - a complete world with its own Gods’!
The King was unable to
understand the phenomenon. He felt overjoyed by all these amazing sights. He
wandered here and there like a child gifted with a new toy and at last returned
to the presence of the boy beaming in happiness.
The boy looked at him with
amusement for a few seconds and announced with an expression less face:
“Well done! Only a day has
elapsed in all these sight seeing adventures. But twelve thousand years have
passed in your world by now. Let us return to my father.”
The King was shocked by his
statement. Before he could retort he was drowned in senseless sleep. The boy
came out of the hill with the subtle body of the King; united it with the gross
body in the hole covered with bushes and woke him up.
[4]
MahaaSena opened his eyes and
walked out of the hole. He looked around in utter disbelief. The world had
changed completely. The people were different; river was different; trees were
different; in fact it was in no way like the world he left behind when he
entered the hill! He collapsed on the ground exhausted by the sheer shock.
With choking voice he asked
the boy:
“O Great one! What has
happened? Where are we? Where are all the familiar scenes?
In which world are we? How
long have we been inside?”
The Sage’s son laughed again
and said:
“O King! This is the same
world we left behind! We have been away for quite a long time. Countless
changes have occurred here meanwhile. In our world we spent just a day touring
all the places. But in this world our one day of that world equals some twelve
thousand years; that is why everything looks so different now! People have
changed a lot and so has the language, culture all changed! But it is natural; nothing
to be amazed about it. I have seen such changes myself many times.
See in that direction. My
father is still sitting in his trance state.
See that place..? That is
where you sat and recited hymns in his praise.
See in the other direction.
That is the same hill we entered and came out now!”
The King held his head in his
hands and closed his eyes in utter bewilderment.
He could not even scream. The
shock was too much for him. Incoherent sounds came out of his mouth. He managed
to steady himself for a second and asked:
“My brother? My country? My
wife, children..? Where are they?”
The boy was not able to
understand the agony of the king. For him this time-change was just a sport. It
was his regular game. Go inside the hill and come out; the whole world outside
would be different. He used to enjoy the changed environment and played there
till its newness was exhausted. And getting bored of that world he would enter
the hill again. After a few hours when he re-entered this world, many thousand
years would have elapsed and he would again play for some time in the new
world. Since only a few hours passed in his life, he never aged. His father was
there always in a trance state. He could wake him up any time he wanted; so
their life had no problems. It was a common occurrence for them. The Sage protected
his own body and the hill belonging to his son from damages, by the power of his
Yoga. But to the King who was used to only one life in one world, all this was
shocking. The boy was unable to understand his anxiety.
The King was weeping aloud
now!
[5]
The boy felt compassionate
and explained everything to him patiently.
“O King! Your brother is no
more ruling your country. His progeny has increased to thousands. Even your
country does not exist any more. Dark impenetrable jungles cover that area;
jackals, tigers and many other wild creatures wander there now.
The Vanga country with the
city of Sundara
That is how the world changes
in course of time. Nothing ever remains the same even for a short span of time!
Rivers change their courses; mountains break down and raise elsewhere; lakes
get covered with grounds and new lakes appear elsewhere!
Mountains subside; plains
heave high; deserts become fertile; plateaus change to sandy tracts; rocks
decompose and become silt; clay hardens sometimes; cultivated farms become
barren and barren lands are brought under tillage; precious stones become
valueless and trinkets become invaluable; salt water becomes sweet and potable
waters become brackish; some lands contain more people than cattle, others are
infested with wild beasts; and yet others are invaded by venomous reptiles,
insects and vermin. Such are some of the changes that happen on the Earth in
course of time. But there is no doubt that this is the same earth as we were in
before.”
MahaaSena could not believe
what he heard. His head reeled. A wailing scream escaped his throat and he
fainted instantly.
The boy felt anxious. He
sprinkled some cool waters on the King’s face and revived him.
He made the King comfortably
seated under a shady tree. The King was weeping uncontrollably. He remembered
his noble brother and his family; he remembered his own wife and sons. He
called out their name again and again and shed tears.
The boy waited till the King
poured out all his sorrow. The King had no more tears left. He leaned on the
tree trunk exhausted by sheer mental anguish. His eyes were staring blankly at
nowhere.
The boy sat next to him and
said in a tender voice:
“O King! You are sensible
man!
What are you crying for?
Who are you mourning for?
What have you lost?
What purpose does your crying
serve?
Do not act childish! Do not
act senseless!
Steady yourself and answer
me; why are you immersed in such heavy sorrow?
What use is your grief? What
do you think you have lost?”
The King was surprised by the
boy’s enquiry.
He answered in a slightly
irritated tone:
“Why am I sad? As if you
cannot understand it, being a great Yogi of unknown powers! Can’t you see? I
have lost everything; everything..!”
The King burst out crying
once more.
Then after a while he
composed himself and said:
“Everyone feels sad when any
member of the family dies; nay even if an acquaintance dies. I have not lost
just a relation or friend; I have lost my whole world! I am in a strange world
with nobody to call my own! I am alone in this world now; I miss my brother, my
wife, and my children! Oh! What shall I do? What shall I do?”
He again started weeping
uncontrollably.
The boy waited for sometime
and said:
“O King! Do not get offended
by my words. My intention is not to hurt you. I just want to bring clarity into
your thoughts.
Why should one cry if any one
dies? Is it a custom or followed as a necessary ritual generation after
generation? Is it a great sin not to cry at death and destruction? Or do you
think you can get back everything by such grieving?
Why should you weep at all?
What has happened to make you so sad?”
The King stared at the boy
with slight irritation. He turned his face away and looked at some far away
mountain, as if not interested in further conversation.
The boy was not to be
disconcerted. He continued his talks as before:
“Ok! Let us agree that you
have to mourn for your close relatives and friends as a customary ritual like
eating when hungry or drinking when thirsty. You may have been habituated to
cry at deaths. But death has been happening always to everyone. Even your
fore-fathers have died in the past; why don’t you mourn for their loss?
Maybe you will tell me that
you are mourning for those related by blood. Then do the bacteria which existed
on the bodies of your parents and others are also related to you? They were
part of your parents’ bodies too! Why don’t you cry for them too? They were
nourished by the blood of your parents. They are your relations too!
Who are you and who are they?
Whose deaths cause you this unbearable grief?”
The King looked at boy. His
interest was kindled. But he did not give any reply but did not seem to mind the
continuous chatter of the lad.
The boy continued:
“You think you are this body
made of flesh, blood and bones! Your body is just a conglomerate of different
substances! Even if one small part is damaged, the whole body suffers. Every
second old cells keep dying and new cells get generated without a break.
If all the bacteria, cells,
and limbs are the ‘You’, then you must cry when sweat pours out too, when
excretions happen too! But you don’t mind their loss!
Those whom you consider as
mother, father, brother, wife, children etc. are bodies too made of similar
parts.
The bodies are just a
collection of atoms and dissipate into the atmosphere when death occurs. Dust
returns to dust! Bodies are just made of earth and return to earth at death;
earth resolves into energy! Nothing is lost!
Moreover the body you
identify with as ‘you’ is actually ‘yours’ and not ‘you’! It is as much ‘yours’
as the garment you wear is ‘yours’!
There is no difference
between both. Can you doubt this statement? Neither this body nor any other
body of any other person has any relation to you. But you call this body as
yours; that is all! Just like any garment worn by others and your own garment
do not differ except for the ownership; just like you cannot consider another
person’s clothes as yours; you do not claim ownership of other bodies too!
There is indeed no difference between a garment and a body. Why then mourn over
the loss of bodies, which are in no way different from garments. Whatever part
of the body you identify with as yourself is actually referred by you as ‘my’
body, ‘my’ eyes, ‘my’ life, ‘my’ mind and so on! Just tell me who you are!”
[6]
MahaaSena was intrigued by
this topic and started to think over the matter. But he could not find any
suitable answer to the query placed by the boy. He requested for some free time
to analyze the topic and got up. He wandered for some time alone on the river
bank thinking deeply about all that was said by the boy. But unable to come to
a conclusive answer, he returned and addressed the boy with humility:
“O Lord! I do not know who I
am! I have thoroughly analyzed the topic, but still cannot find out my true
identity. I cannot tell you also why I cry for the dead ones; it is just a
natural reaction of the mind; I cannot account for it.
O Master! I seek your
shelter. Explain to me everything.
Every one cries when someone
dies; every one is overpowered by grief when his or her relative dies. And no
one knows his or her own Self; and no one mourns all deaths and losses. It is
an individual preference!
You seem to know everything.
Please accept me as your disciple and enlighten me about everything.”
Being thus requested, the
Sage’s son spoke to MahaaSena:
“Listen, O King! Misery is
synonymous with ignorance.
All are deluded by the illusion
cast by the Supreme Queen Tripuraa.
Ignorance of the Self alone
is the cause of all miseries. As long as the ignorance lasts; so long will
there be misery. Misery is meaningless. Ignorance alone takes the form of
misery.
A person who is dreaming is
alarmed by the happenings in the dream and suffers in the dream. A fool is
terrified by the serpents created in a magic performance. Similarly a person
who does not know his own Self is miserable and afraid of life.
A dreamer when awakened
instantly loses all fear.
A person who understands the
unreal nature of magic creations instantly laughs at his own foolishness. The
person who is aware of his Self stops grieving about anything.
O Valiant One!
Batter down the impregnable
fortress of illusion and get rid of your sorrow; realize your own Self and be
always blissful! Take recourse to discrimination and do not act brainless!”
MahaaSena now was stable
enough in mind to argue back; he said:
“Master! Your examples are
not correct. The unreality of the dreamer or a magic trick can be realized to
be illusory by waking up or after the show is over! But this hard concrete world which you term
as illusory is always there as a real experience.
It cannot be disproved. It
exists as a continuous perception.
You cannot wake up out of
this illusion like waking up from a dream; you cannot wait for the show to be
over! The show ends only with death!”
The Sage’s son answered:
S.S (Sage’s Son):
No, the analogy is not wrong.
You are now having a double delusion like a dream inside the dream! Tell me
your experience of the dream. Answer me from the position of the dreamer and
say whether the trees do not afford shade to the pedestrians, and bear fruits
for the use of others in the dream-world?
For the dreamer, the ‘dream experience’
is real. He does not realize the unreal nature of the dream when he is
dreaming.
M.S (MahaaSena):
Dream is rendered false after
waking up.
S.S:
But in a dream or in deep
sleep, the waking world is falsified; is it not so?
M.S:
Waking state continues as it
was after the dream is over; not so in dreams. Dreams vary and differ every
night! There is no continuity in dreams
night after night. The continuity is not evident in dream states.
S.S:
But don’t you know that every
moment you are seeing a different world in the waking state? Is not the
continuity broken up there?
Do you suggest that the
hills, the seas and the earth itself are really permanent phenomena, in spite
of the fact that their appearance is constantly changing?
Is not the dream-world also
similarly continuous with its earth, mountains, rivers, friends and relatives?
M.S:
One cannot believe in the
permanency of dream objects.
S.S:
Extend the same reasoning to
the nature of the wakeful world and know it to be equally evanescent. The
ever-changing objects like the body, trees, rivers, and islands are easily
found to be transitory. Even mountains are not immutable, for their contours
change owing to the erosion of waterfalls and mountain torrents; ravages by
men, boars and wild animals, insects; thunder; lightning and storms; and so on.
You will observe similar change in the seas and on earth.
Analyze and tell me whether
it is not so?
M.S:
Dream and wakefulness
resemble each other in their discontinuous harmony like a chain made up of
links. There is no unbroken continuity in any object.
One new appearance
presupposes the disappearance of a previous state; the new appearance implies
its later disappearance; but continuity cannot be denied in the fundamentals
underlying the objects.
Clay becomes a pot; pot
breaks again and becomes pieces; but ‘clay’ is the fundamental similarity in
all the three states of the pot.
(The impermanence seen in the
waking world is not like the impermanence of dream objects.)
The Dream objects get
falsified in the present wakeful state.
S.S:
The fundamentals underlying
the dream objects and waking state objects are same. Both the dream pot and the
waking state pot are made up of clay only.
M.S:
Dream is an illusion; the
fundamentals are also of illusory nature.
‘Clay’ of the ‘dream pot’ is
as illusory as the ‘pot’.
But in the waking state the
objects do not get obliterated and are therefore real!
S.S:
What is an illusion?
M.S:
Illusion is determined by its
transitory nature.
S.S:
Transitory nature means
appearance to and disappearance from the senses. Right?
But everything gets
obliterated in deep sleep.
M.S:
Dream state is false in the waking
state and waking state is false in dream state; both are false in deep sleep
state. Such Mutual contradiction is unreliable as evidence and so proves
nothing.
S.S:
It means self-evident sight
alone furnishes the full proof! This world experience is
Self-evident!
Quite so, people like you do
not have a true insight into the nature of things.
Listen to my words.
The present world is similar
to the dream-world only. Long periods pass in dreams also. Therefore,
purposefulness and enduring nature are in every way similar to both states.
Just as you are obviously aware of the world in your waking state, so also you
are in your dream state. These two states being so similar, why do you not
mourn the loss of your dream relations?
The ‘wakeful world’ appears
so real to all only by force of habit. If the same be imagined vacuous it will
melt away into the void.
One starts imagining
something; then contemplates it; and by continuous or repeated association
resolves that it is true unless contradicted. In that way, the world appears
real in the manner one is used to it.
My world that you visited
furnishes the proof thereof; come now, let us go round the hill and see.”
Saying so, the Sage's son
took the king, and went round the hill and returned to the former spot. Then he
continued:
“Observe O King! The circuit
of the hill is hardly two miles and a half and yet you have seen a world within
it. Is it real or false? Is it a dream or otherwise?
What has passed as a day in
that land, has counted for twelve thousand years here!
Which is correct; which is
real? Think, and tell me.
Obviously you cannot distinguish
this from a dream and cannot help concluding that the world is nothing but
imagination. My world will disappear instantly if I cease contemplating on it. Therefore
convince yourself of the dream-like nature of the world and do not indulge in
grief at your brother’s death.
Just as the dream-creations are
pictures moving on the mind-screens, so also this world including yourself is
the obverse of the picture depicted by pure intelligence. It is nothing more
than an image in a mirror.
Realize this and tell me.
Will you anymore be elated by
the accession of a dominion or depressed by the death of a relative in your
dream?
Self is the self-contained
mirror projecting and manifesting this world.
Self is pure unblemished
awareness.
Do not waste time! Realize
the Self and attain transcendental bliss!”
[7]
MahaaSena pondered over all
the truths he heard from the boy. At last he got convinced of the dream-like
nature of the world. He stopped sorrowing for his dead relatives.
He addressed the Sage’s son thus:
“O Great one! You know this
world and beyond. I do not believe that there is anything that you do not know.
Please answer me now.
How can you say that the
whole world seen is pure imagination? However much I may imagine, my
imagination does not materialize. But you have created a world by the force of
your will.
How do time and space differ
in these creations?
Please tell me.”
On being thus asked, the
Sage's son replied:
“The grossification of an
imagination depends upon the strength of the mind whether it is uniform or
broken up by indecision.
We know that this world is a ‘Creation
of Brahma’. This World is his imagination. This looks real and permanent
because the original desire (of Brahma) is so powerful. Whereas the world of
your creation no one takes seriously, and your own mistrust makes it useless.
How can we materialize
conceptions?
Lord Brahma naturally
conceives this world and creates it because it is his ordained function.
Yakshas and Rakshasas
(classes of celestial beings) possess magical gems (Chintaamani) which can make
true their wishes.
Gods have the magical tree (Kalpa-Vriksha)
to bestow their desires.
Yogis do it by the power of
Yoga.
Siddhas have attained
miraculous power of hymns and create anything they want.
Sages perform penance and
gain power to do any impossible feat.
Vishvakarma can build any
wondrous structure because the boons he possesses.
How can imagination become
grossified?
As long as the old idea is
alive, a new idea cannot take root and materialize.
Suppose I ask you create a world
inside this hill, you cannot do it because you have a fixed notion that the
hill is small and the world is big and will not fit inside the hill. Your own
doubt about your own creation proves an obstacle in grossifying your
imagination.
One should forget the old
associations in order to make one’s new conception effective.
The new conception will
remain alive as a material as long as your will holds it as true. Smallest
doubt about its existence will immediately destroy it.
Your will must be strong.
Only then can the imagined world of yours can be stable. Anything is possible
that way.
You must practice focusing
your thoughts if you desire your creations to be stable.
And you were asking me also
about the mystery of space and time.
This world is full of
varieties. What is good for one proves harmful to another.
The Sun helps all to see but
blinds the owls; water is the abode of fishes but drowns man; fire burns a man
but is food to ‘tittiri’ (a species of bird); fire is ordinarily put out by
water but it flourishes in the middle of ocean at the time of dissolution.
Similar discrepancies are evident elsewhere.
Similarly what we perceive
also differs from person to person.
A jaundiced eye sees
everything yellow and myopia produces the double image of a single object. Abnormal
visions are thus the direct result of abnormal eyes. The ‘Karandakas’, in an
Eastern island, are said to see everything red; so also the inhabitants of ‘Ramanaka
isle’ see everything upside down. One hears many more strange stories of the
kind, all of which are based on abnormalities of vision. They can all be
remedied by proper treatment.
Other senses also give
different experiences to different people.
Mental faculty also differs
in everybody.
Every one’s personal experience
is unique.
We can confirm the
similarities only with the help of language, but actually each person carries
his own world in his mind.
For a man waiting, time is
lengthy; for a person who moves, time is shorter.
For a person who walks, the
distance proves to be longer. His conception of space and time is longer than
the person who travels by a horse. Even the space and time experienced by a
horse rider is smaller for a person who uses an air vehicle.
Thus space and time
experience is different for different persons and relative to the mind of the
observer. There is no absolute space and time fixed as such. We only create
space and time projections and place the objects nearer or distant.
I have conceived that only a
few hours should pass for me inside the hill in comparison with the hundreds of
years outside the hill. It helps me pass time quickly and my father can remain
in penance for a longer time without being anxious about my welfare. He knows that
I am safe inside the ‘Hillock-world’. Every time I come out, I see the changes
that have happened outside the hill and get entertained. I do not age also
because of living in the ‘Hillock-world’.
The space and time inside the
hill are my imaginations. I keep them alive as ‘fixed ideas’ in my mind. I
believe and know for sure that there is a world inside it; whereas others see
it only as a rocky surface. They can never imagine a world inside it. So they
can never see it. If I stop imagining it, it will cease to exist.
In your observation there is
an ‘inside the hill-world’ and ‘outside the hill-world’.
How do these ideas of ‘external’
and ‘internal’ occur?
Let us analyze now!
What do we mean by
‘external’?
All that is outside of us is ‘external’!
We conceive of the ‘outside
world’ as some picture on a screen.
We perceive it; so it is
outside; thus we imagine.
But here we have a
misconception and identify ourselves with the body. We always imagine the world
to be outside the body.
How is it feasible?
Like a pot seen outside in
the world, this body also is seen by us outside only. It is also a part of the
picture seen on the outside screen limited by space-time ideas.
But because we have the
misconceived idea of our identity we think that the world is outside our body
which is actually a wrong conception. Even our wrong imagination makes it real
for us. From generation to generation we maintain the wrong idea that the world
is outside our bodies.
How does it happen?
When we say that the world is
‘outside the hill’, we remove the picture of the hill from the outside world.
We then project the ‘world outside the hill’ with the ‘hill’ as the ‘idea
inside’ us. We thus have many external and internal space ideas like ‘inside
the house’, ‘outside the house’, ‘inside the cart’, ‘outside the cart’ etc. Each time we withdraw the picture of a
particular object and see the world as external to it.
Body has become a permanent
inner idea for us. We never project it as external; we make it the centre of
our perceptions and see the entire world as external to it. The world ‘all
around the body’ alone is our ‘external world’.
Each one keeps his or her
body as the central point of his or her world.
What our consciousness
illuminates only becomes the picture of our world. Each person is aware of only
his or her world.
The illuminated objects are
within the vision of the illuminant. Body also is part of the illumined
external world. All those which are illumined by the illuminator are
objectified as existing outside the illuminator.
The illuminator and
illuminated cannot be the same. The illuminant cannot be the object of his own
illumination. How can the illumination by which he sees be apart from him?
Light reveals all the
objects. Light does not reveal itself. Light is self-revealing.
Illuminant illuminates all
the objects including the body; illuminant does not need another illuminator to
illuminate him.
He is self-luminous. He is
the Self. He is the illumination in perfection - only one, and the being of
all. The illuminator projects the conceptions of limited by space and time and
illuminates them as if they are outside.
But he is all the three; the
illuminant, illumination and the illumined.
The ideas of external and
internal also are part of the illumination only. He extends as time and space.
How can then anything be ‘outer’ unless it is like a peak on a mountain?
The whole world is thus in
the illumination which shines self-sufficient, by itself, everywhere, and at
all times.
Such illumination is Her
Transcendental Queen Tripuraa, the Supreme. She is called Brahma in the Vedas,
Vishnu by the Vaishnavites, Shiva by the Shaivaites, and Shakti by the
Shaaktas. There is indeed nothing but She. She holds everything by Her prowess
as a mirror does its images. She is the illuminant in relation to the
illumined.
The object is drowned in
illumination like the image of a city in a mirror. Just as the city is not
different from the mirror, so also the world is not different from Pure Consciousness.
Just as the image is part and parcel of the clear, smooth, compact and one single
mirror, so also the world is a part and parcel of the perfect, solid and
unitary consciousness, namely the Self.
There is no solid world
outside one’s mind.
Space is just a void
projected by the mind to locate objects. The world is, always and all-through,
a phenomenon in the Self.
How then the Pure
Consciousness being void, is dense at the same time?
A mirror is dense and
impenetrable and contains all the images within itself as itself.
Pure consciousness is dense
and impenetrable and yet displays the world by virtue of its self-sufficiency.
Pure consciousness is
all-pervading, dense and single; it holds the mobile and immobile creation
within it; wondrously variegated; with no immediate or ultimate cause for it.
Whatever be the amount of reflections
appearing in the mirror, the mirror is never tainted by them. It continues to
reflect as clearly as always.
In the same way the one
consciousness illumines the waking and dream states; but is never affected by
them and stays as pure as ever.
O King! Analyze again your
dream experience and imaginations of the mind. Though they are perfect in
detail, they belong only to the mind.
Consciousness permeating them
obviously remains unblemished before creation or after dissolution of the world.
Even during the existence of the world, it remains unaffected as the mirror by
the images.
The mirror reflects the space
inside it as ‘external to itself’.
Though unperturbed,
unblemished, thick, dense and single, the Absolute Consciousness being
self-sufficient manifests within itself what looks ‘exterior’.
This is the beginning of
ignorance and also the beginning of Creation.
It is the darkness!
(ignorance)
Starting as an infinitesimal
fraction of the whole, this ignorance manifests as the idea that something
exists outside it. It is a property of the ego-sense.
The unmanifest Vaasanaas
prepare a stage for their manifestation through this first seed of ignorance.
Each Vaasanaa projects outside a field of experience for its own manifestation
and ego-sense appears as the experiencer seeing a world outside him or her.
There is no identity with the
original consciousness. It is now simple, insentient energy.
The present Creation is the
mental product of Brahma or HiranyaGarbha, appointed as the Creator by the will-force
of the Primal Being, Sri Tripuraa Devi.
Time, space, gross creations,
etc., appear in it according to the imagery of the agent.
A certain period is only one
day according to my calculation whereas it is twelve thousand years according
to Brahma: the space covered by about two miles and a half of Brahma is
infinite according to me and covers a whole world. In this way, both are true and
untrue at the same time. Similarly also, imagine a hill within you, and also
time in a subtle sense. Then contemplate a whole creation in them; they will
endure as long as your concentration endures - even to eternity for all
practical purposes, if your will-power be strong enough.
That is why I say that this
world is a mere figment of imagination.
Therefore what looks like the
‘external world’ is really an image on the screen of the mind.
Consciousness is thus the
screen and the image, and so Yogis can perceive long distances of space and
realize long intervals of time. They can traverse all distances in a moment and
can perceive everything as readily as a gooseberry in the hollow of one's palm.
Therefore recognize the fact
that the world is simply an image on the mirror of Consciousness; cultivate the
contemplation of ‘I am’; abide as pure being and thus give up this delusion of
the reality of the world.
Then you will become like
myself and be self-sufficient.”
On hearing this discourse of
the Sage's son, the King overcame his delusion; his intellect became purified
and he understood the ultimate goal. Then he practiced Samaadhi; became
self-contained without depending on any external agency; and led a long and
happy life. He ceased to identify himself with the body, and became absolute as
‘Transcendental Space’ (Turyaa state) until he was finally liberated.
END
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