SECTION XIII.Maitreya said:—"O respected Sir, all that I ask of you, has been perfectly related by you, namely the situation of the earth, seas, mountains, rivers, and planets, the system of the three worlds of which Vishnu is the support; you have also related that the holy knowledge is pre-eminent. You said that you would relate the story of Bharata, the lord of the earth: it becomes you now to relate that. Bharata, the protector of the earth, lived at the holy pilgrimage of Sālagrām. And he was engaged in devotion with his mind ever attached to Vāsudeva. Living at a sacred place he was always devoted to Hari: Why then he failed to obtain final liberation, O twice-born one? And why was he born again as a Brahmin, O foremost of Munis? It becomes you to relate this".Parāçara said:—The illustrious lord of the earth, O Maitreya, lived for a long time at Sālagrām having his mind wholly devoted to the glorious God. And having been considered, on account of his kindness and other virtues, the foremost of the virtuous, he secured in the highest degree, the entire control over his mind. The Raja was ever repeating the names Yajnesa, Achyuta, Govinda, Mādhava, Ananta, Keshava, Krishna, Vishnu, Hrishikesa. And nothing else than this did he utter even in his dreams: nor did he meditate upon anything, but those names and their significance. He accepted fuel, flowers and holy grass for the worship of the deity and did he celebrate no other religious observance being entirely given to disinterested abstract devotion.One day he went to the river Mahānadi for the purpose of ablution. And having bathed there he engaged in after ceremonies. Whilst thus engaged there came to the same spot a doe big with young who had come out of the forest to drink of the stream. Whilst the doe was drinking there was audible a dreadful uproar of a lion capable of striking terror into all creatures. Thereupon, the doe, greatly terrified, jumped out of the water on the banks; on account of this great leap her fawn was suddenly brought forth and fell into the river. And beholding it carried away by the stream the king suddenly caught hold of the young one and saved it from being drowned. The injury which the doe had received on account of the violent exertion proved fatal. She lay down and died. Having observed this the royal ascetic took the fawn in his arms and came back to the hermitage. There he fed it and nursed it every day: and under his fostering care it throve and grew up. It frolicked about the hermitage and grazed upon the grass in its neighbourhood. And sometimes afraid of a tiger it used to come to the ascetic. In this wise the young one sometimes wandered far away in the morning and came back to the hermitage in the evening and frolicked in the leafy bower of Bharata.His mind, O twice-born one, was thus attached to that animal, playing either in the neighbourhood or at some distance and he was unable to think of anything else. And the king, although he had severed all bonds of attachments towards his friends, his kingdom, his son and wife, grew inordinately attached to this fawn. When absent for an unusually long time he would think that it had been carried away by wolves, devoured by a tiger or slain by a lion. He used to cry out,—'The earth is embrowned with the prints of its hoofs. What has become of the fawn that was born for my delight? How happy I should become if he had come back from the forest. I felt his budding antlers rubbing against my arm. These tufts, of sacred grass, the heads of which have been nibbed by his new teeth, look like pious lads chanting the Shama-Veda.'Whenever this fawn used to absent itself for a long time from the hermitage the ascetic would think thus. And he was delighted and his countenance grew animated whenever it neared him. His mind being thus engrossed by the fawn his abstraction was interrupted although he had renounced family, wealth and kingdom. His mind became unsettled with the wanderings of the fawn. Whenever it wandered away to a great distance the king's mind followed it and when it was silent his mind became settled. Thus in the course of time the king became subject to its influences and was watched by the deer with tearful eyes like a son mourning for the father. And the king, when he died, saw the young fawn only before him; and having his mind engrossed by him, O Maitreya, he did not see anything else.On account of such feeling at such an hour he was born again in Jambumarga forest as a deer with the faculty of recollecting his former life. Cherishing a distaste for the world on account of this recollection he left his mother and again repaired to holy place of Salagram. Living there upon dry grass and leaves he expatiated the acts which had led to his being born in such a condition: and upon his death he was born as a Brahmin still retaining the recollection of his former life. He was born in a devout and illustrious family of ascetics who rigidly observed devotional practices. Having been gifted with true knowledge and acquainted with the spirit of all sacred writings he observed soul as contra-distinguished from Prakriti (matter). And acquainted with the knowledge of self he observed the celestial and all other beings as the same. When he was invested with the Brahminical thread he did not read the Vedas with a preceptor, did not perform the ceremonies nor did he read the scriptures. And requested again and again he replied incoherently in ungrammatical and unpolished speech. His body was unclean and he used to wear dirty clothes. Saliva dribbled from his mouth and he was treated with hatred by the people. Undue respect from the people obstructs abstraction and hence the ascetics, disregarded by people, attain to the consummation of their asceticism. Without polluting the way treaded by the saints the ascetics should so behave that the ordinary folk might hate them and not come in their company. Having thus thought of this saying (Bharata) gifted with high intellect assumed the appearance of a crazy idiot in the eyes of the people. He used to live on raw pulse, potherbs, wild fruit and grains of corn and whatever came in his way as a part of necessary but temporary infliction.On the death of his father he was set to work in the field by his brothers and nephews and fed by them with wretched food. He was firm and stout like a bull and used to act like a simpleton and people used to make him work and give him food only as his wages.Once on a time the gate-keeper of the king of Sauvira, regarding him as an idle uneducated Brahmin, considered him a worthy person to work without pay and took him into his master's service to assist in carrying the palanquin. One day O Brahman, the king wished to go in palanquin to the hermitage of the great sage Kapila, situated on the banks of the river Ikshumati, to consult the sage, who was conversant with the virtues leading to liberation, what as most desirable in a world abounding with care and sorrow. And he was one of those, who had, at the order of the head servant, been compelled to carry the palanquin gratuitously. And that Brahman, gifted with the only universal knowledge and recollecting former birth, although compelled to do this, bore the burden as the means of expatiating the sins for which was desirous to atone. While the other bearers proceeded with alacrity, he, fixing his eyes upon the pole, moved tardily. And perceiving the palanquin carried unevenly the king exclaimed 'Ho bearers! what is this? keep equal space.' Still it went on unsteadily and the king again cried out. ‘What is this? How irregularly are you going?' When this had again and again taken place the palanquin bearers at last replied to the king, 'It is this man who lags in his space.' ‘How is this' said the king to the Brahmin, 'Are you exhausted? You have carried your burden only a little way. Are you unable to bear exhaustion? But you look very robust' To which the Brahmin replied—‘It is not I, O king, who am robust nor is it I who carry your palanquin. I am not exhausted, O king! nor am I capable of fatigue.' The king said, ‘I distinctly perceive that you are stout and the palanquin is carried by you, and a heavy burden is wearisome to all persons.' The Brahmin said: ‘Tell me first what you have distinctly seen of me and then you may distinguish my properties as strong or weak. The statement, that you behold the palanquin borne by me or placed on me, is unreal. Listen, O king, to my arguments about it. Both the feet are placed on the ground: the legs are supported by the feet; the thighs rest upon the legs; and the belly rests upon the thighs; the chest is supported by the belly and the arms and shoulders are supported by the chest; the palanquin is carried by the shoulders and then how can it be considered as my burden? This body which is seated in the palanquin is known as "thou" thence what is elsewhere called this is here distinguished as thou and I. I and thou and others are made of elements and elements, influenced by qualities, assume a bodily shape. Qualities depend on acts, and acts perpetrated in ignorance influence the condition of all beings. The soul is pure, imperishable, tranquil, devoid of qualities, distinct from nature and is without increase or diminution; and if it is freed from increase or diminution then with what prosperity you say to me, ‘I see that you are robust? If the palanquin is placed on the body, the body on the feet, the feet the ground, then the burden is carried as much by you as by me. Why are not others, O king, feeling the burden of this palanquin. If I am exhausted with a burden that is being carried on another's shoulder, then why with the weight of this palanquin, people may be worn out with the weight of mountains, trees, houses and even of the earth, When the nature of men is different, either in its essence or its cause, then it may be said that fatigue is to be undergone by me. The material, with which the palanquin is made, is the substance of you and me and of all others being a collection of Elements collected by individuality.'Parāçara said:—Having said this the Brahman became silent and went on carrying the palanquin; the king too speedily got down from it and touched his feet. The king said: O Brahman, leave off the palanquin and be propitiated with me. Tell me who art thou under the disguise of a fool? The Brahman replied "Hear me, king. Who I am it is not possible to say; I go anywhere for receiving the fruits of good and bad luck. The body is produced for the enjoyment of pleasure and endurance of pain. Pleasure and pain originate from virtue and vice; therefore the soul assumes bodily shape for enjoying pleasure and enduring pain consequent upon virtue and vice. The universal cause of all living creatures is virtue or vice, why therefore enquire after the cause of my coming to this earth."The king said:—"That virtue and vice are the causes of all actions and that people migrate into various bodies for receiving their consequences, there is not the least doubt about it; but as regards what you have said that it is not possible for you to say who you are, it is a matter which I wish to have explained. O Brahman, how cannot a man declare himself to be that which he (really) is: there can be no harm to one's self from applying to it the word 'I'".The Brahmana said:—"To use the word ‘I' undoubtedly is detrimental; but it is not improperly used if it is applied merely to the soul. But the term is erroneous in as much as it conceives that to be the self or soul which is not self or soul. The tongue articulates the word ‘I' assisted by the lips, the teeth and the palate; and these are the origin of the expression, as they are the causes of the production of speech."If by these instruments speech can utter the word 'I' it is not at all proper to say that speech itself is ‘I.' O king, the body of a man having hands, feet and other limbs is composed of various parts: to what part shall we apply the word ‘I'? If another being had existed in this body quite different from me, then it may be said, O king, thatthisis I,thatis the other; while one soul inhabits the whole body, then such questions as 'Who are you? Who am I?' are useless. Thou art a monarch; this is a palanquin: these are the bearers: these are thy followers; yet it is untrue that these are thine. This palanquin, in which thou art seated, is made of timber got from trees. Then tell me, what name, tree, timber or palanquin, shall be applied to it, O king. The people shall not say that their monarch is seated on a tree or on a timber but they shall say that he is in the palanquin. The artificial assemblage of the pieces of timber is called the palanquin: judge yourself, therefore, O king, in what the palanquin differs from the wood. Again consider the sticks of the umbrella, in their separate state. What then is the umbrella? Apply this argument to thee and to me. A man, a woman, a cow, a goat, a horse, an elephant, a bird, a tree, are names given to various bodies, which they assume on account of their primitive actions. Man is neither a god, nor a man, nor a beast, nor a tree: these are the various shapes which he assumes on account of his acts. O king, your name is Vasuraja and another name is Rajabhat—besides you have got various other names—but none of these names is real and is nothing but the work of imagination. And what thing is there in the world, O king, which being subject to changes, does not in the course of time, go by different names? You are called the king of the world, the son of your father, the enemy of your foes, the husband of your wife, the father of your children, what name the shall I apply to you? What is your situation? Are you the head or the belly? Or are they yours? Are you the feet or are they yours? You are, O king, separate in nature from the members of your body. Then considering properly, do you think who I am. And since the truth has been got at, how is it possible for me to recognize the distinction and to apply to my individual the expression 'I'".
SECTION XIII.Maitreya said:—"O respected Sir, all that I ask of you, has been perfectly related by you, namely the situation of the earth, seas, mountains, rivers, and planets, the system of the three worlds of which Vishnu is the support; you have also related that the holy knowledge is pre-eminent. You said that you would relate the story of Bharata, the lord of the earth: it becomes you now to relate that. Bharata, the protector of the earth, lived at the holy pilgrimage of Sālagrām. And he was engaged in devotion with his mind ever attached to Vāsudeva. Living at a sacred place he was always devoted to Hari: Why then he failed to obtain final liberation, O twice-born one? And why was he born again as a Brahmin, O foremost of Munis? It becomes you to relate this".Parāçara said:—The illustrious lord of the earth, O Maitreya, lived for a long time at Sālagrām having his mind wholly devoted to the glorious God. And having been considered, on account of his kindness and other virtues, the foremost of the virtuous, he secured in the highest degree, the entire control over his mind. The Raja was ever repeating the names Yajnesa, Achyuta, Govinda, Mādhava, Ananta, Keshava, Krishna, Vishnu, Hrishikesa. And nothing else than this did he utter even in his dreams: nor did he meditate upon anything, but those names and their significance. He accepted fuel, flowers and holy grass for the worship of the deity and did he celebrate no other religious observance being entirely given to disinterested abstract devotion.One day he went to the river Mahānadi for the purpose of ablution. And having bathed there he engaged in after ceremonies. Whilst thus engaged there came to the same spot a doe big with young who had come out of the forest to drink of the stream. Whilst the doe was drinking there was audible a dreadful uproar of a lion capable of striking terror into all creatures. Thereupon, the doe, greatly terrified, jumped out of the water on the banks; on account of this great leap her fawn was suddenly brought forth and fell into the river. And beholding it carried away by the stream the king suddenly caught hold of the young one and saved it from being drowned. The injury which the doe had received on account of the violent exertion proved fatal. She lay down and died. Having observed this the royal ascetic took the fawn in his arms and came back to the hermitage. There he fed it and nursed it every day: and under his fostering care it throve and grew up. It frolicked about the hermitage and grazed upon the grass in its neighbourhood. And sometimes afraid of a tiger it used to come to the ascetic. In this wise the young one sometimes wandered far away in the morning and came back to the hermitage in the evening and frolicked in the leafy bower of Bharata.His mind, O twice-born one, was thus attached to that animal, playing either in the neighbourhood or at some distance and he was unable to think of anything else. And the king, although he had severed all bonds of attachments towards his friends, his kingdom, his son and wife, grew inordinately attached to this fawn. When absent for an unusually long time he would think that it had been carried away by wolves, devoured by a tiger or slain by a lion. He used to cry out,—'The earth is embrowned with the prints of its hoofs. What has become of the fawn that was born for my delight? How happy I should become if he had come back from the forest. I felt his budding antlers rubbing against my arm. These tufts, of sacred grass, the heads of which have been nibbed by his new teeth, look like pious lads chanting the Shama-Veda.'Whenever this fawn used to absent itself for a long time from the hermitage the ascetic would think thus. And he was delighted and his countenance grew animated whenever it neared him. His mind being thus engrossed by the fawn his abstraction was interrupted although he had renounced family, wealth and kingdom. His mind became unsettled with the wanderings of the fawn. Whenever it wandered away to a great distance the king's mind followed it and when it was silent his mind became settled. Thus in the course of time the king became subject to its influences and was watched by the deer with tearful eyes like a son mourning for the father. And the king, when he died, saw the young fawn only before him; and having his mind engrossed by him, O Maitreya, he did not see anything else.On account of such feeling at such an hour he was born again in Jambumarga forest as a deer with the faculty of recollecting his former life. Cherishing a distaste for the world on account of this recollection he left his mother and again repaired to holy place of Salagram. Living there upon dry grass and leaves he expatiated the acts which had led to his being born in such a condition: and upon his death he was born as a Brahmin still retaining the recollection of his former life. He was born in a devout and illustrious family of ascetics who rigidly observed devotional practices. Having been gifted with true knowledge and acquainted with the spirit of all sacred writings he observed soul as contra-distinguished from Prakriti (matter). And acquainted with the knowledge of self he observed the celestial and all other beings as the same. When he was invested with the Brahminical thread he did not read the Vedas with a preceptor, did not perform the ceremonies nor did he read the scriptures. And requested again and again he replied incoherently in ungrammatical and unpolished speech. His body was unclean and he used to wear dirty clothes. Saliva dribbled from his mouth and he was treated with hatred by the people. Undue respect from the people obstructs abstraction and hence the ascetics, disregarded by people, attain to the consummation of their asceticism. Without polluting the way treaded by the saints the ascetics should so behave that the ordinary folk might hate them and not come in their company. Having thus thought of this saying (Bharata) gifted with high intellect assumed the appearance of a crazy idiot in the eyes of the people. He used to live on raw pulse, potherbs, wild fruit and grains of corn and whatever came in his way as a part of necessary but temporary infliction.On the death of his father he was set to work in the field by his brothers and nephews and fed by them with wretched food. He was firm and stout like a bull and used to act like a simpleton and people used to make him work and give him food only as his wages.Once on a time the gate-keeper of the king of Sauvira, regarding him as an idle uneducated Brahmin, considered him a worthy person to work without pay and took him into his master's service to assist in carrying the palanquin. One day O Brahman, the king wished to go in palanquin to the hermitage of the great sage Kapila, situated on the banks of the river Ikshumati, to consult the sage, who was conversant with the virtues leading to liberation, what as most desirable in a world abounding with care and sorrow. And he was one of those, who had, at the order of the head servant, been compelled to carry the palanquin gratuitously. And that Brahman, gifted with the only universal knowledge and recollecting former birth, although compelled to do this, bore the burden as the means of expatiating the sins for which was desirous to atone. While the other bearers proceeded with alacrity, he, fixing his eyes upon the pole, moved tardily. And perceiving the palanquin carried unevenly the king exclaimed 'Ho bearers! what is this? keep equal space.' Still it went on unsteadily and the king again cried out. ‘What is this? How irregularly are you going?' When this had again and again taken place the palanquin bearers at last replied to the king, 'It is this man who lags in his space.' ‘How is this' said the king to the Brahmin, 'Are you exhausted? You have carried your burden only a little way. Are you unable to bear exhaustion? But you look very robust' To which the Brahmin replied—‘It is not I, O king, who am robust nor is it I who carry your palanquin. I am not exhausted, O king! nor am I capable of fatigue.' The king said, ‘I distinctly perceive that you are stout and the palanquin is carried by you, and a heavy burden is wearisome to all persons.' The Brahmin said: ‘Tell me first what you have distinctly seen of me and then you may distinguish my properties as strong or weak. The statement, that you behold the palanquin borne by me or placed on me, is unreal. Listen, O king, to my arguments about it. Both the feet are placed on the ground: the legs are supported by the feet; the thighs rest upon the legs; and the belly rests upon the thighs; the chest is supported by the belly and the arms and shoulders are supported by the chest; the palanquin is carried by the shoulders and then how can it be considered as my burden? This body which is seated in the palanquin is known as "thou" thence what is elsewhere called this is here distinguished as thou and I. I and thou and others are made of elements and elements, influenced by qualities, assume a bodily shape. Qualities depend on acts, and acts perpetrated in ignorance influence the condition of all beings. The soul is pure, imperishable, tranquil, devoid of qualities, distinct from nature and is without increase or diminution; and if it is freed from increase or diminution then with what prosperity you say to me, ‘I see that you are robust? If the palanquin is placed on the body, the body on the feet, the feet the ground, then the burden is carried as much by you as by me. Why are not others, O king, feeling the burden of this palanquin. If I am exhausted with a burden that is being carried on another's shoulder, then why with the weight of this palanquin, people may be worn out with the weight of mountains, trees, houses and even of the earth, When the nature of men is different, either in its essence or its cause, then it may be said that fatigue is to be undergone by me. The material, with which the palanquin is made, is the substance of you and me and of all others being a collection of Elements collected by individuality.'Parāçara said:—Having said this the Brahman became silent and went on carrying the palanquin; the king too speedily got down from it and touched his feet. The king said: O Brahman, leave off the palanquin and be propitiated with me. Tell me who art thou under the disguise of a fool? The Brahman replied "Hear me, king. Who I am it is not possible to say; I go anywhere for receiving the fruits of good and bad luck. The body is produced for the enjoyment of pleasure and endurance of pain. Pleasure and pain originate from virtue and vice; therefore the soul assumes bodily shape for enjoying pleasure and enduring pain consequent upon virtue and vice. The universal cause of all living creatures is virtue or vice, why therefore enquire after the cause of my coming to this earth."The king said:—"That virtue and vice are the causes of all actions and that people migrate into various bodies for receiving their consequences, there is not the least doubt about it; but as regards what you have said that it is not possible for you to say who you are, it is a matter which I wish to have explained. O Brahman, how cannot a man declare himself to be that which he (really) is: there can be no harm to one's self from applying to it the word 'I'".The Brahmana said:—"To use the word ‘I' undoubtedly is detrimental; but it is not improperly used if it is applied merely to the soul. But the term is erroneous in as much as it conceives that to be the self or soul which is not self or soul. The tongue articulates the word ‘I' assisted by the lips, the teeth and the palate; and these are the origin of the expression, as they are the causes of the production of speech."If by these instruments speech can utter the word 'I' it is not at all proper to say that speech itself is ‘I.' O king, the body of a man having hands, feet and other limbs is composed of various parts: to what part shall we apply the word ‘I'? If another being had existed in this body quite different from me, then it may be said, O king, thatthisis I,thatis the other; while one soul inhabits the whole body, then such questions as 'Who are you? Who am I?' are useless. Thou art a monarch; this is a palanquin: these are the bearers: these are thy followers; yet it is untrue that these are thine. This palanquin, in which thou art seated, is made of timber got from trees. Then tell me, what name, tree, timber or palanquin, shall be applied to it, O king. The people shall not say that their monarch is seated on a tree or on a timber but they shall say that he is in the palanquin. The artificial assemblage of the pieces of timber is called the palanquin: judge yourself, therefore, O king, in what the palanquin differs from the wood. Again consider the sticks of the umbrella, in their separate state. What then is the umbrella? Apply this argument to thee and to me. A man, a woman, a cow, a goat, a horse, an elephant, a bird, a tree, are names given to various bodies, which they assume on account of their primitive actions. Man is neither a god, nor a man, nor a beast, nor a tree: these are the various shapes which he assumes on account of his acts. O king, your name is Vasuraja and another name is Rajabhat—besides you have got various other names—but none of these names is real and is nothing but the work of imagination. And what thing is there in the world, O king, which being subject to changes, does not in the course of time, go by different names? You are called the king of the world, the son of your father, the enemy of your foes, the husband of your wife, the father of your children, what name the shall I apply to you? What is your situation? Are you the head or the belly? Or are they yours? Are you the feet or are they yours? You are, O king, separate in nature from the members of your body. Then considering properly, do you think who I am. And since the truth has been got at, how is it possible for me to recognize the distinction and to apply to my individual the expression 'I'".
SECTION XIII.Maitreya said:—"O respected Sir, all that I ask of you, has been perfectly related by you, namely the situation of the earth, seas, mountains, rivers, and planets, the system of the three worlds of which Vishnu is the support; you have also related that the holy knowledge is pre-eminent. You said that you would relate the story of Bharata, the lord of the earth: it becomes you now to relate that. Bharata, the protector of the earth, lived at the holy pilgrimage of Sālagrām. And he was engaged in devotion with his mind ever attached to Vāsudeva. Living at a sacred place he was always devoted to Hari: Why then he failed to obtain final liberation, O twice-born one? And why was he born again as a Brahmin, O foremost of Munis? It becomes you to relate this".Parāçara said:—The illustrious lord of the earth, O Maitreya, lived for a long time at Sālagrām having his mind wholly devoted to the glorious God. And having been considered, on account of his kindness and other virtues, the foremost of the virtuous, he secured in the highest degree, the entire control over his mind. The Raja was ever repeating the names Yajnesa, Achyuta, Govinda, Mādhava, Ananta, Keshava, Krishna, Vishnu, Hrishikesa. And nothing else than this did he utter even in his dreams: nor did he meditate upon anything, but those names and their significance. He accepted fuel, flowers and holy grass for the worship of the deity and did he celebrate no other religious observance being entirely given to disinterested abstract devotion.One day he went to the river Mahānadi for the purpose of ablution. And having bathed there he engaged in after ceremonies. Whilst thus engaged there came to the same spot a doe big with young who had come out of the forest to drink of the stream. Whilst the doe was drinking there was audible a dreadful uproar of a lion capable of striking terror into all creatures. Thereupon, the doe, greatly terrified, jumped out of the water on the banks; on account of this great leap her fawn was suddenly brought forth and fell into the river. And beholding it carried away by the stream the king suddenly caught hold of the young one and saved it from being drowned. The injury which the doe had received on account of the violent exertion proved fatal. She lay down and died. Having observed this the royal ascetic took the fawn in his arms and came back to the hermitage. There he fed it and nursed it every day: and under his fostering care it throve and grew up. It frolicked about the hermitage and grazed upon the grass in its neighbourhood. And sometimes afraid of a tiger it used to come to the ascetic. In this wise the young one sometimes wandered far away in the morning and came back to the hermitage in the evening and frolicked in the leafy bower of Bharata.His mind, O twice-born one, was thus attached to that animal, playing either in the neighbourhood or at some distance and he was unable to think of anything else. And the king, although he had severed all bonds of attachments towards his friends, his kingdom, his son and wife, grew inordinately attached to this fawn. When absent for an unusually long time he would think that it had been carried away by wolves, devoured by a tiger or slain by a lion. He used to cry out,—'The earth is embrowned with the prints of its hoofs. What has become of the fawn that was born for my delight? How happy I should become if he had come back from the forest. I felt his budding antlers rubbing against my arm. These tufts, of sacred grass, the heads of which have been nibbed by his new teeth, look like pious lads chanting the Shama-Veda.'Whenever this fawn used to absent itself for a long time from the hermitage the ascetic would think thus. And he was delighted and his countenance grew animated whenever it neared him. His mind being thus engrossed by the fawn his abstraction was interrupted although he had renounced family, wealth and kingdom. His mind became unsettled with the wanderings of the fawn. Whenever it wandered away to a great distance the king's mind followed it and when it was silent his mind became settled. Thus in the course of time the king became subject to its influences and was watched by the deer with tearful eyes like a son mourning for the father. And the king, when he died, saw the young fawn only before him; and having his mind engrossed by him, O Maitreya, he did not see anything else.On account of such feeling at such an hour he was born again in Jambumarga forest as a deer with the faculty of recollecting his former life. Cherishing a distaste for the world on account of this recollection he left his mother and again repaired to holy place of Salagram. Living there upon dry grass and leaves he expatiated the acts which had led to his being born in such a condition: and upon his death he was born as a Brahmin still retaining the recollection of his former life. He was born in a devout and illustrious family of ascetics who rigidly observed devotional practices. Having been gifted with true knowledge and acquainted with the spirit of all sacred writings he observed soul as contra-distinguished from Prakriti (matter). And acquainted with the knowledge of self he observed the celestial and all other beings as the same. When he was invested with the Brahminical thread he did not read the Vedas with a preceptor, did not perform the ceremonies nor did he read the scriptures. And requested again and again he replied incoherently in ungrammatical and unpolished speech. His body was unclean and he used to wear dirty clothes. Saliva dribbled from his mouth and he was treated with hatred by the people. Undue respect from the people obstructs abstraction and hence the ascetics, disregarded by people, attain to the consummation of their asceticism. Without polluting the way treaded by the saints the ascetics should so behave that the ordinary folk might hate them and not come in their company. Having thus thought of this saying (Bharata) gifted with high intellect assumed the appearance of a crazy idiot in the eyes of the people. He used to live on raw pulse, potherbs, wild fruit and grains of corn and whatever came in his way as a part of necessary but temporary infliction.On the death of his father he was set to work in the field by his brothers and nephews and fed by them with wretched food. He was firm and stout like a bull and used to act like a simpleton and people used to make him work and give him food only as his wages.Once on a time the gate-keeper of the king of Sauvira, regarding him as an idle uneducated Brahmin, considered him a worthy person to work without pay and took him into his master's service to assist in carrying the palanquin. One day O Brahman, the king wished to go in palanquin to the hermitage of the great sage Kapila, situated on the banks of the river Ikshumati, to consult the sage, who was conversant with the virtues leading to liberation, what as most desirable in a world abounding with care and sorrow. And he was one of those, who had, at the order of the head servant, been compelled to carry the palanquin gratuitously. And that Brahman, gifted with the only universal knowledge and recollecting former birth, although compelled to do this, bore the burden as the means of expatiating the sins for which was desirous to atone. While the other bearers proceeded with alacrity, he, fixing his eyes upon the pole, moved tardily. And perceiving the palanquin carried unevenly the king exclaimed 'Ho bearers! what is this? keep equal space.' Still it went on unsteadily and the king again cried out. ‘What is this? How irregularly are you going?' When this had again and again taken place the palanquin bearers at last replied to the king, 'It is this man who lags in his space.' ‘How is this' said the king to the Brahmin, 'Are you exhausted? You have carried your burden only a little way. Are you unable to bear exhaustion? But you look very robust' To which the Brahmin replied—‘It is not I, O king, who am robust nor is it I who carry your palanquin. I am not exhausted, O king! nor am I capable of fatigue.' The king said, ‘I distinctly perceive that you are stout and the palanquin is carried by you, and a heavy burden is wearisome to all persons.' The Brahmin said: ‘Tell me first what you have distinctly seen of me and then you may distinguish my properties as strong or weak. The statement, that you behold the palanquin borne by me or placed on me, is unreal. Listen, O king, to my arguments about it. Both the feet are placed on the ground: the legs are supported by the feet; the thighs rest upon the legs; and the belly rests upon the thighs; the chest is supported by the belly and the arms and shoulders are supported by the chest; the palanquin is carried by the shoulders and then how can it be considered as my burden? This body which is seated in the palanquin is known as "thou" thence what is elsewhere called this is here distinguished as thou and I. I and thou and others are made of elements and elements, influenced by qualities, assume a bodily shape. Qualities depend on acts, and acts perpetrated in ignorance influence the condition of all beings. The soul is pure, imperishable, tranquil, devoid of qualities, distinct from nature and is without increase or diminution; and if it is freed from increase or diminution then with what prosperity you say to me, ‘I see that you are robust? If the palanquin is placed on the body, the body on the feet, the feet the ground, then the burden is carried as much by you as by me. Why are not others, O king, feeling the burden of this palanquin. If I am exhausted with a burden that is being carried on another's shoulder, then why with the weight of this palanquin, people may be worn out with the weight of mountains, trees, houses and even of the earth, When the nature of men is different, either in its essence or its cause, then it may be said that fatigue is to be undergone by me. The material, with which the palanquin is made, is the substance of you and me and of all others being a collection of Elements collected by individuality.'Parāçara said:—Having said this the Brahman became silent and went on carrying the palanquin; the king too speedily got down from it and touched his feet. The king said: O Brahman, leave off the palanquin and be propitiated with me. Tell me who art thou under the disguise of a fool? The Brahman replied "Hear me, king. Who I am it is not possible to say; I go anywhere for receiving the fruits of good and bad luck. The body is produced for the enjoyment of pleasure and endurance of pain. Pleasure and pain originate from virtue and vice; therefore the soul assumes bodily shape for enjoying pleasure and enduring pain consequent upon virtue and vice. The universal cause of all living creatures is virtue or vice, why therefore enquire after the cause of my coming to this earth."The king said:—"That virtue and vice are the causes of all actions and that people migrate into various bodies for receiving their consequences, there is not the least doubt about it; but as regards what you have said that it is not possible for you to say who you are, it is a matter which I wish to have explained. O Brahman, how cannot a man declare himself to be that which he (really) is: there can be no harm to one's self from applying to it the word 'I'".The Brahmana said:—"To use the word ‘I' undoubtedly is detrimental; but it is not improperly used if it is applied merely to the soul. But the term is erroneous in as much as it conceives that to be the self or soul which is not self or soul. The tongue articulates the word ‘I' assisted by the lips, the teeth and the palate; and these are the origin of the expression, as they are the causes of the production of speech."If by these instruments speech can utter the word 'I' it is not at all proper to say that speech itself is ‘I.' O king, the body of a man having hands, feet and other limbs is composed of various parts: to what part shall we apply the word ‘I'? If another being had existed in this body quite different from me, then it may be said, O king, thatthisis I,thatis the other; while one soul inhabits the whole body, then such questions as 'Who are you? Who am I?' are useless. Thou art a monarch; this is a palanquin: these are the bearers: these are thy followers; yet it is untrue that these are thine. This palanquin, in which thou art seated, is made of timber got from trees. Then tell me, what name, tree, timber or palanquin, shall be applied to it, O king. The people shall not say that their monarch is seated on a tree or on a timber but they shall say that he is in the palanquin. The artificial assemblage of the pieces of timber is called the palanquin: judge yourself, therefore, O king, in what the palanquin differs from the wood. Again consider the sticks of the umbrella, in their separate state. What then is the umbrella? Apply this argument to thee and to me. A man, a woman, a cow, a goat, a horse, an elephant, a bird, a tree, are names given to various bodies, which they assume on account of their primitive actions. Man is neither a god, nor a man, nor a beast, nor a tree: these are the various shapes which he assumes on account of his acts. O king, your name is Vasuraja and another name is Rajabhat—besides you have got various other names—but none of these names is real and is nothing but the work of imagination. And what thing is there in the world, O king, which being subject to changes, does not in the course of time, go by different names? You are called the king of the world, the son of your father, the enemy of your foes, the husband of your wife, the father of your children, what name the shall I apply to you? What is your situation? Are you the head or the belly? Or are they yours? Are you the feet or are they yours? You are, O king, separate in nature from the members of your body. Then considering properly, do you think who I am. And since the truth has been got at, how is it possible for me to recognize the distinction and to apply to my individual the expression 'I'".
Maitreya said:—"O respected Sir, all that I ask of you, has been perfectly related by you, namely the situation of the earth, seas, mountains, rivers, and planets, the system of the three worlds of which Vishnu is the support; you have also related that the holy knowledge is pre-eminent. You said that you would relate the story of Bharata, the lord of the earth: it becomes you now to relate that. Bharata, the protector of the earth, lived at the holy pilgrimage of Sālagrām. And he was engaged in devotion with his mind ever attached to Vāsudeva. Living at a sacred place he was always devoted to Hari: Why then he failed to obtain final liberation, O twice-born one? And why was he born again as a Brahmin, O foremost of Munis? It becomes you to relate this".
Parāçara said:—The illustrious lord of the earth, O Maitreya, lived for a long time at Sālagrām having his mind wholly devoted to the glorious God. And having been considered, on account of his kindness and other virtues, the foremost of the virtuous, he secured in the highest degree, the entire control over his mind. The Raja was ever repeating the names Yajnesa, Achyuta, Govinda, Mādhava, Ananta, Keshava, Krishna, Vishnu, Hrishikesa. And nothing else than this did he utter even in his dreams: nor did he meditate upon anything, but those names and their significance. He accepted fuel, flowers and holy grass for the worship of the deity and did he celebrate no other religious observance being entirely given to disinterested abstract devotion.
One day he went to the river Mahānadi for the purpose of ablution. And having bathed there he engaged in after ceremonies. Whilst thus engaged there came to the same spot a doe big with young who had come out of the forest to drink of the stream. Whilst the doe was drinking there was audible a dreadful uproar of a lion capable of striking terror into all creatures. Thereupon, the doe, greatly terrified, jumped out of the water on the banks; on account of this great leap her fawn was suddenly brought forth and fell into the river. And beholding it carried away by the stream the king suddenly caught hold of the young one and saved it from being drowned. The injury which the doe had received on account of the violent exertion proved fatal. She lay down and died. Having observed this the royal ascetic took the fawn in his arms and came back to the hermitage. There he fed it and nursed it every day: and under his fostering care it throve and grew up. It frolicked about the hermitage and grazed upon the grass in its neighbourhood. And sometimes afraid of a tiger it used to come to the ascetic. In this wise the young one sometimes wandered far away in the morning and came back to the hermitage in the evening and frolicked in the leafy bower of Bharata.
His mind, O twice-born one, was thus attached to that animal, playing either in the neighbourhood or at some distance and he was unable to think of anything else. And the king, although he had severed all bonds of attachments towards his friends, his kingdom, his son and wife, grew inordinately attached to this fawn. When absent for an unusually long time he would think that it had been carried away by wolves, devoured by a tiger or slain by a lion. He used to cry out,—'The earth is embrowned with the prints of its hoofs. What has become of the fawn that was born for my delight? How happy I should become if he had come back from the forest. I felt his budding antlers rubbing against my arm. These tufts, of sacred grass, the heads of which have been nibbed by his new teeth, look like pious lads chanting the Shama-Veda.'
Whenever this fawn used to absent itself for a long time from the hermitage the ascetic would think thus. And he was delighted and his countenance grew animated whenever it neared him. His mind being thus engrossed by the fawn his abstraction was interrupted although he had renounced family, wealth and kingdom. His mind became unsettled with the wanderings of the fawn. Whenever it wandered away to a great distance the king's mind followed it and when it was silent his mind became settled. Thus in the course of time the king became subject to its influences and was watched by the deer with tearful eyes like a son mourning for the father. And the king, when he died, saw the young fawn only before him; and having his mind engrossed by him, O Maitreya, he did not see anything else.
On account of such feeling at such an hour he was born again in Jambumarga forest as a deer with the faculty of recollecting his former life. Cherishing a distaste for the world on account of this recollection he left his mother and again repaired to holy place of Salagram. Living there upon dry grass and leaves he expatiated the acts which had led to his being born in such a condition: and upon his death he was born as a Brahmin still retaining the recollection of his former life. He was born in a devout and illustrious family of ascetics who rigidly observed devotional practices. Having been gifted with true knowledge and acquainted with the spirit of all sacred writings he observed soul as contra-distinguished from Prakriti (matter). And acquainted with the knowledge of self he observed the celestial and all other beings as the same. When he was invested with the Brahminical thread he did not read the Vedas with a preceptor, did not perform the ceremonies nor did he read the scriptures. And requested again and again he replied incoherently in ungrammatical and unpolished speech. His body was unclean and he used to wear dirty clothes. Saliva dribbled from his mouth and he was treated with hatred by the people. Undue respect from the people obstructs abstraction and hence the ascetics, disregarded by people, attain to the consummation of their asceticism. Without polluting the way treaded by the saints the ascetics should so behave that the ordinary folk might hate them and not come in their company. Having thus thought of this saying (Bharata) gifted with high intellect assumed the appearance of a crazy idiot in the eyes of the people. He used to live on raw pulse, potherbs, wild fruit and grains of corn and whatever came in his way as a part of necessary but temporary infliction.
On the death of his father he was set to work in the field by his brothers and nephews and fed by them with wretched food. He was firm and stout like a bull and used to act like a simpleton and people used to make him work and give him food only as his wages.
Once on a time the gate-keeper of the king of Sauvira, regarding him as an idle uneducated Brahmin, considered him a worthy person to work without pay and took him into his master's service to assist in carrying the palanquin. One day O Brahman, the king wished to go in palanquin to the hermitage of the great sage Kapila, situated on the banks of the river Ikshumati, to consult the sage, who was conversant with the virtues leading to liberation, what as most desirable in a world abounding with care and sorrow. And he was one of those, who had, at the order of the head servant, been compelled to carry the palanquin gratuitously. And that Brahman, gifted with the only universal knowledge and recollecting former birth, although compelled to do this, bore the burden as the means of expatiating the sins for which was desirous to atone. While the other bearers proceeded with alacrity, he, fixing his eyes upon the pole, moved tardily. And perceiving the palanquin carried unevenly the king exclaimed 'Ho bearers! what is this? keep equal space.' Still it went on unsteadily and the king again cried out. ‘What is this? How irregularly are you going?' When this had again and again taken place the palanquin bearers at last replied to the king, 'It is this man who lags in his space.' ‘How is this' said the king to the Brahmin, 'Are you exhausted? You have carried your burden only a little way. Are you unable to bear exhaustion? But you look very robust' To which the Brahmin replied—‘It is not I, O king, who am robust nor is it I who carry your palanquin. I am not exhausted, O king! nor am I capable of fatigue.' The king said, ‘I distinctly perceive that you are stout and the palanquin is carried by you, and a heavy burden is wearisome to all persons.' The Brahmin said: ‘Tell me first what you have distinctly seen of me and then you may distinguish my properties as strong or weak. The statement, that you behold the palanquin borne by me or placed on me, is unreal. Listen, O king, to my arguments about it. Both the feet are placed on the ground: the legs are supported by the feet; the thighs rest upon the legs; and the belly rests upon the thighs; the chest is supported by the belly and the arms and shoulders are supported by the chest; the palanquin is carried by the shoulders and then how can it be considered as my burden? This body which is seated in the palanquin is known as "thou" thence what is elsewhere called this is here distinguished as thou and I. I and thou and others are made of elements and elements, influenced by qualities, assume a bodily shape. Qualities depend on acts, and acts perpetrated in ignorance influence the condition of all beings. The soul is pure, imperishable, tranquil, devoid of qualities, distinct from nature and is without increase or diminution; and if it is freed from increase or diminution then with what prosperity you say to me, ‘I see that you are robust? If the palanquin is placed on the body, the body on the feet, the feet the ground, then the burden is carried as much by you as by me. Why are not others, O king, feeling the burden of this palanquin. If I am exhausted with a burden that is being carried on another's shoulder, then why with the weight of this palanquin, people may be worn out with the weight of mountains, trees, houses and even of the earth, When the nature of men is different, either in its essence or its cause, then it may be said that fatigue is to be undergone by me. The material, with which the palanquin is made, is the substance of you and me and of all others being a collection of Elements collected by individuality.'
Parāçara said:—Having said this the Brahman became silent and went on carrying the palanquin; the king too speedily got down from it and touched his feet. The king said: O Brahman, leave off the palanquin and be propitiated with me. Tell me who art thou under the disguise of a fool? The Brahman replied "Hear me, king. Who I am it is not possible to say; I go anywhere for receiving the fruits of good and bad luck. The body is produced for the enjoyment of pleasure and endurance of pain. Pleasure and pain originate from virtue and vice; therefore the soul assumes bodily shape for enjoying pleasure and enduring pain consequent upon virtue and vice. The universal cause of all living creatures is virtue or vice, why therefore enquire after the cause of my coming to this earth."
The king said:—"That virtue and vice are the causes of all actions and that people migrate into various bodies for receiving their consequences, there is not the least doubt about it; but as regards what you have said that it is not possible for you to say who you are, it is a matter which I wish to have explained. O Brahman, how cannot a man declare himself to be that which he (really) is: there can be no harm to one's self from applying to it the word 'I'".
The Brahmana said:—"To use the word ‘I' undoubtedly is detrimental; but it is not improperly used if it is applied merely to the soul. But the term is erroneous in as much as it conceives that to be the self or soul which is not self or soul. The tongue articulates the word ‘I' assisted by the lips, the teeth and the palate; and these are the origin of the expression, as they are the causes of the production of speech.
"If by these instruments speech can utter the word 'I' it is not at all proper to say that speech itself is ‘I.' O king, the body of a man having hands, feet and other limbs is composed of various parts: to what part shall we apply the word ‘I'? If another being had existed in this body quite different from me, then it may be said, O king, thatthisis I,thatis the other; while one soul inhabits the whole body, then such questions as 'Who are you? Who am I?' are useless. Thou art a monarch; this is a palanquin: these are the bearers: these are thy followers; yet it is untrue that these are thine. This palanquin, in which thou art seated, is made of timber got from trees. Then tell me, what name, tree, timber or palanquin, shall be applied to it, O king. The people shall not say that their monarch is seated on a tree or on a timber but they shall say that he is in the palanquin. The artificial assemblage of the pieces of timber is called the palanquin: judge yourself, therefore, O king, in what the palanquin differs from the wood. Again consider the sticks of the umbrella, in their separate state. What then is the umbrella? Apply this argument to thee and to me. A man, a woman, a cow, a goat, a horse, an elephant, a bird, a tree, are names given to various bodies, which they assume on account of their primitive actions. Man is neither a god, nor a man, nor a beast, nor a tree: these are the various shapes which he assumes on account of his acts. O king, your name is Vasuraja and another name is Rajabhat—besides you have got various other names—but none of these names is real and is nothing but the work of imagination. And what thing is there in the world, O king, which being subject to changes, does not in the course of time, go by different names? You are called the king of the world, the son of your father, the enemy of your foes, the husband of your wife, the father of your children, what name the shall I apply to you? What is your situation? Are you the head or the belly? Or are they yours? Are you the feet or are they yours? You are, O king, separate in nature from the members of your body. Then considering properly, do you think who I am. And since the truth has been got at, how is it possible for me to recognize the distinction and to apply to my individual the expression 'I'".