Yoga Vasishta - Post 26

Vasishta said:— Then waves of cavalry mounting to the sky made the battlefield appear like a raging sea. 

The battlefield had become like a wonderful field of the air in which the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook hills like moving clouds in the sky. 

Heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground drove the cowards and the wounded far away from the battlefield.  Hills of dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving in promiscuous heaps and appearing like clouds fallen upon earth, invited the demon yakshas, rakshasas and carnivorous pisachas to come and play in the wide ocean of blood.

The forest of the army howled in a tremendous roar until it was burnt down by the all devouring fire of the enemy. Hacked by the Assamese, their weapons snatched by the Bhutas, the Dasarnas threw away their staffs and fled like a herd of cows. 

Rama, what more shall I say about this war which baffles even Sesha, with his hundred tongues and mouths, to attempt a full description?

Vasishta continued:— Now as the war waged fiercely, with mingled shouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his polished armor under the mist of darkness and was about to set.

The day declined after it had run its course of eight watches and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero returning in glory after he has fought his battle. The army, like the day, declined in splendor, being battered in its cavalry and shattered in its force of elephants. 

At last a thick cloud of darkness covered the face of the sky, and the hills, valleys, gardens and groves became hidden under an impenetrable gloom. Infernal spirits were loosened from their dismal abodes and ravaged at large over the battlefield like a hurricane under the vault of heaven.

It was in the still hour of this gloomy night, when the host of heaven seemed to be fast asleep, that a sadness stole in upon the mind of Leela’s magnanimous husband, King Viduratha.  He thought about what was to be done the next morning in council with his counselors, and then he went to his bed which was as white as moonlight and as cold as frost.  For a while his lotus-eyes were closed in sleep in his royal camp, which was as white as moonbeams and covered by the cold dews of night.

Then the two ladies issued forth from their empty abode and entered the tent through a crevice, like air penetrates into the heart of an untouched flower bud.

Rama asked, “How is it possible sage, that the gross bodies of the goddesses, with their limited dimensions, could enter the tent through one of its holes, as small as the pore of a piece of cloth?”

Continued

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