Leela & Saraswati enter King Viduratha’s Tent; He Remembers His
Past Lives; Everything Is within the Temple of the Mountain Brahmin;
Discrimination of Error
The
cooling and moon-bright radiance of the ladies roused the king from his sleep
as if he had been sprinkled with the juice of ambrosia. He saw the forms of two
apsaras sitting on two stools, appearing like two moons risen on two peaks of
Mount Meru.
The
king saw them with wonder and after composing his mind, he rose up from his bed
like God Vishnu rises from his bed of the serpent. Then advancing
respectfully to them, with long strings of flowers in his hands, he made
offerings of them to the ladies with handfuls of flowers flung at their feet.
Leaving
his pillowed sofa in the midst of the hall, he sat with folded legs on the
ground. Lowly bending his head, he addressed them saying, “Be victorious, O
moon-bright goddesses who by your radiance drive away all the miseries and
evils and pains and pangs of life, and who by your sun-like beams dispel all my
inward and outward darkness.”
Then
the goddess, desiring to reveal the ancestry of the king, inspired his
minister, who was lying nearby, to relate it to Leela. Upon waking, the
minister saw the nymphs manifested before him, and advancing humbly before
them, threw handfuls of flowers upon their feet. The goddess said, “Let us
know, O king, who you are and when and of whom you are born.”
Hearing
these words of the goddess, the minister spoke saying, “It is by your
favor, O gracious goddesses, that I am empowered to relate of my king’s
ancestry to your kind graces.”
“There
was a sovereign born of the imperial line of Ikshvaku named Mukundaratha, who
had subjugated the earth under his arms. He had a moon-faced son by name
of Bhadraratha, whose son Viswaratha was father to the renowned prince
Brihadratha. His son Sindhuratha was the father of Sailaratha, and his
son Kamaratha was father of Maharatha. His son Vishnuratha was father of
Nabhoratha, who gave birth to this my lord of handsome appearance.”
“He
is renowned as Viduratha and is born with the great virtues of his sire, as the
moon was produced of the Milky Ocean to shed his ambrosial beams over his
people. He was begotten by his mother Sumitra like the god Guha of Gauri. He
was installed king of the realm in the tenth year of his age, owing to his
father taking himself to asceticism. He has been ruling the realm with justice
since that time, and your appearance here tonight indicates the blossoming of his
good fortune.”
“O
goddesses, whose presence is hard to be had, even by the merit of long devotion
and a hundred austerities, you see here present before you the lord of the
earth, famed Viduratha. After saying these words, the minister remained silent
with the lord of the earth.
They
were sitting on the ground with folded legs, clasped hands and downcast looks
when the goddess of wisdom, by her inspiration, told the king to remember his
former births. So saying, she touched his head with her hand and immediately
the dark veil of illusion and oblivion was dispersed from over the lotus of his
mind. It opened like a blossom by the touch of the genius of
consciousness and it became bright as the clear sky with the rays of his former
memories.
By
his intelligence, he remembered his former kingdom, of which he had been the
sole lord, and recollected all his past play with Leela. He was carried
away by the thoughts of the events of his past lives, as one is carried away by
the current of waves, and reflected in himself that this world is a magic sea
of illusion.
He
said, “I have come to know this by the favor of the goddesses, but how is it
that so many events have occurred to me in course of one day after my death?
Here I have passed a lifetime full of seventy years and remember having done
many works and having seen my grandson. I recollect the bygone days of my
boyhood and youth, and I remember well all the friends and relatives and all
the clothes and attendants that I had before.”
Love
