Yoga Vasishta - Post 8

Queen Leela and King Padma lead an idyllic life, but as they age Leela fears he might die first, in which case her own life would be intolerable. She does tapas to Goddess Saraswati and obtains the boon to have her husband’s spirit always with her. She and the goddess astral travel and time travel to see the couple’s prior life as simple brahmins when her husband sees a lavish royal hunting party, creating a desire in him to possess the wealth of an empire. That desire manifests after King Padma dies and the queen and goddess see another reality in the deceased king’s mind. He is now King Viduratha ruling a vast empire with a second Leela as his wife.

 

Vasishta said, So saying, the goddess repaired to her heavenly seat and Leela sat gladly in her mood of steadfast meditation. Within a moment, she left the prison house of her body. Her soul broke out of its inner bound of the mind to fly freely in the air, like a bird freed from its cage. She ascended to the airy region of Consciousness and saw her husband sitting there, amidst a group of princes and rulers of the earth.

 

The sounds of brahmins chanting on sacrificial altars were drowned under the sound of tambourines, shouted announcements, and the loud praises of speakers, all re-echoed by the uproar of elephants. 

 

The vault of heaven resounded to the sounds of vocal and instrumental music, and the dust raised by the procession of elephants and chariots, and the trotting of horses’ hoofs, hid the face of the sky like a cloud. 

 

The fragrance of flowers, camphor and heaps of frankincense perfumed the air, and the royal hall was filled with presents sent from different provinces.

 

Then the ardent Leela entered the royal assembly hall of the ruler of men. She was unseen by any, just as one void mixes with another void, and as air is lost in the air. 

 

She wandered about without anyone there seeing her, just like a fair figure formed by false imagination of our fond desires is not to be perceived by anyone outside ourselves. 

 

In this manner she continued to walk about the palace unperceived by all, just like a castle in the air built in one’s mind is not perceived by another.

 

She suddenly saw the flames of wildfire spreading on all sides, even in broad midday light, and the sun and moon appearing both at once in the sky, and the clouds roaring with a tremendous noise, with the whistling of the winds. 

She saw trees, hills, rivers and cities flourishing with population, and the many towns and villages and forests all about. 

 

She saw her royal consort as a boy of ten years of age after shaking off his former frame of old age, sitting amidst the hall with all his former retinue, and all the inhabitants of his village.

 

Leela, having seen all these, began to reflect within herself whether the inhabitants of this place were living beings or the ghosts of their former individual souls.

Then having recovered her (ordinary) sense at the removal of her trance, she entered her inner apartment at midnight and found the residents fast bound in sleep. 

 

She woke her sleeping companions one by one and said she was anxious to visit the royal hall. She wanted to sit beside the throne of her lord and to clear her doubt by seeing the courtiers all alive.

 

The royal servants rose up at her call and obedient to her command they said, “Be it so” and attended to their respective duties. 

 

Dignified ministers and chiefs attended first and took their respective seats, appearing as if they were a set of newly created rulers of the various peoples of the world, or the regents of the quarters of the sky. 

 

There, Leela took her seat on a golden seat by the side of the throne. She appeared as beautiful as Rati seated in the joyous heart of Kama. She saw all the princes seated in their order as before, and the elders of the people and the nobles of men and all her friends and relatives seated in their proper places.  

 

She was highly delighted to see them all in their former states. Her face shone brightly like the moon to find them all alive again.

 

 

Continued.....

 

 

Love.