Yoga Vasishta - Post 16

The goddess continued: — Objects seen in a dream prove to be false on being awaken. Similarly, belief in the reality of the body becomes unfounded upon dissolution of our desires.  As a thing dreamt of disappears upon waking, so does the waking body disappear in sleep, when desires lie dormant in the soul.

 

As our physical bodies awake after dreaming and desiring, so our spiritual bodies awake after we cease to think of our physical states.  In deep sleep we are devoid of desires. Similarly, in the state of renunciation, even though we are awake in our physical bodies, we have the tranquility of liberation. The desire of men liberated while living (jivan mukta) is not properly any desire at all. It is a pure desire relating to universal wellbeing and happiness.

 

The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant is called deep sleep, but the dormancy of desires in the waking state is known as unconsciousness to delusion (moha) or unconsciousness (murchha).  Again the deep sleep that is wholly devoid of desire is called the turiya or the fourth stage of yoga. In the waking state it is called samadhi or union with Supreme.

 

The embodied man whose life is freed from all desires in this world is called the liberated while living (jivan mukta), a state unknown to those who are not liberated.  When the mind becomes a pure essence (as in samadhi) and its desires are weakened, it becomes spiritualized (ativahika) and it glows and flows, like snow melts to water by application of heat. The spiritualized mind, being awakened, mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls in the other world.

 

When your sense of individual ego is moderated by your practice of meditation, then the perception of invisible will rise of itself clearly before your mind.  When spiritual knowledge gains a firm footing in your mind, you will perceive more other worlds than you expect.  Therefore, O blameless lady, try your utmost to deaden your desires. When you have gained sufficient strength in that practice, know yourself to be liberated in this life.

 

When the moon of your intellectual knowledge shines fully with its cooling beams, you shall have to leave your physical body here in order to see the other worlds. Your fleshy body has no tangible connection with one that is without flesh, nor can the intellectual body (lingadeha, astral body) perform any action of the physical system.

 

 I have told you all this according to my best knowledge and the state of things as they are. Even children know that what I say is as effective as the curse or blessing of a god.

 

The habitual reliance of men upon their gross bodies and their fond attachment to them bind their souls down to the earth. The weakening of earthly desires serves to clothe them with spiritual bodies. Nobody believes that he has a spiritual body, even at his death bed, but everyone thinks a dying man is dead with his body forever. This body however, neither dies nor is it alive at any time. Both life and death, in all respects, are mere appearances of aerial dreams and desires. The life and death of beings here below are as false as the appearances and disappearance of people in imagination, or dolls in play or puppet shows.

 

Leela said, “O goddess, the pure knowledge that you have given me has fallen on my ears acts like a healing balm to the pain caused by phenomena. Now tell me the name and nature of the practice for spiritualization. How it is to be perfected and what is the end of such perfection?”

 

The goddess replied:— Whatever a man attempts to do here at anytime, he can hardly ever complete it without painful practice to the utmost of his power. The wise say that practice consists in the association of one thing with another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in devoting oneself solely to his object.

 

Great souls become successful in this world who are disgusted with the world and are moderate in their enjoyments and desires. They do not think about seeking what they lack. Those great minds are said to be best trained who are graced with liberal views, are delighted with the relish of unconcern with the world, and are enraptured with streams of heavenly joy. 

 

Again, they are called the best practiced in divine knowledge who, by the light of reasoning and scripture, are employed preaching the absolute non-existence of any distinction between the knower and what is known in this world. What some call practical knowledge is knowing that nothing was produced in the beginning and nothing that is visible, such as this world or one’s self, is true at any time.

 

The effect of practicing meditation is a strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which results from an understanding of the nonexistence of the visible world and the subsidence of passions. But mere knowledge of the nonexistence of the world, without subduing passions, is known as knowledge without practice, and is of no value to its possessor.  Consciousness of the nonexistence of the visible world is the true knowledge of the knowable. 

 

The practice of meditation makes this knowledge a habit in the mind and leads one to his final extinction (nirvana). The practice of meditation prepares the mind and awakens the intelligence which lay dormant in the dark night of this world. Consciousness then sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the frosty night of autumn.

 

Valmiki speaking:— As the sage was lecturing in this manner, the day departed for its evening service and led the assembled train to their evening prayers. After the rising beams of the sun dispelled the darkness of night, they met again with mutual greetings.

 

Love.

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 15

The goddess replies to the question which Leela asks:—

 

I tell you lady, Divine Will is an aerial tree and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no figure or form or substance to them. Whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of His intelligent nature is only a likeness of Himself and bears little difference from its original. My body is the same and I need not lay it aside. I find that place with my body like a breeze finds odors.  As water mixes with water, fire with fire, and air with air, so does this spiritual body easily join with any material form that it likes. But a physical body cannot mix with a non-physical substance, nor can a solid rock become the same as the idea of a hill.

 

Your body has its mental and spiritual parts. It has become physical because of its habitual tendency towards the physical. Your physical body becomes spiritual (ativahika) by leaning towards spirituality, as in your sleep, your protracted meditation, and you are unconsciousness to fancies and reveries. Your spiritual nature will return to your body when your earthly desires are lessened and curbed within the mind.

 

Leela said, “Say goddess, what happens to the spiritual body after it has attained its compactness by constant practice of yoga? Does it becomes indestructible or does it perish like all other finite bodies?”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

Anything that exists is perishable and, of course, liable to death. But how can something die that is nothing and is imperishable in its nature? Again, once we realize the mistake of thinking a rope to be a snake, the snake disappears of itself and no one mistakes the rope anymore. Thus, as the true knowledge of the rope removes the false conception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the spiritual body dispels the misconception of its materiality. 

 

We clearly see our bodies as full of the spirit of God. Your gross understanding keeps you from seeing this. In the beginning, when consciousness (chit) is engrossed with the imagination of the mind, it loses sight of the One.

 

Leela asked, “But how can imagination trace out anything in that unity in which the divisions of time and space and all things are lost in an undistinguishable mass?”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

Like the bracelet in gold, waves in water, the show of truth in dreams, and the appearance of castles in the sky all vanish upon an accurate perception, so the imaginary attributes of the unpredictable God are all nothing whatever. Just like there is no dust in the sky, no attribute or partial property can be ascribed to God whose nature is indivisible and unimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil and all-pervading. Whatever shines about us is the pure light of that Being who scatters His luster all around like a transcendental gem.

 

Leela said, “If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess, how we happened to fall into the error of attributing duality and diversity to His nature?”

 

The goddess replied:—

It was your ignorance that for so long has led you to error. The natural bane of mankind is the absence of reasoning, and it requires remedying by your attending to reason.

 

When reason takes the place of ignorance, in a moment it introduces the light of knowledge in the soul instead of its former darkness. As reason advances, your ignorance and your bondage to prejudice are put to flight. Then you have an unobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world. As long as you remained without reasoning on this subject, you were either sleeping or wandering in error.

 

Now your reason and liberation are awakened and the seeds for the suppression of your desires are sown in your heart. At first, the nature of this physical world was neither apparent to you nor you to it. How long will you reside in it and what other desires have you here? Withdraw your mind from its thoughts of the viewer, the visible, and the vision of this world. Settle your mind on the idea of the entire negation of all existence. 

Fix your meditation solely upon the Supreme Being and sit in a state of unalterable unconsciousness. When the seed of renunciation has taken root and germinated in your heart, the sprouts of your likes and dislikes will be destroyed of themselves. 

 

Remaining entranced in your abstract meditation, in process of time you will have a soul as luminous as a star in the clear sky of heaven, free from the links of all causes and their effects for evermore.

 

Love.

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 14

Leela said, “What a wonderful sight you have shown me, O goddess. It is as auspicious as morning light and as brilliant as lightning. Now goddess, please satisfy my curiosity until I become thoroughly familiar with this knowledge through my intense application and study. Kindly take me to that mountainous place where the brahmin couple, Vasishta and Arundhati, lived and show me their house.”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

If you want to see that sight, you have to be immaculate. You must give up your personality and your ego-sense and attain awareness of the unintelligible Consciousness within the soul. Then you will find yourself in an empty atmosphere situated in the sky that resembles the prospects of earthly men and the apartments of the firmament (i.e., nothing). 

 

In this state we shall be able to see them (the field of another’s imagination) with all their possessions and without any obstruction. Otherwise this body is a great barrier in the way of spiritual vision.

 

Leela said, “Tell me kindly, O goddess, the reason why do we not see the other world with these eyes, or go there with these our bodies.”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

The reason is that you take the true future as false, and you believe the untrue present as true. These worlds that are formless appear to your eyes as having forms, just like you see the form of a ring when its substance is gold. Gold, though fashioned into a circle, has no curve in it. 

 

The spirit of God appearing in the form of the world is not the world itself. The world is an emptiness full with the spirit of God. Whatever is visible is like dust appearing to fly over the sea.

 

The ultimate substance of the world is all a false illusion. The true reality is the subjective Brahma alone.  The believer in Brahma sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere. 

 

He looks to Brahma through Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of all, and whose nature includes all other attributes in itself. Brahma is known not only as the author of His work of the creation of worlds, but as existent of Himself without any causation or auxiliary causation.

 

The practice of meditation trains you to disregard all duality and variety and to rely only on one unity. Until you are trained through your practice of meditation, you are barred from viewing Brahma in His true light. By constant practice of meditation, we become settled in this belief of unity, and we rest in the Supreme Spirit. 

 

Then we find our bodies to be an aerial substance that mixes with the air, and at last, with these our mortal frames, we are able to come to the sight of Brahma. Being endowed with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames (astral or subtle bodies), like those of Brahma and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part of the divine essence.

Without the practice of meditation, you cannot approach God with your mortal frame. A soul sullied by physical sensation can never see the image of God. It is impossible for one to arrive at another’s castle in the sky, when he is unable to see the castle in the sky that he himself imagined.

 

Therefore, give up your gross body and assume your light intellectual frame. Immerse yourself in the practice of yoga so that you may see God face to face.  It is possible to labor and build castles in the air. In the same way, it is possible through the practice of yoga, and in no other way, to behold God, either with this body or without it.

 

Ever since the creation of this world (by the will of Brahma), there have been false conceptions of its existence. It has been attributed to an eternal fate, niyati (by fatalists), and to an illusory power, maya shakti (of Maya vadis).

 

Leela asked, “O goddess, you said that we both shall go to the abode of the brahmin couple, but I ask you, how is that possible? I am able to go there with the pure essence of my sentient soul. But tell me, how will you who are pure intellect (chetas) go to that place?”

 

 

Continued…. 

 

 

Love.

 

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 13

Saraswati continues speaking to Leela:—

 

Soon after death occasions the lack of physical senses, the sight of the world appears to the soul as if he were seeing it with open eyes when he was living.  Before him is presented the circle of the sky and its sides with the cycle of its seasons and times. He is shown the deeds of his pious and mundane acts, as if they were to continue to eternity.  Objects never before seen or thought of also offer themselves to his view, like the sight of his own death in a dream, as if they were the prints in his memory. 

 

But the infinity of objects appearing in the empty sphere of the non-physical intellect is mere illusion, and the baseless city of the world, like a castle in the sky, is only the creation of imagination.

 

Memory of the past world makes it known to us. Therefore, the length of a kalpa age and the shortness of a moment are only false impressions proceeding from the speed and slowness of our thoughts.

 

Therefore knowledge based upon previous memories or otherwise is of two kinds, and things known without their cause are attributed to Divine Intelligence.  We are also conscious of thoughts that we have not thought of before in our minds, such as we often have in our dreams. Another may remind us of our deceased parents, so we think of them.  Sometimes genius supersedes the province of memory, as in the first creation or discovery of a thing, which afterwards is continued by its memory.

 

According to some, those visible worlds are said to have remained in their ideal state in the Divine Mind. According to others, there were no pre-existent notions of these in the mind of God. According to some others, the world manifested itself not from memory but by the power and will of God. Still others maintain it to be the production of a sudden, fortuitous combination of intelligence and atomic principles 

 

Completely forgetting the world is called liberation. That cannot be had if consciousness is attached to what is desirable or is averse to the undesirable. It is difficult to effect an entire negation of both one’s subjective and objective knowledge of his self and the existence of the outer world. Yet nobody can be freed without the obliteration of both.

 

As the fallacy of taking a rope for a snake is not removed until the meaning of the word snake is known to be inapplicable to the rope, so no one can have rest and peace of mind unless he is convinced of the illusory nature of the world. 

 

Even with that, a person who is at peace with himself cannot be wholly at rest without divine knowledge because, even though he has rid himself of the devil of worldliness, the ghost of his inner ignorance may overtake him. The world is certainly a monster in itself without the knowledge of its Author, but the difficulty of knowing the First Cause has rendered it an impassable wilderness.

 

Leela said, “If memories are the cause of one’s reincarnation, then, O goddess, tell me what were the causes of the birth of the brahmin couple, without the vestiges of their past memories?

 

The goddess replied:— Know that Brahma the first progenitor of mankind, who was absolute in himself, did not retain any vestige of his past memories in him. The first born, who had nothing to remember of a prior birth, was born in the lotus with his own intelligence (chaitanya) and not because of his memory. The Lord of Creatures being thus born by chance of his own genius or creative power, and without any assignable cause or design on his part, reflected within himself, “Now I am become another and the source of creation.”

 

Whatever is born of itself is like a nothing that was never produced at all, but remains as the absolute intellect itself in the clouds. 

 

The Supreme Being is the sole cause of both types of memories (those caused by vestiges of prior impressions, and those produced by prior desires). Both conditions of cause and effect are combined in Him in the sphere of his consciousness.  Therefore our tranquility can only come from knowing that cause and effect are the same and that the auxiliary cause is in Him.

 

 Continued.....

   

Love

Yoga Vasishta - Post 12

 

The goddess replied to Leela's question as to how can we be the brahmin couple when they died only eight days before and we have been reigning here for so many years?” 

 

Goddess said, "In reality, there is neither any limit of space or time, nor any distance of place or length of time. Hear me now tell you the reason why.

 

As the universe is the reflection of the Divine Mind, so are infinity and eternity but representations of Himself.  As soon as one feels the lack of senses after his death, he forgets his former nature and thinks himself to be another being. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, he assumes an empty form in the womb of emptiness and in that container he thinks within himself, “This is my body with its hands and feet.” 

 

Thinking about body, he finds it presented before him.  Then he thinks in himself, “I am the son of this father and am so many years old. These are my dear friends and this is my pleasant home. I was born and became a boy, and then grew up to this age. There are all my friends and in the same course of their lives.”  

 

Thus the compact density of the sphere of his soul presents him with many other images that appear to arise in it as in some part of the world. But they neither rise nor remain in the soul itself, which is as transparent as empty as air. They appear to consciousness like a vision seen in a dream.

Everything in the other world appears equally real, just like in his dream. The unreality of the world of dreaming and the reality of this physical world are alike. 

 

But in reality, the appearance is nothing but a reflection of consciousness which, apart from the intelligible spirit, is merely an empty void. Although presided over by the intelligible spirit, creation itself is a mere void, its only substance being the intelligible soul, like water is to waves.

 

After the visible outer world has disappeared from sight, the soul, in its inner world of the mind, reflects on its memories of creation according to the proper time and place of everything. It remembers its birth, its parents, its age and its residence, with its learning and all other pursuits in their exact manner and order.  

 

It thinks of its friends and servants, and of the success and failure of its attempts. The uncreated and incorporeal soul, in its intellectual form, reflects on the events of its created and corporeal state.

 

However, it does not remain in this state for long. Soon after death it enters a new body to which the properties of the mind and senses are added afterwards in their proper times. It then becomes a baby, finds a new father and mother, and begins to grow. 

 

Thus whether one may perceive it or not, it is all the product of his former memories.  Then upon waking from this state of trance, like a fruit from the cell of a flower, it comes to find that a single moment appeared to it as the period of an age.

 

The vision of Leela, called samadhi in yoga and clairvoyance of spiritualism, was the abstract meditation of her lord in her memory that presented her with a full view of everything imprinted on it. Memory is taken for the whole consciousness (chit), which is identified with God in whose essence the images of all things are said to be eternally present.

 

Continued…

 

Love.

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 11

Saraswati said to Leela, “That brahmin whom I described before, the one who become a monarch on earth, is the same as your husband. His wife Arundhati is no other than yourself, the best of women.  You two are the same pair now reigning over this realm, resembling a pair of doves in your nuptial love, and the gods Shiva and Parvati in your might.”

 

“I have related your past lives to you so that you may know the individual soul to be only air, and that knowledge of its reality is an error. False knowledge casts its reflection on consciousness and causes its error also. (Errors in the senses breed errors in the mind.) 

 

This makes you doubtful of the truth and untruth of the two states (of the material and intellectual worlds).  Therefore the question, ‘Which is true and which is untrue?’ has no better answer than that all creations are equally false and unsubstantial.”

 

Vasishta said:—

 

Hearing these words of the goddess, Leela was confused in her mind, and with her eyes staring with wonder, she addressed her softly.

Leela said, “How is it, O goddess, that your words are so incoherent with truth. You make us the same as the brahmin couple who are in their own house. We are sitting here in our palace. How is it possible that the small space of the room in which my husband’s body is lying could contain those spacious lands and hills and the ten sides of the sky?  It is as impossible as confining an elephant in a mustard seed, or a gnat fighting with a body of lions in a nutshell. 

 

It is as incredible as to believe a lotus seed contains a hill, or to be devoured by a little bee, or that peacocks are dancing hearing the roaring of clouds in a dream. O great goddess of gods, it is equally improbably to say that this earth, with all its mountains and other things, is contained within the small space of a sleeping room.  Therefore, O goddess, please explain this mystery clearly to me, because it is by your favor only that the learned are cleared of their questions.”

 

The goddess Saraswati said:— Hear me, fair maiden! I did not tell you a lie. 

The individual soul of the village brahmin saw within itself and in his own house the image of this great kingdom, just as his departed spirit now sees the same in its empty void. (Therefore both these states are equally ideal.) 

After death you lost the memories of your former lives, just like one loses memories of waking events when in the dream state. All are like the appearance of the three worlds in dream, or their formation in the imagination, or like the description of warfare in an epic poem, or like water in the mirage of a sandy desert. 

The hills and houses seen in the empty space of the brahmin’s house were nothing but the capacity of his own mind to form the images of its fancy and receive the external impressions like a reflecting mirror.  All these, though unreal, appear as real substances on account of the reality of consciousness which is seated in the cavity of the innermost sheath of the body and reflects the images. 

But these images derived from the memories of unreal objects of the world are as unreal as those objects which cast their reflections upon consciousness. Waves rising in the river of a mirage are as unreal as the mirage itself.

The spirit of the brahmin resided in the emptiness of his house (the body), with the seas, forests and the earth within itself, like a bee lives in the lotus. Thus the habitable earth with everything it contains is situated in a small cell in one corner of consciousness, like a spot of flimsy cloud in the sky. 

The house of the holy brahmin was situated in the same locality of consciousness which contains all the worlds in one of its atomic particles. Every atom of the intelligent soul contains unnumbered worlds within worlds, enough to remove your doubt of the brahmin being able to see an entire kingdom within the space of his intellect.

 

Leela asked, “How can we be the brahmin couple when they died only eight days before and we have been reigning here for so many years?”

 

Continued....

Love

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

 

THE mind flits fast from one idea to another; it fondles for a moment and forsakes the next. You may manage to keep your mouths shut, but it is next to impossible to keep the mind shut. Mind is of that nature; it is woven so out of the yarn of desire. Its characteristic is to flutter and flit, hither and thither, through the outlets of the senses, into the external world of colour, sound, taste, smell and touch. But it can be tamed and put to good use by man. If we keep it engaged in good pursuits and good adventures, particularly in the contemplation of the Universal, the Absolute, the Eternal, that is to say, of God, then, it will not go astray and land man in ruin; for, God is the source of undying strength, of lasting joy and the deepest wisdom. The age span, 16-30 years, is crude, for that is the period when life adds sweetness to itself, when talents, skills, and attitudes are accumulated, sublimated and sanctified. If the tonic of unselfish Seva (service) is administered to the mind during this period, life's mission is fulfilled - for the process of sublimation and sanctification will be hastened by this tonic. Do not serve for the sake of reward, attracting attention, or earning gratitude, or from a sense of pride at your own superiority in skill, wealth, status or authority. Serve because you are urged by love. When you succeed, ascribe the success to the Grace of God, who urged you on, as Love within you. When you fail, ascribe the failure to your own inadequacy, insincerity or ignorance. Examine the springs of action, disinfect them from all trace of ego. Do not throw the blame on the recipients of the seva, or on your collaborators and co-workers, or on God.

 

Divine Discourse – 19^th May, 1969

Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 9

 

  

Yoga Vasishta - Post 10

Vasishta relating the story of Leela, Saraswati speaking to Leela:

In his age and attire, in his learning and wealth, and in all his actions and pursuits, this holy man was equal to his namesake, except in his profession. (The one being a secular man, and the other the priest of the royal family). His name was Vasishta.

 

His wife was Arundhati, fair as the moon and like the star of the same name visible from earth. She resembled her namesake, the priestess of the solar race, in her virtues and parts and in all things, except in her soul and body. She passed her time in true love and affection in the company of her husband, and she was his all in the world, with her sweet smiling face resembling a kumuda flower.

 

Once this holy man had been sitting under the shady sarala trees, on the tableland of his native hill, when he saw the ruler of the land passing below with his gaudy train.  He was accompanied by all the members of the royal family and his troops and soldiers. They were going to a hunt with a clamor that resounded in the hills and forests.  The white flapper fans shed a stream of moonlight, the lifted banners appeared like a moving forest, and the white umbrellas made a canopy of the sky. 

 

The air was filled with dust raised by the horses’ hoofs, and the lines of elephants with their high pavilion saddles seemed like moving towers that protect them from the heat of the sun and the hot winds. The loud uproar of the party, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool, made wild animals run on all sides. Shining gems and jewels were flashing all about on the bodies in the party.

 

The holy man saw this procession and thought to himself, “O how charming is royalty, filled with such splendor and prosperity! Ah, how shall I become the monarch of all the ten sides, and have such a retinue of horse, elephants and foot soldiers, with a similar train of flags, flappers and blazing umbrellas? When will the breeze gently blow the fragrance of kunda flowers and the powdered dust of lotuses to my bed-chamber to lull me and my consorts to sleep? When shall I adorn the faces of my chamber maids with camphor and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of the four quarters with my fair fame, like the moonbeams decorate the night?”

 

With these thoughts, the holy man determined that for the rest of his life, he would apply himself vigilantly to the rigid austerities of his religion. At last, he was overtaken by infirmities which shattered his body, like the sleets of snowfall batter the blooming lotuses in the lake. Seeing his approaching death, his faithful wife was fading away with fear, like a vine withers at the departure of spring for fear of the summer heat. Arundhati then began to worship me, as you yourself have, in order to obtain the boon of immortality which is hard to be had.

 

She prayed, “Ordain, O goddess, that the spirit of my lord may not depart from this tomb after his death.” I granted her request.

 

After some time Vasishta the holy man died and his empty spirit remained in the emptiness of that home. By virtue of the excessive desire and merit of acts in his former state of existence, this aerial spirit of the holy man assumed the shape of a mighty man on earth. He became the victorious monarch of the three realms. By his might he subjugated the surface of the earth. 

 

By his valor he conquered the high mountains (of the gods). By his kind protection, the nether lands were under his sway.  He was like a raging fire to the forest of his enemies, and like the steadfast Mount Meru amidst the rushing winds of business on all sides. He was like the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of the virtuous. To the eyes of women he was like the god Kama.  He was the model of all learning, and the all giving wish-fulfilling tree to his suitors. He was the footstool of great scholars. He was like the full moon shedding ambrosial beams of enlightened rule all around.

 

But after the holy brahmin had died, and his dead body had disappeared into the forms of elementary particles in air, and his airy spirit had rested in the aerial intellectual soul within the empty space of his house, his holy brahmin widow, Arundhati, was pining away in her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain like a dried pea pod. She became a dead body like her husband. Her spirit, by shuffling off its mortal coil, resumed its subtle and immortal form in which it met the departed ghost of her husband. She advanced to her lord as rapidly as a river runs to meet the sea below its level. She was as cheerful to join him as a cluster of flowers inhale the spring air.

 

The houses, lands and all the immovable properties and movable riches of this holy brahmin Vasishta still exist in that rocky village, and it has been only eight days since the souls of this loving pair were reunited in the hollow vault of their house.

 

Continued....

 

Love.