Sri Vasista

O Rāma, there Bhrigu, the great Bhrigu woke up from samadhi after a thousand celestial years.
He did not find his virtuous, obedient son, - who was like a commander of army of good qualities – before him.
He saw the corpse of Sukra, which was like an embodiment of poverty.
Bird ‘titiri’ built nests in the hollows of that corpse while frogs were resting in the entrails and stomach.
Insects were living in the eye-hollows of the cranium. They were breeding profusely. Silk-worms wove their nests on the bones of the skeleton.
The entails were washed white by the rainwaters and looked like a garland of lean bones. The garland appeared to be like a chain woven out of the earlier pleasures and their fruits (vāsanas).
The while-clean cranium with its soft moon-beam appeared like the subtle body of the linga-shape smeared with Camphor.
The neck, uniting an upright emaciated cranium and the skeleton appeared to be increasing the height and length of the total frame.
The while nose bone, completely washed by waters of the flesh, looked like one limiting the facial configuration and holding it.
With a long neck and upturned face, it looked as though (the corpse) was watching the vital airs on their path into the womb of the sky.
The long shoulders, waist, knees and calves looked as if they were afraid of the long journey ahead of them (to the other world).
The stomach drawn inside to the skin-cover (like a pit) was revealing the total emptiness of the heart of an ignorant person.
-14 That corpse looked like the very anchor of the elephant of grief. Looking at that Bhrigu stood up without any thinking. A thought ran through his mind. ‘what? Did my son expire long ago?’.
-16 The great Bhagawan Bhrigu flew into a rage with the Lord of death when he saw his son dead. ‘Why did he take away my son in such a short time?’. With such a question in his mind, he began to pronounce a curse on the Lord of death.

Then, the Lord of death took a physical form and came near Bhrigu.
The famous lord was richly decorated with earrings, an armour and was holding a sword and rope. With six faces and six shoulders, he was surrounded by his horde of guards.
The flames coming out of his body was like a mountain full of red ‘kimsuka’ trees. With that red light, the sky was shining red-bright.
All the quarters were wearing a golden hue with the flames issuing forth out of the ends of the trident in his hands.
Many mountains were swinging to their roots shaken by the strong aims of his breath.
Sun was enveloped by the flares coming out of yama’s sword. It looked as if sun was disturbed by the vast amounts of smoke rising out of the earth at the time of dissolution.
O mighty armed one, thus came yama near the mightily enraged sage and spoke in sweet and calm tone thus.
‘Sages who know the ways of the world and are aware of both the worlds, do not get upset even when there is reason. Then why so when there is no reason’.
‘You are a great brahmin of great penance. We are keepers of law. And so you are to be worshipped desiring nothing from you.
‘O intelligent one, do not waste your penance. I cannot be burnt even by the fires of dissolution. How can I be burnt by your curse?’
‘I have devoured many worlds. I have swallowed many millions of Rudras and Vishnus. O Sage, what then is beyond your power?’
‘O Brahmin of great merit, we have devourers. You are our food. This is the law. There is no other valid profit in this for us’.
‘Fire and flames travel upwards. Water flows down. Similarly for an eater, food becomes available. Creation moves towards destruction and reaches the devourer’.
‘O Sage, in this was I am the very form of Supreme. The Supreme explodes himself within himself (as world)’.
‘From this point of view there is no doer here. There is no eater here. From the opposite view point there are many doers and many eaters’.
From an integrated perception, there is neither doer nor enjoyer. They are only from an unintegrated point of view’.
‘Trees bear flowers. Worlds hold beings. They are born and disappear (in a natural way) by themselves’.
‘The movement of reflected moon is caused and not caused. It is neither true nor untrue as long as it is the time-based creation’
‘Doing and non-doing is a matter of mental delusion. It is an unhealthy perception like rope-snake illusion, caused by imagination.’
‘And so O sage, do not fly into a rage and walk into catastrophes. Try to see reality as it is without agitation.’
‘O worshipworthy Sage, we are not doing anything to exhibit our power or out of any self-aggrandizement. We are in total control of ourselves. We are law-bound.
‘All these doings of Nature are bound by the great law (of the Divine). Wise people act out of this understanding. Ordinary people living in great ignorance act driven by their selfish ends’
‘Men of action act driven by duty. Taking refuge in darkness please do lead yourself into destruction’
Where is that perception full of knowledge? Where is that greatness? Where is that courage and intellect? You are famous for the knowledge about these paths? Why are you becoming blind to all these?’
‘O knower of everything! Why are you, like an ignorant man, ignoring the states caused by one’s own actions and are intent on cursing me?’
‘O Sage, don’t you know that a person has two bodies: One, the gross body and two the mental body?’
‘The gross body is stupid and inconscient. It gets destroyed easily. It is its nature. Mind is lowly. Why are you making the law useless (by your cursing)?’
‘This body is being driven by mind like a chariot which is driven by a skilled charioteer.’
‘This mind creates a body out of its mental design and destroys it in a trice. It is like a child who creates and destroys an earthen doll.’
‘Mind is being. What is done by it is called action. Because of deception one is bound by this action. Freedom from this deception is liberation’
‘This is body. This is head, These are limbs’ – all such defamatory imaginations are done by mind.
‘Mind is the one which moves from one Jiva to another called Jiva. Intellect follows this. Invoked by ego (ahamkara) mind assumes multiple forms’
‘Because of deep, indelible memory of body, mind sees itself as other earthly bodies’.
‘If mind sees truth, giving up the idea of body, it becomes full of truth and achieves the supreme state’
‘While you were in samādhi, your son went far far away in the paths of desire’
‘Leaving his gross body in a cave in Mandara hill, his subtle body flew to the heaven like an eagle rushing through the sky’

-55 O Sage, there, in the heavens, he wandered about for eight four-yuga cycles in the fields of ‘mandara’ mountain, in ‘Nandana’ garden, in the cities of guardians of the world. Viswachi, The ‘apsara’ was his companion in these wanderings. With her on his sode, the lustrous Sukra appeared like a bee on a lotus. Thus the merit acquired by this (son of yours), the dashing young man living in his world of imagination, is now extinguished like night after day’.

‘He has fallen to the ground like a ripe fruit with all his limbs shattered.’
‘Leaving his celestial body in heaven itself, he is now born on the earth entering the ether of matter.’
-64. ‘He was born at first as a brahmin in Dasanna’ country, then as King of ‘Kosala’ country, then as a fisherman in a great forest, then as a swan on the banks of Ganga. He then reincarnated in the Surya dynasty as a king of Pundra Country. Then he took birth as a spiritual teacher in ‘Salwa’ Country. He lived as a Vidyadhara through one aeon. After that he was born as a ruler of Madra Country. After this he took birth as a son of muni Vasudeva and lived on the banks of ‘Samanga’ river. Above all these births, your son went though many wombs due to accumulated ‘vāsanas’. These were of very disagreeable type. He was born as a ‘kirātā’ in the Vindhya mountains and ‘Kaikata’ Country. He took birth as a King of ‘Sauvira’. This was followed by incarnation as a donkey in the ‘Trigarta’ Country. Further he took birth as a bamboo creeper in the Kirāta Country, then as an antelope in China, then as a serpent in tall palm trees and then as a hen in ‘tamāla’ gardens. (In one of the births) your son was a great adept in the occult lore and practised it to make him eligible to be a resident of a Vidyadhara City.’

-70 ‘He became a good and power Vidyadhara, enchanting the Vidyadhari women with his bejewelled elegant body. He was like sun to the lotuses called women. He was like Cupid to the women giving them great pleasure. While living thus, the end of the aeon came and the world was burnt by the twelve suns (of dissolution). He was also burnt like a grasshopper by the Consuming flames. The world not yet created, his ‘vasana’ was roaming around in that vast space like a bird without any resting place. When the night of Brahma was over, he started creating the world. Then the ‘’vāsana’ of Sukra got activated and he is born now as a brahmin in Krita yuga

-73 ‘He had mastered all vedas and was famous as Vāsudeva. He is now engaged in penance on the banks of ‘Samanga’ river, after living as a Vidyadhara for a whole aeon. O sage, driven by many vāsanas, your son was born in many wild mountainous regions. He took birth as various kinds of creepers in many wild forests.’