Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 178

SATYA
"Act of Truth." The dharma need not be that of the highest Brāhman caste or even of the decent and respectable classes of the human community. In every dharma, Brahman, the Holy Power, is present.
The story is told, for example, of a time when the righteous hing Aśoka, greatest of the great North Indian dynasty of the Mauryas, & "stood in the city of Pāšaliputra, surrounded by city folk and country folk, by his ministers and his army and his councilors, with the Ganges flowing by, filled up by freshets, level with the banks, full to the brim, five hundred Jeagues in length, a league in breadth. Beholding the river, he said to his ministers, 'Is there any one who can make this mighty Ganges flow back upstream?' To which the ministers replied, “That is a hard matter, your Majesty.'
"Now there stood on that very river bank an old courtesan named Bindumatī, and when she heard the king's question she said, 'As for me, I am a courtesan in the city of Păţaliputra. I live by my beauty; my means of subsistence is the lowest. Let the king but behold my Act of Truth.' And she performed an Act of Truth. The instant she performed her Act of Truth that mighty Ganges flowed back upstream with a roar, in the sight of all that mighty throng.
"When the king heard the roar caused by the movement of the whirlpools and the waves of the mighty Ganges, he was astonished, and filled with wonder and amazement. Said he to his ministers, 'How comes it that this mighty Ganges is flowing back upstream?' 'Your Majesty, the courtesan Bindumati heard your words, and performed an Act of Truth. It is because of her Act of Truth that the mighty Ganges is flowing backwards.'
"His heart palpitating with excitement, the king himself went posthaste and asked the courtesan, 'Is it true, as they say, that you, by an Act of Truth, have made this river Ganges flow back upstream?' 'Yes, your Majesty.'—Said the king, 'You have power . Cf. supra, p. 87.
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