Indian Antiquary Vol 32

SR No.: 032524
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 550
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARI.
(MARCH, 1903.
Átmans into one : these become then a composite whole and this assumes a bodily form. It is the evil deeds of a former state that serve as a guide to the soul and are the cause that it goes to Yama's kingdom. But the Higher Power it is which develops the body and makes the five Atmans, namely, Atman, Parátman, Nirátman, Antarátman, Chetanátman. The Atman' is the sight; 'Niratman,' the hearing ; Antarátman,' the breath ; 'Parátman,' the voice; Chetandtman,' the consciousness; this gives unity to the whole, so that an individual with a soul arises. This last begets ideas and desires. He who has desires is subject to the allurements of the sensual world. He knows not how to seek a cure. Therefore he is perplexed : he wishes to enrich himself, to rob, to extort, to conjure, to poison, to kill innocent men, to eat and to drink. The wrong that he does is done under the influence of the Chetana; for the consciousness follows its course uninterruptedly day and night. If now the man dies, he takes his evil deeds with him to Yama's kingdom, where he is punished by being beaten with iron clubs for the sake of his former Dushkriti, his evil deeds; these become iron spears and iron clubs, which remind him of his evil deeds. According to what he has done and brought upon himself, evil falls to his share; for his good deeds, good comes to him. For both are ready for him; the reward of his good and of his evil deeds. This it is which shows him the way in which he must go. "Supreme power is the power of willing and of not willing; for both bring about life. Life is subject to death; memory and thought) is supplanted by forgetfulness and inattention, omission); zeal is subject to wandering of the mind (absence). Therefore do not omit to guard carefully your words and your heart. Thus, brother Kunjara karna, practiso asceticism. Be steadfast in your self-mortification ; let your thoughts be governed ; let not your thoughts be continually wandering hither and thither. That is what it is to practise asceticism. If once the thoughts are restrained, the mind must be refined. That is called refining i.e. parifying from the gross elements). The mind must be refined in the body as a means of banishing impurities for the future, so that one may not go to hell. Away with all self-seeking! Let the rajas (passion) and tamas (darkening of the mind and foul lusts) be killed by continence. Let foolish conceit and blindness be killed by circumspection. Now have I sufficiently enlightened you, brother Kunjarakarna. Do your best and pay humble homage to the Lord Vairôchana; ask that the impurities which cleave to you may be annihilated, and, as fruit of your knowledge of the Sacred Law, the blemishes of your body may disappear." So spake Bhatara-Yamadhipati.
"Ah, elder brother Yamadhipati, the words which you have spoken for my instruction have penetrated deep into my bones : I receive them with welcome. Still one thing more would I ask you, elder brother Yamadhipati! It is said that you always cause men to be burned in hell-fire. But you have not always evil-doers with you. Now, indeed, I see the cauldron has been set up, wiped out and made ready. What does that mean?"
" Ah, brother Kunjara karna, that is the way in which I cook. As soon as they go into the cauldron, in crowds, the fire which is extinguished must be lighted. They go one before the other into the cauldron, because they have formerly done wrong; they would not be warned by their elders and would not refrain from causing sorrow to others by adjuration, from bringing disturbance into the world, ill-treating their fellow-creatures, being irreverent towards their elders ; nothing was held sacred by them. Therefore must they be cast into the cauldron. My business is merely to keep guard over the evil ones, at the command of Bhatára, who has ordered it. Now, as regards the cauldron, the reason that it is set up, wiped out, and made ready is that a certain evil-doer will have to descend into the 'cauldron. His sins are innumerable; a hundred years long shall he be cooked in the cauldron. After he has been cooked in the catildron, Yaksha-birds which have the face of Yakshas, will come to seize him and take him to the sword-trees and dash him against the sword-troes, whose thorns are vajras, a fathom and a kol. long and as thick as a pinong-tree. The vajrat are sharp as lancett. The Yakshama khas bring fire there, which flames up brightly ander him. His body is scorched; he is not dead and yet not living. A thousand years is be to be so tortured. He shall soon go into the cauldron, therefore is the cauldron made ready."