The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
shift to get food, to satisfy my hunger." While he was going through
these reflections in hunger and nakedness, the sun abated his heat,
and abandoned his garment the sky, and went to the mountain of setting.
Thereupon there came there a Pásupata ascetic with his body
smeared with ashes, with matted hair and a trident, looking like
a second Siva. When he saw Chandrasvámin, he said to him, "Who are
you?" Thereupon Chandrasvámin told him his story, and bowed before
him, and the hermit when he heard it, said to him; "You have arrived
at my hermitage, as an unexpected guest, exhausted with hunger; so
rise up, bathe, and take a portion of the food I have obtained by
begging." When the hermit said this to Chandrasvámin, he answered,
"Reverend sir, I am a Bráhman; how can I eat a part of your alms?"
When the hospitable hermit who possessed magic powers, heard that,
he entered his hut, and called to mind the science which produces
whatever one desires, and the science appeared to him when he called
it to mind, and said, "What shall I do for you?" And he gave it this
order; "Provide entertainment for this guest." The science answered
"I will;" and then Chandrasvámin beheld a golden city rise up,
with a garden attached to it, and full of female attendants. And
those females came out of that city, and approached the astonished
Chandrasvámin, and said to him; "Rise up, good sir; come, eat, and
forget your fatigue." Then they took him inside, and made him bathe,
and anointed him; and they put splendid garments on him, and took
him to another magnificent dwelling; and there the young man beheld a
young woman who seemed their chief, who was beautiful in all her limbs,
and appeared to have been made by the Creator out of curiosity to see
what he could do. She rose up, eager to welcome him, and made him sit
beside her on her throne, and he partook with her of heavenly food,
and ate with much delight betel-nut, flavoured with five fruits.
And next morning he woke up, and saw only that temple of Siva there,
and neither that city, nor that heavenly lady nor her attendants. Then
the hermit came out of the hut smiling, and asked him how he had
enjoyed himself in the night, and the discreet Chandrasvámin, in
his despondency, said to the hermit, "By your favour, reverend sir,
I spent the night happily enough; but now, without that heavenly lady,
my life will depart." When the hermit heard that, being kind-hearted,
he laughed and said to him, "Remain here, you shall have exactly
the same experiences this night also." When the hermit said this,
Chandrasvámin consented to stay, and by the favour of the hermit,
he was provided by the same means with the same enjoyments every night.
And at last he understood that this was all produced by magic science,
so, one day, impelled by destiny, he coaxed that mighty hermit and
said to him, "If, reverend sir, you really take pity on me, who have
fled to you for protection, bestow on me that science, whose power is
so great." When he urged this request persistently, the hermit said
to him, "You cannot attain this science; for it is attained under the
water, and while the aspirant is muttering spells under the water, the
science creates delusions to bewilder him, so that he does not attain
success. For there he sees himself born again, and a boy, and then a
youth, and then a young man, and married, and then he supposes that he
has a son. And he is falsely deluded, supposing that one person is his
friend and another his enemy, and he does not remember this birth,
nor that he is engaged in a magic rite for acquiring science. But
whoever, when he seems to have reached twenty-four years, is recalled
to consciousness by the science of his instructor, and being firm of
soul, remembers his real life, and knows that all he supposes himself
to experience is the effect of illusion, and though he is under the
influence of it, enters the fire, attains the science, and rising from
the water, sees the real truth. But if the science is not attained
by the pupil on whom it is bestowed, it is lost to the teacher also,
on account of its having been communicated to an unfit person. You
can attain all the results you desire by my possession of the science;
why do you shew this persistence? Take care that my power is not lost,
and that so your enjoyment is not lost also."
Though the hermit said this, Chandrasvámin persisted in saying to him,
"I shall be able to do all that is required [372]; do not be anxious
about that." Then the hermit consented to give him the science. What
will not good men do for the sake of those that implore their aid? Then
the Pásupata ascetic went to the bank of the river, and said to him,
"My son, when, in repeating this charm, you behold that illusion,
I will recall you to consciousness by my magic power, and you must
enter the fire which you will see in your illusion. For I shall
remain here all the time on the bank of the river to help you. When
that prince of ascetics had said this, being himself pure, he duly
communicated that charm to Chandrasvámin, who was purified and had
rinsed his mouth with water. Then Chandrasvámin bowed low before his
teacher, and plunged boldly into the river, while he remained on the
bank. And while he was repeating over that charm in the water, he was
at once bewildered by its deluding power, and cheated into forgetting
the whole of that birth. And he imagined himself to be born in his
own person in another town, as the son of a certain Bráhman, and he
slowly grew up. And in his fancy he was invested with the Bráhmanical
thread, and studied the prescribed sciences, and married a wife, and
was absorbed in the joys and sorrows of married life, and in course of
time had a son born to him, and he remained in that town engaged in
various pursuits, enslaved by love for his son, devoted to his wife,
with his parents and relations.
While he was thus living through in his fancy a life other than his
real one, the hermit his teacher employed the charm, whose office it
was to rouse him at the proper season. He was suddenly awakened from
his reverie by the employment of that charm, and recollected himself
and that hermit, and became aware that all that he was apparently going
through was magic illusion, and he became eager to enter the fire,
in order to gain the fruit, which was to be attained by the charm;
but he was surrounded by his elders, friends, superiors and relations,
who all tried to prevent him. Still, though they used all kinds of
arguments to dissuade him, being desirous of heavenly enjoyment,
he went with his relations to the bank of the river, on which a pyre
was prepared. There he saw his aged parents and his wife ready to die
with grief, and his young children crying; and in his bewilderment
he said to himself; "Alas! my relations will all die, if I enter the
fire, and I do not know if that promise of my teacher's is true or
not. So shall I enter the fire? Or shall I not enter it? After all,
how can that promise of my teacher's be false, as it is so precisely
in accordance with all that has taken place? So, I will gladly enter
the fire." When the Bráhman Chandrasvámin had gone through these
reflections, he entered the fire.
And to his astonishment the fire felt as cool to him as snow. Then
he rose up from the water of the river, the delusion having come to
an end, and went to the bank. There he saw his teacher on the bank,
and he prostrated himself at his feet, and when his teacher questioned
him, he told him all his experiences, ending with the cool feel of
the fire. Then his teacher said to him, "My son, I am afraid you have
made some mistake in this incantation, otherwise how can the fire
have become cool to you? This phenomenon in the process of acquiring
this science is unprecedented." When Chandrasvámin heard this remark
of his teacher's, he answered, "Reverend sir, I am sure that I made
no mistake."
Then the teacher, in order to know for certain, called to mind that
science, and it did not present itself to him or his pupil. So,
as both of them had lost the science, they left that place despondent.
"When the Vetála had told this story, he once more put a question to
king Trivikramasena, after mentioning the same condition as before;
"King, resolve this doubt of mine; tell me, why was the science lost to
both of them, though the incantation was performed in the prescribed
way?" When the brave king heard this speech of the Vetála's, he gave
him this answer; "I know, lord of magic, you are bent on wasting my
time here, still I will answer. A man cannot obtain success even by
performing correctly a difficult ceremony, unless his mind is firm, and
abides in spotless courage, unhesitating and pure from wavering. But
in that business the mind of that spiritless young Bráhman wavered,
even when roused by his teacher, [373] so his charm did not attain
success, and his teacher lost his mastery over the charm, because he
had bestowed it on an undeserving aspirant."
When the king had said this, the mighty Vetála again left his shoulder
and went back invisible to his own place, and the king went back to
fetch him as before.
NOTE.
The above story closely resembles one quoted from the Turkish Tales
in the 94th number of the Spectator.
A sultan of Egypt was directed by a great doctor in the law, who had
the gift of working miracles, to place himself in a huge tub of water,
which he accordingly did; and as he stood by the tub amidst a circle of
his great men, the holy man bid him plunge his head into the water and
draw it up again. The king accordingly thrust his head into the water,
and at the same time found himself at the foot of a mountain on the
sea-shore. The king immediately began to rage against his doctor for
this piece of treachery and witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was
in vain to be angry, he set himself to think on proper methods for
getting a livelihood in this strange country. Accordingly he applied
himself to some people, whom he saw at work in a neighbouring wood:
these people conducted him to a town that stood at a little distance
from the wood, where after some adventures, he married a woman of
great beauty and fortune. He lived with this woman so long that he had
by her seven sons and seven daughters. He was afterwards reduced to
great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter
for his livelihood. One day, as he was walking alone by the seaside,
being seized with many melancholy reflections upon his former and
his present state of life, which had raised a fit of devotion in him,
he threw off his clothes in the desire to wash himself, according to
the custom of the Muhammadans, before he said his prayers.
After his first plunge into the sea, he no sooner raised his head
above the water, than he found himself standing by the side of the
tub, with the great men of his court about him, and the holy man at
his side. He immediately upbraided his teacher for having sent him
on such a course of adventures, and betrayed him into so long a state
of misery and servitude; but was wonderfully surprised when he heard
that the state he talked of was only a dream and a delusion; that he
had not stirred from the place where he then stood; and that he had
only dipped his head into the water, and taken it out again. Oesterley
compares the story of Devadatta in the 26th Taranga of this work.
CHAPTER XCIII.
(Vetála 19.)
Then king Trivikramasena again went and took the Vetála from the
asoka-tree, and putting him on his shoulder, set out with him; and
as he was returning from the tree, the Vetála once more said to him,
"Listen, king, I will tell you a delightful tale."
Story of the Thief's Son.
There is a city named Vakrolaka, equal to the city of the gods; in it