"Devahûti's Lamentation :"



 


Skandham-3.2


Chapter-23.


Slokam-1 to 57.

 

Devahûti's Lamentation :

 

(1) Maitreya said: 'After the departure of the parents did the chaste woman, understanding the desires of her husband, constantly serve her spouse with great love, like Pârvatî did with S'iva, her Lord. (2) Intimately, with a pure soul, great respect and sense-control she served with love and sweet words, o Vidura. (3) Forsaking lust, pride, envy, greed, sinful actions and vanity she always pleased her powerful spouse sanely and dilligently. (4-5) He, surely being the foremost of the divine rishi's, the husband of whom she, the daughter of Manu fully devoted expected greater blessings than from providence, saw that she grew weak and emaciated from the protracted religious observance and with a of love stammering voice he, overcome by compassion, spoke to her. (6) Kardama said: 'At present I am pleased with you, o respectful daughter of Manu, because of your most excellent supreme service and devotion. That body, so extremely dear to this embodiment, you do not take properly care of though, expending it on my account. (7) The blessings of the Lord I achieved myself in my religious life of full engagement in austerity, meditation and fixing my mind in the knowing, can just as well be obtained by you in your devotional service to me; just see the vision free from fear and lamentation, that I am giving you. (8) What else than the Lord His grace is of value when all material achievements are annihilated in the single movement of an eyebrow; succesful of the farther reach of Lord Vishnu you are to enjoy the transcendental gifts, gained by your principles of good conduct, which are so difficult to obtain for people proud of their aristocracy.' (9) After his talking like this, did the woman, hearing of his excell in the special knowledge of yoga, find satisfaction and with a voice choked up of humility and love and a shining face smiling with a slightly bashful glance, she spoke to him.

 

(10) Devahûti said: 'It has indeed been achieved, o best of the brahmins, this mastery of infallibility in you in the power of yoga, o mighty one. That I know, o husband, that you gave the promise that once we are very gloriously as one in the body, there may be the progenity which for a chaste woman is such a great quality. (11) Do hereof what needs to be done according what is prescribed by the scriptures, by which this, of an unfulfilled passion emaciated, body may be rendered fit for you. And I, victim of emotions, am poor, o Lord, therefore please think of a house that is suitable'.

 

(12) Maitreya said: 'Seeking the pleasure of his dearest, did Kardama exercise his yogic power and produce thereafter a high rising palace that came as desired, o Vidura. (13) It yielded to all desires and was wonderfully bedecked with all sorts of jewels, all kinds of luxury increasing over time and pillars carved out of precious stone. (14-15) It was equipped with a heaven of paraphernalia and brought happiness throughout all seasons, was decorated with festoons and flags and wreaths of various colors and fabrics, charming sweet flowers humming with bees, fine cloth of linen and silk and embellished with various tapestries. (16) In stories one over the other there were separate arrangements of beds, comfortable couches and fanned seats. (17) Here and there various artistic engravings were displayed with the extraordinary beauty of a floor with emeralds, furnished with coral daises. (18) The doorways had thresholds of coral and doors beautifully bedecked with diamonds. Its domes of saphhire were crowned with golden pinnacles. (19) On the diamond walls there were the choicest of rubies that seemed to give them eyes and it was furnished with various canopies and highly valuable gates of gold. (20) The many artificial swans and groups of pigeons here and there made the real ones, thinking them their own, repeatedly fly over vibrating their sounds. (21) The pleasure grounds, resting chambers, bedrooms, inner and outer yards designed to comfort, indeed astonished the sage himself.

 

(22) Devahûti, looking at a mansion like that with a heart not very pleased, made Kardama, who could understand the heart of everyone address her in person. (23) ' O fearful one, bathe in the sacred lake created of Vishnu [Bindu-sarovar] that fulfills all desires of man, before you ascend this high rising palace'. (24) She, the lotus-eyed one with her matted hair and wearing dirty clothes, then followed the order of her husband. (25) Her body and her breasts were discolored, covered by dirt, as she entered the lake containing the sacred waters of the Sarasvatî river. (26) In the lake she saw, alike the fragrant lotuses, layed out a house with a thousand girls in the prime of youth. (27) Seeing her all of a sudden the damsels rose and said with folded hands: 'We are your maidservants, please tell us what we can do for you'. (28) After bathing her with the most costly oils did the respectful girls give the virtuous wife fine new spotless clothes to wear. (29) They also gave her the most valuable ornaments and very excellent splendid food and intoxicating beverages containing all the good nectarine qualities. (30) Then, seeing her own reflection in a mirror, with her body freed from all dirt and in spotless robes, she was adorned with a garland and decorated by the highly respectful, serving maids, with auspicious marks. (31) Bathed from head to toe she was decorated with a golden neclace with locket and bangles and tinkling ankle bells made of gold. (32) On her hips she wore a girlde made of gold decorated with numerous jewels and she had a precious perl neclace and auspicious substances [like saffron, kunkuma -which is perfumed red powder for the breasts -, mustard seed oil and sandelwood pulp]. (33) With her beautiful teeth, charming eyebrows, lovely moist eyes that defeated the beauty of lotus buds and her bluish curly hair, she shone all over. (34) When she thought of her dear husband, the formost among the sages, she found herself along with her maidservants there where he, the founding father, the Prajâpati was. (35) Then seeing herself in the presence of her husband, surrounded by a thousand maids, she was amazed about his yogic achievement.

 

(36-37) The sage, seeing her bathed clean, shining forth with a soul of unprecedented beauty, girdled and with charming breasts, attended by a thousand celestial girls and excellently dressed, was struck with fondness and made her ascend that heavenly mansion, o destroyer of the enemy. (38) He did not lose his glory being attached to his beloved one attended by the girls of heaven; together with her in the palace his person shone as charmingly as the moon in the sky surrounded by the stars, that opens rows of lillies in the night. (39) In it he reached the pleasure grounds of the gods of heaven, the mountains and valleys of King Indra accompanied by the beauty of breezes of passion; like treasurer Kuvera surrounded by damsels, he for a long time enjoyed the downfall of the Ganges under the vibrating auspicous sounds of praise of the ones of perfection. (40) Satisfied by his wife he enjoyed the gardens of Vais'rambhaka, Surasana, Nandana, Pushpabhadraka and Caitrarathya, and the Mânasa-sarovara Lake. (41) With the splendid palace which came as desired, he , like the air that goes everywhere, surpassed the abodes of the greatest gods. (42) What would be of difficulty to achieve for those men who are determined, for those who have taken refuge of the lotusfeet of the Supreme Personality that vanquish all danger?

 

(43) After showing his wife the sphere of the world with all its arrangements and many wonders, did the great yogî return to his own surroundings. (44) Having divided himself in nine, pleasing his eager wife, the daughter of Manu, in sex-life, he enjoyed the many years as if in a moment. (45) In the palace lying on an excellent bed conducive to sex she did not notice the passage of time in the company of her most handsome husband. (46) Thus by the power of yoga passed a hundred autumns as in a brief span of time to the eagerly longing couple enjoying sexually. (47) The powerful Kardama, who knew the spiritual essence and all desires had, having divided his own body into nine, deposited his semen in her regarding her as his other half. (48) She, Devahûti, then consequently gave birth to a progeny of [nine] women who were all in every limb as charming as a fragrant red lotus. (49) Seeing that her husband was about to leave home, she smiled outwardly but was agitated with a heart in distress. (50) Surpressing her tears, scratching the floor with the radiant gemlike nails of her foot and with her head bent down, she slowly spoke in charming words.

 

(51) Devahûti said: 'All that you promised me my Lord has been fulfilled, but you should grant me, a surrendered soul, also fearlessness. (52) My dear brahmin, it is to your daughters to find out what suitable husbands are; but who is there for the solace of me, when you have departed for the forest? (53) Disregarding the knowledge of the Supreme Soul, so much time passed for nothing, my master, indulging in being good to our senses. (54) Attached to sense-gratification my affinity for you went without recognizing your transcendental existence; nonetheless, let it rid me of all fear. (55) Association with those engaged in sense gratification is the cause of the cycle of birth and death, but the same thing done through ignorance leads, performed with a saintly person, to liberation. (56) One is indeed dead although alive if the work which is done here is not for a more righteous life, does not lead to detachment and is not of service to the feet of the Holy. (57) Surely I am the one who was solidly deluded by the material energy of the Lord; because although having attained you who gives liberation, I did not seek to be freed from material bondage'.


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