Then Kumbha-Muni, addressing the King, replied :
There will be true bliss only when the Jnana instilled into a disciple by the Acharya (Guru) truly fructifies in him. Are not all acts of Tapas simply diversions to while away the time ? Oh King, to those without Jnana, Karma is alone their security. Virtuous actions serve, but to remove the impure Vasanas. Therefore, Karmas are useful only in so far as they confer upon us heavenly and other pleasures. If the impure Vasanas are destroyed, then the effects of all Karmas cease alike, as the effects of one season cease when another sets in.
Like reeds which never produce fruit, Karmas freed from the varying Vasanas never fructify. If, through the sure conviction that all is Brahma, Ajn&na is destroyed, impure Vasanas will never arise. Who is so foolish as to suppose there is water in a mirage? If the Vasanas alone are destroyed, then birth, old age or death, will not affect one, and he will reach the immaculate Brahmic seat. All minds associated with Vasanas are but differentiated Ajnana itself; but a mind -without them” is the unborn Atma-Jnana itself. If through the immaculate Jnana, the Jiva (ego) cognizes Brahman, then all births cease. Since even Brahma and the other Great Ones have said that Jnana alone is the most excellent of all things, how is it that you do not long after it ?
How is it that you do not question yourself as to who you are, whence came the Universe, and into what it will be absorbed ? Why do you repine at your lot like the ignorant ? Why is it, that after having prostrated yourself at the feet of a great Guru, you do not try to understand from him the nature of bondage and Moksha ? If, approach ing those persons who look equally upon all things through their abundant Jnana you are ceaselessly engaged in the noble pursuits of enquiry, then you will surely gain that subtile Jnana which leads to emancipation !
“ At these words of Kumbha-Muni, the king 1 shed tears of joy and said : Oh Acharya, I, poor soul, have learnt all this (the attainment of bliss through Atma-Jnana) by thy grace. I am here in this solitary forest, having left the company of great men through Ajnana. I have this moment been released from the pains of existence. Since thou deigned to be pre sent with me in this forest, and hast deemed it thy duty to point out the path to me, thou alone art my Acharya, my parent and my friend. Therefore, do I prostrate myself be fore thee as thy steadfast disciple.
Be thou graciously pleased to accept me as thy Chela. Be pleased, O thou equal unto Brahma, to enlighten me upon that One Principle which thou hast cognized as the most bounteous, the One which, if known by a person, relieves him from all pains, and confers the blissful Sat.”
To which Kumbha-Muni replied : I can enlighten you, only if you will concentrate your mind, which now runs quick ly from one object to another, with singleness of purpose. Otherwise the Guru s words, taken lightly and not conceived and meditated upon, would be of no avail even though heard.
How can the eyes perceive objects in the darkness ? Here the king affirmed that he would receive the words with impli cit faith, as the teachings of the Vedas, and would meditate upon them truly through the Muni s grace. On hearing these words, the lovely Muni continued : I have to demand as a first condition that you, O valiant king, w-ill hear my words without interruption, and, in the full belief that they will con duce to your welfare, as in the attitude of an ignorant child that hears the words of its father who is solicitous of its well- being. Therefore, in order to instruct the King, the Muni thus continued : O king, please hearken to a story I shall relate to you, and I will afterwards reveal to you its hidden mean ing.
In ancient times, there lived a great man, well-versed in all departments of knowledge, and possessed of great wealth ; but, alas ! without Atma Jnanam. This person pursued the search for Chinthamani, (a gem supposed to yield anything thought of), with much effort. Through the performance of rare Tapas, he came into possession of it after a good deal of trouble ; for what cannot a man attain to if he takes the necessary trouble ? Now, when the gem appeared to him, shining with the lustre of the moon, he, without bringing it under his grasp, ^thus soliloquized : * I fear this is not Chinthd- mani, but only some paltry stone. Can it be otherwise attained than by long and tedious search and when a man s life is nearly spent and his body debilitated by the search ? Sin ful persons like myself will never attain it, though they sub ject themselves to all kinds of hardship.
The virtuous and some of them only will come by it. Shall individuals acquire things readily by mere repining, and without regard to their respective Karmas ? I am but a man ; my Tapas is very significant, and my powers small. In short, I am poor in all respects. Therefore can it be possible for poor me to behold the rare Chinthamani before me ? I will proceed to make further search for it. And thus saying, he let slip the golden opportunity, and the real Chinthamani vanished from his sight. Shall good ever accrue to the ignorant ? Thus did he again go in search of the gem, with great pains.
After thus wandering in a perturbed state for some days, some Siddhas (persons possessed of psychic powers), intending to befool him, screened themselves from his view, and let drop in his path a broken piece of earthen bracelet, which he no sooner saw than he picked it up. Then, this deluded man, mistaking it for the true Chinthamani, began to exult in its discovery and to mar vel over it. Being in possession of this burnt gem, he re nounced all his wealth, fully believing that the gem would fetch him anything he wanted, and that his present posses sions were superfluous.
Therefore, he gave up his country and retired to the forest, believing that happiness could only be obtained there apart from the men of depraved tendencies in his own land. Thus did this man, who had anticipated the enjoyment of real bliss through this stone, subject himself to all kinds of hardships, and degrade himself to the lowest level.
Hear from me another story which will be of great help to you in the improvement of your knowledge. In the heart of this ancient forest, there lived an elephant, the hugest and loftiest of his kind. Certain Mahouts of the forest associa ted with, and entrapped, this elephant whose tusks were exceedingly long, sharp and strong, and fettered it with strong iron chains. Becoming infuriated with its painful fetters, it shook itself free by the aid of powerful tusks in two Muhurtas (48 minutes). The Mahout, in thehowdah above, seeing” this, became giddy, and fell to the ground. The tusker, finding him upon the ground, passed by without hurting him.
But the driver, picking himself up with unappeased passion, went again in quest of the elephant, which he found in the midst of the forest. There he dug a trench, covering it up with dry leaves and grass. The elephant, after roaming through the forest, came at length to the place where the trench was, and fell into it. Instantly the Mahout made it fast. Thus again was the elephant subjected to torture. Had this creature, which was like unto the great (king), Bali, when guard ing his own mansion, dashed out the brains of its enemy at the time when the Mahout lay prostrate before it, it would not again have fallen into the trap, nor have been thus again agitated. Likewise, those who make no enquiry concerning the good and evil of the future, will come to grief.
When Kumbha-Muni had related this [story, 6ikhidwaja asked him to give the reason why he had narrated the inci dents concerning Chinthdmani and the elephant ; to which Kumbha-Muni, of steady mind, thus replied : By that person, who, though acquainted with all the Sastras, yet without the beneficent Tatwajnana went in search of Chinthamani, I meant only yourself.
For, although well-versed in all book- learning, you have not yet developed an undisturbed equili brium of mind. What I intended by the story of Chintha mani is this : In order to attain true renunciation devoid of all pain and hypocrisy, you have forsaken your regal office, your wife, and other relatives, wherein there was the true Chinthdmani, and have betaken yourself to this forest. While the true renunciation was developing itself little by little in you although in the world, your mind was led astray by undue zeal to a wrong conception of renunciation, and was enveloped by that delusion as by a dark cloud which obscures the sky.
This renunciation of yours is not the true one, generating real happiness, which you lost track of, because you thought that this one of yours, if persisted in sufficiently long, would, at length, give rise to the true one, Having lost the gem of true renunciation, which is in the proper path of life, you have been misled by the false idea of the burnt stone of Tapas through your faulty vision, and have, therefore, been greatly afflicted.
The wise say that those who reject the happiness accessible to them in their daily lives, and allow their minds to search after imaginary and strange things without limit, are only self-destructive and of corrupt thought. Through the idea of Tapas as the means of bliss, your mind in no wise acquired that peace it desired, even when the graced and priceless Chinthamani was before you ; nor was there any ad vantage in the discovery of the bit of earthen bracelet.
Now hear about the elephant. The epithet “elephant,” I applied to yourself. The two long tusks are Vairaggya (indiffer ence to pleasure and pain), and Viveka (discrimination). Your Ajnana is the driver who sits aloft upon the elephant and goads it on. Your Ajnana afflicts you in many ways. You are now palpitating with the pains inflicted by Ajnana, like the elephant bound by the Mahout and led by him. The iron chains and fetters are the bonds forged by desires, and you have been bound by them. Know that these desires are stronger and more durable than iron itself.
Iron chains wear out in a length of time, but the desires which prevail grow more and more. The breaking loose of the elephant from its strong bonds stands for your late relinquishment of all desires and going into the forest. The fall of the driver from the howdah represents the destruction of your Ajnana through your Vairaggya. If once we free ourselves from desires, shall Ajnana and the necessity for re-births exist ?
