Should the delusion of wealth be abandoned through sheer asceticism, Ajnana will only be hovering about like a ghost in a tree when it is being felled. But if the delusion of wealth be destroyed through the action of Viveka, then Ajnana will take its flight like a ghost from a tree already felled. With the relinquishment of Ajnana, all its retinue will bid adieu. As soon as you reached this forest, all your Ajnana was levelled to the ground like nests of birds in a felled tree.
But you did not chop off the Ajnana with the sharp sword by un interrupted renunciation of all. Inasmuch as you did not do so, you again began to groan under the pains arising therefrom. Now the excavation of the trench by the ele phant-driver refers to the generation of pains in you through the growth of Ajnana. Again, the leaves and dry grass spread upon the pit-fall, refer to your actions during your very painful Tapas. Thus are you suffering from the restraint of your Tapas like the powerful Bali with a fateful sword, but imprisoned in the lower regions of Patala. Why do you grieve and not listen to the words of the delicate Chudalai of infallible utterances ? Why have you rejected the true renunciation of all?
To this the King replied as follows : “1 have given up my kingdom, my palace, my wealth, and even my dear wife, Do not all these actions constitute a perfect renunciation ? What more would you have me renounce ?
Kumbha-Muni replied : Though you have given up your kingdom and the rest, that will not constitute the true renunciation. You have yet desires in all objects. It is only by entire rejection of them that you can hope to attain the Brahmic bliss of the wise. Then the King said : If you are pleased to say that the giving up of the many worldly things does not amount to renunciation, and that I have yet desires in me, then what I have left is this forest alone.
Therefore do I now renounce my longing for the forest full of hills and trees. Hence I suppose I have made the true renunciation. Kumbha-Muni then said : Even the aban doning of this hilly and luxuriant forest does not effect the true renunciation. You have yet the painful desires in themselves. Only when they depart from you, can you obtain and enjoy the Supreme happiness. To which the king replied that, if this was not enough, he would lay aside his cloth, Rudraksha (garland), deer-skin, earthen vessels, and wooden-bowl.
So saying, he consigned them all to the fire, and rejoiced in his entirely new appearance. Then turning to Kumbha-Muni of eternal Jnana with the comment that he had now stripped himself of all desires, the king said : “It is through your divine self alone that I have acquired right understanding, liberated myself from all pains, and freed myself from contamination. Through my Sankalpa I have given up all these things entirely. The innumerable things of this world lead only to bondage which conduces to re-birth.
The enlightened mind receives a degree of bliss commensurate with the loss of desire for objects. I have obtained bliss only through successive victories over my desires. I am free from the bondage of delusion. I have now attained through your grace the perfect renunciation, and am divested of everything. What else remains to be done, O Muni ?
Kumbha-Muni replied : Alas ! you have not renounced anything. All your delusive renunciations are in vain. On this the King reflected and said : There is left with me only this body composed of white bones and flesh, in which the serpents of the five sense-organs hiss. I shall instantly dis pose of it without care. You shall soon see. So saying, he ascended to the summit of a high cliff, and was about to cast himself down, when the supreme Kumbha-Muni arrested him with these words : * What is this folly that you are about to do ? How, O ignorant man, did this body of yours hinder your progress ?
How will death in any way help you ? Though you should fall down and destroy this body, like a bull that is angry with a tender calf, yet you will not complete the true abnegation. But if you, O King, will but give up that which is the cause of motion in this body, and which yields the seed of all births and Karmas, then true renunciation will be made. This is the unqualified truth.
Then the King asked the Muni to give out the means by which that which is the cause of the motion of the body might be avoided. Thereupon the Muni of transcendent qualities replied thus : The wise say that the mind (manas) which, through its Sankalpa passes under the different appellations of Jiva and Prana, is the cause of attachment to delusive objects, and is distinct from the beneficent Nonjada and Jada (inertness).
At the same time it is said that this Chitta (the flitting mind), forms the universe as well as the bondage. It is this mind which is the germ of all Karmas of existence and daily agitates this body of ours like a tree when swayed by the wind. Therefore true renunciation, O King, lies in the abnegation of the mind- It is this which leads to Brahmic bliss. All other renunciations cause us sufferings. If, after true renunciation you are illumined in mind, with perfect quiescence, and without hatred, then will the identification of yourself with the Self of Brahman take place, and you will shine with resplendent glory.
Then the King asked the Muni : What is the cause of the mind ? What is its true nature ? How can I destroy it r” To this the Muni replied : The true nature of the mind consists in the Vasanas. The two are synonymous. Know, O, King, that the idea of “ I,” which is the nest contain ing all frailties, is the seed of the tree of mind. The sprout which at first germinates from this seed of Ahankara (I-am-ness), originates without form and is ascertainable only by internal experience. This sprout is termed Bud- dhi. From this sprout the ramifying branches called. Sankalpa take their origin. Through such a differentiation, the great Manas (of Sankalpa) as also Chitta and Buddhi are but the different names or qualities of the one Ahankdra.
Therefore, daily should you lop off the branches of this dire tree of Manas, and eventually destroy the tree at its root completely. The branches of Vdsanas will naturally produce innumerable crops of Karmas; but if, with the sword of Jnna, you sever them from the heart s core, they will be des troyed. They are the true vanquishers of the mind in the heart, who perform without a murmur the Karmas which fall to them ; controlling all thoughts and desires in regard to such. The lopping of the branches is considered only as a secondary thing, the first being the eradication of the tree at its root.
Therefore, if through virtuous actions you destroy the idea of “I” at the root of the tree (mind), then it will not again spring up. At these words of the Muni, the King asked him as to where the fire which destroys the conception of Ahankara, the seed of the tree, was to be found. To which Kumbha-Muni replied : “ It is Atma-Jnana which enquires concerning the true nature of “ I” ; that is the fire which destroys the mind.
The King then said : Through my intelligence I en quired into the origin of “ I” in divers ways. As this world is non-intelligent, it is not “ I,” neither is this body of offal, nor the organs, nor the contemplating Manas, nor Buddhi, nor the injurious Ahankara creating egoism. Here Kumbha- Muni interposed and asked him, if the “ I” were not all these, what else was it ?
To which the King thus replied : I am of the nature of that stainless Absolute Consciousness which, having evolved everything, preserves and destroys it. I cannot find out the cause of this “ I,” which is of the nature ofjnana. I have not been able to divine the means which removes Ahan kara the seed of the pains-giving mind My mind misgives me when I find that Ahankra clings to me, howsoever much I thrust it aside.
Kumbha-Muni said : Oh King, no effects can ensue without a cause. Search within to find out the cause of Ahankara ever present before you, and tell me what occurs in your mind.
The King replied : The cause of the stainful AhankaTa is Bodha (knowledge). How does Bodha get absorbed here within me ? I droop only when Bodha arises in visible objects- How then am I to avoid these visibles ?
Kumbha-Muni said : If you tell me the cause of know ledge, T shall then throw light upon it.
The King said : Through the existence of such illusory objects as the body, &c-, knowledge is induced ; but if they cease to exist, then no knowledge can arise. Then the seed of Manas, vis., Ahank^ric ideation, will consequently be absorbed.
Kumbha-Muni questioned him thus : * If the body, and other objects of sense, do really exist, then knowledge exists; but as the bodies, &c., do not really exist, what then is the basis of knowledge?
The King, in reply, said : * But tell me first, Acharya, how this visible body, which palpably enjoys the effects of all Karmas performed by the hands and other organs, can be non-existent ?
Kumbha-Muni answered: * As this body, arising through Karmas, is not itself the Cause, therefore the effect of intelli gence is itself non-existent. That intelligence is itself illu sory. Hence Ahankara and other effects which arl.se through the excessive delusion (of knowledge), are also non-existent. Hence also all objects which are not of the nature of the cause are illusory, like the conception of a serpent in a rope.
Then the King asked: There were the many creations of Brahman, who is the primeval one in the universe. How then can you say that Brahman is not the cause of the Uni verse ?
