Then Yajnavalkya said: "Though dear
To me, my spouse, thou wast before,
For these thy words I love thee more.
Now ponder well what thou shalt hear :
"A woman holds her husband dear.
'Tis not her lord, as such, that draws
Her love; he's only dear because
In him she sees that Soul appear.
"With others, too, the same is true:
Wife, sons-whate'er our own we call-
Are only dear, because in all
The Universal Soul we view.
'Whate'er we round us see, the whole Terrestrial system-gods, priests, kings,The vast totality of things
Is nothing else than that one Soul.
"A lump of salt, as soon as cast
Into its primal source, the sea,
Dissolves, and ne'er can cease to be
A part of that salt ocean vast.
"So, sprung from that great Spirit, men,
When once their earthly term is spent,
To him return, and with him blent,
The sense of life no more retain."
"The dark, mysterious words that end Thy sage discourse," Maitreyi cried,
"Perplex my mind.
The Soul I do not comprehend."
"Let not the knowledge I now give
Perplex thee," Yajnavalkya said;
The Soul, as thou appear'st to dread
It may, can never cease to live.
"A baseless, dualistic dream
Indulging, vulgar men suppose
That one another sees, hears, knows.
If 'tis not as the many deem,
"And if that Soul is all, and none
But That exists,—and this is so,-
Whom else can That behold or know?
Since thus, Maitreyī, nought but one
"Great Spirit lives, there cannot be
Of separate being any sense
To mortals left, when they go hence.
That Soul is deathless; therein see
The only immortality."
Thus Yajnavalkya taught his wife,
Who wondering heard his mystic lore,
And left her then, to come no more,
But lead till death a beggar's life.
In quitting those he loved so well,
Showed then the saint a husband's heart;
Or played he, cold, the Stoic's part?
Tradition fails: we cannot tell.
LXXV. Nachiketas: a theosophic story.
Taittiriya Brahmana iii. 11, 8, 1 ff.; and Katha Upanishad.
Desiring heaven, a sage of old
With sacrifice the gods adored d;
Devoting to the priests his hoard
Of slowly-gathered goods and gold.
His son, young Nachiketas, stood
And saw the gifts his father brought,
To give the priests: "My Sire," he thought, "His vow has not made fully good."
"Thou hast not all, my father, given
Thou hadst to give," he calmly said;
One offering more must yet be made,
If thou would'st hope to merit heaven.
"To whom shall I be given, my sire?"
His father deemed the question vain;
Once more he asked, and yet again :
"To Death," his father cried in ire.
He rose to go to Death's abode :
A Voice addressed him from the air,
"Go, seek Death's house, and enter there
What time its lord shall be abroad.
"Three nights within his mansion stay, But taste not, though a guest, his food; And if in hospitable mood,
He comes and asks thee, thou shalt say:
"I in thy house three nights have passed.'
When next he asks, 'what did'st thou eat;'
Say, First thy children were my meat,
Thy cattle next, thy merits last.'
The youth th' aerial Voice obeyed,
And dwelt three nights in Death's abode;
When questioned by his host, the god,
He answered as the Voice had said.
Disturbed that this his youthful guest,
Had not been fitly entertained,
The god, to make amends constrained,
The stranger humbly thus addressed :
"I bow before thee, reverend child;
pray thee crave a boon of me."
"My father let me, living, see,"
The boy rejoined, "and reconciled."
To whom the god,—"I grant thy prayer; But ask a second boon "-replied. "May my good works," the stripling cried, "Of bliss an endless harvest bear."
This, too, according, Death desired
He yet one boon would choose, the last.
"When men away from earth have past,
Then live they still ?" the youth enquired.
"To solve this question dark and grave
Was even for gods too hard a task:
This boon, I pray thee, cease to ask,
Fair youth," said Death, "another crave."
Young Nachiketas, undeterred,
Replied, "The boon I choose, bestow:
Who can like thee the answer know?
No boon like this may be compared."
Death said: "Ask all thine heart's desire;
Sons long-lived, cattle, gold demand,
Elect a wide domain of land,
And length of days from me require;
"Or seek what earth can ne'er supplyThe love of witching heavenly brides, And all celestial joys besides;
But unto death forbear to pry."
The youth rejoined, "The force of man
Is frail, and all excess of joys
His feeble organs soon destroys:
Our longest life is but a span.
"Wealth cannot satisfy all zest Of pleasure flies before thy face; Our life depends upon thy grace,
Once more, of boons I crave the best.
"For who, with deathless youth though crowned,
And godlike force, if wise, would deign
To spend an endless life in vain
In sensual joy's disturbing round?”
When thus the stripling had withstood,
Though proffered by a god, the lure
Of sensual bliss, and sought the pure
Delight of transcendental good,
Then Death, who knew the unborn soul,
And being's essence, taught the youth
The science of the highest truth,
Through which is reached the final goal.
"Two things for men's regard contend-
The good, the pleasant: he who woos
The good is blest, whilst they who choose
The pleasant miss the highest end.
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