Reading section 79

27. Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, and scattering their pearly particles afar, memorialized the churning of the milky ocean by the Mandara mountain.

28. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruits and flowers, appeared as waiters upon the goddesses, and standing to welcome their approach with their rich presents.

29. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees, were shedding showers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods and people.

30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping from the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and shots of archers.

31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed by the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky.

32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall _tála_ (or palm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their sweetmeat.

33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their heads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam and nimba trees.

34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the way, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear dress.

35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats, and conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear one another.

36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and hands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the flowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.

37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and fro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks on the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed.

38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and curds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of sufficient food.

39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their wristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men were seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying the loosened knots of their hair.

40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the offerings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were strewn over with the sacred _kuru_ and _kurunta_ leaves.

41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about the precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with heaps of flowers to the depth of the heels.

42. There were the _chouri_ kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of the forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under the _gunja_ groves.

43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their ears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and upon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths.

44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by driving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering _asokas_ (_asoka Jonesia_); and their rooms were painted with lacdye.

45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum to bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the beds of green grass below.

46. The _Ketaka_ (_keya_) arbour was blooming white by removal of its weeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring tune.

47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds rested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of water, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons.

48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the ground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened like twinkling stars in the azure sky.

49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the whitened ground.

50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household compound, like the _chirinti_ (or kulína) girls, that never forsake the abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the roof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place of lights.

51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds, confined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was graced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in their numerous flights.

52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled by the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves of trees as they passed along the lawn.

53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful parrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes of the _Kokila_, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches.

54. The palma and tamála trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest trees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around them.

55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one side, and the fragrance of the efflorescent _Kandala_ and _silindhra_ plants, exhaled on the other. The tapering _tála_ and _tamála_ trees rising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the flower plants in the gardens.

56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs, and garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and beautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees on the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers without alternation.

57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of _kunda_ flowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding the humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was reddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses (_sthala padmas_) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra’s palace in the sky.

58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from the hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue of _kundu_ flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in the compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds singing joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.

59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful damsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet. The ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs and blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping of creepers about the clumps of reeds.

60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and fragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated by wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over the houses, terrified the women within.

61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets about, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green grazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the house-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as if they were the showers of rain water.

62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of the fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending their lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with ceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears of men on the bank.

63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground, from the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty of the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting charms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF LÍLÁ

_A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady._

The two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the two states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of the man knowing the Divine spirit.

2. Lílá, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure intelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three times presenting themselves before her.

3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived pleasure in relating the events of her former life and death.

4. Lílá said:—I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of this place, all what I did and thought of in my past life.

5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become lean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Bráhmaní here, and had my body scratched by the dried sacrificial grass (_kusa_), which I had to meddle with.

6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was employed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for butter and _ghee_). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess to my guests.

7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Bráhmans and good people, and rubbed my body with cow milk and _ghee_: I was employed in cleaning the frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house.

8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of conch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and daughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals.

9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all day and night; and ‘haste and hasten,’ were the words I used to repeat to myself.

10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I never thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what was this world, although I had been the wife of a Bráhman.

11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial wood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in a worn out blanket.

12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.

13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh green grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white tints of pasted and powdered rice (_gundi_).

14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to keep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers.

15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.

16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with Sarasvatí about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the goddess.

17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn _pátala_ plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas.

18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to the trees; and this is my pet calf Karniká, which has refrained from browzing the leaves (in my absence).

19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her appearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes daubed in tears.

20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and where I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and received the things to and from my attendants.