motion: for faith in Ráma is as the stream of the Ganges; contemplation on Brahma as the Sarasvati; and ritual, dealing with precepts and prohibitions for the purification of this iron age, as the sun-god's daughter, the Jamuná. The united flood of the Tribeni is represented by the legends of Hari and of Hara, filling all that hear with delight: the sacred fig-tree by faith firm in its own traditions, and Prayág itself by the assembly of the virtuous. Easy of access to all, on any day, at any place, curing all the ills of pious devotees, is this unspeakable, spiritual chief tírtha, of manifest virtue and yielding immediate fruit.
Dohá 2.
At this Prayág of holy men, whoever hears and understands, and in spirit devoutly bathes, receives even in this life all four rewards.[1]
Chaupái.
In an instant behold the result of the immersion; the crow becomes a parrot and the goose a swan. Let no one marvel at hearing this, for the influence of good company is no mystery. Válmíki, Nárad and the jar-born Agastya[2] have told its effect upon themselves. Whatever moves in the water, or on the earth, or in the air; every creature in the world, whether animate or inanimate, that has attained to knowledge, or glory, or salvation, or power, or virtue, by any work, at any time or place, has triumphed through association with the good; neither the world nor the Veda knows of any other expedient. Intercourse with the good is attainable only by the blessing of Ráma and without it wisdom is impossible: it is the root of all joy and felicity; its flowers are good works and its fruit perfection. By it the wicked are reformed; as when by the touch of the philosopher's stone a vile metal becomes gold. If by mischance a good man falls into evil company, like the gem in a serpent's head, he still retains his virtue. Brahma, Vishnu, Mahádeva, the wisest of the poets, all have failed to expound the pre-eminence of a saint; for me to tell it is, as it were, for a costermonger to describe the excellence of a set of jewels.
- ↑ The four rewards are káma, artha, dharma, moksha; that is, pleasure, wealth, religious merit and final salvation.
- ↑ Válmíki confessed to Ráma that he had once been a hunter and taken the life of many innocent creatures, till he fell in with the seven Rishis, who converted him and taught him express his penitence by constantly repeating the word mára, mára. As this contains exactly the same letters as the name Ráma, it acted as a spell and advanced him to the highest degree of sanctity.
Similarly Nárad confessed to Vyása, the author of the Puránas, that he was by birth only the son of a poor slave-girl, and had become a saint simply by eating the fragments of food left by the holy men who frequented his master's house.
Agastya also declared to Mahádeva that by birth he was the meanest of all creatures, and had only attained to miraculous powers by the influence of good company.
