{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vov/vov12.htm","path":"hin/vov/vov12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vov/vov12.htm","text":"1000\nIf you one day put your anus in your hand and wash it, what have you gained? How much so ever you wash the scales off your teeth, will its stink ever depart?\n1001\nOf gifts, the gift of food is the noblest. In music, the melody of the Sama Veda is the sweetest, In meditation that of Siva is the noblest.\n1002\nBurn him, Burn him, cries Pluto. This is more talking like a magpie. He cannot see what the truth is (that he is himself but a component part of creation). They who participate in the deity cannot themselves see god.\n1003\nLet us adore and glorify the (Pranalinga) prime spirit. But for what offence do ye bind it about your neck. Joy (i.e., the deity) is a witness to us of this folly.\n1004\nWearing ashes of things that are bhavi (i.e., not lingamite) he calls this a form of Siva devoid of shame. But surely all animals are gifted with the linga. (Ye are as proud as a dog with two).\n1005\nStupid fools are they who hide their wealth in the earth, and again dress their food in the earthen vessel of the body. Why should ye be so foolish for this muddy life?\n1006\nTo the whole of the Siva sect, Hari is Teacher (by a refined explanation) and Hara (Siva) is Teacher, to the Hari creed. What sort of teacher is the wretch void of qualities of excellence.\n1007\nHe that is unborn (Aja, Brahma) shines betwixt Vishnu and Siva, and in the midst of these does the yoni shine; It possesses a peculiar kala which however is unperceptible.\n1008\nWhen one life is past the fool shall again be born; again shall he love and again feel affection; again shall he roam the countries and villages like to a homeless monkey.\n1009\nHow long does the soul, unprotected continue to die and be born again naturally (sahaja is born with us). To live without forgetting him is perfection,\n1010\nWhen all those who talk of the high deity as in unity, are freed from the body, then shall they be secure from sorrow and sin and enjoy happiness.\n1011\nTo know the nature of the fluctuating and that of the changeless, is in the power of astrologers; who can inspect the body? Like as the swan is said to discriminate between water and milk.\n1012\nIn the five faces of Siva the five letters (na-ma-si-va-ya) produced; by them is the world supported. Then how is it that they fail to praise the Five Faced.\n1013\nThe Goddess of Earth as they call her is clay, seeing that all men know how that Goddess was produced, she became very weighty, They even call that Goddess equal to Siva as sustaining all.\n1014\nLime is the best of all matters. Lime displays the present world in the earth, and it also shows us heaven.\n1015\nIf thy good acts be great they shall not pass away; alas surely fate in a fitting place changed Dharmaraj into Kanku Bhattu.\n1016\nHe puts his gift into the hand and pours the water of donation; thus doth he make fitting benefactions; but knows not that he and that of his neighbours are one. (Each is a form of Eswara.)\n1017\nThey muse on the mantras but know not their meaning; ignorant of that signification they become blind. To become reborn and great let him learn it from the Teacher.\n1018\nMaya, that is, Vishnu--is there any other to whom the name applies? 'Cupid' is the dear son (son of kisses) of Maya; in Maya do his powers originate.\n1019\nVishnu, he who hath a burnt body, he, Siva with the burnt throat, Brahma who smeareth over his body--these are allies. When the three thus meet it is a joy to the world.\n1020\nLet us not trust him who walks in another path; consider even his vest as a species of evil. It is the form of Ravanasura well known.\n1021\nGadheyudu (Viswamitra, son of Gadhi) formed a world in imitation of that formed by Brahma and unable to know the truth gained (he gained only his pain). Doth the angry man know himself?\n1022\nDo not Siva (Shambhudu) slay and restore his son Viswamitra to life. Did not Vishnu revive his son Manmatha? The Vedas give numberless meanings of these stories.\n1023\nA thousand and thousands of the leaders of fishes who caused the Vedas (nigama) to float on the sea, to churn nectar beneath that hill did he place three thousand firm tortoises, a thousand tens of Krishnas to see the shepherdesses in the shepherds' hamlet, four thousands of Narasimha incarnations to tear the breast of the Rakshasas, to slay Ravanasura, ten thousand Ramas, Parasuramas, ten thousand--if thou ask where is Siva, He who in the form of Vishnu underwent the incarnations. He dwelleth in Kasi.\n1024\nIf the teachers be ruined is not the whole caste destroyed? If Brahmins be destroyed he shall turn to ashes. If thou destroy Hara and Hari far is beatitude from thee.\n1025\nOur limbs to the God of fire, the bones, when burnt to the Goddess of earth, the excess of wealth to the kings, the entire soul to lovers, stubbornness to fools--the Sankara Vismriti to pariars and to the great avenger (Pluto) wrath belong.\n1026\nIn whatever direction each man's desire is, in proportion to his desire, shall Vema cause them to attain the blessings of this and the next world. By the favour of Siva shalt thou render them acceptable, O Vema.\n1027\nThey think on the mantras, but know not their meaning. How are those twice born who are ignorant of the meaning. He who comprehends the signification this is the only Bramha Rishi.\n1028\nThe wild melon leaf is still more poisonous than the margosa. The heretical prathama shakhi (sectory) is more venomous than a serpent and a black complexioned Brahmin is worse poison than musk.\n1029\nBy not quitting the assertions (violence) of the eight creeds, the holy have all become ruined. If you hold dung in your hand why cleanse it externally.\n1030\nSoul and the divinity exist in full force in the (diverse) forms that are in this world. But the Jangams, ignorant of this, cannot find the path.\n1031\nWhat means \"Bramin\", what means \"devotee\", what means \"enjoyer\", what means donor--however diverse their names, Plato's realm is their portion.\n1032\nThose of the Bouddha sect consider the intellect to be the divinity. They reckon, with degraded minds which is highest and which lowest. They have left of discriminating both good and bad, the vile calves.\n1033\nThe unholy wretch who joins the skull-sect is ignorant of the beginning and the end of life; and in folly reviles Siva, alas he is ruined, (This sect is atheistical and epicurean. They deny both creation and destruction.)\n1034\nLikewise, by the Shacta creed, men consider power to be the divinity and, void of all sense (fitness) they fully perform the rites of pariar generations.\n1035\nWhat sort of caste is that of Rishies? Enquire and know; they became lovers of God. They became the divinity. Finally however great they be they are devoured by the funeral flame.\n1036\nBorn in the rishi tribe, thereafter they are exalted in the gotra (tribe). They are not descended from Brahma, how then should they be Brahmins?\n1037\nThose sinful ones who undertake to walk in luxury eating and resting, and hard conduct--these shall not escape being bound in hell and cast into the mills of Yama.\n1038\nThe life we enjoy shall not pass in all one manner; wealth and poverty await us all in this iron age; even Hari, Hara and Aja look upon evil and good as one.\n1039\nHolding Siva the Lord, the body to be his temple, and attaining rest, he who uniteth his soul with Siva, this is the Siva-yogi.\n1040\nBrahma has given wealth to one man and a liberal disposition in the mind to another. May Brahma perish and his wife's marriage cord be broken at the wharf.\n1041\nOn the day when the term expired, it is impossible even for the three (Gods) to continue without suffering death. Why do ye dread the limit? Is the life eternal? It is brief, O Vema!\n1042\nWhy did Brahma bestow a delightful odour in a ball of ashes; what fault (falsehood) had gold committed before him? Let the widow of Brahma have her cord broken at the wharf.\n1043\nHe made the waters of the sea salt. He made the man of wealth avaricious. The acts of Brahma are acts of ashes.\n1044\nBeholding the craft of women, Bhairu Siva (Dog headed) refrained from marriage. So did the Big-bellied. Anjaneya (Hanuman) from his birth bound his langoti tight.\n1045\nTime and fate are boundless. Let us not oppose them but conduct ourselves as they lead us here on earth. Leave Brahma (Vidhi) in his eternal sleep and dream. O! ye idiots all! walk; O! men in the ways of beatitude.\n1046\nWhile you perform the worship of the shakti (inferior Goddesses) how should the Savitri (holy verse, Gayatri) continue on the earth? Sin is produced. Do not seize and punish it.\n1047\nIf a noble person comes and kills a cow, his crime-can by no means be evaded, and at last, he is surely to Yama as a goat bound for sacrifice.\n1048\nThe sun and the moon are present. The wind, fire and peacock spangled. Divinities are before thee. The earth and air are present. So many divinities are before thee. If thou wilt require, O Vema!\n1049\nWhy marry? Why beget children? Why suffer this sorrow? It is madness! Like as though a man lifted a rock upon his head.\n1050\nThe Divinity Himself became the universe. and was born when he hungers he shall eat this universe with desire (lit, its noble juice), In contradiction to his former acts he shall devour and destroy it. Alas! what do they call this?\n1051\nThe Deity became man, he became woman leaving sorrow and having those desires that never relinquish in each age he is born. O ye wise! behold this noble object of meditation.\n1052\nIn the various tribes of animals the deity was repeatedly reborn; like as if confused he roamed and roved; were we to call this body eternal? Would not the deity laugh?\n1053\nWho is the living man? Who is he who bore him? Who is the dead? No one knows this course! He that is, who produceth, who dieth, is one divinity.\n1054\nUnited with every living creature, manifest is the deity within them. Consider this deity carefully, whether it is female or male?\n1055\nBorn, he existeth, unborn he existeth not, awhile he dieth; awhile lives again, This is the mere diceplay of Brahma! Nothing is stable!\n1056\nWhy first are we born? Why die at last? Why troubled by reason of the ruthless Yama? Restrain thy mind from longing for birth.\n1057\nHowever great he be, to let the great sinner duly attain salvation there is one expedient at the time of death; let him give up all his desires, and think on God. Thus shall he become beatified.\n1058\nThough you impress his image on thee or name thyself his son, or eat his betel spittle serving him abjectly, shall any thing be attained by thee beyond thy destiny?\n1059\nEntangled in vain desires, observing the lives of consanguinity, a man becomes mad and roams the world. Where are our fathers and mothers? What are they? and what do they for us? (lit. why they to us?)\n1060\nThe hill monkey has (if you look) the monkey for a (p\u0113rant\u0101lu) wife; a banda (a poor king) for a minister; (Banda--a beggar who tortures himself to extort alms from fools). Look at the Banda; villainous slanderers are his kin.\n1061\nIgnorant of the term set to the expenditure of life, it is fit for no one to write or cause to write at any time or in any place never write.\n(This folly signifies that what is rendered permanent by writing may become false.)\n1062\nHe who duly reverences Bramins and the Gods, who justly governs the earth, and thus gains wealth, which he spends in liberality, he, thus looking to the path to the beatitude, and has love to God. This is a king!\n1063\nConsider the spittle (leavings) of flies, of courtesans--they are acceptable to men and gods. Then why is our own spittle unacceptable to us?\n1064\nAll wealth that is buried falls to the share of the earth; all that is out falls into the hands of others; all that we eat is the gain merely of straining inner system; what is bestowed alone remains ours.\n1065\nGive or not give, hope will bestow; however unsuccessful we still hope. Give or not give, it gives the world. Examine and see this. In this there are no free agents.\n1066\nBecoming a foetus it will remain in the womb for a few days. Thereafter it will surely not remain. The foetus is born in the earth; the foetus is the protection of the spirit in the earth, O Vema!\n1067\nFoulness in the belly, masses of flesh, bones--if you view it there is but a filthy skin over it. What manner of dwelling is this? What manner of comfort is this?\n1068\nIf we eat not food, the fire in the belly devours the impurities of the belly. Thus if he abstain from food, he who fasteth devoureth impurity.\n1069\nIf the Carnam be a low fellow, the farmers will all join and tell him to bow down whenever they have a mind. But if the Carnam be firm, we are your children, say they.\n1070\nA cat that listens a squeak is annoyed, if while eating its food it sees one of its own species (caste). He that hath no caste is considered a god in the world (as impartial).\n1071\nA fellow on one leg is no saint. If one carries cow-dung she is no slut, if one sees either of these he is merely astonished (his eyes redden).\n1072\nIn the Linga sect, a set of hypocrites has arisen and these having handsomely reviled one another are all turned to dust by the Turk tribe to whom their discussion render them easy converts.\n1073\nA man is distinguished in the world, and becoming himself a great somayaji is born, a brother to the village god Potarazu. But you may consider him as merely the vile goddess of death to the rams that are sacrificed.\n1074\nHe who saith this (external) figure is thy form and beholdeth in his internal image, Him that is worthy to be wore slipped of all worlds. In that form in which he himself exists shall he behold the Lord.\n1075\nHe that hath not subdued (slain) his mind as we still further consider, is lower than a pariar, O man! death (naraka) shall befall (lit. come to) him after death.\n1076\nThe chariot has five linch-pins; when the charioteer propels, the car proceeds. The car of thy body has five linch pins the senses); seek him who evidently guides it.\n1077\nThose wretches (lives) that artfully destroy animals while either sleeping, drinking waters or standing still and singing shall at the end in the same manner perish.\n1078\nBecoming free thinkers and ruined just like crows roaming the land wandering without understanding in them, they devour dung and urine; they die and become a part of earth.\n1079\nThat house that we call the body do we daily sweep, smear with cow-dung, plaster, and order; at last we quit it and depart, so deceitful (or fleeting) is the soul.\n1080\nTo what end is all this reading, to what end are all these disputations? If thou wouldest remain of one mind, thou shouldest become an accomplished sage and attaining absorptions become thyself, the Universe.\n1081\nSurely these vile tenets (Veda) are mere contention. The words of Vemana are knowledge (Veda). Verify none can show you any good. Though good were taught, you would not do it. If a man did well this would be the perfect man.\n( is a vocative plural of which is the singular. )\n1082\nLike as camphor, burnt in fire loses its fine smelt. Thus the fragrance of wisdom in the debased can attain no nobility.\n1083\nHe who knows the truth knows the Divinity and this will enable him to slay all his lust (literally vigours). Will he who has swallowed a delicious plantain swallow venom?\n1084\nWonderful is it that the millions of animated beings should behold the great spirit, if thou consider in thy heart.\n1085\nSorrow originates in impurity of heart. Like as the sun shines on all nature, pure water is in the sanctified body.\n1086\nYe who first drove away all your original Gods, ye who drove away the succeeding deities, smite with the slipper your present paltry divinities.\n1087\nHe who has beheld all the glory that is concealed within the veil, and has also fixed his mind on the divinity, that mighty saint who existeth in exalted holiness, at where shall we seek him?\n1088\nTo know myself is to know thee How should he who knoweth not himself know thee. Let us learn from Boya Caannappa the prayer that teaches a knowledge of ourselves and thee (easy and useful in grammatical construction).\n1089\nThat deity that alone comprehendeth the scriptures is found by constant seeking The Lord seeketh the man that seeketh him. Are there any who are wise and have learnt to seek him?\n1090\nIf we love him, he will love us. If we love not him he will not love us (in the world). All our gorgeous apparel any our devils are all of no avail in the world.\n1091\nWithout self possession the mere favour of learning will never remove the doubts of the aspirant. No more than darkness will be dissipated by a painted flame.\n1092\nBy gentleness every object is pleasantly attained. It is a true victory; by it our vows are performed, I will lay you any bet. How great were the difficulties that Dharmaraj conquered by means of gentleness? (admirable and easy),\n1093\nWhen the men of this world see the exalted saint they will censure him but cannot comprehend him. What difference can the hand perceive between nectar and any other taste.\n1094\nFrom his birth onwards how many diverse evil thoughts the sinner entertains. Like to a lame dog that is in imagination eating meat.\n1095\nIf he have learnt to speak prudently (lit. knowing abstracts), why should we consider his youth or age? May not a letter written by a child be respectable?\n1096\nContinuing to live and see (as in houses), listening to modes contrary to sense, do men pass away like an old song, listening to this they go on and go on and become a tale.\n1097\nAs they who have lost their eyes or legs seek each others aid, and as the beggar unites with beggar alone. Thus wealth and poverty associate together.\n1098\nIs not the dying of some of our kin before our eyes an evidence/to us? Can we look upon our frail lives as eternal?\n1099\nLike as the lamp of the sun enters into water, thus does the eye behold the deity. Like as the glistening of the soil of the desert in the mirage.","title":"Verses of Vemana: 1000-1099","type":"page"}