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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
These secret things those saints descry Alone whose sinless life austere For them has earned an insight clear, To which all mysteries open lie.
So let thy doubts like vapours flee, Abandon impious unbelief; And let not discontent and grief Disturb thy soul's serenity.
But study God aright to know, That highest Lord of all revere, Whose grace on those who love him here Will endless future bliss bestow.
Draupadi rejoins:
How could I God, the Lord of all, Contemn, or dare his acts arraign, Although I weakly thus complain? Nor would I virtue bootless call. I idly talk; my better mind
Is overcome by deep distress
Which long shall yet my heart oppress:So judge me rightly; thou art kind.
3. Naishadha Charita, xviii. 45. Whether the doctrine of future retribution be true. The scripture says, the bad begin, When dead, with woe to pay for sin, While bliss awaits a happier birthThe good whene'er they quit the earth. But now, we see, the bad are blest, And righteous men on earth distrest. How then, this doubtful case decide? Tell what is urged on either side. Did God exist omniscient, kind,
And never speak his will in vain, "Twould cost him but a word, and then His suppliants all they wish would find. If God to men allotted woe,
Although that woe the fruit must be Of men's own actions, then were he Without a cause his creatures' foe,More cruel, thus, than men, who ne'er To others causeless malice bear. In this our state of human birth
Man's self and Brahma co-exist,As wise Vedantists all insist,But when this wretched life on earth Shall end, and all redemption gain, Then Brahma shall alone remain. A clever doctrine here we see ! Our highest good to cease to be!
[JULY, 1875.
4. Vishnu Purana, iv. 24, 48 ff. The Vanity of Human Ambition. How many kings-their little day Of power gone by-have passed away, While yet the stable Earth abides, And all the projects vain derides
Of men who deemed that She was theirs, The destined portion of their heirs.
With bright autumnal colours gay,
She seems to smile from age to age, And mock the fretting kings who wage Fierce war for Her,-for ampler sway. "Though doomed," she cries, "to disappear So soon, like foam that crests the wave, Vast schemes they cherish, madly brave, Nor see that death is lurking near. "And kinsmen, brothers, sons and sires, Whom selfish love of empire fires, The holiest bands of nature rend,In bloody strife for Me contend. "O! how can princes, well aware How all their fathers, one by one, Have left Me here behind, and gone, For My possession greatly care ?" King Prithu strode across the world, And all his foes to earth he hurled. Beneath his chariot-wheels-a prey For dogs and vultures-crushed they lay. Yet, snatched by Time's resistless blast, He long from hence away has passed: Like down the raging flames consume, He, too has met the common doom. And Kartavirya, once so great,
Who ruled o'er all the isles, supreme, Is but a shadow now, a theme On which logicians subtly prate. Those lords of men, whose empire's sheen Of yore the regions all illumed, By Death's destroying frown consumed, Are gone: no ashes e'en are seen! Mândhâtri once was world-renowned; What forms his substance now? a tale! Who, hearing this, if wise, can fail This mundane life to scorn, so frail, So dreamlike, transient, worthless found? Of all the long and bright array
Of kings whose names tradition shows, Have any ever lived? Who knows? And now where are they? None can say.
