Book Title: Lalit Vistara
Author(s): Rajendralala Mitra
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Previous | Next

Page 201
________________ OM APTER X1. 197" jambu tree (Dugenia), loaded with thick and luxuriant green foliage, offered on that spot, a refreshing place under the shade of its far spreading branches. Here the bed of the child was doposited. A gilt canopy was immediately raised above it, and curtains, embroidered with gold, were disposed round it. Guardians having been appoiuted to watch over the infant, the king, attended by all his courtiers, directed his steps towards tho place where all the plonghs were held in readiness. Ho instantly put his own plough ; eight hundred noblemen, less one, and the country people followed his example. Pressing forward his bullocks the king ploughed to and fro trough the extent of the fields. All the ploughnen, einulating their royal lord, drove their ploughs in a uniforın direction. The sceno presented a most animated and stirring spectacle on an immense scale. The appliuding multitude filled the air with crius of joy and oxultation. The nurses, who kept watch by the side of the infant's cradle, excited by the animated scene, forget the prince's orders, and ran near to the spot to enjoy this soul-stirring sight displayed before their admiring oyos. Phralaong, casting a glance all round, and being no one close by him rose up instantly, and, sitting in a crosslegged position, remained absorbed as it were in a profound meditation." Bigandet, I, pp. 50f.). 3. Nonmargumentatire und non-deliberatire condition, p. 190. Ilore, As elsewhere, the Buddhists bave borrowed the detail of tho Ilindu Yoga to the very letter. Yogis describe four kinds of meditation : 1st, the argumentativo; 2nd, the deliberative; 3rd, the joyons ; and 4th, the egwylio. Whou meditation is confined to crudo matter, it is argumentative. Wher subtile matter is made the theme of thought, it is deliberative. When all ideas of argument and deliberation havo passed away and the thinking principlo is immersed in a sengo of abfolute happiness, it is joyous. And when that sense of joy bas passed And a more consciousness is all that is left behind, it is egoistic. These 'ideas have been worked out in a roundabout way in the toxt. For the details of these conditions the reader is ruferred to my translation of the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, pp. 17 et infra. The Chinese and the Southern authors have discarded all mention of these as too abstruse for the temper of their worldly-minded people.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292