Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

that to the eye of the yogin, the whole universe is as an emblic myrobalan on the palm of his hand. The yogin can achieve everything by a simple fiat of his will. He can, within the twinkling of the eye, raise palaces in the midst of deserts. {Vide the story of Vasishtha, in the Mahabharata, _Vana Parva, doing the duties of hospitality to King V^wamitra and his whole army). ‘ Dristi ’ is vision, ‘ Crotram ’ is the ear or hearing, and * Smriti ’ is memory. In the case of the ' yogin, every one of these is un¬ impeded or unobstructed. The yogin can look through mountains and across wide oceans. His sense of hearing also extends to the remotest stars. His memory extends to previous lives, even countless ones. By * Kanti,’ which I have rendered as ‘ wealth of beauty (in respect of the body),’ is meant, as some Commentators explain, ‘ Animadi pradurbhava etc.,’ implying the power of becoming minute as a point or gross as a mountain, and’also of assuming any form or shape at will. The yogin can make himself as hand¬ some as a young man, or as strong-built as a professional athlete or wrestler. In the Bhagavata, Krishna, the prince of yogins, is described, when enter¬ ing the court of King Kangsa who had arranged for his death at the hands of some celebrated wrestlers, as having assumed a form that appeared differ¬ ent to different persons. For dignity of language and beauty of conception, the verse is one of the best in the Bhagavata. I cannot resist the tempta¬ tion of citing it even in translation. “ To the wrestlers he seemed as one whose body was made of thunder ; to the common people, as a prince of men ; to the woman as the god of love incarnate ; to his parents (the bereaved Vasudeva and Devaki) as an infant ; to the cowherds of Brindabana as their companion ; to the king of the Bhojas {viz., Kangsa) as the Destroyer himself ; to all wicked chiefs as their chastiser ; to yogins as the highest object of their meditation ; and to the Vrishnis as their tutelary deity.”

The power also of making themselves invisible at will belongs to yogins — T.

* ‘ Valavat karma ’ means all serious or significant acts, i.e., those acts

p. 688

CHARAKA SAMHITA.

Close association with the good, complele avoidance of those" that are not good, practice of (pious) vows, fasts (abstention from food and drink), observances of other kinds, apprehension of the scriptures, knowledge of objects, pleasure in privacy, whichhave effects to be enjoyed or endured ; hence, acts that are good and bad and that are productive of happiness and misery. The limitation implied by ‘ valavat ’ excludes all minoriacts or exertions which have no consequeces such as the inhaling. ]and exhaling of breaths, or eating, or walking, or exercising the eye, the ear, &c., under circumstances that do not involve judgment of any kind. As long as there is an act the fruit of which, whether pleasurable or. painful, is to be enjoyed or endured, there can be no Eman¬ cipation. Acts lead to Heaven or Hell and : rebirth. The yogin, who covets Emancipation, gives up all acts. Acts, again, are incapable of being enhausted or destroyed, until their fruits:(are:j]enjoyed or endured. Manu says ‘ Maabhuktam kshiyate karma kalpakoti Qatairapi, Ava?yameva bhoktavyam kritara karma Qubhajubham ’ meaning that unless the fruits thereof be enjoyed or endured, an act is not destroyed in even a hundred thousand ages. Good and bad acts done, produce fruits which must have to be enjoyed br endured.

‘Viyogah karmasamyogaih’ is apparently an instance of syntactical pleonasm. In reality it is not so. Acts attach themselves to their doers. Dissociation from this attachment -'isr what is intended by the words. Such dissociation can never occur except upon the destruction or exhaustionjof the act.

The incapacity of acts to be destroyed, may now be regarded to,be a scientific fact. Acts imply force. Force is never destroyed. As poetically expressed by Mr. Babage, the force which the assasin’s dagger imparts to the body of the victim lives to eternity 'in minute vibrations in ether which the All-seeing eye alone perceives. The last gurgle of the Atlantic waters over the spot where the captain of a slaver casts the hand-cuffed wretch of a Negro for destroying, as he imagines, the ^evidence of his guilt when he is pursued by a fast-sailing British cruiser, imparts a motion to the minutest sand-grain on the shores of remote Greenland which the All¬ knowing Being easily detects at the expiration of even millions of years. The subject is well worth reflection by every thoughtful mind.— T.

CHARAKA SAMHITA.

absence of pleasure in worldly objects, perseverence in (attaining to) Emancipation, fortitude, abstentention from acts, exhaustion (or destruction) of acts, renunciation of home, absence of pride, fright in contact with worldly objects, concentration of mind and understanding, survey of objects in their true light, — all these indications flow from the conservation of memory * 250-58

It is by the evidence of these, beginning with close association with the good and ending with fortitude, that the conservation of memory is ascertained.

Recollecting by the aid of the memory the true nature of