Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/47

 fire, and finally to have himself buried for three hours and three-quarters. He would then have attained to the highest state, and he who succeeds in reaching such motionlessness, such lifelessness, is, according to the opinion of the Hindus, immersed thereby in the inner life, and exists permanently as Brahma.

There is an episode in the Ramayana which places us entirely at this point of view. The story of the life of Visvamitra, the companion of Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu), is thus related. There was a mighty king, who, as being such, had demanded a cow (which is worshipped in India as the generative energy of the earth) of the Brahman Vasischtha, as he had got to know of its wonderful power. Vasischtha refused it; the king thereupon seized it by force, but the cow escaped back again to Vasischtha, reproached him with having permitted it to be taken from him, since the power of a Kshatriya (which the king was) is not greater than that of a Brahman. Vasischtha then imposed on the cow the task of assembling a force for him wherewith to resist the king. The latter confronted him with his entire army, and both armies were repeatedly overthrown; finally, however, Visvamitra was conquered after his hundred sons too had been destroyed by means of a wind which Vasischtha had caused to issue from his navel. Full of despair, he hands over the government to his only remaining son, and departs with his consort to the Himalaya mountains, in order to obtain the favour of Mahadeva (Siva). Moved by the severity of his exercises, Mahadeva is prepared to fulfil his wishes. Visvamitra asks to have the knowledge of the whole science of archery, and this is granted him. Armed with his bow, Visvamitra intends to coerce Vasischtha; with his arrow he lays waste his forest. Vasischtha, however, seizes his staff, the Brahmanical weapon, and lifts it up; whereupon the gods are filled with apprehension, for such a force as this threatened the entire world with destruction.