Uttar Kaanda
214 - Kakabhusundi approaches the sage Lomasa, who first pronounces a curse on him but later on showers his grace and bestows a boon on him
Chaupais
Description
Thereupon the great sage recounted with reverence a few virtues of Sri Rama (the Lord of the Raghus), O lord of the feathered creation. But himself devoted to the knowledge of Brahma (the Absolute), and knowing me to be the fittest person (to be initiated into such knowledge), the enlightened sage began a sermon on Brahma, the unborn, the One without a second and without attributes, the Ruler of the heart (the inner Controller), incomprehensible, desireless, without name or form, attainable only through realization, indivisible and incomparable, beyond the mind and the senses, immaculate and indestructible, immutable, unlimited and all-blissful : "You are identical with the Brahma referred to above; no more difference exists between Him and you than between a sheet of water and the ripples on its surface: so declare the Vedas." The sage instructed me in various ways; but the truth that the individual soul is identical with the attributeless Brahma did not appeal to my heart. Bowing my head at his feet I submitted again, "Kindly tell me how to worship the embodied Brahma, O lord of the sages. My mind takes delight in the worship of Sri Rama even as a fish rejoiees in water; how, then, can it exist without it, O wise lord of the sages? Be gracious, therefore, to teach me the method whereby I may be able to behold the Lord of the Raghus with my own eyes. Having feasted my eyes on the King of Ayodhya I will then listen to your discourse on the attributeless Brahma." The sage once more recited the incomparable story of Sri Hari; but demolishing the doctrine that the supreme Spirit does appear in an embodied form, he established the proposition that He is ever without attributes. Thereupon I would set aside the view that God is ever attributeless and establish with great obstinacy the doctrine that He takes an embodied form. When I thus entered into hot discussion with him, signs of resentment appeared on the sage's person. Listen, my lord: insolence carried to an excess rouses passion even in the breast of an enlightened soul. Too much friction will produce fire even out of sandal-wood.