421: Fire is Lord’s Shaft
With fire, the Lord burnt all Space
With fire, the Lord burnt the Oceans,
With fire, the Lord burnt the Asuras
Fire, verily, is the Lord’s shaft on hand.
422: Three are His Layas
Three are His layas–the moments of Repose
Of them one, karpandha–the end of aeons,
I witnessed;
All things fell uprooted in the destruction
This orb then was unto a boiling rice pot
Its mountains and valleys alike burnt to ashes.
423: The Fire Spreads
The earth on which we tread
The snow-clad mountains eight.
The seven seas whose ebbing tides roar,
Over all these and else
The Fire that resides in Muladhara spreads;
And the spreading conflagration turned
Earth and sky seem alike;
–This the truth, imagination none.
424: The Fire Spreads to the Seas Also
From aloft the cloud laden mountains
She descended–
The benign river Ganga;
Into the earth the waters seeped
In directions eight,
Emptying itself eventually
Into the deep pit that is the Ocean,
That Constant sings the praise of Lord
With Chant of “Aum”
–That Ocean too the fire gulped in fury.
425: Four Forms of Death
Four are the forms of death
Daily death is the state of sense loss in sleep;
Fated Death is no-return to waking;
Pure Death is when the Soul reacheth inertia;
Redeemed Death is being in Lord’s Grace True.
426: What Transpires in the Four Deaths
In Daily Death, are bodies gross and subtle transcended;
In Fated Death, is the Mayaic body annihilated;
In Pure Death, Mind and cognates merge in Infinite
In Redemption Death, Siva’s Grace descends true.
427: Four Forms of Death
When but birth–impediment uprooted,
Daily Death is unto Fated Death
And Fated Death unto Pure Death
And Pure Death unto Redemption Death
In that alone is the Truth–Jiva becoming Siva.
428: Thus Four are the Deaths
Thus are Deaths Four;
The Daily Death in deep Sleep;
The Fated Death that gives the soul a longer rest;
The Pure Death that puts the Soul in primal quiescence;
The Redemption Death that steeps the Soul in Lord’s Grace.
429: Void the Beginning and End
Out of Void, a plant (soul) it sprang,
To the Void it returns;
Yet shall it not be Void again;
In that Void, exhausted, it shall die;
That the fate of Hari and Brahma too,
Who the holocaust of Samhara survive not.
430: Scorch Your Karmas
Scorch the gathering Karmas
And exhaust them;
There is One who annihilates them
And the city where He does it
He fashioned the body, He pervades everywhere.
He placed the Mind and cognate tattva group besides,
He gave us Wisdom ample to discriminate.