Samayamatrika 4

English (machine translation) 4

Language: English

4.1

Fourth Chapter: / Exposition of the Foundations of Veneration. / At this moment the good bawd, steeped in news of knaves, / arrived accompanied by the barber, as the night comes with darkness. //1

4.2

With an engine of bones and strings of veins, with sunken belly and skin, / covered in marks like the skull of a dried carcass, she seemed a cemetery demon. //2

4.3

Bearing a body of many apertures, bound by leather, / a cage for the bird of teaching deception to the inner world. //3

4.4

Her face always hanging down, even after seizing everything, / like a balance marked with thousands of notches for Kali's weighing of the three worlds. //4

4.5

Equally indifferent to one of equal wealth, to a sinner, to a sinner of low birth, and to the lowest: / she seemed fashioned by the Creator as a scale of musical notes for artificial passion. //5

4.6

Her long, fierce teeth clearly seen, her appearance terrible, / staying continually restless with the cruel fury of childbirth, like a bitch. //6

4.7

With an owl's face, a crow's neck, and a cat's eyes, / she seemed fashioned out of the limbs of creatures ever hostile to one another. //7

4.8

By her, the sole protector of the courtesans' grove in the great vow of passion, / the body of paramours had been reduced to a refuge of bed-posts and skeletons. //8

4.9

Seeing her, who brought about the shedding of tears clinging [to the eyes], / like the dark plume of smoke from an exorcistic fire-offering, //9

4.10

Kalāvatī rose up in fluster, paid homage to her feet, / gave her own seat, and, prefaced with worship, uttered praise: //10

"Because you are four-faced in the sphere of instruction for courtesans, / Janārdana through your manifold array of illusion, / and most formidable through the strife clinging to the ruined: / you alone possess the qualities of the creator, maintainer, and destroyer of the universe. //11

4.12

For deer-eyed women whose charming beauty blossoms in youth, / who have contemplated newly experienced love, / but are devoid of your teaching, / O mother, cherished aims do not truly succeed. //12

4.13

Therefore accept me as your adopted daughter, / devoted, with no other refuge, seeking your protection. / Towards those affectionate in surrendering themselves, even on first sight, / gentle minds are by their very nature full of compassion." //13

4.14

Thus entreated by Kalāvatī, with comfort and ease near at hand, / Kaṅkālī, a living skeleton of human flesh, spoke to her: //14

4.15

"My heart's affection is transferred to you; born without the pain of labor, / without the burden of pregnancy, my daughter, you are accepted as my child. //15

4.16

I was petitioned on your behalf by Kaṅka, my lifelong friend, / by whom this nose of mine, severed by rakes, was sewn back again and again. //16

4.17

You alone, worthy of the gods, are a fit vessel for my instruction: / a picture painted on an excellent wall achieves marvel in the eyes. //17

4.18

First listen, daughter, to what I say for your prosperity; / but in time, through constant practice, you will attain the treasure of the arts. //18

4.19

Not by lineage, not by character, not by beauty, nor by learning / is wealth, more precious than life itself and acquired through intellect, gained. //19

4.20

Generally in this world wisdom [...] belongs to no one. / I consider this whole world to be full of fools spinning wool. //20

4.21

Unaware of the proper timing of actions, / burning day and night like diseases, / gods, men, and nāgas across the three worlds / are truly all destitute of wisdom. //21

4.22

What did the eldest Parameṣṭhin do, / completely devoid of reflection, / in that the splendid youth of women with full breasts / is verily as transient as lightning? //22

4.23

What cleverness indeed belongs to senseless Vidhi, / who made neither oil for ash gourds nor wool for elephants? //23

4.24

Madhusūdana, seeking jewels in the ocean, / experienced affliction arising from turning a mountain; / why did he not first fashion a woman's form made of deceptive desire, / so as to plunder all treasures? //24

4.25

Sleep, bearing the burden of the earth, / seeking the protection of Śrī, and begging from another; / extreme loftiness and lack of virtues: / how is this proper for Puruṣottama? //25

4.26

The moon is emaciated, the guṇas are naked, the wife takes half the garment: / we do not know to what purpose Śambhu's friendship with the Lord of Wealth serves. //26

4.27

He whose body is smeared with ashes openly bears a woman on his body: does he act properly? / He who is detached continually delights in virtues: is he true to his vows? / He who is attached to the herd of bulls, though supreme lord: is he prudent? / He who visibly bears the crooked crescent that should be concealed: is he rich in wisdom? //27

4.28

Why did the skilled Lord of Day, lover of women, / have his own radiance ground away by the wheel? / Could a deer-eyed woman not be won over with wealth? / For money, a woman would endure what is even harsher. //28

4.29

The emaciation of the slender-bodied moon was not eradicated by serving Īśvara; / proud, resting stupidly on the head, how could he attain fullness? / If desiring growth, why does he not take his place near the feet? / A servant who stands aloft out of pride in merit surely destroys his own desired goal. //29

4.30

Going formerly to delude Īśvara with a woman, / why did Māra have a bow and arrow in hand? / Why did he not spread descriptions of a woman's virtues before him? / Because of that, the fool surely met destruction. //30

4.31

Homage be to Madhava, by whose power the aśoka tree, / though red, receives the kick of a foot from a companion of the cuckoo; / while the nectar of Madhava is drunk by bees, his ministers of abundance, / who fall upon it and are shaken off. //31

4.32

Sovereignty over all worlds, divine sages fit as ministers there, / the land of heaven as kingdom, a treasury heavy with great gems, an ocean of nectar; / the peak of Meru as fortress, the immortals as his army, the glorious Murāri as friend: / but such was the intelligence of the king of gods that his body was covered in marks of the vulva. //32

4.33

When the greedy ocean—devoid of brilliance, its anger harsh with futile kālakūṭa poison, / oppressed by universal conquest—proceeded to give, / as it was the dwelling place of countless jewels, / were the gods fools to be satisfied, through delusion, with merely one elephant, horse, tree, and wine? //33

4.34

By Rāma, eager to capture the golden deer; / by Yudhiṣṭhira, following the path of gambling with crooked dice; / and by Janamejaya, through jealous wrath and fury at Brahmins— / the ultimate dam of foolishness was erected across humanity's path.

4.35

That nectar, hard to win through toil and effort, surrendered to the serpents by Garuḍa, / was never drunk, nor even seen, nor kept safe; out of delusion it was merely lost. / Therefore, not the slightest speck of pure wisdom exists in all three worlds; / everyone rushes into the pursuit of wealth compelled by the karma of previous lives.

4.36

When people are thus senseless, what can one say of foolish women? / We survive solely by the grace of the witless.

4.37

A fool comes to believe even when sensory evidence is overturned before his eyes; / and the emergence of courtesans' wealth has the essence of an illusory display.

4.38

Once, into the hand of a Brahmin named Maṭharaka, / I spat betel residue in playful mockery.

4.39

Then that fool, noble-born and full of pride, ablaze with anger at the insult, / prepared to take his own life in the middle of a public assembly.

4.40

“Good sir, through a disorder of the humors you see an illusion falsely. / I spat nothing at all; wipe your hand against the wall!”

4.41

“By its nature, an eye is merely made of flesh; what trust can you have in it? / Is the word of me, a woman of sincere character, not proof?”

4.42

Having spoken thus, through fierce oaths and assertions of seizing him by the throat, / he was restored to his normal senses by me, and believed it was so.

4.43

At every step in this world, Providence has created a treasure: / reliance upon the witless by rakes, bards, and courtesans.

4.44

Once, during the time of my fresh youth, a Brahmin youth named Śaṅkaravāhana / entered my house for an entire night of pleasure.

4.45

Seeing that celibate student, very sturdy as if made of wood, / robust and in the bloom of first youth, I thought anxiously to myself:

4.46

“This man is unyielding, the night is long, and I am worn out by paramours; / therefore, I must take pains to withhold his pleasure.”

4.47

Reflecting thus for a long time, through various turns of conversation / as the hour for bed drew near, I made the first watch of the night pass away.

4.48

Then, when the sequence of stories ceased, in order to avert union with him, / I feigned a sound of distress on the pretext of sharp colic.

4.49

Then he, a fool by his very nature, deluded into believing it was real, / proceeded to massage all my limbs to relieve my colic.

4.50

While my limbs were being gently massaged with care by him, / the night passed by for me like an instant, as though with someone holding back.

4.52

Then, at dawn, I thought about having cheated him of his pleasure: / “This poor wretch with the wits of a beast was burdened by me with colic;

4.53

yet this sheep-fool paid four times the fee; / by the logic of withheld enjoyment, he will surely ask for it back.

4.54

Therefore, he must somehow be made to touch sexual pleasure; / how can leftover intercourse ever be brought to justice?”

4.55

Deliberating thus, I commenced the pleasure of lovemaking at night's end, / and kissed him as if out of affection, in order to discharge the debt of my fee.

4.56

With the apparatus of pleasure mounted, he, agitated with pity for my pain from colic, / said to me with consideration: “Enough of union with me!”

4.57

Then, to win over him whose mind possessed guileless simplicity, / I staged a sequence of charm with false affectionate words:

4.58

“Ah, wonderful! The touch of nectar is felt in your limbs; / just now I have seen the direct proof of it!

4.59

When this place of my delight was touched by you with your hidden organ, / I do not know where the colic vanished! By my merits you have come here.”

4.60

Upon hearing these words of mine, suddenly with tearful eyes, / half-roaring in the midst of pleasure, he felt utmost remorse from grief.

4.61

Striking his chest and his forehead with his hand, / saying, “Alas, the misery! Alas, I am ruined!”, he spoke this to me:

4.62

“I did not know before that contact with my body / dispels colic in women like a jewel, a mantra, or medicine.

4.63

The mother of an unfortunate man like me—she who gave birth to my affection— / died, dear lady, of prolonged colic.

4.64

If this method had been known, without a doubt / I, bewildered, would not have suffered separation from my mother!”

4.65

Having said, “I am cheated!”, he wept and departed, / resembling a hornless bull whose human shape is in doubt.

4.66

Devoted constantly to food and copulation, having abandoned all other duties, / there are indeed in this world empty-minded men pleased merely by a throat and a belly. / Resembling sheep, they place their heads without suspicion in the lap of one resolved on slaughter, / who robs all their possessions in an instant, as if in the lap of a trusted friend.

4.67

In this way youth is passed, through various windfalls / that are receptacles of wealth placed by the foolish, and extraordinary false virtues.

4.68

Courtesans live solely by falsehood, devoid of truth; / they are ruined by truth, just as women of good family are ruined by liquor.

4.69

Truth leads to the ruin of wanton women; / the fortune of a throng of courtesans has falsehood as its essence. / If courtesans had their true nature exposed through truth, / who indeed would visit them, any more than houses of the destitute?

4.70

A merchant is ruined by generosity; a courtesan is entirely ruined by truth; / a teacher is ruined by humility; and a scribe is ruined by pity.

4.71

Even a stranger, upon seeing the deceptive magic of a courtesan / like that of a gambler, is delighted, exclaiming, “Ah, what cleverness!”

4.72

Long ago, having wandered over this ocean-girdled earth, / out of greed I reached the city of Pāṭaliputra, the abode of courtesans.

4.73

There the all-knowing bawds, seeing my slight skill, / laughed out loud, so that I was abashed and wished to sink into the earth.

4.74

Then, out of that humiliation, I stood before the shrine of Gaṇeśa, / undertaking a fast and stripped of all my pride.

4.75

Then, in a dream, I was asked by Gaṇeśa, the son of Śaṅkara, / repeatedly: “How many fasts have you completed?”

4.76

He was told by me, with a feigned act of being near death: / “Two months of the vow of fasting have passed for me.”

4.77

Hearing that, Gaṇeśa, smiling-faced and all-knowing, said to me: / “Ah! Even in a vow, even in a dream, you have no lapse from falsehood!”

4.78

“I am well pleased with you, good woman, for your steadfast resolve in untruth.
Possessing the art of great illusion, you shall attain all pleasures.”

4.79

Thus the attendant of the lord of the gaṇas formerly gave me a boon.
Only by untruth do courtesans attain abundance of wealth.

4.80

Wealth is paramount, the very breath of living beings
among folk, and there above all,
for kings, who receive the advances of their subjects,
and for deer-eyed courtesans.

4.81

Wisdom is gained through wealth, and wealth is gained through wisdom.
In this world of living beings, wisdom and wealth are mutually bound.

4.82

He who has wealth in the world is the lord, worthy of worship by all;
he is the eloquent speaker, he is the four-faced Brahmā, he indeed is the supreme being.

4.83

He alone who has no wealth is heartless Rāhu, and indolent Saturn,
crooked, and ever of base birth.

4.84

Even the aberration of a wealthy man of noble birth, who has attained
a state to be coveted for auspiciousness, pleases people, like that of an intoxicated man.

4.85

Like sandalwood that gives pleasant shade and steals the heart,
people hold close association with a rich man in high esteem, even if he yields no fruit.

4.86

Even merciless swords become loving towards a fortunate man,
while the very hair on the heads of the poor becomes dry and un-oiled.

4.87

Only the wealthy man, elevated like the path through the sky,
is to be served by poets, scholars, and the like, a master of heroes and artists, giving path and direction.

4.88

Selling his own virtues like a twice-born man selling his own flesh,
a destitute man instantly falls, drained of strength; and once fallen, by whom is he honored?

4.89

Owing to the agitated mind of virtuous men craving what is worthless,
virtues perish in their very hearts, like the breasts of widows.

4.90

Surrounded by scholars, men attain virtue through wealth;
valour through brave warriors, and high renown of noble lineage through those of loftier family.
Therefore, since the host of virtues depends on wealth, and wealth depends on nothing else,
with minds fixed on nothing else we praise wealth, the source of prosperity.

4.91

Where garlands, ornaments, and clothes never fade;
where there is an abode of delight with excellent women;
which is attended by perpetual radiance and festive joy—
what difference is there between heaven and wealth?

4.92

Just as the day continuously brings blooming beauty to lotuses—
its brilliance removing all fault of darkness, fit for a great celebration of joy at the coming of the sun—
so wealth continuously brings blooming prosperity to people,
its splendor removing every fault, fit for a great festive delight at the arrival of friends.

4.93

Through wealth, a man of base birth becomes well-born, virtuous, surrounded by attendants, honored, and deemed authoritative
by the good, attaining the status of a gentleman—why say much more?
Through wealth, without the effort and misery of vows, holy bathing places, and journeying in caravans,
even those extensive sins and disturbances, such as the slaying of a Brahmin, are overcome.

4.94

Hear what happened long ago in Vārāṇasī, which I heard myself:
the deed of a householder of celebrated goodness.

4.95

There lived a master of the house, a lord of wealth upon the earth,
a twice-born named Śrīdhara, possessed of treasures like the great ocean.

4.96

In the house of that wish-fulfilling tree of supplicants,
there was a perpetual, unrestrained distribution of food for suitors, with choice meals fit for kings.

4.97

While thousands of Brahmins were eating perpetually in his home,
the tale of Yudhiṣṭhira among men came to be told with waning reverence.

4.98

Then once to the home of that storehouse of proper conduct came
a self-restrained ascetic named Jñānātman, of divine intellect.

4.99

Worthy of worship, he was honored by him and invited with devotion;
he went to see the kitchen, filled with hundreds of heaps of edible food.

4.100

There, above the whole assembly of boiled rice, curries, and the like,
he saw a corpse with its body hanging down, marked with a white sacred thread.

4.101

He saw the food being sprinkled by tiny drops of blood trickling from its limbs,
unseen by any of the people.

4.102

Seeing that exceedingly loathsome sight, his mind shrank back in disgust;
he touched his ears and went away from there quickly, unobserved.

4.103

Then, when a year had passed, having returned out of curiosity,
he saw that skeleton bound by sinews, bereft of flesh.

4.104

Seeing the food sprinkled by moist drops of fat from the hundreds of mouths of its veins,
he departed with eyes closed in revulsion.

4.105

Returning again after a year, he saw the rice and curries
overspread with just two or three drops of marrow trickling from the corpse, which had become mere bone.

4.106

When a year had passed, he came again out of curiosity and saw
dust falling upon the food from the scraping of the remaining skull.

4.107

Then, having returned after six months, seeing the kitchen pure, free from the corpse,
and delightful, he said to the family priest:

4.108

“Ah, by this householder’s great alms-feast, the sin
has been destroyed in a short time, consumed by ten million beggars.

4.109

Attached to his house was the sin of slaying a Brahmin, multiplied a hundredfold,
acquired by an ancestor; that has reached its end here through giving.

4.110

Those who ate in his mansion took away that sin;
sin with no other support approaches the eater.

4.111

That slaying of a Brahmin which brought fear even to Śiva
has been destroyed by wealth! Oh wealth, ah wealth!”

4.112

Having said this and inscribed a verse on a stone slab with care,
he whose eye was knowledge departed, while being worshipped by the family priest.

4.113

I heard that verse myself as it was being recited there by learned men
who proclaimed it with wonder, because of my taste for the weight of the verse’s meaning:

4.114

“It calms accumulated sin; it wipes away an unbearable curse;
it brings forth a family of blessings, free from the slightest trace of blemish.
Wealth is an immaculate pilgrimage place for men; it is itself great asceticism.
Homage, homage to wealth, the treasury of merit, the abode of faith!”

4.115

Having heard this, which was meaningful and full of the praise of wealth,
I made it the essential doctrine in the chapter of the ten conditions.

4.116

Quickly acquire wealth; […] belongs to women.
This physical prowess, my daughter, is no companion to youth.

4.117

The beauty of the slender vine of the body is spring; the moon of the face is an autumn night;
the swelling of the breasts is the rainy season—the radiance of youth is fleeting.

4.118

When fickle youth is present, lovely-browed one, displaying the coquetry of playful knitted brows,
the pleasures of women with full-swelling breasts are a festival of just two or three days.

4.119

This graceful motion of a bee to the lotus of the face of fair-browed women, / this deer upon the breast, this peacock sporting on the broad hips, / this royal swan upon the sandbanks of the triple fold adorned with lovely radiance— / this dawn of passion in youth does not wander long. (119)

4.120

When this elephant of youth prepares to march, / uprooting its tying-post named pleasure, / the breasts of women fall as if in dread of being crushed, / while the throng of lovers flees away. (120)

4.121

The rainy season of a young woman's stream has swelling clouds [and breasts]; / it brings on the burden of passion, a lover to the dancing peacocks of flirtatious play; / agitated by the wind of love […] / […] (121)

4.122

When this friend of lovers, youth, departs—like wealth to a gullible man— / during the blooming time of the creeper of play, the sun to the lotus-pool of passion, / the garden of pride, the Kārttika of moonlight to the hare-marked moon of the face, / the fortune of courtesans suddenly falls into utter misery. (122)

4.123

Yet women do not obtain wealth through youth alone: / an old cow-elephant is fit for enjoyment, while a doe in the forest is young. (123)

4.124

"I am beautiful and wondrous!"—such pride you must cast off, lovely girl. / In the forest peacocks waste away, while crows feast upon offerings. (124)

4.125

[…] people [praise] the full [moon, though] unsteady and crooked; / even when waned, the moon grows great, though crooked with but a single digit. (125)

4.126

Your pair of brows robs the graceful beauty from the bow-creeper of Kusumeṣu; / your face surpasses the lunar orb; your lower lip steals the luster of the bimba fruit; / your form is an elixir for the eyes. What more, fine-hipped girl? Even so, / through lack of training, like a rutting elephant, it attains no acquisition of wealth. (126)

4.127

This shade of your tree of youth is astonishing, / by which the burning fever of Smara is stirred up among paramours. (127)

4.128

Upon your lower lip, with its sprouts from the coral tree born of the ocean of passion, / the splendor of your smile creates the illusion of blossoms. (128)

4.129

Your face shines with an excellent sandal mark / and is adorned with curved leaf-designs in dark agallochum; / this paradise is delightful / through the dance of your brow-creepers. (129)

4.130

O lovely girl, extreme weariness from the weight of your breasts has slowly set in; / your waist has grown exceedingly slender, as if from grief over departed childhood. (130)

4.131

Even so, beautiful girl, through this beauty destitute of stratagem, / treasures are not obtained, just as they are not through supreme effort [alone]. (131)

4.132

Though virtuous and charming, / accompanied by the torment of meager wealth, she does not shine; / only when rich in wealth, like a good poet's well-turned verse rich in meaning, / does a courtesan attain desirability. (132)

4.133

Full of wine toward the clinging, full of Lakṣmī toward the bestowers of wealth and virtue, / full of nectar toward those whose wealth is abundant, and full of poison toward those whose riches are gone; / like a conch, utterly crooked toward those absorbed in true affection— / she produces delusion even in gods, O fair-browed girl, like the shore of the ocean of milk. (133)

4.134

Having thus received the nectar of words offered by her, / fit to be drunk by the ears, Kalāvatī said to her: / "Mother, tell me the instruction / suitable for the acquisition of wealth." (134)

4.134_1

Thus ends the fourth chapter, entitled "The Exposition of the Bawd's Practice," in the Samayamātṛkā composed by Kṣemendra, also named Vyāsadāsa. (4)

Linked texts (1)

Samayamātṛkā — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit