Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.18

v2.c20.18

‘Luck to thee in the pleasures of love,¹ O first among Brahmans! For to me this now is the greatest joy. The first law of the father of the house is, indeed, to honour the guest that is come. The wise say there is no higher law and merit than this, that the guest go his way having been honourably entertained by him that dwells in the house.² I, indeed, have taken this vow: My life and my wife, and whatever else I have I must give my guests. And that this word which I have spoken will brook no doubt—in witness to this truth, O Brahman, I touch my own body. The earth, the wind, the ether, water, fire as fifth, the mind (buddhi), the soul (ātman), the heart (manas), time (kāla), and space (diças)—these ten constituents, indeed, dwelling in the bodies of those that carry bodies, are ever beholding the good and the evil deed, O best among those faithful to the law. So true as the words are true which I have now spoken, so truly shall the gods shield me or burn me.’³ Thereupon there was heard again and again from every direction a loud sound in all the quarters of the world: ‘That is true,’ and ‘That is not a lie’. But thereupon that Brahman came out of the hut, filling heaven and earth with his form, as though the wind had arisen.⁴ Making the three worlds to ring with the tone of recitation true to art, he spoke unto this man that knew virtue, addressing him first by name: ‘I am the god of righteousness and virtue, come here, if so I may say, to put thee, O guiltless one, to the test; and having come to know thy uprightness, I feel towards thee the highest glad approval. Thou hast overcome Death, who goes in after thee here; he was ever looking for a weak spot in thee, and now has been beaten by thee through thy staunchness. And none in the three worlds, O best of men, has the power to look on this faithful woman, thy good wife. Whatever this woman that none can stain, sheltered through thy virtues and her virtues as a faithful wife, may say, so it is, and not otherwise.’” Then he further praises the moral greatness of the two, and says that Oghavatī, who has rid herself of all failings and vices through her obedience to her husband, and wields yoga, shall with one half be left to Sudarçana, but with the other half she shall become the river of her name that wipes away sin. Together with her he shall come into the worlds of bliss, from which none ever come back again into the Saṃsāra. The conclusion is made up of a fresh song of praise for hospitality, as being better than a hundred sacrifices; and assurance is given that a man shall come unto holy and blessed worlds, if he relate this “tale—bringing fame, long life, and all happiness—of the man who as father of a house overcame Death”.¹