Gandasailavalokanam
in Tripura Rahasya (naratted by Dattatreya to Parasurama)
Tripura Rahasya,
the ultimate book on Advaita Vedanta discusses a chapter about time-travel.
Mahasena,
brother of Vanga King Sushena sent his army along with horse to perform
Aswamedha Yagam.
When the army
crossed a sage named Tangana, who was in meditation, they did not pay respect
to him and proceeded further. Sage’s son noticed the insult to his father and
was exasperated. He caught the sacrificial horse and fought the heroes guarding
it.
They surrounded
him on all sides but he together with the horse entered a hill (Gandasaila),
before their eyes. Noticing his disappearance in the hill, the invaders
attacked the hill. The sage’s son re-appeared with a huge army, fought the
enemy, defeated them and destroyed Susena’s army. He took many prisoners of
war, including all the princes and then re-entered the hill. A few followers
who escaped fled to Sushena and told him everything. Sushena was surprised and
said to his brother to respect the sage and bring back the horse.
Knowing the
problem of king, Tangana asked his son to release the horse. But even after
that Mahasena was curious to know how huge army emerged from inside a hill.
Tangana’s son
made Mahasena leave his physical body outside the hill and took his ativahika
sarira (astral body) inside.
As he entered,
Mahasena saw the sky above, enveloped in the darkness of night and shining with
stars. He ascended there and looked down below; he came to the region of the
moon and was benumbed with cold. Protected by the saint, he went up to the Sun
and was scorched by its rays. Again tended by the saint, he was refreshed and
saw the whole region a counterpart of the Heaven. He went up to the summits of
the Himalayas with the saint and was shown the whole region and also the earth.
Again endowed with powerful eye-sight, he was able to see far-off lands and
discovered other worlds besides this one. In the distant worlds there was
darkness prevailing in some places; the earth was gold in some; there were
oceans and island continents traversed by rivers and mountains; there were the
heavens peopled by Indra and the Gods, the asuras, human beings, the rakshasas and
other races of celestials. He also found that the saint had divided himself as
Brahma in Satyaloka, as Vishnu in Vaikunta, and as Siva in Kailasa while all
the time he remained as his original-self the king ruling in the present world.
The king was struck with wonder on seeing the yogic power of the saint. The
sage’s son said to him: ‘This sightseeing has lasted only a single day
according to the standards prevailing here, whereas 1,200,000,000 years have
passed by in the world you are used to. So let us return to my father.‘
Outside the
hill, sage’s son made Mahasena go into sleep and united his astral body with
the preserved physical body.
When Mahasena
wokeup, he found the whole world to have changed.
Upon realizing
that all his relatives and friends were dead during that time period, Mahasena
goes into depression.
Tangana’s son
takes him around the hill and says ‘See this hill’s circumference is just 1
mile, but you have seen a huge universe inside. Now what can you call as
reality ?
How can you judge
if one dream is reality of actually a dream, based on another dream ?
Both are dreams
and reality is YOU.‘
Thus Mahasena
was taught yoga and advaita philosophy.
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