STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH.
Vasishtha said:—In the meanwhile, O Ráma! Lílá seeing her husband lying
insensible before her and about to breathe his last, thus spoke to
Sarasvatí:
2. Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in
this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom.
3. Sarasvatí replied:—This combat that you saw to be fought with such
fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in thy
kingdom nor in any part of this earth.
4. It occurred nowhere except in the vacant space of the shrine,
containing the dead body of the Bráhman; and where it appeared as the
phantom of a dream only (in your imagination).
5. This land which appeared as the realm of thy living lord Vidúratha,
was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma.
(The incidents of Vidúratha’s life, being but a vision appearing to the
departed spirit of Padma).
6. Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Bráhman Vasishtha, situated
in the hilly village of Vindhyá, that exhibited these varying scenes of
the mortal world within itself. (_i.e._ As a panorama shows many sights
to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).
7. As the departed soul views the vision of the past world within its
narrow tomb; so is the appearance of all worldly accidents unreal in
their nature. Gloss:—The apparitions appearing before the souls of the
dead lying in their tombs, are as false as the appearances presenting
themselves before the living souls in their tomb of this world. The
souls of the living and the dead are both alike in their nature, and
both susceptible of the like dreams and visions.
8. These objects that we see here as realities, including these bodies
of mine and thine and this Lílá’s, together with this earth and these
waters, are just the same as the phantoms rising in the tomb of the
deceased Bráhman of the hilly region.
9. It is the soul which presents the images of things, and nothing
external which is wholly unreal can cast its reflexion on the soul.
Therefore know thy soul as the true essence which is increate and
immortal, and the source of all its creations within itself. Note:—The
subjective is the cause of the objective and not this of that.
10. The soul reflects on its inborn images without changing itself in
any state, and thus it was the nature of the Bráhman’s soul, that
displayed these images in itself within the sphere of his tomb.
11. But the illusion of the world with all its commotion, was viewed in
the vacant space of the souls of the Bráhman and Padma, and not
displayed in the empty space of their tombs, where there was no such
erroneous reflexion of the world.
12. There is no error or illusion anywhere, except in the misconception
of the observer; therefore the removal of the fallacy from the mind of
the viewer, leads him to the perception of the light of truth.
13. Error consists in taking the unreal for the real, and in thinking
the viewer and the view or the subjective and objective as different
from each other. It is the removal of the distinction of the subjective
and objective, that leads us to the knowledge of unity (the _on_ or one
or _om_).
14. Know the Supreme soul to be free from the acts of production and
destruction, and it is his light that displays all things of which He is
the source; and learn the whole outer nature as having no existence nor
change in itself.
15. But the souls of other beings, exhibit their own natures in
themselves; as those in the sepulchral vault of the Bráhman, displayed
the various dispositions to which they were accustomed. (Thus the one
unvaried soul appears as many, according to its particular wont and
tendency in different persons).
16. The soul has no notion of the outer world or any created thing in
it; its consciousness of itself as an increate vacuity, comprehends its
knowledge of the world in itself. (_i.e._ The subjective consciousness of
the Ego, includes the knowledge of the objective world).
17. The knowledge of the mountain chains of Meru and others, is included
under the knowledge in the vacuity of the soul; there is no substance or
solidity in them as in a great city seen in a dream.
18. The soul views hundreds of mountainous ranges and thousands of solid
worlds, drawn in the small compass of the mind, as in its state of
dreaming.
19. Multitudes of worlds, are contained in a grain of the brain of the
mind; as the long leaves of the plantain tree, are contained in one of
its minute seeds.
20. All the three worlds are contained in an atom as the intellect, in
the same manner as great cities are seen in a dream; and all the
particles of intellect within the mind, have each the representation of
a world in it.
21. Now this Lílá thy step-dame, has already gone to the world which
contains the sepulchre of Padma, before the spirit of Vidúratha could
join the same.
22. The moment when Lílá fell in a swoon in thy presence, know her
spirit to be immediately conveyed to him and placed by his side.
23. Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! how was this lady endowed here with
my form before, and how is she translated to and placed as my step-dame
beside my deceased husband?
24. Tell me in short, in what form she is now viewed by the people in
Padma’s house, and the manner in which they are talking to her at
present.
25. The goddess replied:—Hear Lílá, what I will relate to thee in brief
in answer to thy question, regarding the life and death of this Lílá as
an image of thyself.
26. It is thy husband Padma, that beholds these illusions of the world
spread before him in the same sepulchre in the person of Vidúratha.
27. He fought this battle as thou didst see in his reverie, and this
Lílá resembling thyself was likewise a delusion. These his men and
enemies were but illusions, and his ultimate death, was as illusory as a
phantom of the imagination, like all other things in this world.
28. It was his self delusion, that showed him this Lílá as his wife, and
it is the same deceit of a dream, which deludes thee to believe thyself
as his consort.
29. As it is a mere dream that makes you both to think yourselves as his
wives, so he deems himself as your husband, and so do I rely on my
existence (also in a like state of dream).
30. The world with all its beauty, is said to be the spectre of a
vision; wherefore knowing it a mere visionary scene, we must refrain
from relying any faith in this visible phantasmagoria.
31. Thus this Lílá, yourself and this king Vidúratha, are but phantoms
of your fancy: and so am I also, unless I believe to exist in the
self-existent spirit.
32. The belief of the existence of this king and his people, and of
ourselves as united in this place, proceeds from the fulness of that
intellect, which fills the whole plenitude.
33. So this queen Lílá also situated in this place with her youthful
beauty, and smiling so charmingly with her blooming face, is but an
image of divine beauty.
34. See how gentle and graceful are her manners, and how very sweet is
her speech; her voice is as dulcet as the notes of the Kokila, and her
motions as slow as those of a lovelorn maiden.
35. Behold her eyelids like the leaves of the blue lotus, and her
swollen breasts rounded as a pair of snow-balls; her form is as bright
as liquid gold, and her lips as red as a brace of ripe _Vimba_ fruits.
36. This is but a form of thee as thou didst desire to be to please thy
husband, and it is the very figure of thy ownself, that thou now
beholdest with wonder.
37. After the death of thy husband, his soul caught the same reflexion
of thy image, as thou didst desire to be hereafter; and which thou now
seest in the person of the young Lílá before thee.
38. Whenever the mind has a notion or sensation or fancy of some
material object, the abstract idea of its image is surely imprinted in
the intellect.
39. As the mind comes to perceive the unreality of material objects, it
thenceforth begins to entertain the ideas of their abstract entities
within itself. (Hence the abstract ideas of things are said to accompany
the intellectual spirit after its separation from the body).
40. It was the thought of his sure death, and the erroneous conception
of the transmigration of his soul in the body of Vidúratha, that
represented to Padma thy desired form of the youthful Lílá, which was
the idol of his soul. (This passage confutes the doctrine of
metempsychosis, and maintains the verity of eternal ideas).
41. It was thus that thou wast seen by him and he was beheld by thee
according to your desires; and thus both of you though possest of the
same unvaried soul which pervades all space, are made to behold one
another in your own ways (agreeably to your desires).
42. As the spirit of Brahma is all pervasive, and manifests itself in
various ways in all places; it is beheld in different lights, according
to the varying fancies (vikshepa sakti); or tendencies (vásaná sakti) of
men, like the ever-changeful scenes appearing to us in our visions and
dreams.
43. The omnipotent spirit displays its various powers in all places, and
these powers exert themselves everywhere, according to the strong force
and capability it has infused in them (in their material or immaterial
forms).
44. When this pair remained in their state of death-like insensibility,
they beheld all these phantoms in their inner souls, by virtue of their
reminiscence and desires (which are inherent in the soul).
45. That such and such person were their fathers and such their mothers
before, that they lived in such places, had such properties of theirs,
and did such acts erewhile (are reminiscences of the soul).
46. That they were joined together in marriage, and the multitude which
they saw in their minds, appeared to them as realities for the time in
their imagination (as it was in a magic show).
47. This is an instance that shows our sensible perceptions, to be no
better than our dreams; and it was in this deluded state of Lílá’s mind,
that I was worshipped and prayed by her:—
48. In order to confer upon her the boon that she might not become a
widow; and it was by virtue of this blessing of mine, that this girl had
died before her husband’s death (to escape the curse of widowhood).
49. I am the progeny of Brahmá, and the totality of that intelligence of
which all beings participate: it is for this reason that I was adored by
her as the _Kula Devi_ or tutelar divinity of all living beings.
50. It was at last that her soul left her body, and fled with her mind
in the form of her vital breath, through the orifice of her mouth.
51. Then after the insensibility attendant upon her death was over, she
understood in her intellect her living soul to be placed in the same
empty space with the departed spirit of Padma.
52. Her reminiscence pictured her in her youthful form, and she beheld
herself as in a dream, to be situated in the same tomb. She was as a
blooming lotus with her beautiful countenance, and her face was as
bright as the orb of the moon; her eyes were as large as those of an
antelope, and she was attended by her graceful blandishments for the
gratification of her husband.