INTERPRETATION OF DESTINY.
Argument. The erroneous conception of creation and of Destiny both as
active and inactive.
Vasishtha continued:—These myriads of worlds and the millenniums of
_kalpa_ ages, are no more real in themselves than our false computation
of the millionth part of an atom or the twinkling of an eye.
2. It is our error that represents them as true to us, though they are
as false as our calculation of those infinitesimals.
3. These creations whether past or future, follow one another in endless
succession, like the overflowing currents of water, with all the waves,
eddies and whirlpools in them.
4. The prospect of these created worlds is as false, as the delusive
mirage, which presents a stream of water, flowing with strings of
flowers, fallen from the plants on the shore.
5. The conceptional creation is as baseless as a city in a dream or
magic show; or as mountain in fiction, or an imaginary castle in air.
(It is a _flatus venti_, and not based on any thing real; but has a mere
psychological existence, depending on fancy and imagination).
6. Ráma said:—Sir, the drift of your reasoning, leads to the
establishment of the identity of the conceptional creation with the
creator; and that this unity of both is the belief of the learned and
wise. (So says Hegel: “creation is the reality of God; it is God passing
into activity” Lewe’s Hist. Ph. II p. 626).
7. Now tell me, what you have to say with regard to the material bodies,
which these existence bear on earth; and what is the cause that the body
is subject to the casualties unknown to the inward spirits. (_i.e._ The
body is subject to material laws, but not so the immaterial spirit which
has no change).
8. Vasishtha replied:—There is a supernatural and active energy of the
Divine Intellect, called the predominant Decree, Fate or Destiny, which
must come to pass, and bear its command over all our actions and
desires. (Destiny is irresistible, being the decree of Providence,
governing all events and our free wills also. Fate is the
personification of the female agency of god. Here Vasishtha is a
fatalist also; but his fate is the Divine decree).
9. She is invested from the beginning with irresistible and multifarious
powers; and destines the manner in which every thing is to take place
and continue for ever. (The philosophical destiny is the sum of the laws
of universe, of matter and mind).
10. She is the essential cause of all essence, and the chief mover of
the intellect; she is styled as the great power of powers, and remains
as the great viewer of all things.
11. She is called the great agency and the great producer of all events;
She is known as the chief mover of occurrences, and she is the soul and
source of all accidents. (The mythological Destiny is superior to gods
and men, and rules over the great Jove himself).
12. She whirls the worlds as straws, and bears her sway over the deities
and demons; she commands the Nága dragons and the mountain monsters to
the end of time.
13. She is sometimes thought to be an attribute of Divine essence, and
to remain pictured in her ever varying colours in the hollow vacuity of
the Divine Mind. (The theological destiny is the Almighty Will of God
and his foreknowledge also; before which the fates float about, as if
they are drawn up in variegated pictures).
14. The learned have explained Brahmá the Demiurge, to be identic with
the Spirit of Brahma, for the understanding of those that are ignorant
in spiritual knowledge; and by destiny they mean his creation. (_i.e._
Creation is destination of the preordaining and irrevocable will of
God).
15. The immovable spirit of Brahmá, appears to be full of moving
creatures and the infinity of Divine existence, seems to teem with the
finite creation in the midst of it, like a grove of trees growing under
the concavity of the hollow sky.
16. The unwaking spirit of God reflected various images in itself (as in
a dream), likening to the reflection of a dense forest in the lens of a
crystal stone: and these were understood by the demiurgus Brahmá, as the
prototype of the destined creation, in the hollow sphere of the Divine
mind.
17. The Intellect naturally exhibits a variety of forms in itself, as
the body of an embodied person, shows its various members to view; and
these were taken by the lotus-born Brahmá, as the several parts in the
great body of the cosmos. (The Intellect is the phantasmagoria of the
world, and the Demiurge is the formal framer of it).
18. This foreknowledge of events imprinted in the Intellect of God, is
called Destiny, which extends over all things at all times. (This is
_Fatum christianum_, that every thing is regulated by foreknowledge and
Providence).
19. The meaning of Destiny, comprises the knowledge of the causes, which
move, support and sustain all things in their proper order; and that
such and such causes, must produce such and such effects for ever. (This
is the Stoic Fate of Jewish Essences; or a concatenation of causes
whence all things necessarily result).
20. This destiny is the force or mobile power, that moves all men and
animals, and vegetable and inanimate creations; it is the beginning (or
primary source) of the time and motion of all beings. (It is _fatum_
from _fari_—the word or decree of Providence, that was the beginning of
all existence.)
21. It is combined with Divine power, as the power divine is combined
with it; and this combination of them into one, is the cause of the
production and existence of the world.
22. It is the union or conformity of human exertion, with the course of
destiny or decree of God, that is productive of certain ends, which are
respectively called their destiny and destined effects. (Here Destiny is
defined as the combination of human and superhuman powers; and that the
co-operation of natural and supernatural agencies, are necessary to the
production of effects).
23. What more have you to ask me, Ráma! with regard to destiny and
self-exertion; when I tell you that it is destined to all beings to
betake themselves to their proper actions, in the destined or prescribed
manner, in order to bring about the desired result? (Their destiny is
equal to _Vidhi_ or fixed laws, which were combined in Brahmá).
24. When a predestinarian sits idle and quiet, under the belief of being
fed by his fixed lot; he is then said to depend on his destiny alone (as
a fatalist).
25. By sitting idle in the manner of a waiter on Providence, for the
whole of his lifetime, he gains nothing; but comes to lose his good
sense and energy in a short time, and finally dies away in famine by his
sole reliance on destiny. (Hence fate = fat and faut (in Arabic), is
synonymous with death).
26. It is quite certain that whatever is destined, must surely come to
pass of its own accord; and that it is impossible to prevent it by the
foresight of gods and men.
27. Yet the intelligent ought not cease to exert their activity, by
relying in their fates only; for they must know that it is our exertion
that brings destiny into action. (Because it is, destined, that destiny
requires to be enforced by human exertion, in order to bring on its
effect. It is operation which enforces the law, which is otherwise
dormant and a dead letter).
28. Destiny is inactive and abortive, without an active power to enforce
it to action; it is human activity, that is productive of any effect or
production in nature by the help of destiny.
29. Depend on destiny, and remain both deaf and dumb as a doll; be
inactive, and become dull and torpid as a block. Say, what is the good
of this vital breath, unless it has its vitality and activity? (Destiny
has destined man to exertion in order to produce the destined end; and
has so ordained all animated nature, in order to be productive).
30. It is good to sit quiet; by restraining even the vital breath in
Yoga meditation; whereby one can obtain his liberation: otherwise the
inactive man is not to be called a Yogi, but an idler and a lazzarone.
31. Both activity and inactivity are good for our liberation from pain;
but the high minded esteem that as better, which saves them from the
greater pain of regeneration, (_i.e._ the hybernation of Yoga
meditation).[3]
32. This inactive destiny is a type of the latent Brahmá; and who so
leans to it by laying aside his busy course, is verily installed in the
supremely holy state of highest felicity (as in _ecstasis_ and
hypnotism).
33. The inert destiny resides every where in the manner of Brahma—the
latent soul in all bodies, and evolves itself in various shapes, by
means of activity in all its productions.