THE GERMINATING SEED.
Vasishtha resumed:—The supreme Deity is the all-pervading spirit and
the great God and Lord of all. He is without beginning and end, and is
self-same with the infinite bliss of his translucent self-cogitation.
2. It is this supreme felicity and purely intellectual substance, whence
the living soul and mind have their rise, prior to their production of
the Universe. (_i.e._ The eternal and inert bliss called Brahma, became
the living soul—anima, of and the active mind—mens, which created the
world).
3. Ráma asked:—How could the self-cogitation of Brahma, as the infinite
spirit and one without a second, conceive in it a finite living soul
other than itself, and which was not in Being.
(The inactive and active souls, are not the one and the same thing, nor
can the immutable and infinite be changed to one of a finite and
changeful nature; nor was there a secondary being co-existent with the
unity of the self-existent God).
4. Vasishtha replied:—The immense and transparent Spirit of Brahma,
remained in a state of _asat_—non-existence, a state of ineffable bliss
as seen by the adept Yogi; but of formidable vastness as conceived by
the uninitiated novice. (_i.e._ The meditation of the Infinite is a
delight to the spiritualist, but it is a horror to the gross idolator,
whose mind knows nothing beyond matter and material forms).
5. This state of supreme bliss, which is ever tranquil, and full
with the pure essence of God, is altogether undefinable, and
incomprehensible, even by the most proficient in divine knowledge. (God
is unknowable, is the motto of the wise Athenians and modern Agnostics).
6. Thence sprang a power (an hypostasis) like the germ of a seed, and
possessed of consciousness and energy, that is called the living and
conscious soul, and which must last until its final liberation. (This is
the Demiurge, an emanation from God, and the source and soul of the
world).
7. The clear mirror of the mind of this being, reflected in its vast
vacuous sphere, the images of innumerable worlds set above one another,
like statues engraved upon it.
8. Know Ráma! the living soul to be an inflation of Divine Spirit, like
the swelling of the sea and the burning of a candle, when its flame is
unshaken by the wind.
(The _psyche_ or _anima_ is the energy of the universal soul, or the
finite rising from the Infinite).
9. The living soul is possessed of a finite cognoscence as distinguished
from the clear and calm consciousness of the Divine Spirit. Its vitality
is a flash of the vacuous intellect of Brahma and appertaining to the
nature of the living God. _Divina particula aurae._ The Lord says:
‘_Aham asmi_—I am that I am’; but the living soul knows itself to be
‘_Soham asmi_’—I am He or of Him.
10. Vitality is the essential property of the soul, resembling the
inseparable properties of motion in the wind, warmth in the fire and
coldness in the ice. (Animation is the natural faculty and necessary
property of the soul).
11. Our ignorance of the nature of the Divine Intellect and Spirit,
throws us to the knowledge of ourselves by our self-consciousness, and
this it is, which is called the living soul.
(Beyond our conscious or subjective knowledge of ourselves, we know
nothing of the subjectivity of God, nor are we certain of any objective
reality).
12. It is by means of this positive consciousness, that we know our
egoism or self-existence; it strikes us more glaringly than a spark of
fire, and enlightens us to the knowledge of ourselves more than any
other light.
(Our self-consciousness is the clearest of all knowledge, and the basis
of all truth according to Descartes).
13. As in looking up to heaven, its blue vault is presented to the
sight, beyond which our eyes have not the power to pierce; so in our
inquiry into the nature of soul, we see no more than the consciousness
of ourselves, and nothing besides. (_i.e._ The subjective soul only is
knowable, and naught beyond it).
14. Our knowledge of the soul presents to us in the form of _Ego_ known
by its thoughts, like the vacuous sky appearing as a blue sphere by
cause of the clouds. (The Ego is the subject of thoughts and
self-cogitation).
15. Egoism differentiates the soul from our ideas of space and time, and
stirs within it like the breath of winds, by reason of its subjectivity
of thoughts. (Differentiation of the subjective Ego from the Objective
space and time, is as the difference of Ego and Non-Ego, I and Not I, Le
moi et non moi, Das Ich und nicht ich, Aham and twam &c.).
16. That which is the subject of thoughts, is known as the Ego, and is
variously styled as the intellect, the soul, the mind, the máyá or
delusion and Prakriti or nature. (The Ego personified is Rudra, the
personification of _chitta_-cogitation is Vishnu, of Jíva or the soul is
Brahmá, and of the _manas_ or mind is the máyá or Illusion).
17. The mind (chetas) which is the subject of thoughts, contemplates on
the nature of elementary matter, and thus becomes of itself the
quintessence of the five elements.
(The mind is opposed to matter, but being the principle of volition
produces matter at its will).
18. The quintessential mind next becomes as a spark of fire (of itself),
and remains as a dim star—a nebula, in the midst of the vacuity of the
yet unborn universe.
(The nebulae are the primary formations of heavenly bodies, called
Brahmándas or mundane eggs).
19. The mind takes the form of a spark of fire by thinking on its
essence, which gradually developes itself like the germ of a seed, in
the form of the mundane egg by its internal force.
(The doctrine of evolution from fire, the _arche_ of all things
according to Heraclitus. Lewe’s Hist. Ph. I 72).
20. The same fiery spark figuratively called the Brahmánda or mundane
egg, became as a snowball amidst the water, and conceived the great
Brahmá within its hollow womb.
(The Spirit of God, dove-like, sat brooding over the hollow deep.
Milton).
21. Then as sensuous spirits assume some bodily forms at pleasure,
although they dissolve as a magic city in empty air; so this Brahmá
appeared in an embodied form to view. (Spirits are at liberty to take
upon them any form they like).
22. Some of them appear in the form of immovable, and others in those of
moving beings; while others assume the shapes of aerials, as they are
fond of choosing for themselves. (Hence the transmigration of souls in
different bodies, depends on their own choice; and not on necessity or
result of prior acts).
23. Thus the first born living being had a form, for himself as he liked
in the beginning of creation, and afterwards created the world in his
form of Brahma or Virinchi (Vir-incipiens). (The Demiurge, maker,
creator or architect of the visible world, had necessarily a personality
of his own).
24. Whatever the self-born and self-willed soul, wishes to produce, the
same appears immediately to view as produced of its own accord.
(Everything appeared of itself at the Fiat of God).
25. Brahmá, originating in the Divine Intellect, was by his nature the
primary cause of all, without any cause of his own; though he appointed
the acts of men; to be the cause of their transition from one state to
another, in the course of the world.
(All the future states of beings depend on their acts of past and
present lives, except that of the Great creator who is uncreated and
unchangeable).
26. The thoughts naturally rise in the mind, like the foaming water, to
subside in itself; but the acts done thereby, bind us, as the passing
froth and flying birds are caught by ropes and snares.
(The thoughts are spontaneous in their growth as grass, and they entail
no guilt on us. Shakespeare).
27. Thoughts are the seeds of action, and action is the soul of life.
Past acts are productive of future consequence, but inaction is attended
with no result. (Our lives are reckoned by our acts, and there is no
vitality without activity).
28. The living soul bears its vitality as the seed bears the germ in its
bosom; and this sprouts forth in future acts, in the manner of the
various forms of leaves, fruits and flowers of trees.
(Thus the living soul of Brahmá was the seed of all animate and
inanimate beings).
29. All other living souls that appeared in the various forms of their
bodies, had such forms given to them by Brahmá, according to their acts
and desires in premundane creations in former Kalpas. (Hence the belief
in the endless succession of creations).
30. So the personal acts of people are the causes of their repeated
births and deaths in this or other worlds; and they ascend higher or
sink lower by virtue of their good or bad deeds, which proceed from
their hearts and the nature of their souls.
31. Our actions are the efforts of our minds, and shape our good or bad
destinies according to the merit or demerit of the acts. The fates and
chances of all in the existing world, are the fruits and flowers of
their past acts, and even of those done in prior Kalpas; and this is
called their destiny. (Sástra: No act goes for naught even in a thousand
_Kalpas_. Má bhuktan kshiyate Karma, kalpa koti satai rapi).