DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERM OF THE MIND.
Argument. Reason of the application of the name Karkatí, and its simile
to a crooked crab.
Vasishtha said:—I have thus related to you Ráma, the unblamable legend
of Karkatí, the Rákshasí of Imaus, from its beginning to end _in ipso
facto_. (Imaus and Imodus are ranges of the Himálayas. The Gloss
interprets Imaus as a synonym of Himálayas, by apocope of the latter
member of the compound word, and by a grammatical rule, that the
curtailing of a part of a proper name, does not affect the full meaning
of the name. So for the omissions of agnomens and cognomens).
2. Ráma rejoined:—But how could one born in a cave of Himavatas
(Imodus), become a black Rákshasí, and why was she called Karkatí? These
I want to be clearly explained to me. (Ráma’s demand was reasonable, as
the people of the Himálayas, are always of fair complexions, and the
Rákshasas were the Negroes of Southern India).
3. Vasishtha replied:—The Rakshas (cannibals), are originally of many
races, some of whom are of dark and others of fair complexions, while
many have a yellowish appearance and some of a greenish shade. (We know
the red Rákshasas of America, but it is impossible for us to account for
the green or blue Rákshasas in the text).
4. As for Karkatí, you must know that there was a Rákshasa by name of
Karkata, from his exact resemblance to a cancer. (Here is a reversion of
Sycorax the Negro parent, and her crooked son caliban Kálibán—the black
Negro, having long arms and legs, with feet and hands furnished with
claws and long nails like those of beasts).
5. The reason of my relating to you the narrative of Karkatí, was only
for her queries which I recollected and thought, would serve well to
explain the omniform God, in our disquisition into spiritual knowledge.
(Gloss. Vasishtha adduces a contradiction in the spiritual knowledge of
God, by calling him a spirit and yet as all forms of things. But this
seeming contrariety will disappear upon reflecting that, the phenomenal
is contained in the noumenal, and the forms are viewed only in the
spirit as visions in dreams).
6. It is evident that the pure and perfect unity, is the source of the
impure and imperfect duality of the phenomena, and this finite world has
sprung from its Supreme cause, who is without beginning and end. (The
One is the cause of many, and the Infinite is the source of the finite.
Ahamsarvasyám. Anádirádi sarvasya).
7. These float (before our eyes) like the waves upon waters, which are
apparently of different forms, and yet essentially the same with the
element, on which they seem to move. So the creations whether present,
past or future, are all situated in the Supreme Spirit. (The immaterial
spirit is the basis and substratum of material bodies).
8. As wet wood when ignited, serves for the purpose of infusing heat,
and inviting the apes of the forest to warm themselves in cold weather;
so the externally shining appearance of the world, invites the ignorant
to resort to it.
9. Such is the temporary glow of the ever cool spirit of God, in the
works of creation; which shows itself in many forms without changing its
essence.
10. The absent world appeared in presence, and its unreality appears as
a reality to consciousness, like the potential figures carved in wood.
(The would-be world existed in the eternal ideas in the mind of God,
like the possible figures in the wood, which were carved out afterwards.
And so too Aristotle).
11. As the products, of the seed from its sprout to the fruit, are all
of the same species; so the thoughts (chetyas) of the mind—Chitta, are
of the same nature as those originally implanted in it. (The homogeneity
of the cause with all its effects).
12. By the law of the continuity of the same essence, there is no
difference in the nature of the seed and its fruit; so the intellect
(chit) and the thoughts (chetyas), differ in nothing except in their
forms; like the waves and water differing in external appearance, and
not in the intrinsicality of their substance (Vastu).
13. No demonstration can show the difference between thoughts and the
mind; and whatever distinction our judgment may make betwixt them, it
is easily refuted by right reasoning. (Such as the incapability of an
effect being produced without its cause, or disagreement between the
effects of the same or similar causes).
14. Let this error therefore vanish, as it has come from nothing to
nothing; and as all causeless falsities fail of themselves. You will
know more of this, Ráma! when you are awakened to divine knowledge. In
the meantime, do away with error of viewing a duality, which is
different from the only existent Unity. (Duality being driven out, all
will appear one and the same. So Sádi the sophist: _duirácho badar
kardam ekebinam ekedámam_).
15. After the knot of your error is cut asunder, by your attending to my
lectures, you will come to know by yourself, the signification and
substance (object) of what is called the true knowledge, which is taken
in different senses by the various schools; but that which comes of
itself in the mind, is the intuitive knowledge of divine truth.
16. You have a mind like that of the common people (itara), which is
full of mistakes and blunders (anarthas); all which will doubtlessly
subside in your mind, by your attending to my lectures (because the
words of the wise remove all errors).
17. You will be awakened by my sermons to know this certain truth, that
all things proceed from Brahma into whom they ultimately return. (Brahma
is the producer, sustainer, and recipient or the first and last of all.
He is alpha and omega).
18. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your affirmation of the first cause in the
ablative case, “that all things proceed from Brahma,” is opposed to the
negative passage in the Sruti in the same case, that “nothing is
distinct from Him”; and is inconsistent in itself (in as much as, there
cannot be all things, and again nothing but Brahma; and to say “the same
thing comes from the same,” would be a palpable absurdity).
19. Vasishtha answered:—Words or significant terms are used in the
Sástras for instruction of others; and where there appears any ambiguity
in them, they are explained in their definitions. (Hence the ablative
form “from Brahma” is not faulty, for what is in the receptacle, the
same comes out of it; or as they say, “what is in the bottom, the same
comes upon the surface”; and the one is not distinct from the other, as
the wave differs not from the water whence it rises. This is downright
pantheism).
20. Hence it is the use though not in honest truth, to make a difference
of the visibles from the invisible Brahma (for the purpose of
instruction); as it is usual to speak of ghosts appearing to children,
though there be no such things in reality. (It is imagination that gives
a name to airy nothing, and it is the devise of language to use words
for negative ideas, as the word world to denote a duality and darkness
for want of light, and not anything in itself).
21. In reality there is no duality connected with the unity of Brahma,
as there is no dualism of a city and the dream that shows its apparition
in sleep. Again God being immutable in his nature and eternal decree, it
is wrong to apply the mutations of nature and the mutability of Will to
Him. (Volition is accompanied by nolition (_Volo and nolo_) in mutable
minds, but there is no option _Vikalpa_ in the _sankalpa—suo arbitrio_
of the unchangeable Mind).
22. The Lord is free from the states of causality and the caused, of
instrumentality and instruments, of a whole and its part, and those of
proprietorship and property. (The attribution of cause and effect or any
other predicate or predicable, is wholly inapplicable to him, who is
devoid of all attributes).
23. He is beyond all affirmative and negative propositions, and their
legitimate conclusions or false deductions and elenches. (_i.e._ Nothing
can be truly affirmed or denied or ascertained or negated of Him, by any
mode of reasoning. _Naisatarkenánaneyah_).
24. So the attribution, of the primary volition to the Deity, is a false
imputation also. Yet it is usual to say so for the instruction of the
ignorant; though there is no change in his nature from its nolliety to
velleity. (So it is usual to attribute sensible properties of speech and
sight, to the immaterial spirit of God, by a figure of speech; and for
the instruction of the vulgar, who cannot comprehend the
incomprehensible).
25. These sensible terms and figurative expressions, are used for the
guidance of the ignorant; but the knowing few, are far from falling into
the fallacy of dualism. All sensible conceptions ceasing upon the
spiritual perception of God, there ensues an utter and dumb silence. (We
become tongue-tied, and our lips are closed and sealed in silence, to
speak anything with certainty of the unspeakable).
26. When in time you come to know these things better, you shall arrive
at the conclusion, that all this is but one thing, and an undivided
whole without its parts, and having no beginning nor end. (The world is
therefore self-same and co-eternal and co-existent, with the eternal and
self-existent God).
27. The unlearned dispute among themselves from their uncertainty of
truth; but their differences and dualisms are all at an end, upon their
arriving to the knowledge of the true unity by instructions of the wise.
(The reality is precisely in the indifference of the subject and object.
Schelling).
28. Without knowledge of the agreement of significant words with their
significates, it is impossible to know the Unity, for so long as a word
is taken in different senses, there will be no end of disputes and
difference of opinions. Dualisms being done away, all disputes are
hushed up in the belief of unity. (_i.e._ All words expressive of the
Deity, refer to his unity and signify the one and the same Lord of all,
which ends all controversy on the point).
29. O support of Raghu’s race! place your reliance on the sense of the
great sayings of the vedas; and without paying any regard to discordant
passages, attend to what I will tell you at present. (Such as: Brahma is
used in one place in the ablative and in another in the locative case,
and also in the nominative and as the same with the world).
30. From whatever cause it may have sprung, the world resembles a city
rising to view in a vision; just as the thoughts and ideas appearing
before the mirror of the mind, from some source of which we know
nothing. (They are as puppet shows of the player, behind the screen).
31. Hear Ráma! and I will relate to you an instance for your
ocular evidence, how the mind (chitta), spins out the magical
world (máyika) from itself. (This ocular instance called the
_drishtánta-drishtávedana_, is that of the spider’s thread
(urnanábha-tantu) woven of itself, and given in the Sruti).
32. Having known this, O Ráma! you will be able to cast away all your
erroneous conceptions; and being certain of the certitude, you will
resign your attachment to, and your desires in this enchanted and
bewitching world. (Hence the certainty, of God’s being aloof from the
false world, as it is said _Deus ex machina_).
33. All these prospective worlds are machinations or the working of the
mind. Having forsaken these false fabrications of fancy, you will have
the tranquility of your soul, and abide in peace with yourself for
ever. (Exemption from all worldly cares and anxieties of the past,
present and future lives, leads to the peace of mind).
34. By paying your attention to the drift of my preachings, you will be
able to find out of your own reasoning, a mite of the medicine, for
curing all the maladies of your deluded mind. (Right reason by the art
of reasoning, furnishes the true medicine (psyches iatrion) to remove
the errors of the understanding).
35. If you sit in this manner (in your silent meditation), you will see
the whole world in your mind; and all outward bodies will disappear (in
your abstract contemplation), like drops of oil in the sand. (All things
are presented to the mind by intuition, and are present in the
memory—the great keeper or master of Rolls of the soul).
36. The mind is the seat of the universe as long as it is not vitiated
by passions and affections and afflictions of life; and it is set beyond
the world (in heavenly bliss), no sooner it gets rid of the turmoils of
its present state. (The mind, says Milton, can make a heaven of hell and
a hell of heaven).
37. The mind is the means to accomplish anything; it is the store-keeper
to preserve all things in the store-house of its memory; it is the
faculty of reasoning; and the power to act like a respectable person. It
is therefore to be treated with respect, in recalling, restraining and
guiding us to our pursuits and duties. (_Facultates sunt quibus facilius
fit, sine quibus omnino confici non potest._ Cicero).
NOTE.—The mind is what moves and acts by its active and cognitive
faculties, and is more to be regarded than the body, which move entirely
as it is moved by the mind. Hence God is called the Mind of the
world—_Anima mundi_?
38. The mind contains the three worlds with all their contents, and the
surrounding air in itself; and exhibits itself as the plenum of egoism,
and plenitude of all in its microcosm. (The mind is the synthesis of all
its attributes, and man is living synthesis of the world with regard to
his mind. Paracelsus. Its memory is both a capacity and a power by its
retention and ready reproduction of every thing).
39. The intellectual part of the mind, contains the subjective
self-consciousness of _ego_, which is the seed of all its powers; while
its other or objective part, bears the erroneous forms of the dull
material world in itself. (The former is called the _drashtá_ or viewer
_ego_, and the latter the _drishta_ or the view _non ego_. The
subjective is the thinking subject _ego_, and the objective is the
object of thought the _non ego_).
40. The self-born Brahmá saw the yet increate and formless world, as
already present before his mind in its ideal state, like a dream at its
first creation. He saw it (mentally) without seeing it (actually).
(_i.e._ The eternal ideas of immaterial forms of possible things in the
Divine Mind. The eternal exemplars of things and Archetypes of the
Ectypal world. Thus the passage in the Bible “And God saw his works were
good.” _i.e._ answer those in his fair idea. Milton).
41. He beheld the whole creation in the self-consciousness (samvitti) of
his vast mind, and he saw the material objects, the hills &c., in the
_samvid_ of his gross personal consciousness. At last he perceived by
his _súkshma vid_ subtile sightedness (clairvoyance), that all gross
bodies were as empty as air and not solid substantialities.
(Consciousness being the joint knowledge of the subjective and
objective, _i.e._ of ourselves in connection with others; the one is
called superior or subjective self-consciousness, and the other or
objective personal-consciousness).[6]
42. The mind with its embodying thoughts, is pervaded by the omnipresent
soul, which is spread out as transpicuously as sun-beams upon the limpid
water. (The soul is the _chit_ or intellectual part of the mind
(chitbhága of chitta), and the root of all mental activities. The
_chidbhága_ has the power of giving knowledge which moves the other
faculties of the mind. Gloss).
43. The mind is otherwise like an infant, which views the apparition
of the world in its insensible sleep of ignorance; but being awakened
by the intellect chit, it sees the transcendent form of the self or
soul without the mist of delusion, which is caused by the sensitive
part of the mind, and removed by the reasoning faculties of the
intellect—Chidbhága.
44. Hear now Ráma! what I am going to tell of the manner, in which the
soul is to be seen in this phenomenal world, which is the cause of
misleading the mind from its knowledge of the unity to the erroneous
notion of the duality. (The sensitivity of the mind of objective
phenomenals, misleads it from its intellection of the subjective
noumenal part which is a positive unity. Gloss).
45. What I will say, can not fail to come to your heart, by the opposite
similes, right reasoning, and graceful style, and good sense of the
words, in which they shall be conveyed to you; and by hearing of these,
your heart will be filled with delight, which will pervade your senses,
like the pervasive oil upon the water.
46. The speech which is without suitable comparisons and graceful
phraseology, which is inaudible or clamorous, and has inappropriate
words and harsh sounding letters, cannot take possession of the heart,
but is thrown away for nothing, like butter poured upon the burnt ashes
of an oblation, and has no power to kindle the flame.
The blemishes of speech are all comprised in the following
couplet in the Mahábháshya of Patánjala:—ग्रस्तं निरस्तं प्रबिलम्वितं द्रुतमीम्वु कूतं ध्मानमथबिकम्पितं ।
बिस्रस्तमेणी कृतमङ्गकं हतं बिकीर्ण मेताष्ठस्वरदोषभाबनाः ॥
47. Whatever narrative and tales there are in any language on earth, and
whatever compositions are adorned with measured sentences and graceful
diction; all these are rendered perspicacious by conspicuous
comparisons, as the world is enlightened by the cooling beams of the
moon. Hence every sloka almost in this work, is embellished with a
suitable comparison.