A VIEW OF THE GENESIS OF THE MIND AND BODY.
Argument. First Birth of the Mind, and then that of Light. Next grew
the Ego, and thence came out the World.
Vasishtha said:—I will now tell you Ráma! What I was instructed of yore
by lord Brahmá himself. (The prime progenitor of mankind and propounder
of the Vedas).
2. From the unspeakable Brahmá, there sprang all things in their
undefinable ideal state, and then the Spirit of God being condensed by
His Will, it came to be produced of itself in the form of the Mind. (The
volitive and creative agency of God).
3. The Mind formed the notions of the subtile elementary principles in
itself, and became a personal agent (with its power of volition or
creative will). The same became a luminous body and was known as Brahmá
the first Male. (Purusha or Protogonus—Pratha-janya or Prathamajanita).
4. Therefore know Ráma, this same Brahmá to be the _Parameshthi_ or
situated in the Supreme, and being a personification of the Will of God,
is called the Mind.
5. The Mind therefore known as the Lord Brahmá, is a form of the Divine
essence, and being full of desires in itself, sees all its wills (in
their ideal forms), present before it.
6. The mind then framed or fell of itself, into the delusion (avidyá),
of viewing its ideal images as substantial (as one does in his
delirium); and thence the phenomenal world (with whatever it contains),
is said to be the work of Brahmá.
7. Thus the world proceeding in this order from the Supreme essence, is
supposed by some to have come into being from another source, of dull
material particles. (Doctrine of Hylotheism or the Materialistic system
of Sánkhya Philosophy),
8. It is from that Brahmá, O Ráma! that, all things situated in this
concave world, have come to being, in the manner of waves rising on the
surface of the deep.
9. The self-existent Brahmá that existed in the form of intellect (chit)
before creation, the same assumed the attribute of egoism (ahankára)
afterwards, and became manifest in the person of Brahmá. (Thence called
Swayambhu or self-born).
10. All the other powers of the Intellect, which were concentrated in
the personality of the Ego, were tantamount to those of Omnipotence.
(The impersonal Intellect and the personal Ego or Brahmá, are both of
them equally powerful).[9]
11. The world being evolved from the eternal ideas in the Divine
Intellect, manifested itself in the mind of the great father of
all—Brahmá. (_Intellectus noster nihil intelligit sine phantasmata_); it
is the mind which moves and modifies them, and is the Intelligence
(logos-Word) of the One, and the manifestation of its power.
12. The Mind thus moving and modeling all things is called the _Jíva_
living soul or Nous. (The Scholiast says:—The Mind is the
genus—_Samashti_, the soul is an individual name (Vyashti) of every
individual living being. The Mind is soul without personality; the soul
is the mind of a certain being. The Mind is the principle of volition,
and the soul is that of animation).
13. These living souls rise and move about in the vacuous sphere of the
infinite Intellect (chidákása). These are unfolded by the elementary
particles of matter, and pass in the open space surrounded by air. They
then reside in the fourteen kinds of animated nature, according to the
merit and demerit of their prior acts. They enter the bodies through the
passage of their vital breath, and become the seeds of moving and
immoving beings.
14. They are then born of the generative organ (foetus), and are met on
a sudden by the desires of their previous births (which lay waiting on
them). Thus led on by the current of their wishes, they live to reap the
reward or retribution of their good or bad acts in the world.
15. Thus bound fast to action and fettered in the meshes of desire, the
living souls enchained in their bodies, continue to rove about or rise
and fall in this changeful world by turns.
16. Their wish is the cause of their weal or woe, says the Sruti; and
which is inseparable from the soul as volition from the mind. (The wish
is the inactive desire of the soul, and volition the active will of the
mind).
17. Thousands of living souls, are falling off as fast as the leaves of
forest trees; and being borne away by the force of their pursuits, they
are rolling about as the fallen leaves wafted by the breeze in the
valleys. (The aberration of living souls from the Supreme).
18. Many are brought down and bound to innumerable births in this earth,
by their ignorance of the Chit or Divine Intellect, and are subjected to
interminable transmigrations in various births.
19. There are some who having passed many mean births in this earth,
have now risen high in the scale of beings, by their devotedness to
better acts (and are likely to have their liberation in the course of
their progression to the best).
20. Same persons acquainted with spirituality, have reached their state
of perfection; and have gone to heaven, like particles of sea-water,
carried into the air above by the blowing winds.
21. The production of all beings is from the Supreme Brahmá; but their
appearance and disappearance in this frail world, are caused by their
own actions. Hence the actionless yogi, is free from both these states.
(God made everything perfect; Man’s sin brought his death and woe).
22. Our desires are poisonous plants, bearing the fruits of pain and
disappointment; and lead us to actions which are fraught with dangers
and difficulties. (Cursed was the ground for man’s unrestricted desires,
which sowed it with thorns and thistles).
23. These desires drive us to different countries, to distant hills and
dales in search of gain. (Else man could live content with little and on
his native plain).
24. This world O Ráma! is a jungle of withered trees and brambles; and
requires the axe of reason to clear away these drugs and bushes. So are
our minds and bodies but plants and trees of our woe, which being rooted
out by the axe of reason, will no more come to grow by their
transmigration in this earth. (The mind and body are rooted out by
Suppression of their desires and passions).