ASCERTAINMENT OF THE SELF OR SOUL.
Argument. Description of the grounds of knowledge, vanity of fears and
sorrows, and the natures of the intellect and soul.
Vasishtha said (Prose). After the birth of a man and a slight
development of his understanding, he should associate the company of
good and wise men.
2. There is no other way except by the light of Sástras and association
with the good and wise, to ford over the river of ignorance, which runs
in its incessant course flowing in a thousand streams.
3. It is by means of reasoning that man is enabled to discern what is
good for him, and what he must avoid to do.
4. He then arrives to that ground of reason which is known as good will,
or a desire to do what is good and keep from what is bad and evil.
5. Then he is led by his reason to the power of reasoning, and
discerning the truth from untruth, and the right from wrong.
6. As he improves in knowledge, he gets rid of his improper desires, and
purifies his mind from all worldly cares.
7. Then he is said to have gained that stage of knowledge, which is
called the purity of his soul and mind and of his heart and conduct.
8. When the _yogi_ or adept attains to his full knowledge, he is said to
have arrived at his state of goodness—satva.
9. By this means and the curtailing of his desires, he arrives to the
state called unattachment or indifference to all worldly matters
(anásakta), and is no more subjected to the consequence of his actions.
10. From the curtailment of desires, the _yogi_ learns to abstract his
mind from the unrealities of the world.
11. And whether sitting inactive in his posture of _Samádhi_ meditation,
or doing anything for himself or others, he must fix his mind to
whatever is productive of real good to the world. His soul being cool by
the tenuity of his desires, is habituated to do its duties, without the
knowledge of what it is doing. (He neither fondly pursues anything nor
thinks with ardour of any. His want of desire makes him indifferent to
all, and like a man waking from his sleep, he takes himself to the
discharge of his duties).
12. Verily, he who has subdued his mind, has reached to the
contemplative stage of _yoga_ meditation.
13. Thus one having his mind dead in himself, learns by practice of
years, to perform his duties, by refraining from his thoughts of
external objects. Such a one is said to have attained the _turya_ or
fourth stage of his spiritual elevation, and to have become liberated in
his life-time.
14. He is not glad to get anything, nor sorry to miss it. He lives
without fear of accidents, and is content with whatever he gets.
15. Thou hast O Ráma! known whatever is to be known by man; and thou
hast certainly extirpated thy desire in all thy actions through life.
16. Thy thoughts are all spiritual, and transcend the actions of the
corporeal body, though thou art in thy embodied state. Do not give up
thy self to joy or grief, but know thyself to be free from decay and
defect.
17. Spiritually thou art a pure and bright substance, which is ubiquious
and ever in its ascendancy. It is devoid of pleasure and pain, and of
death and disease.
18. Why dost thou lament at the grief or loss of a friend, when thou art
so friendless in thyself. Being thrown alone in this world, whom dost
thou claim as a friend of thy soul?
19. We see only the particles of matter of which this body is composed;
it exists and passes away in its time from its place; but there is no
rising or falling of the soul.
20. Being imperishable in thyself, why dost thou fear to fall into
naught? And why think of the destruction of thy soul, which is never
subject to death?
21. When a jar is broken in twain from its upper part, its vacuity is
not lost, but mixes with the air; so the body being destroyed, the
indestructible soul is not lost with it (but unites with its original
source).
22. As the sunlight causing the appearance of a river in the mirage, is
not lost at the disappearance of the phenomenal river; so the immortal
soul does not perish upon dissolution of the frail body.
23. There is a certain illusion, which raises the false appetites within
us; otherwise the unity of the soul requires the help of no duality or
secondary substance, in order to be united with the sole unity.
24. There is no sensible object, whether visible, tangible, audible or
of taste or smelling (which relate to the particular senses and brain),
that can affect the unconnected soul.
25. All things and their powers, are contained in the all-powerful and
all-comprehensive soul; these powers are displayed throughout the world,
but the soul is as void as the empty air.
26. It is the mental deception, O Rághava, that presents before it the
phenomena of the triple world, representing diverse forms according to
the triplicate nature of man (the _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_).
27. There are threefold methods of dispelling this delusion of the mind,
namely: by the tranquility of the mind, by destroying its desires, and
by abandonment of acts (which lead only to errors in our repeated
regenerations).
28. The world is a crushing mill, with its lower and upper stones of the
earth and heaven; our desires are the cords that incessantly drag us
under it: therefore Ráma, break off these ropes (and you will escape the
danger of being crushed by it).
29. Our unacquaintance with spiritual knowledge, is the cause of all our
errors; but our acquaintance of it, leads us to endless joy and
ultimately to Brahma himself.
30. The living being having proceeded from Brahma, and travelled over
the earth at pleasure, turns at last to Brahma by means of his knowledge
of Him.
31. Ráma! all things have sprung from one Being, who is perfect felicity
itself, inconceivable and undecaying in its nature; and all these are as
the rays of that light, or as the light of that everlasting fire.
32. These are as lines on the leaves of trees, and as the curls and
waves on the surface of waters. They are as ornaments made of that gold,
and as the heat and cold of that fire and water.
33. Thus the triple world subsists in the thought of the Divine mind. It
has thus sprung from the mind of God, and rests in its self-same state
with the all-comprehending mind.
34. This Mind is called Brahma, who is the soul of all existence. He
being known the world is known also (_i.e._, the world is known through
him); and as he is the knower of all, he gives us the knowledge of all
things. (Thus the Sruti:—There is no knowing of anything but by the
knowledge that He imparts to us).
35. This all-pervasive Being is explained to us by the learned, by the
coined epithets of the soul, intellect and Brahma, used both in the
sástras as in the popular language.
36. The pure notion that we have of an everlasting Being, apart from all
sensible ideas and impressions, is called the Intellect and soul.
37. This Intellect or Intelligent soul, is much more transparent than
the etherial sky; and it is the plenum, that contains the plenitude of
the world, as a disjoined and distinct reflexion of itself.
38. The knowledge of the separate existence of the unreal reflexion of
the world, apart from that real reflector, is the cause of all our
ignorance and error; but the view of their subsistence in the mirror of
the supreme soul, blends them all to myself also (who are the same
soul).
39. Now Ráma, that hast a bodiless soul of the form of pure intellect,
thou canst have no cause to fall into the error, of being sorry for or
afraid of the vanities of the world.
40. How can the unembodied soul be affected by the passions and feelings
of the body? It is the ignorant and unintelligent only, that are subject
to vain suspicions about unrealities.
41. The indestructible intellect of the unintelligent even, is not
destroyed by the destruction of their bodies, how then should the
intelligent be afraid of their dissolution?
42. The intellect is irresistible in its course, and roves about the
solar path (ecliptic); it is the intellectual part that makes the man,
and not the outward body. (Puri sete purushah; it is the inner soul that
is called man).
43. The soul called the _purusha_ or inner person, whether it abideth in
the body or not, and whether it is intelligent or otherwise (rational or
irrational), never dies upon the death of the body.
44. Whatever miseries you meet with, Ráma! in this transient world, all
appertain to the body, and not to the intangible soul or intellect.
45. The intellectual soul being removed from the region of the mind
(which is but an inward sense, and of the nature of vacuity, and not the
grains of the brain composing the mind), is not to be approached by the
pleasures and pains affecting the body and mind.
46. The soul that has curbed its earthly desires, flies to its seat in
the spirit of Brahma, after the dissolution of its prison house of the
body; in the same manner as the bee lying hid under the coverlet of the
lotus petals in the darkness of the night, takes to its heavenward
flight by the dawning light of the day.
47. If life is known to be frail, and the living state to be a transient
scene, then say, O Ráma! what it is that is lost by loss of this
prison-house of the body, and what is it that you mourn for?
48. Think therefore, O Ráma! on the nature of truth; and mind not about
the errors of ignorance. Be freed from your earthly desires, and know
the sinless soul to be void of all desires.
49. The intellectual soul being tranquil and transparent, and a mere
witness of our doings, without any doing or desire of its own, receives
the reflexion of the undesirous God, as a mirror reflects the images of
things.
50. The soul being, as said before, a translucent particle, reflects the
images of all worlds in itself; as a polished gem reflects the rays of
light in its bosom.
51. The relation of the indifferent soul with the world, is like that of
the mirror and its reflexions; the difference and identity of the soul
and the world, are of the same kind.
52. As the activities of living beings, have a free play with the rising
sun; so the duties of the world, are fully discharged by the rising of
the intellect.
53. No sooner you get rid of your error of the substantiality of the
world, than you shall come to the consciousness of its being a vacuum,
resting in the spirit of God (which is the receptacle of infinite space,
and whatever there appears in it).
54. As it is the nature of a lighted lamp to spread its lustre all
around, so it is the nature of mental philosophy, to enlighten us with
the real state of the soul.
55. The essence of the supreme soul gave rise to the mind (will) at
first, which spread out the universe with its net work of endless
varieties. It was as the sky issuing out of the infinite vacuity, and
assuming the shape of the blue atmosphere which is also a nullity.
56. Privation of desires melts down the mind, and dissolves the mist of
ignorance from the face of the intellect. Then appears the bright light
of the one infinite and increate God, like the clear firmament of autumn
after the dispersion of clouds.
57. The mind sprouts out at first from the supreme soul with all its
activities, and takes upon it the nature of the lotus-born Brahmá by its
desire of creation. It stretches out a variety of worlds by its creative
will, which are also as the fancied apparitions, appearing before the
imaginations of deluded boys.
58. Non-entity appears as an entity before us, it dies away at death,
and reappears with our new birth. The mind itself takes its rise from
the divine intellect, and displays itself in the substance of the Divine
Soul, as the waves play about on the surface of the waters of the deep.
FOOTNOTES:
Footnote 1:
The reader is referred to the following passage in the story of Rip
Van Winkle in Irving’s Sketch-Book. “To him the whole twenty years,
had been but as one night”. The strange events that had taken place
during his torpor were, that there had been a revolutionary war, when
his country had thrown off the yoke of old England, and that instead
of being a subject of George the third, he was now a free citizen of
the United States, pp. 32-33.
Footnote 2:
The intuition of his existence, is the best proof of the same. Sruti.
So says the mystic sufi:—I sought him everywhere but found him
nowhere; I then looked within myself, and saw him there—as his seat
was there.
Footnote 3:
Activity is attended with the pleasure of enjoyment, with the pain of
bondage; and inactivity with the pleasure of freedom, and the pain of
poverty. The insensible are fond of fruition at the expense of their
freedom; but the wise prefer their liberty with poverty, as it is said
in the _Upanishad_:—
श्रयोहि पुंसामाधकं बृणोते । प्रयोमन्दीयोग क्षेमादधिकं बृणोते ।
Footnote 4:
The black Rákshasas were believed to have been a colony of African
Negroes in southern India and Ceylon. The Rakhs is Rax, as Sycorax of
Shakespeare.
_Note_:—The whole story of the fiendish Súchí is an allegory of the
human mind, and its rapacity. The transformation of the huge to the
thin pinnate body, and again its assumption of the big form, are
allegorical of the change of the corporeal and spiritual bodies—the
_Sthúla_ and _Súkshma_ saríras, in the course of the repeated
transmigrations of the soul from its gross to subtle forms by the
desire of the mind. Tired of the world the mind forsakes the gross
body upon death, and assumes the finer spiritual form, but being soon
dissatisfied with it reverts to its former gross form again. It is
also explained to be the two states of _animá_ and _garimá_, the
minuteness and bulkiness, which the _Yogi_ attains by his _yoga_.
Footnote 5:
It is a curious fact in the theological works of Vedánta, that princes
and ladies, employed themselves much more to the cultivation of their
minds, and to the investigation of mental and spiritual Philosophy,
than other persons and tribes. So we see Surúchi, Lílá, Visúchí and
Sarasvatí were all female interlocutors in this work and some
Upanishads also, though female education was subsequently abrogated by
law.
Footnote 6:
_Samvitti_ is the superior or subjective consciousness personified as
Viráj, and _samvid_ or inferior consciousness of the objective as
received in the personification of Viswa. Here Schelling says:—The
absolute infinite cannot be known in personal or objective
consciousness; but requires a superior faculty called the intuition.
The joint knowledge of the subjective and objective is had by Ecstasy,
which discerns the identity of the subject and object in a series of
souls which are as the innumerable individual eyes, which the infinite
World-spirit behold, in it-self, Lewis Hist. Phil. II. 580.
Footnote 7:
So says a spiritualistic philosopher. Think you this earth of ours is
a lifeless and unsentient bulk, while the worm on her surface is in
the enjoyment of life? No, the universe is not dead. This life—jíva,
what is it but the pervading afflux of deific love and life, vivifying
all nature, and sustaining the animal and vegetable world as well as
the world of mind? These suns, systems, planets and satellites, are
not mere mechanisms. The pulsations of a divine life throb in them
all, and make them rich in the sense that they too are parts of the
divine cosmos. Should it be objected that it proves too much; that it
involves the identity of the vital principle of animals and
vegetables, let us not shrink from the conclusion. The essential unity
of all spirit and all life with this exuberant life from God, is a
truth from which we need not recoil, even though it bring all animal
and vegetable forms within the sweep of immortality. Epes Sargent.
Footnote 8:
The unity of all phenomena was the dream of ancient philosophy. To
reduce all this multiplicity to a single principle, has been and
continues to be the ever recurring problem. To the question of a unity
of substance the Greek science, repeatedly applied itself; and so did
the sophists of Persia and India. It was the craving for unity, which
led the white men of Asia, the ancient Aryan race, to the conception
of God as the one substance immanent in the universe. At first they
were polytheists, but with the progress of thought their number of
gods diminished, and became the authors of Veda. At last arrived to
the conception of a unity of forces, of a divine power as the ultimate
substratum of things. They regarded the beings of the world, as in
effect, composed of two elements; the one real and of a nature
permanent and absolute, and the other relative, flowing and variable
and phenomenal; the one spirit and the other matter, and both
proceeding from an inseparable unity, a single substance. Ibid.
According to Vásishtha this single substance is the _chit_ or divine
intelligence, which produces the Mind, which is conversant with
matter.
Footnote 9:
Note. The powers of the Intellect are, perception, memory, imagination
and judgment. Ego is the subject of thoughts, or the subjective and
really existent being. The personal God Brahmá is an emanation of God
according to the Gnostics, and is like the Demiurgus of Plato next to
God and soul of the world. Plotinus.
Footnote 10:
The allegory of the three spheres, means no more than the triple state
of man, as a spiritual, an intellectual and a physical or corporeal
being. The intellectual state in the text, is properly the spiritual
and highest state of a human being. The mental is next to the
intellectual or midmost state of man, and the physical or corporeal
state, is the lowest condition, in which the elevated nature of
humanity is subjected like an inferior animal, to grovel upon the
earth.
Footnote 11:
Compare the adventure of the prince Tájul Malur in Guli Bakáwalí, and
his bearing the burthen of his children by the Negro wife on his
shoulders.
Footnote 12:
The Text uses the terms _jnána_ and _ajnána_, which literally signify
knowledge and ignorance, and mean to say that, we know the subjective
ourselves only (as-ego-sum) and are ignorant of the true nature of the
objective, as whether they are or not and what they are. Though it
would be more appropriate to use the words nischaya and anischaya or
certainty and uncertainty, because we are certain of our own
existence, and are quite uncertain of every thing besides, which we
perceive in our triple states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep,
which incessantly produce and present before us a vast variety of
objects, all of which lead us to error by their false appearances.
Footnote 13:
All things existent in the Divine mind in their eternally ideal state,
present the same ideas to our minds also, which are of the similar
nature and substance with the Divine.