15. See also the winds to be flying freely at all times, and through

all the worlds, with their charge of enlivening and giving motion to

all bodies.

16. See Brahmá continuing in the same unchangeable state of his mind,

and giving life and velocity to all beings, which have been thereby

continually moving about in the world.

17. The lord Hari, though ever liberated from every bond, has been

continually employed in his contests and combats with the Asuras as if

in sport.

18. The three-eyed god Siva, though ever freed from all concerns, is

joined in one body with his dearer half the beauteous Gaurí, in the

manner of a lover enamoured of his beloved one.

19. The fair Hara thou ever free, is bound to the embrace of his fairy

Gaurí, and was as a crescent of the fair moon, or as a lace of pure

pearls about her neck.

20. The heroic Skanda who was of vast understanding, and like a sea of

the gems of his learning, and perfectly free (as the sole lord of the

world), made war with Taraka (Darius?) of his free will. (This passage

plainly shows them to be Alexander and Darius of history).

21. Mark how Bhringí the attendant of Siva, was absorbed in his

meditation, and thinking himself to be freed from the burden of his

body, made a free offering of his blood and flesh to his goddess Gaurí.

22. The sage Nárada, who was of a liberated nature from his very birth,

and resigned the world and all its concerns altogether, was still

engaged in many affairs with his cool understanding.

23. The honourable Viswámitra who is now present here, is liberated in

his life time, and yet he does not slight to preside at sacrifices,

solemnized according to the ritual of the sacred veda.

24. The infernal snake bears the earth on its head, and the sun makes

the day by turns; the god of death is ever employed in his act of

destruction, and still they are all free agents of their acts.

25. There are many others among the Yaksas, Suras and Asuras of the

world, who are all liberated in their life time, and still employed in

their respective employments.

26. What numbers of them are employed in worldly affairs, and how many

more are engaged in different courses of life; and still they are cold

blooded and cool headed within themselves, and as still and quiet as

cold stones without.

27. Some attaining the acme of their understanding, have retired to

solitude, to pass their lives in abstract meditation; and among these

are the venerable Bhrigu and Bharadvája, Sukra and Viswámitra (who were

not less serviceable to mankind by many of their acts and works).

28. Many among mankind were rulers of their realms, and held the

exalted canopy and chouri and other ensigns of royalty on their heads,

and were not less distinguished for the piety and spirituality at the

same time. Among these, the conduct of the royal personages Janaka,

Saryali and Mándhatrí, stand preeminent above the rest.

29. Some among the living-liberated, are situated in the planetary

spheres, and are thence adored by their devotees for their blessings

on the world. Of these Jupiter and Venus, the Sun and Moon, are the

deities of gods, demons and human kind.

30. Some among the deities, are seated in their heavenly vehicles, and

continually ministering to the wants of all created beings, as the

regents of fire, air, water and death and Tumbura and Nárada.

31. Some situated in the secluded regions of Pátála, are equally

distinguished both for their holiness and piety; such as Vali, Subotra,

Andha, Prahláda and others.

32. Among beasts of the field and fowls of the air, and inferior

animals, you will find many intelligent beings, as the bird Garuda

(Jove’s eagle), and the monkey Hanumána (the god Pan), Jambubána &c;

and among the demigods there are some that are sapient, and others as

muddle headed as beasts.

33. Thus it is possible for the universal soul that resides everywhere,

and is at all times the same, to show itself in any form in any being

according to its will (since it is all in all).

34. It is the multifarious law of His eternal decree, and the manifold

display of His infinite power, that invests all things with multiform

shapes and diverse capacities, as they appear to us.

35. This law of divine decree is the lord of all, and embodies in

itself the creative, preservative and destructive powers under the

titles of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva. These names are indicative of the

intelligent faculties of the universal soul.

36. It is not impossible for the supreme soul, to reside in all bodies

in any manners it likes; it presides sometimes in the manner of the

grains of pure gold, amidst worthless sands and dust; and at others as

the mixture of some base metal in pure gold.

37. Seeing some good connected with or resulting from evil, our

inclinations would lead us even to the evil (in expectation of reaping

the good); were it not for fear of the sinfulness of the act and its

consequent punishment, that we are deterred from doing it. (_i.e._

Human nature is addicted to vice, but fear of sin and its punishment,

leads us to virtue. Had there been no such thing, we would all become

vicious).

38. We see sometimes something substantial arising from the

unsubstantial, as we arrive to the substantial good of divine presence,

by means of the unsubstantial meditation of his negative attributes:

that he is neither this nor that nor such and such (_neti-neti-iti

sruti_).

39. What never existed before, comes to existence at sometime or place

unknown to us; as the horns of a hare which are never to be seen in

nature, are shown to us in magic play, and by the black art of sorcery.

40. Those which are seen to exist firm and solid as adamant, become

null and void and disperse in air; as the sun and moon, the earth and

mountains, and the godlike people of the antedeluvian world.

41. Seeing these changes in the state of things, you must give up, O

mighty armed Ráma! your joy and grief on any occasion, and preserve the

equanimity of your mind at all times.

42. The unreal (material existence) seems as real, and the sober

reality (of spiritual essence), appears as a non-entity in nature;

resign therefore your reliance in this deceitful world, and preserve

the equanimity of your mind under all circumstances.

43. It is true that you gain nothing by your resignation of the world;

and it is equally true on the other hand, that you lose nothing by your

getting rid of its unrealities by yourself.

44. But it is true, O Ráma! that you gain a certain good by your

getting rid of this world; and it is your riddance from the manifold

evils and mischances, which are unavoidable concommittants with this

life.

45. Again you obtain the certain gain of your salvation, by your

resignation of the world, which you can never earn by your attachment

to it. Therefore strive for your liberation by purging your mind from

its attachments to the world.

46. He who wishes for his prosperity, must take the pains to have an

insight of his soul; because a single glimpse of the soul, is sure to

cut off all the pains and pangs of the world from their root.

47. There are many dispassionate and disconnected men, even in the

present age; who are liberated in their lifetime, like the sacrificial

king Janaka and others.

48. So you too are liberated for life, for your having an unpassionate

and unprejudiced mind, and may manage to conduct yourself with your

tolerant spirit, like the patient earth, stone and moveless metals.

49. There are two kinds of liberation for living beings, viz.: one in

their present life and body, and the other after separation of life

from the body, both of which admit of some varieties as you will bear

afterwards.

50. First of all the peace of mind, from its unconcernedness with

everything is termed its liberation; and it is possible to be had by

the sinless man either in this life or in the next.

51. Lessening of affections is fraught with the bliss of solity

(Kaivalya), and it is possible to become impassible both in the

embodied as will as disembodied states of life.

52. He who lives in perfect apathy and without his affection for any

body, is called the living liberated man; but the life which is bound

by its affections is said to be in bondage, or else it is free as air.

53. It is possible to obtain liberation, by means of diligent inquiry

and reasoning; or else it is as difficult to come to it, as it is hard

for a lame man to leap over a hole, though as small as the footmark of

a cow-_goshpada_.

54. For know, O Ráma of great soul, that the soul should not be

cast into misery by your neglect of it, or by subjecting it through

ignorance to its affection for others. (_i.e._ Be master of yourself and

not bound to others).

55. He who relies on his patience, and employs his mind, and cogitates

upon the supreme soul in his own soul, for the attainment of his

consummation; finds the deep abyss of the world, as a small chink in

his vast comprehension.

56. The high station to which Buddha had attained by his patience, and

from which the Arhata prince fell to scepticism by his impatience; and

that _summum bonum_ which is reached at by great minds, is the fruit of

the tree of diligent inquiry, which like the Kalpa arbor, yields all

what is desired of it.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

THE WORLD COMPARED WITH THE OCEAN.

Argument. The world likened to the ocean, and the women to its

waves. The means of passing over it, and the delight when it is

got over.

Vasishtha continued:—These worlds which have sprung from Brahmá the

creator, are upheld by ignorance, and become extinct before right

reason. (_i.e._ Their materiality melts away before the light of true

philosophy).

2. The worlds are vortices of water, and whirlpools in the ocean

of Brahmá. They are as numerous as the particles of light, and as

innumerable as the motes that fly in the sunbeams.

3. It is the imperfect knowledge of the world that is the cause of its

existence (or makes it appear as an entity); but full knowledge of it

makes it vanish into nothing. (These are the two opposite systems of

materialism and immaterialism).

4. The world is a dreadful ocean unbounded and unfordable; and there is

no means of getting over it, save by the raft of right investigation

and diligent scrutiny.

5. This ocean is full with the water of ignorance, and its vast basin

is filled with fatal whirlpools and overwhelming waves of discord and

dangers.

6. Here goodness and good actions float on the surface, as its

froth and foams; but they hide the deadly latent heat of hellfire

underneath. Here roll the incessant billows of avarice, and there

snores the huge whale, and the great leviathan of the mind.

7. It is the reservoir of the endless channels and rivulets of life,

running as its streams and currents; and it is the depository of

innumerable treasures of brilliant gems hidden under its depth. It is

infested by the serpents of diseases, and the horrid sharks of the

senses.

8. See Ráma, the playful women, resembling the tremulous billows of

this ocean; and are able to attract and pierce the hearts of the wise,

with the hooks and horns of their looks.

9. Their lips are as red as rubies, and their eyes are as black as blue

lotuses; their teeth are as the unblown blossoms of fruits and flowers,

and their sweet smiles are as the hoary froth of the sea.

10. The curled locks of their hairs are as the crisped creepers of

blue lotuses, and their twisted eyebrows are as the slanting of little

billows; their backsides are as protruded islets, and their throats and

necks are lined over like conchshells.

11. Their foreheads are as plates of gold, and their graces as the

sharks of the sea; their loose glances are as the splashing waves, and

their complexions are gold coloured like the sands on the sea shore.

12. Such is this ocean-like world, with its tremendous surges and

rolling waves; and it is the part of manhood to buffet it over by manly

exertions, in order to save one’s self from sinking under them.

13. Fie for that man! who having good sense for his vessel, and reason

for his helmsman, does not conduct himself across the wide expanse of

this worldly ocean.

14. He is reckoned the most valiant man, who measures the immeasurable

expanse of this ocean (by his knowledge of the Infinite soul, which

comprehends the whole within itself).

15. Considering well about this world with the learned, and looking

into all its hazards with the eye of the mind, he who relies his trust

in the Lord, becomes blest forever.

16. You are truly blest, O Ráma! that are employed from your early

youth to scrutinize about this world.

17. Men who consider the world, and take it in the same light of a

dangerous ocean as you do, are not likely to be drowned in it, when

they steer their bark in it after due consideration.

18. The enjoyments of the world are to be duly considered, ere one

dares to come to the enjoyment of them; and like the ambrosia, before

they feed on any other fare (like Garuda—the head of the fowls of the

air).

19. He who considers beforehand the employment he should engage in,

and the enjoyments he ought to share in this world, fares well in

his present and future life; or else he falls to danger like the

inconsiderate man.

20. The judicious and preadmonished man, prospers in his fame and

fortune, and rises in his power and understanding in his life; as the

trees come to flower and fructify in spring.

21. Ráma! you will shine with the elegance of the bright and cooling

moonbeams, and with the beauty of perpetual prosperity, if you will but

begin your worldly career with full knowledge, of all that is to be

known respecting the world before hand.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

ON LIVING LIBERATION.

Argument. On Liberation from Earthly Bondage, and Salvation of

the Soul during one’s Lifetime.

Ráma rejoined:—O sage! nobody is satiate with all thou sayest, but

must learn more and more from you; therefore say in short the substance

of the present subject, which is as grand as it is wondrous to hear.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I have already given you many interpretations

of living liberation, and here are some more for your satisfaction and

close attention.

3. With their visual organs they view this world, as a hazy maze in

their state of sound sleep; and they consider it as an unreality in

their spiritual light, when their minds are fixed in the Supreme soul

only.

4. He who has got his disengagement, has his mind as still as in sleep;

and he that sees the soul, is ravished with joy at the sight.

5. He takes nothing that is within his reach, nor retains what is

within his grasp; but keeps his mind looking within himself as having

everything there. (The liberated and self-contented man having nothing

in his hand, has all in his inward soul).

6. He sees the bustle of the tumultuous with the eye of his mind,

and smiles in himself at the hurry and flurry of the world (like the

laughing philosopher of old).

7. He does not live in future expectation, nor does he rely in his

present possession; he does not live on the pleasure of his past

memory, but lives listless of all (in perfect _insouciance_).

8. Sleeping he is awake, in his vision of heavenly light, and waking he

is plunged in the deep sleep of his mental reveries; he does all his

works with his external body; but he does nothing with his inward mind

(which is fixed in his God).

9. In his mind he has relinquished the thoughts of all things, and

renounced his care also for anything; he does his outward actions, and

remains as even as if he has done nothing. (The spiritualist is neither

concerned with nor affected by his external acts).

10. He pursues the course of duties of his caste and family, as they

have descended to him from the custom of his forefathers.

11. He does all that is required and expected of him with a willing

mind, and without the error of believing himself as their actor. (He

does them as a machine, and without the false persuasion of his agency

of them).

12. He remains _insouciant_, of all that he does by rote and habit, and

neither longs for, nor loathes nor rejoices nor grieves at anything.

13. He takes no notice of the amity or enmity of others to him, and is

devoted to them that are devoted to him; but cunning with such as deal

in craftiness with him.

14. He deals as a boy with boys, and as a veteran with old people; he

is youthful in the society of young men, and is grave in the company of

the aged and wise. He is not without sympathy with the woes of others

(but rejoices at their happiness).

15. He opens his mouth in edifying speeches, and never betrays his

penury in any way; he is always sedate in his mind, and ever of a

cheerful complexion.

16. He is wise and deep, yet open and sweet (in his conversation; and

is full with the fulness of his knowledge, as the full moon with all

her digits); he is ever free from pain and misery.

17. He is magnanimous in his disposition, and as sweet as a sea of

delight; he is cool and cooling the pains of others, and as refreshing

as the full moonbeams to mankind.

18. He has meritorious deeds for his object, nor is any action or

worldly good of any purpose to him; neither does he gain anything

by his abandonment of pleasures or riches or friends, nor by their

disappearance from him.

19. Neither action nor inaction, nor labour nor ease; neither bondage

or release, or heaven or hell, can add to or take away anything from

his inner contentment.

20. He sees everything and everywhere in the same uniform light, nor is

his mind afraid of bondage or eager for its release. (Such inflexible

passivity was the highest virtue of the stoics).

21. He whose doubts are wholly removed by the light of his knowledge,

has his mind towering upwards as the fearless phœnix of the sky.

22. He whose mind is freed from error, and is settled in its

equanimity, doth neither rise nor fall like any heavenly body, but

remains unaltered as the high heaven itself.

23. He does his outward actions, by the mere movement of the outer

members of his body, and without the application of his mind to them;

as a baby sleeping in a cradle, has the spontaneous play of his limbs,

without any purpose of his mind. (This shows the possibility of bodily

actions independently of the mind).

24. So the drunken and delirious man, doth many acts in his state

of dementedness; and as he never does them with the application or

attention of his mind, he retains no trace of them in his remembrance.

25. And as children lay hold of or reject everything, without knowing

whether it is good or bad for them; so do men do their actions or

refrain from them, without their deliberate choice or aversion of them.

(This proves the causality of the mind).

26. So a man doing his duty by habit or compulsion, is not sensible

of any pain or pleasure that he derives from it (because his mind was

quite unconcerned with the act).

27. An act done by the outer body without its intention in the inner

mind, is reckoned as no act of the actor, nor does it entail upon him

its good or bad result. (An involuntary act is not taken into account).

28. He neither shrinks from misery, nor does he hail his good fortune;

he is neither elated at his success, nor depressed by his failure.

29. He is not dismayed at seeing the sun growing cool, and the moon

shining warmly over his head; he is not disconcerted by the flame of

fire bending downwards, nor at the course of waters rising upwards. (He

is not terrified by the prodigies of nature).

30. He is not affrighted nor astonished, at any wonderful occurrence

in nature; because he knows all the phenomena of nature, to be the

wondrous appearances of the omnipotent and all-intelligent soul.

31. He expresses no need nor want of his, nor is in need of other’s

favour or kindness; nor has he recourse to wiliness or cunning; he

undertakes no shameful act as begging and the like, nor betrays his

shamelessness by doing an unworthy action.

32. He is never mean-spirited nor haughty in his spirit, he is neither

elated nor depressed in his mind, nor is he sad or sorry or joyous at

anytime. (The word _dínátmá_ is used for the meek in spirit in Dr.

Mill’s version of the “Sermon on the mount”).

33. No passions rise in his pure heart, which is as clear as the

autumnal sky; and as the clear firmament which gives no growth to

thorns or thistles.

34. Seeing the incessant births and deaths of living beings in the

course of this world, who is it whom you may call to be ever happy or

unhappy? (Since happiness and sorrow succeed one another by turns).

35. Froth as the foaming bubble bursts in the water, so our lives

flash to fly out into eternity; whom therefore do you call to be happy

anywhere, and what is that state of continued pleasure or pain?

36. In this world of endless entrances and exits, what being is there

that lasts or is lost for ever; it is our sight that produces the view,

as our failing sight takes it out of view (as every spectre of optical

delusion). (The text _drishti srishti kara narah_ is very expressive;

and means, “man is the maker of the world by his sight of it”).

37. The sights of these worlds are no more than the transitory view of

spectacles in our nightly dreams; which are unforeseen appearances of

momentary duration, and sudden disappearance.

38. What cause can there be of joy or sorrow in this wretched world,

which is a scene of incessant advents and departures?

39. It is the loss of some good, that is attended with sorrow to the

sufferer; but what sorrow can assail the self-liberated man, who sees

nothing as positive good in the ever-changing state of things herein?

40. Of what avail is prosperity or the enjoyment of any pleasure to

one, when it is succeeded by adversity and pain the next moment, which

embitters life by its baneful effects.

41. It is riddance from the states of pleasure and pain, of choice

and dislike, of the desirable and displeasing, and of prosperity and

adversity, that contributes to the true felicity of man.

42. After your abandonment of pleasing and unpleasing objects,

and relinquishment of your desire for enjoyments, you get a cold

inappetence, which will melt your mind like frost.

43. The mind being weakened, its desires will be wasted also; as the

sesamum seeds being burnt, will leave no oil behind. (The mind being

repressed, will put a check to all its passions and feelings).

44. By thinking existence as non-existent, the great souled man gets

rid of all his desires, and sets himself aloof as in the air; and with

his joyous spirits that know no change, the wise man sits and sleeps

and lives always content with himself.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

MANNER OF CONDUCTING THE YOGA HYPNOTISM.

Argument. The Action of the Mind is creative of the Error of the

World, and Yoga is the suppression of that Action.

Vasishtha continued:—As the rotation of a firebrand, describes a

circle of sparkling fires; so the revolving of the mind, depicts the

apparent circumference to the sky, as the real circle of the universe.

2. In like manner the rolling of waters makes curves in the sea,

appearing something other than water; so the revolution of the mind

forms many ideal worlds, seeming to be bodies beside itself.

3. And as you come to see strings of pearls in the sky, by the

twinklings of your eyes fixed in it; so these false worlds present

themselves to your view, by the pulsation of your mind.

4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whereby the mind has its vibration and how

it is repressed, that I may thence learn how to govern the same.

5. Vasishtha answered:—Know Ráma, as whiteness is concomitant with

snow, and oil is associated with sesamum seeds; and fragrance is

attendant upon flowers and the flame is coexistent with fire.

6. So Ráma, the mind is accompanied by its fluctuations hand in hand,

and they are virtually the one and the everything, though passing under

different names by fiction.

7. Of the two categories of the mind and its pulsation, if either of

these comes to be extinct, the other also has its extinction, as the

properties of a thing being lost, their subject likewise ceases to

exist; and there is no doubt of this.

8. There are two ways of extinguishing the mind, the yoga or hypnotism

and spiritual knowledge; of these the yoga is the suppression of mental

powers, and knowledge is the thorough investigation of all things.

9. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, to suppress the vital airs, and

to attain thereby to that state of tranquility, which is fraught with

endless felicity?

10. Vasishtha replied:—There is a circulating air breathing through

the lungs and arteries of the body, as the water flows through the

veins and pores of the earth, and which is called the vital breath or

life.

11. It is the fluctuation of this air, that impels and gives force to

the internal organs of the body, and which is designated by the various

names of _prána_, _apána_ &c., according to their positions and motions

(all of which are but varieties of the vital breath).

12. As fragrance resides in flowers and whiteness in the frost, so

is motion the flavour of the mind, and is one and the same with its

receptacle—the mind.

13. Now the vibration of this vital breath, excites the perception of

certain desires and feelings in the heart; and the cognitive principle

of these perceptions is called the mind.

14. The vibration of vital air gives pulsation to the heart strings,

causing their cognition in the mind; in the same manner as the motion

of the waters, gives rise to the waves rolling and beating on the shore.

15. The heart is said to be the afflation of the vital breath by the

learned in the Vedas, and this being suppressed quiets the mind also.

(The mind, says the Sruti, is moved by the vital air &c.).

16. The action of the mind being stopped, the perception of the

existence of the world becomes extinct (as we have no perception of

it in our sound sleep, when the mind is inactive). It is like the

extinction of worldly affairs at sunset.

17. Ráma asked:—How is it possible to stop the course of the winds,

perpetually circulating through the cells of the body, like the

unnumbered birds flying in the air to their nests. (The passage of the

nostrils is the open air, and the cells in the body are as their nests).

18. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible by study of the sástras and

association with the good and wise, by habitual dispassionateness, by

the practice of Yoga, and by removal of reliance in every transaction

of the world.

19. Meditation of the desired object, and keeping in view that single

object, and firm reliance on one particular object, are the best means

of suppressing the vital breath.

20. Next, it is by suppression of breath in the acts of inspiration

and respiration _puraka_ and _rechaka_, in such manner as it may be

unattended with pain, together with fixed meditation, it is possible to

suppress the vital air (which gives longevity to the practitioner).

21. The utterance of the syllable om, and pondering upon the

significations of that word, and dormancy of the perceptive senses, are

means of the suppression of breath.

22. The practice of _rechaka_ or respiring out, serves to purge out the

crudities of the body, and by leaving the nostrils untouched, the vital

breath is suppressed altogether.

23. The practice of _puraka_ or breathing in, tends to fill the inside

as the clouds fill the sky; and then the breathing being stopped, its

vibrations are stopped also.

24. Then the practice of _kumbhaka_ or sufflation of the breath, the

air is shut up in a closed vessel and this serves to stop the course of

breathing. (Long explanations of these practices are given in the gloss

forming subjects of anemography).

25. Afterwards the tongue being carried to the orifice of the palate,

and the tip being attached to the guttural bulb or nodule, will prevent

the vibration of the breathing.

26. Again the mind getting rid of the flights of fancy, and becoming

as vacant as empty air, prevents the course of breathing by its fixed

meditation of itself (as in the state of Samádhi or trance).

27. Again as the vital breath ranges within the space of twelve inches

about the tip of the nose, this region should be closely watched by the

eyesight in order to prevent the egress and ingress of breath.

28. Moreover the practice of stretching the tongue to the distance

of twelve inches above the palate, and sticking the tip of it to the

cavity called _Brahmarandhra_, serves to make one unconscious of

himself, and stop his breathing. (These processes are explained in

great length in the gloss for the practice of Yoga cult, resembling the

mesmerism of modern spiritualists, for causing the comatosity of the

practitioner).

29. The eyesight being lifted upwards and fixed in the cavity between

the eyebrows, exhibits the light of the intellect, and stops the

vibrations of breath. (This is called the _Khechari mudra_ and

practised by all intelligent men).

30. No soon does the spiritual light dawn over the soul, and the mind

is steadfastly fixed to it, without any intermixture of dualism (_i.e._

worldly thoughts), there is an utter stop of breathing.

31. The livelong practice of seeing a simple vacuity within one’s self,

and freeing the mind from all its thoughts and desired objects, serves

to stop the fluctuation of breath. (This is supported by the Patanjali

yoga sástra).

32. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, what is this thing which they call the human

heart, which receives the reflexions of all things as a large reflector

or mirror?

33. Vasishtha replied:—Hear my good Ráma; the hearts of all animals in

this world, are of two kinds, namely: the superior and inferior, and

learn their difference.

34. That which has a certain dimension, and is placed as a piece of

flesh inside the breast, is called an inferior heart, and forms a part

of the body.

35. The other is of the nature of consciousness, and is called the

superior mind; because it is both in the inside and outside of the

body, and yet it is situated in no part of it.

36. That is the superior part, wherein all this world is situated,

which is the great reflector of all things, and receptacle of all goods

(so says the Sruti: “the earth and sky and all things reside in it”).

37. The consciousness of all living creatures, is also called their

heart; though it is no part of the animal body, nor is a dull inert

substance as a pebble or stone.

38. Now this conscious or sensitive heart, being purified of its

internal desires, and joined _perforce_ with the _chitta_ or thinking

mind, the vibrations of vital breath are put to a stand.

39. These as well as many other methods, which have been adopted

by others, and dictated by the mouths of many sages, equally serve

to suppress the breathing (both for the fixity of attention and

prolongation of life).

40. These methods which are adapted to the process of yoga meditation

(or concentration of the mind); are to be slowly adopted by continued

practice, for the redemption of the good from this world; or else their

hasty adoption of it may prove detrimental to life.

41. As it is long practice, that perfects a man to the rank of a

cenobite and anchorite, so the gradual suppression of respiration, is

attended with equal success; as repression of desires, is accompanied

by many happy results.

42. It is by continued practice, that the breath is compressed within

the confines of twelve inches about the cavities of the brows, nostrils

and palate, as the cataract is confined within the limit of the pit.

43. It is repeated practice also, that the tip of the tongue should be

brought to a contact with the gullet of the throat, through which the

breath doth pass both in and out.

44. These are the various modes which by their constant practice, lead

to _Samádhi_ or hypnotism, when the mind has its fullest tranquility,

and its union with the Supreme soul.

45. It is by practice of these methods, that a man is freed from

sorrow, and is filled with internal rapture, and becomes enrapt in the

supreme soul.

46. The vibrations of the vital air, being suppressed by continued

practice, the mind gets a tranquility, which is akin to its extinction.

47. Human life is wrapt in desires, and liberation (moksha) is the

release of the mind from these; and breathing is the operation of life,

and its suppression is the path to its extinction or _nirvána_.

48. The vibration of breath is the action of the mind, producing the

error of the existence of the world; and this being brought under

subjection, dispels this error.

49. The knowledge of duality being removed, shows the existence of the

unity only; which no words can express, except by attributes that are

ascribed to it.

50. In whom and from whom is all, and who is all in every place; yet

who is not this world, nor there abides such a world as this in him,

nor has the world come out from him (_i.e._ the world abides in its

ideal and not material form in the spirit).

51. Owing to its perishableness and its situation in time and space,

and limitation by them, this material world cannot be a part of identic

with that immaterial spirit, which has no attribute nor its likeness.

52. It is the moisture of all vegetables and the flavour of all

eatables; it is the light of lights and the source of all desires

rising in the heart, like moonbeams proceeding from the lunar disk.

53. It is the kalpa tree yielding all earthly fruitions as its fruits,

which are incessantly borne aloft only to fall down with their juicy

flavour of various tastes.

54. The high minded man that depends on that boundless spirit, and

rests secure in its bosom, is verily called the wise and liberated in

his life time.

55. He is the best of men, whose mind is freed from all desires and

cravings; and who has found his rest from the thoughts of his fancied

good and evil. He remains listless amidst all the cares and concerns of

this life.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

DESCRIPTION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.

Argument. The second method of suppressing the Mind by spiritual

knowledge, being the Theory of self liberation.

Ráma said:—Sir, as you have related to me the methods of suspending

the mind to a dead lock, by means of yoga practices; I hope you will

kindly tell me now, the manner in which it is brought to stand still,

by means of perfect knowledge.

2. Vasishtha replied:—By perfect knowledge is meant the firm belief of

a man, in the existence of one self manifest or Supreme Soul, that is

without its beginning and end. This is what the wise mean by the term

“full or perfect knowledge.”

3. Its fulness consists in viewing all these visible forms as these

pots and these pictures _ghatapata_, and all these hundreds cries of

beings, to be manifest in the fullness of that spirit and not distinct

from it.

4. It is imperfect knowledge that causes our birth and pain, and

perfect knowledge that liberates us from these; as it is our defective

sight, which shows us the snake in the rope, while our complete view of

it removes the error.

5. The knowledge which is free from imagination, and its belief of the

objective, and relies only on its conscious subjectivity, leads only to

the liberation of men, which nothing else can do.

6. The knowledge of the purely subjective, is identic with that of the

supreme spirit; but this pureness being intermingled with the impure

objective matter, is termed _avidyá_ or ignorance.

7. Consciousness itself is the thing it is conscious of (or in other

words, knowledge is identic with the known; _i.e._ the subjective

is the same with the objective), and there is no difference between

them. The soul knows only itself as there is no other beside itself.

(Its _parichinote_ is its subjective knowledge, and _sanchinote_ the

objective and effect of _avidyá_ or ignorance).

8. “Seeing the soul alone in its true light in all the three worlds,”

is equivalent to the expression “all this world is the soul itself” in

the Sruti, and the knowledge of this truth constitutes the perfection

of man.

9. The whole being the soul, why talk of an entity or a nullity; and

what meaning can there be in bondage or liberation (which appertain to

the same soul?)

10. The mind is no other than its perceptions, which are manifested

by God himself; and the whole being an infinite vacuum, there is no

bondage nor liberation of any.

11. All this is the immense Brahma, extending in the form of this vast

immensity; so you may enlarge your invisible soul by yourself, and by

means of the knowledge of yourself.

12. By this comprehensive view of Brahma as all in all you can find no

difference between a piece of wood or stone and your cloth; why then

are you so fond of making these distinctions?

13. Know the soul as the only indestructible substance, which remains

quiescent from first to the last; and know this to be the nature of

your soul also.

14. Know this boundless universe with all the fixed and moving bodies

it contains, to be a transcendent void; where there is no room for your

joy or sorrow whatever.

15. The shapes of death and disease and of unity and duality, rise

constantly in the soul, in the form of interminable waves in the sea.

16. He that remains in the close embrace of his soul, with his inward

understanding, is never tempted to fall a prey to the trap of worldly

enjoyments.

17. He that has a clear head for right judgment, is never moved by the

force of earthly delights; but remains as unshaken as a rock against

the gentle winds of the air.

18. The ignorant, unreasonable and stupid men, that are guided by their

desires only; are preyed upon by continued misery, as the fishes of a

dried tank are devoured mercilessly by cranes.

19. Knowing the world to be full of the spirit, and without the matter

of ignorance _avidyá_, close your eyes against its visible phenomena,

and remain firm with your spiritual essence.

20. Plurality of things is the creation of imagination, without their

existence in reality. It is like the multifarious forms of the waves in

the sea, which are in reality its water only. The man therefore, that

relies on his firm faith in the unity, is said to be truly liberated

and perfect in his knowledge.

CHAPTER LXXX.

INVESTIGATION OF THE PHENOMENALS.

Argument. Description of Divine Meditation, which keeps the mind

from its attention to temporary enjoyments.

Vasishtha continued:—I will now describe to you that pensive

excogitation, which keeps the reasoning mind, from attending to objects

placed in its presence.

2. The eyes are for seeing only, and the living soul is for bearing the

burthen of pain and pleasure alone; they are like the eyes and bodies

of a beast, or like bull of burden, which sees and carries a load of

food, without being able to taste it.

3. The eyes being confined to the visible phenomena, can do no harm to

the soul residing in the body; as an ass fallen into a pit, is but a

slight loss to its owner.

4. Do not O base man, regale thy eyes, with the dirty stuff of the

sight of visibles; which perish of themselves in the twinkling of an

eye, and put thee to peril also (by the diseases and difficulties which

they load upon thee).

5. The acts which are deemed as one’s own deeds and beings, and whereby

the acutely intelligent man thinks himself to be living, and by which

he counts the duration of his lifetime, (according to the saying, that

our lives are computed by our acts, and not by the number of our days);

these very acts, turn at last, against him, for his accountableness of

them.

6. Do not rely thy eyes on visible objects, which are unreal in their

nature, and are produced to perish soon after, and to please thy

sight for a moment only. Know them as destroyers of thy otherwise

indestructible soul.

7. O my eyes! that are but witnesses of the forms, which are situated

in the soul; it is in vain that ye flash only to consume yourselves,

like the burning lamps after a short while.

8. The vision of our eyes is as the fluctuation of waters, and its

objects are as the motes that people the sun-beams in the sky. Whether

these sights be good or bad, they are of no matter to our minds.

9. Again there is that little bit of egoism beating in our minds, like

a small shrimp stirring amidst the waters; let it throb as it may, but

why should we attribute it with the titles of “I, thou or he or this or

that”?

10. All inert bodies and their light appear together to the eye, the

one as the container of the other; but they do not affect the mind, and

therefore do not deserve our notice.

11. The sight of objects and the thoughts of the mind, have no

connection with one another (because the sight is related to the eye,

and the thoughts bear relation with the mind); And yet they seem to be

related to each other, as our faces and their reflexions in the mirror.

(The retina of the eye receive the reflexions, and convey them to the

sensory of the cranium, in the form of reflections or thoughts, and

hence their mutual relations).

12. Such is their inseparably reciprocal relation in the minds of the

ignorant; but the wise who are freed from their ignorance, remain aloof

from the visibles with their mental meditations alone.

13. But the minds of the vulgar are as closely connected with the

visibles, as the sacrificial wood with the lac dye.

14. It is by diligent study, that the chain of mental thoughts are

severed from the visibles; in the like manner, as our wrong notions are

removed by means of right reasoning.

15. After dispersion of ignorance, and the connexion of the visibles

from the mind, there will be no more a blending of forms and figures

and their reflexions and thoughts in it.

16. The sensible impressions which have taken possession of the inner

mind, are to be rooted out from it as they drive out a demon from the

house.

17. O my mind! says the intelligent man, it is in vain that thou

deludest me, who have known thy first and last as nothing; and if thou

art so mean in thy nature (as the progeny of barren woman) thou must be

so as nothing even at present.

18. Why dost thou display thyself in thy five fold form of the five

senses unto me? Go make thy display before him who acknowledges and

owns thee as his. (As for me I own the intellect and not the mind).

19. Thy grand display of the universe yields me no satisfaction, since

I am convinced, O vile mind, all this to be no better than a magic play.

20. Whether thou abidest in me or not it is of no matter to me; because

I reckon thee as dead to me as thou art dead to reason. (As the mind

is perverse to reason, so are reasonable men averse to it. The mind

is all along used in the sense of the sentient mind, and not the

superior intellectual faculty—_chit_, which is distinct from _chitta_,

synonymous with _manas_ the mind.)

21. Thou art a dull unessential thing, erroneous and deceitful and

always reckoned as dead, the ignorant alone are misled by thee and

not the reasonable. (It is hard to determine what the attributes

of the mind may mean. It is said to be dead, because it is kept in

mortification and subjection).

22. It was so long through our ignorance, that we had been ignorant

of thee; it is now by the light of reason, that we find thee as dead

as darkness, under the light of a lamp. There is always an impervious

darkness under the lighted lamp (_zer cheragh tarikist_).

23. Thou hast long taken possession of this mansion of my body, and

prevented me, O wily mind, from associating with the good and wise.

24. Thou liest as dull as dead body at the door of this bodily mansion,

against the entrance of my worshipped guests (of good virtues) to it.

25. O the gigantic monster of the world! which has its existence in

no time. Art thou not ashamed, O my mind, to assume to thyself this

deceitful form the world, and appear before me in this hideous shape?

26. Go out of this abode of my body, thou demoniac mind, with the train

of thy female fiends of avarice and her companions, and the whole host

of thy devilish comrades of rage, wrath and the like.

27. Seeing the advance of reason to the temple of the body, the demon

of the mind flies from it, as the savage wolf leaves its den at the

approach of the hunter.

28. O pity for these foolish folks! that are so subdued by this dull

and deceitful mind, as the unwary people are spellbound by the magic

wand.

29. What is thy boast and might in subduing the ignorant rabble,

exercise thy power upon me, that defy thy power to prevail over the

unity of my belief.

30. I need not try to defeat the power of my foolish mind, after I have

already baffled its attempts against me, and laid it to dust.

31. I had ere long taken thee for a living thing, and passed many a

livelong life, and day and night, with thy company in this dreary world.

32. I have now come to know the nullity of the mind, and that it is put

to death by my power; I have hence given up my concern with it, and

betaken to my reliance in the ever existent soul only.

33. It is by good luck, that the living liberated men come to know

the demise of their minds; and cease to spend their lives under the

illusion of its existence.

34. Having driven away the deceitful demon of the mind, from the

mansion of my body; I am situated at rest without any troublesome

thought or turbulent passion in me.

35. I smile to think in myself the many follies, to which I was led for

a long time under the influence of my demoniac mind.

36. It is by my good fortune, that the gigantic demon of my mind, is

at last vanquished by the sword of my reason, and driven out of the

mansion of my body.

37. It is by my good fortune also, that my heart is after all purified

from its evil inclination, by the suppression of my demoniac mind; and

that my soul now rests alone in peace, in the abode of my body.

38. With the death of the mind, there is an end of my egoism and all my

troublesome thoughts and cares; and the expulsion of the ogres of evil

passions from my breast, by the breath or _mantra_ of reason, has made

it a place of rest for my soul.

39. What is this mind with its egoism and eager expectations to me,

than a family of intractable inmates, of whom I have fortunately got

rid by their wholesale deaths.

40. I hail that pure and ever prosperous soul which is self-same with my

inward soul, and identic with the immutable intellect; (and not with

the changeful mind).

41. I hail that ego in me, which is yet not myself nor I nor any other

person, nor is it subject to sorrow or error.

42. I hail that ego in me, which has no action nor agency, nor any

desire nor worldly affair of its own. It has no body nor does it eat or

sleep (but it is as itself).

43. This ego is not myself nor any other, and there is nothing as I

or anybody else. The ego is all in all, and I bow down to that being.

(There is no direct evidence as what the ego is, but is pointed by mere

indirect and negative evidences as what it is not).

44. The ego is the first cause and support of all, it is the intellect

and the soul of all worlds. It is the whole without parts; I therefore

bow down to that ego.

45. I prostrate to the self-same Ego of all, which is eternal and

immutable, which is the sole immense soul and without its parts. It is

all, in all and abides at all times.

46. It is without any form or designation, and is manifest as the

immense spirit. It abides in itself, and I bow down to that ego.

47. It is the same in all things in its too minute form, and is the

manifester of the universe. It is the essence of my existence and

abiding in me, in which state I bow down to it.

48. It is the earth and ocean with all their hills and rivers, which

are not the ego, nor they are the ego itself. I bow to the selfsame ego

which comprises the world with all its contents.

49. I bow to that undecaying and indestructible Lord which is beyond

thought, and is ever charming and ever the same. Who manifests the

endless universe with all its worlds and many more yet invisible and

unformed bodies. He is unborn and undecaying, and his body is beyond

all attributes and dimensions.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

UNSUBSTANTIALITY OF THE MIND.

Argument. The unsubstantiality of the Mind is established by

Reasoning and Intuition.

Vasishtha resumed:—Having thus considered and known the mind in

themselves; and in the aforesaid manner; it is the business of great

minded philosophers, O mighty Rama, to enquire into the nature of the

soul, as far as it is knowable (by the help of psychology).

2. And knowing the world to be purely the soul, it is to be enquired,

whence arose the phantom of mind which is nothing in reality.

3. It is ignorance, error and illusion, which exhibit the vacant and

visionary mind to view, as it is our false imagination, which forms an

arbour of trees in the vacant air.

4. As the objects standing on the shore, seem to be moving to ignorant

boys passing in a boat; so the sedate soul appears to be in motion

(like the mind) to the unintelligent.

5. After removal of our ignorance and error, we have no perception of

the fluctuation of our minds; as we no more think the mountains to be

in motion, after the velocity of air car is put to a stop.

6. I have given up the thoughts of all internal and external things,

knowing them as the creation of my airy mind only. Thus the mind and

its actions being null and void, I see all things to exist in the

spirit of Brahma alone.

7. I am freed from my doubts, and sit quiet devoid of all care; I sit

as Siva without a desire stirring in me.

8. The mind being wanting, there is an end of its youthful desires and

other properties also; and my soul being in the light of the supreme

spirit, has lost its sight of all other colours and forms presented to

the eyes.

9. The mind being dead, its desires also die with it, and its cage of

the body is broken down without it. The enlightened man being no more

under the subjection of his mind, is liberated from the bondage of his

egoism also. Such is the state of the soul, after its separation from

the body and mind, when it remains in its spiritual state in this and

the next world.

10. The world is one calm and quiescent Unity of Brahma, and its

plurality or multifariousness is as false as a dream. What then shall

we think or talk of it, which is nothing in reality.

11. My soul by advancing to the state of divine holiness, becomes as

rarefied and all-pervasive as the eternal spirit of God, in which it is

situated for ever.

12. That which is, and what is not, as the soul and the mind the

substantial and the unsubstantial, is the counterpart of the something,

which is rarer than air, calm and quiet, eternal and intangible; and

yet all pervading and extended through all.

13. Let there be a mind in us, or let it remain or perish for ever;

yet I have nothing to discuss about it, when I see everything to be

situated in the soul.

14. I considered myself as a limited and embodied being, as long as I

was unable to reason about these abstruse subjects; and now I have come

to know my unlimited form of the spirit; but what is this that I call

“myself” is what I have not yet been able to know, since the whole is

full with the one supreme spirit.

15. But the mind being granted as dead, it is useless to dubitate about

it; and we gain nothing by bringing the demon of the mind to life again.

16. I at once repudiate the mind, the source of false desires and

fancies; and betake myself to the meditation of the mystic syllable

“Om” with the quietness of my soul, resting quiescent in the Divine

spirit.

17. With my best intelligence, I continue always to inquire of my God,

both when I am eating or sleeping or sitting or walking about.

18. So do the saints conduct their temporal affairs, with a calm

and careless mind, meditating all along on the Divine soul in their

becalmed spirits.

19. So do all great minded men gladly pass their lives, in the

discharge of their respective duties, without being elated by pride

or the giddiness of vanity; but manage themselves with a cheerfulness

resembling the gentle beams of the autumnal moon.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF THE SENSUOUS MIND.

Argument. Story of Vítahavya, materialist becomes a spiritualist.

Vasishtha continued:—It was in this manner that the learned Samvarta,

who had the knowledge of the soul reasoned with himself, and which he

communicated to me on the Vindhyan mountain. (Samvarta is said to have

been the brother of Vrihaspati, both of whom have transmitted to us two

distinct treatises on law, which are still extant).

2. Shut out the world, said he, from your sight, and employ your

understanding to abstract reasoning, in order to get over the vast

ocean of this world.

3. Hear me tell you Ráma of another view of things, whereby the great

sage Vítahavya gave up the practice of making his offerings to fire,

and remained dauntless in his spiritualistic faith.

4. The illustrious Vítahavya wandered about the forests in former

times, and then resided in a cave of the Vindhya mount, which was as

spacious as a cave of Meru under the sun’s passage. (The cave of mount

Meru is the Polar circle about which the sun is said to turn; but

Sumeru is the meridian circle on which the sun passes).

5. He grew in course of time dissatisfied with the ritual acts, which

serve only to bewilder men, and are causes of diseases and difficulties

to man (rather than those of their removal).

6. He fixed his aim to the highest object of unalterable

ecstasis—_samádhi_, and abandoned his cares for the rotten world, in

the course of his conduct in life.

7. He built a hut of leaves with the branches of plantain trees;

strewed it with black stones, and perfumed it with fragrant earth.

8. He spread in it his seat of deer’s skin, serving as a pure

_paillasse_ for holy saints; and sat still upon it as a rainless cloud

in the clear firmament.

9. He sat there in the posture of _padmásana_ with his legs crossed

upon one another, and held his heels with the fingers of both his

hands, and remained with his uplifted head, like the fast and fixed

peak of a mountain summit.

10. He closed his eyesight from looking upon the surrounding objects,

and pent up his mind in his bosom, as the descending sun confines his

beams in the hollow caves of Meru.

11. Then having stopped the course of his internal and external senses,

he thus revolved in his mind, which was free from sin and guile.

12. How is it that though I have restrained my outer organs, I cannot

with all my force stop the course of my mind, which is ever as fickle

as a leaflet, floating on and dancing over the waves.

13. It impels the external organs (as a charioteer drives his horses),

and is propelled by them in turn to their different objects, as a

juggler tosses about and flings up and down his play balls.

14. Though I refrain from the exercise of my external faculties, yet it

pursues them with eagerness, and runs towards the objects from which I

try to stop its course.

15. It turns from this object to that, as they say from the pot to the

picture and from that to the chariot (ghata, pata and sakata): and in

this manner the mind roves about the objects of sense, as a monkey

leaps from branch to branch of a tree.

16. Let me now consider the courses of the five external senses and

their organs, which serve as so many passages for the mind.

17. O my wicked and wretched senses, how shall I counsel to call you

to your good sense, when you are so senseless as to roll on restlessly

like the billows of waters in the sea.

18. Do not now disturb me any more with your fickleness, for I well

remember to what trains of difficulties I have been all along exposed

by your inconstancy.

19. What are ye O my organs, but passages (to conduct the outer

sensations) to the inner mind, and are dull and base of yourselves, and

no better than the billows of the sea and the water in the mirage.

20. Ye senses that are unsubstantial in your forms, and without any

spiritual light in you; your efforts are as those of blind men only to

fall into the pit.

21. It is the intellectual soul only, that witnesseth the objects of

sense, it is in vain that ye are busy without the soul.

22. It is in vain for the organs of sense, to display themselves to

view, like the twirling of a firebrand and the appearance of a snake in

the rope; since they have no essence of their own, and are of no use

without the soul.

23. The all knowing soul knows well the eyes and ears, though none of

these organs knows the internal soul, and is as far from it, as the

heaven and hell asunder.

24. As the wayfarer is afraid of snakes, and the twice born Bráhmans

are in dread of demoniac savages; so the intellect fears and avoids the

company of the senses for its safety, and remains retired from them for

its security.

25. Yet the unseen intellect directs the organs of sense, to their

various duties from a distance; as the distant sun directs the

discharge, of the diurnal duties of men on earth, from his situation in

heaven.

26. O my mind! that art wandering all about like a mendicant, in order

to fill the belly with food; and actest as a chárváka materialist, to

make a god of thy body, and to enslave thyself to its service; do not

thus rove about the world in the vain search of your bane only.

27. It is a false pretension of thine, to think thyself to be as

intelligent as an intelligence or as the intellect itself; you two are

too different in your natures, and cannot agree together.

28. It is thy vain boast also, to think thyself to be living, and to be

the life and the ego likewise; because these things belong to the soul,

and thou art entirely devoid of the same.

29. Egoism produces the knowledge of “I am the Ego” which thou art not;

and neither art thou anything except a creature of false imagination,

which it is good for thee to give up at once (because the mind’s eye

sees the fumes of fancy only.)

30. It is the conscious intellect, which exists without its beginning

and end, and nothing else is existent beside this: what art thou then

in this body, that takest the name of the mind.

31. The impression of the activity and passivity of the mind is as

wrong, as the belief of poison and nectar to be the one and same thing;

since the two opposites can never meet together.

32. Do not, therefore thou fool, expose thyself to ridicule, (that art

dependant on the organs of the body); by thinking thyself as both the

active and passive agent, which thou art not; but a mere dull thing as

it is known to all.

33. What is thy relation with enjoyments or theirs with thee, that thou

wishest to have them come to thee? Thou art a dull thing and without

thy soul, canst have no friend or foe to thee.

34. The unreal has no existence, and the existence of the mind, is an

unreality as the redness of a crystal. Knowledge, action and passion

belong to the soul only, and are not attributable to the mind.

35. If thou beest the eternal Mind, then thou art selfsame with the

eternal soul; but the painful mutability of thy nature, bespeaks thee

to be not the same (immutable, everlasting and imperishable soul).

36. Now as thou hast come to be acquainted, with the falsity of thine

action and passion; hear now how I am purged of these impressions, by

my own reasoning as follows.

37. That thou art an inert unreality, said I, is a truth beyond all

doubt; and that the activity of an inactive nullity is as false, as the

dancing of the ideal demon or of inert stones.

38. Therefore art thou dependant on the Supreme Spirit for thy

movement; and it is in vain for thee to fain thyself as living or doing

anything by thyself (being but a puppet player by the power of the

Almighty).

39. Whatever is done by the power of another, is ascribed to that

other and not to actor; as the harvest which is reaped by the sickle

of the husband man, is said to be the act of the reaper and not of the

instrument.

40. He who kills one by the instrumentality of another, is considered

the slayer, and not the intermediate means of slaughter; for nobody

upbraids the passive sword with guilt, by exculpation of the

perpetrator.

41. He who eats and drinks, is said to be the eater and drinker; and

not the plate or cup, which hold the eatables or the drinkables.

42. Thou art entirely inactive in thy nature, and art actuated by

the All wise Intellect; therefore it is the soul only that perceives

everything by itself, and not thou ignorant mind (that assumest the

title of the percipient to thee).

43. It is the Supreme Soul, that awakens and informs the mind without

intermission; as the ignorant people require to be constantly guided by

their superiors by repeated admonitions.

44. The essence of the soul is manifest to all in its form of

intelligence, from which the mind derives its power and name for its

existence.

45. Thus the ignorant mind is produced by some power of the soul, and

remains all along with its ignorance; until it comes to melt away like

snow, under the sunshine of its spiritual knowledge.

46. Therefore, O my ignorant mind! that art now dead under the

influence of my knowledge of the soul; do not boast any more of thy

being a particle of thy spiritual origin for thy sorrow only.

47. The conception of the entity of the unreal mind, is as false as the

production of a plant by the light of a magic lantern; there is only

that true knowledge which proceeds directly from the Great God. (All

else is error and misconception).

48. Know Ráma, these worlds to be no manifestations of Divine power,

but as illusive representation of His intellect (_chit and máyá_), like

the glittering waves of waters in the sea.

49. O thou ignorant mind, if thou art full of intelligence as the

Intellect, then there would be no difference of thee from the Supreme

one, nor wouldst thou have any cause of sorrow. (Hence the human mind

is not Divine).

50. The Divine mind is all-knowing and omnipresent and omniform at all

times; and by the attainment of which one obtains everything.

51. There is no such thing as thou or he, except the Great Brahma,

who is always manifest every where; we have conceptions of ourselves

without any exertion on our parts (which proves a Divinity stirring of

itself in us).

52. If thou art the soul, then it is the soul that is everywhere here

and naught besides; but if thou art anything other than the soul, then

thou art nothing, because all nature is the body of the universal soul.

53. The triple world is composed of the Divine soul, beside which there

is no existence; therefore if thou art anything thou must be the soul,

or otherwise thou art nothing.

54. I am now this (as a boy), and then another (as an old man), and

that these things are mine and those another’s, are thoughts that

vainly chase upon the mind; for thou art nothing positive here, and

positivism is as false a theory as the horns of a hare (_or rara avis_)

on earth.

55. We have no notion of a third thing between the intellect and

the body, to which we can refer the mind, as we have no idea of an

intermediate state betwixt sunlight and shade (where we may betake us

to rest).

56. It is that something then, which we get by our sight of (_i.e._ by

the light of) truth, after the veil of darkness has been removed from

our eyes. It is our consciousness (the product of the light of truth),

that we term the mind.

57. Hence, O foolish mind! thou art no active nor passive agent of

action, but art the sedate self-consciousness of Brahma (knowing only

“I am what I am”, “_Sohamasmi_”). Now therefore cast off thy ignorance,

and know thyself as a condition of the very soul.

58. Truly the mind is represented as an organ of the sense of

perception and action, and the internal instrument of knowing the soul,

and not the soul itself; but this is only by way of explaining the

knowable by something familiar and better known to us, and serving as

its Synonym. (As to see one’s unlookable face, by the reflexion of the

very face in the looking glass; so it is to perceive the invisible

soul by its shadow cast upon the mind. This explains the mention of

the mind in the Srutis such as in the texts:—“It is by means of the

mind alone, that the knowledge of the soul is to be gained.” “It is

through the mind only, that the soul is to be seen.” And so many other

passages).

59. The mind being an unreal instrumentality (as the sight &c.), can

have no existence without its support (as the eyes of the sight); nor

can it have any action of its own, without the agency of an actor (as

the sword of the swordsman). Hence it is false to attribute activity or

sensibility to it.

60. Without the agency of an actor, the instrument of the mind has no

power nor activity of its own; as the passive sickle has no power of

cutting the harvest, without the agency of the reaper.

61. The sword has the power of slaying men, but by means of the agency

of the swordsman; otherwise the dull instrument has no power in any

part of its body, to inflict a wound on another.

62. So my friend, thou hast no power nor agency of thine own, to do

thine actions to trouble thyself in vain. It is unworthy of thee to

toil for thy worldliness like the base worldling (_i.e._ worldly

goods), unless it were for thy spiritual welfare.

63. The Lord (who works of his free will), is not to be pitied like

thee that art subjected to labour, because his works are all as

unaccountable as those he has not yet done (but thy acts are brought to

account for themselves).

64. Thy boast of serving the soul, proceeds from thy ignorance only and

thy fellowship with the insensible organs of sense, is quite unworthy

of thee.

65. Thou art wrong to pursue the objects of sense, for the sake of thy

maker and master; because the Lord is independent of all desire (of the

service of others,) being full and satisfied in himself forever.

66. It is by his self-manifestation, and not by act of his exertion of

creation, that the omnipresent and omniscient God, fills the whole with

his unity, which admits of no duality even in imagination.

67. The one God that manifests himself as many, and that is all by

himself, and that comprises the whole within himself, has nothing to

want or seek, beside and apart from himself.

68. All this is the magnificence of God, and yet the foolish mind

craves after them in vain; as a miserable man longs to have the

princely pomp of another, which is displayed before him.

69. Thou mayst try to derive the divine blessings, by being intimate

with the Divine soul; but there will be no more intimacy between the

soul and the mind, than there is between the flower and its fruit.

(_i.e._ The fruit which here represents the mind, does not inherit the

quality of the flower which is here put for the soul). Gloss.

70. That is called the intimate relation of two things, when the one

agrees in all its properties with the other; which is here wanting

in the case of the soul and mind; the first being immortal, calm and

quiet, and the second a mortal and restless thing.

71. O my mind! thou art not of the same kind with the soul, owing to

thy changing appearances and ever changeful occupations, and promptness

for multifarious inventions. Thy states of happiness and misery,

moreover bespeak thee plainly to be of a different nature (from thy

source of the soul thou art derived from).

72. The relationship of the homogeneous (as of the liquid and curdled

milk), as well as of the heterogeneous (as between the milk and

water), are quite apparent to sight; but there is no relation betwixt

the contraries (as it is observed in the antagonism of the soul and

mind). Note. The spiritual man represses the sensuous mind, and the

sensualistic mind buries the conscious and conscientious soul.

73. It is true that there are many things, having the qualities of

other things, or an assemblage of properties common to others; yet

everything has a special identity of its own; and therefore I do

beseech thee, not to lose the consciousness of thy identity with that

of the soul, whereby thou exposest thyself to misery (_i.e._ keep in

mind thy divine nature).

74. Therefore employ thyself with intense application to the

meditation of the soul; or else thou art doomed to misery, for thy

ruminating on the objects of the visible world, in thy internal

recesses.

75. Sliding from consciousness of thyself, and running after the

imaginary objects of thy desire, are calculated for thy misery

only; therefore forget thyself O man!, to associate with thy mind

and the bodily organs, in order to find thy rest in the soul or

Samádhi—ecstasy.

76. Whence is this activity (_i.e._ what is this active principle),

since the mind is proved to be a nullity as a skyflower, and to be

utterly extinct, with the extinction of its thoughts and desires.

77. The soul also is as void of activity, as the Sky is devoid of its

parts. It is only the Divine spirit that exhibits itself in various

shapes within itself.

78. It bursts forth in the form of oceans with its own waters, and

foams in froths by the billows of its own breathing. It shines in the

lustre at all things, by its own light in itself. (So says the Urdu

poet: Oleken chamakta hai har rang meh).

79. There is no other active principal anywhere else, as there is no

burning fire brand to be found in the sea; and the inert body, mind and

soul (as said and seen before), have no active force in any one of them.

80. There is nothing essential or more perspicuous, than what we are

conscious of in our consciousness; and there is no such thing as

this is another or this no other, or this is good or bad, beside the

self-evident One.

81. It is no unreal ideal, as that of the Elysian gardens in the sky;

it is the subjective consciousness _samvid_, and no objective object of

consciousness _samvedya_, that extends all around us.

82. Why then entertain the suppositions of “this is I and that is

another,” in this unsuppositious existence? There can be no distinction

whatever of this or that in one unlimited, all extending and

undefinable expanse of the soul; and the ascription of any attribute to

it, is as the supposition of water in the mirage, or of a writing in

the Sky.

83. O my honest mind! if thou canst by the purity of thy nature, get

thyself freed from the unrealities of the world; and become enlightened

with the light of the soul, that fills the whole with its essence, and

is the inbeing of all beings, thou shalt verily set me at rest from

the uneasiness of my ignorance, and the miseries of this world and this

miserable life.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

ON THE NECESSITY OF AVOIDING ALL BODILY AND WORLDLY CARES, AND ABIDING

IN INTELLECTUAL DELIGHTS.

Argument:—The sensuous Mind and the senses as roots of Evil, and

their Extinction as the source of God.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now Ráma, how that great sage of enlightened

understanding, remonstrated in silence with his refractory senses.

2. I will tell you the same openly what he admonished in secret to his

senses; and by hearing these expostulations of him, you will be set

above the reach of misery.

3. O my senses, said he, I know your special essences to be for our

misery only; and therefore I pray you, to give up your intrinsic

natures for the sake of my happiness.

4. My admonitions will serve to annihilate your actualities, which are

no more than the creatures of ignorance.

5. The amusement of the mind with the exilition of its sensitivity, is

the cause of its fury and fever heat, as the kindlings of fire is for

burning one’s self or others in its flame. (_i.e._ The excitement of

passions and sensations is painful to the peaceful mind of man).

6. The mind being disturbed and bewildered, makes the restless feelings

and sensations, flow and fall to it, with the fierceness of boisterous

rivers falling into the sea, which it breaks out and runs in the form

of many a frith and firth into the land. (_i.e._ The sensational man is

subject to the excess of sensitive excitability and intolerance).

7. The sensitive minds burst forth in the passions of their pride and

egoism, clashing against one another like the conflicting clouds; and

fall in showers of hailstorms on the heads of others. (Sensational men

are bent on mutual mischief and injury).

8. The cares of prosperity and adversity, are the tormenting cankers

in their breasts, and they pierce and perforate the hearts to such a

degree, as they are intent upon uprooting them from their innermost

recesses. (Heart burning anxieties attending both on fortune and

misfortune).

9. They are attended with hiccoughs and hard breathings in the chest,

with groaning and sobbing in the lungs, like hooting owls in the hollow

of withered trees; whether covered with tufts of moss on their tops,

or resembling the hoary haired heads on the dried trunks of old and

decayed bodies. (Men growing old, yet pant and pine for riches the

more.) धनाशा जीविताशाच जीर्यतेऽपि न जीर्य्यति ।

10. The cavities of the heart inside the body, are perplexed with

crooked cares resembling the folds of snakes, hoary hairs likening hoar

frost over hanging the head, and the apish wishes lurk about in the

caves within the bosom.

11. Avarice is as a dancing stork, clattering her pair of sharp

bills (to entice men towards her); and then pull off their eyes from

their decayed frames, as also the intestinal cords of the body. (The

avaricious man is deprived of his good sense, sight and heartstrings).

12. Impure lust and lawless concupiscence, symbolized as the filthy

cock, scratches the heart as his dunghill, and sounds as shrill on

this side and that (Hence the cockish rakes are called coxcombs,

and cockneys, from their hoarse whistling as the horse neighs, and

strutting on stilts as the cock-a-hoop).

13. During the long and gloomy nights of our ignorance we are disturbed

by the fits of phrenzy, bursting as the hooting owl from the hollow of

our hearts; and infested by the passions barking in our bosoms like the

Vetála demons in the charnel vaults and funeral grounds.

14. These and many other anxieties, and sensual appetites disturb our

rest at nights, like the horrible Pisácha ogres appearing in the dark.

15. But the virtuous man who has got rid of his gloom of ignorance,

beholds every thing in its clear light, and exults like the blooming

lotus in the dawning light of the day.

16. His heart being cleared of the cloud of ignorance, glows as the

clear sky unclogged by fogs and mists; and a pure light envelopes it,

after the flying dust of doubts has been driven from it.

17. When the doubts have ceased to disturb the mind with the gusts of

dubiety and uncertainty; it becomes as calm and still as the vault

of the sky, and the face of a city after the conflicting winds have

stopped to blow.

18. Mutual amity or brotherly love, purifies and cheers the heart of

every body; and grows the graceful trees of concord and cordiality, as

the plants bring forth their beautiful blossoms and anthers in spring.

19. The minds of ignorant and unskilful men, are as empty as a barren

waste; and are shriveled with cares and anxieties, as the lotusbed is

withered under the shivering cold and ice. (Here is a pun on the word

_jádya_, used in its double sense of dulness and frost, both of which

are cold and inert _jada_).

20. After the fog and frost of ignorance, is dissipated from the

atmosphere of the mind; it gains its glaring lustre, as the sky gets

the sunshine, after the dispersion of clouds in autumn. (Learning is

the light of the lamp of the mind, as sunshine is that of the clear

sky).

21. The soul having its equanimity, is as clear and cheerful and as

deep and undisturbed, as the deep and wide ocean, which regains its

calm and serenity, after the fury of a storm has passed over it.

22. The mind is full within it with the ambrosial draughts of

everlasting happiness, as the Vault of heaven is filled with the

nectarous moonbeams at night. (Happiness is the moonlight of the mind).

23. The mind becomes conscious of the soul, after the dispersion of its

ignorance; and then it views the whole world in its consciousness, as

if it were situated in itself.

24. The contented mind finds its body to be full of heavenly delight,

which is never perceived by those living souls which are ensnared by

their desires of worldly enjoyments. (The bliss of content is unknown

to the prurient).

25. As trees burnt by a wildfire, regain their verdure with the return

of spring; so do people tormented by the troubles of the world,

and wasted by age and burden of life, find their freshness in holy

asceticism.

26. The anchorites resorting to the woods, are freed from their fear

of transmigration; and are attended by many joys which are beyond all

description. (No words can describe the spiritual joys of the soul).

27. Think, O insatiate man! either thy soul to be dead to thy carnal

desires or thy desires to be dead in thy soul; in both cases, thou art

happy, whether in possession or extinction of thy mind (_i.e._ having a

mind without desires, or desires without the mind).

28. Delay not to choose whatever thou thinkest more felicitous for

thyself; but better it is to be in possession of thy mind and kill thy

cares and desires, than kill thy mind with thy troublesome desires and

anxieties.

29. Mind the nullity of that which is painful to thee, because it is

foolishness to part with what is pleasant to thyself; and if thou hast

thy inward understanding at all, remain true to thyself by avoiding the

false cares of the world.

30. Life is a precious treasure, and its loss is liked by no body; but

I tell thee, in truth this life is a dream, and thou art naught in

reality. (And this is the Verdict of the Sruti and no dictum of mine).

Gloss.

31. Yet be not sorry that thou livest in vain, because thou hast lived

such a nullity from before, and thy existence is but a delusion. (Think

they living in the only living God, and not apart from Him).

32. It is unreasonable to think thyself as so and so, because the

delusion of self-existence of one’s self, is now exploded by right

reason.

33. Reason points the uniform entity of the selfsame Being at all

times; it is sheer irrationality that tells thee of thy existence, as

it is the want of true light that exhibits this darkness unto thee.

34. Reason will disprove thy entity as light removes the darkness; and

it was in thy irrationality, my friend, that thou hast passed all this

time in vain idea of thy separate existence.

35. It is because of this irrationality of thine, that thy gross

ignorance has grown so great, as to be sad because of thy calamities

only; and thy delusive desires have subjected thee to the devil, as

boys are caught by their fancied demons and ghosts.

36. After one has got rid of his former states of pain and pleasure,

and his transitory desires in this temporary world; he comes to feel

the delight of his soul, under the province of his right reason.

37. It is thy reason that has wakened thee from thy dulness, and

enlightened thy soul and mind with the light of truth; therefore should

we bow down to reason above all others, as the only enlightener of our

hearts and souls.

38. After the desires are cleared from thy heart, thou shalt find

thyself as the great lord of all; and thou shalt rejoice in thyself,

under the pure and pristine light of thy soul. (Swarúpa).

39. Being freed from thy desires, thou art set on the footing of the

sovran lord of all; and the unreasonableness of desires growing in thy

ignorance, will do away under the domain of reason.

40. And whether thou likest it or not, thy desires will fly from thy

mind under the dominion of thy reason; as the deep darkness of night,

flies at the advance of day light.

41. The thorough extinction of thy desires, is attended with thy

perfect bliss; therefore rely on the conclusion of thy nullity by every

mode of reasoning. (_i.e._ Be persuaded of thy impersonality, and the

desires will be extinct of themselves).

42. When thou hast lorded over thy mind and thy organs, and thinkest

thyself extinct at all times, thou hast secured to thy spirit every

felicity for ever.

43. If thy mind is freed from its disquiet, and is set at rest, and

becomes extinct in thy present state, it will not be revivified in

future; when thou shalt have thy _anaesthesia_ for ever. (The mind

being killed in this life, will never be reborn any more.—Mindlessness

is believed to be the _Summum bonum_ or supreme bliss and beatitude).

44. When I remain in my spiritual state, I seem to be in the fourth or

highest heaven in myself; hence I discard my mind with its creation of

the mental world from me for ever. (The third heaven is the Empyrean,

and the fourth is full with the presence of God alone).

45. The soul only is the self-existent being, beside which there is

nothing else in existence; I feel myself to be this very soul, and that

there is nothing else beside myself.

46. I find myself to be ever present everywhere with my intelligent

soul, and beaming forth with its intellectual light. This we regard as

the Supreme soul, which is so situated in the translucent sphere of our

inward hearts. (The heart is regarded as the seat of the soul, and the

mind as nothing).

47. This soul which is without its counter-part, is beyond our

imagination and description; therefore I think myself as this soul,

not in the form of an image of it, but as a wave of the water of that

profound and unlimited ocean of the Divine soul.

48. When I rest in silence in that soul within myself, which is

beyond the knowables, and is self-same with my consciousness itself; I

find also all my desires and passions, together with my vitality and

sensibility, to be quite defunct in me.

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

THE MENTAL OR IMAGINARY WORLD OF THE SAGE.

Argument. Hybernation of the Sage in a subterraneous cell, and

the revery of his dominion over aerial spirits.

Vasishtha continued:—The Sage Vítahavya having thus reflected in his

mind, renounced all his worldly desires, and sat in his hypnotic trance

in a cave of the Vindhyan mountains.

2. His body became motionless and devoid of its pulsations, and his

soul shot forth with its intellectual delight; then with his calm and

quiet mind, he sat in his devotion, as the still ocean in its calmness.

3. His heart was cold and his breathings were stopped; and he remained

as an extinguished fire, after its burning flame had consumed the fuel.

4. His mind being withdrawn from all sensible objects, and intensely

fixed in the object of his meditation; his eye-sight was closed under

the slight pulsations of his eyelids.

5. His slight and acute eye-sight was fixed on the top of his nose, and

had the appearance of the half opening bud of the lotus. (The lotus is

the usual simile of the eye, and the opening bud of the half opened

eye).

6. The erect structure of the head and neck and body of the meditative

sage, gave him the appearance of a statue hewn upon a rock (in bas

relief).

7. Sitting in this posture with his close attention to the supreme

soul in the Vindhyan Cave; he passed there the period of thrice three

hundred years as half a moment (close attention shortens the course of

time, for want of the succession of thoughts by which time is reckoned).

8. The sage did not perceive the flight of this length of time, owing

to the fixedness of his mind in his soul; and having obtained his

liberation in his listless state, he did not lose his life in his

obstipated devotion.

9. Nothing could rouse him all this time from his profound hypnotism,

nay not even the loud roar of the rainy clouds, could break his

entranced meditation _yoga-nidra_.

10. The loud shouts and shots of the soldiers and huntsmen on the

borders, and the cries and shrieks of beasts and birds, and the

growling and snarling of the tigers and elephants on the hills (could

break his sound repose).

11. The loud roaring of lions, and the tremendous dashing of the water

falls; the dreadful noise of thunder-claps, and the swelling clamour of

the people about him (could shake his firmness).

12. The deep howling of furious _Sarabhas_, and the violent crackling

of earthquakes; the harsh cracking of the woods in conflagration, and

the dashing of waves and splashing of torrents upon the shore (could

move him from his seat).

13. The rush of terraqueous waters falling on rocky-shores, and the

clashing off the torrents dashing on each other; and the noise and heat

of wild fires, did not disturb his repose:—_samádhi—sang froid_.

(Such was the firmness of dying martyrs and living yogis, as it was

witnessed in the case of the yogi, brought to this town from the

jungles).

14. He continued only to breathe at his will to no purpose, as the

course of time flows for ever to no good to itself; and was washed over

on all sides of his cave by currents of rain water, resembling the

waves of the Ocean. (The recent yogi was drowned under the flood of the

river, and came out alive afterward).

15. In the course of a short time he was submerged under the mud; which

was carried upon him by the floods of rain water in the mountain cave

of his devotion. (Yogis are said to live both under water and earth, as

it was witnessed in the case of the Hatha yogi of Lahore).

16. Yet he continued to keep his seat amidst that dreary cell, buried

as he was by the mud up to his shoulders. (The fact of the Fakir of

Lahore who lay buried underneath the ground is well known to many,

and his head was raised like a stone on the cold and stiff rock of his

body).

17. The long period of three centuries passed over him in this way,

when his soul was awakened to light under the pain of the rains of his

mountain cell.

18. The oppressed body then assumed its intellectual or spiritual

form _lingadeha_; which was a living subtile body as air or light but

without its acts of breathing the vital air. (The aerial spirit has

vitality, without inhaling or exhaling the vital air).

19. This body growing by degrees to its rarefied form by its

imagination, became of the form of the inner mind, which was felt to

reside within the heart. (But the mind is seated in the brain, and not

in the heart).

20. It thought in itself of having become a pure and living liberated

seer or sage, in which state it seemed to pass a hundred years under

the shade of a _Kadamba_ tree, in the romantic grove of the Kailása

mountain (a peak of the Himalayas).

21. It seemed of taking the form of a Vidyádhara for a century of

years, in which state it was quite free from the diseases of humanity.

It next thought of becoming the great Indra who is served by the

celestials, and passing full five Yuga ages in that form.

22. Ráma said:—Let me ask you, Sir, how could the mind of the sage

conceive itself as the Indra and Vidyádhara, whom it had never seen,

and how could it have the ideas of the extensive Kailása and of the

many ages in its small space of the cell, which is impossible in nature.

23. Vasishtha replied.—The Intellect is all comprehending and

all pervading, and wherever it exerts its power in any form, it

immediately assumes the same by its own nature. Thus the undivided

intellect exhibits itself in various forms throughout the whole

creation.

24. It is the nature of the intellect to exhibit itself in any form,

as it represents itself in the understanding; and it is its nature

to become whatever it pleases to be at any place or time. (It is the

nature of the finite heart to be confined in the finite cell of the

body, but the nature of the infinite intellect grasps all and every

thing at once in itself, as it ranges through and comprehends the whole

and every part of the universe within it).

25. So the impersonal sage saw himself in various forms and

personalities in all the worlds, in the ample sphere of his

consciousness within the narrow space of his heart. (The heart is said

to be the seat of the soul. And so says Pope. “As full and perfect in a

hair as heart”).

26. The man of perfect understanding, has transformed his desires to

indifference; and the desires of men like seeds of trees, being singed

by the fire of intelligence; are productive of no germ of acts.

27. He thought to be an attendant on the god (Siva), bearing the

crescent of the moon on his forehead, and became acquainted with all

sciences, and the knowledge of all things past, present and future.

28. Every one sees every thing in the same manner on his outside as it

is firmly imprest in his inward mind; but this sage being freed from

the impression of his personality in his life time, was at liberty

to take upon him whatever personality he chose for himself. (It is

possible for every person and thing to become another, by forgetting

and forsaking their own identity and individuality).

29. Ráma said:—I believe, O chief of sages! that the living liberated

man who sits in this manner, obtains the emancipation of his soul, even

though he is confined in the prison house of his body; and such was the

case of the self-liberated sage Vítahavya. (The body may be confined in

a single spot, but the soul has its free range everywhere).

30. Vasishtha answered:—How can Ram! the living liberated souls, have

the confinement of the body, when they remain in the form of Brahm

in the outward temple of his creation, which is pure and tranquil as

air. (The gloss says: the ideal body like the ideal world cannot be

the living or divine soul, any more than it is for a burnt vesture to

invest the body. Hence Nature which is said to be the body of God, has

no power over the spirit whose reflexion it is).

31. Wherever the empty and airy consciousness represents itself in any

form, it finds itself to be spread out there in that form. (Hence it is

that the conscious spirit assumes any form it likes, and rejects it at

will without being confined within or by the same).

32. So there appears many ideal worlds to be present before us, which

are full with the presence of the all pervading spirit of God. (Because

all these worlds are ideas or images or reflexions of God).

33. Thus Vítahavya, who was confined in the cave and submerged under

the mire; saw in the intellect of his great soul, multitudes of worlds

and countless unformed and ideal creations.

34. And he having thought himself at first as the celestial Indra,

conceived himself afterwards as an earthly potentate, and preparing to

go on a hunting excursion to some forest.

35. This sage who supposed himself as the swan of Brahmá at one time,

now became a chief among the Dása huntsmen in the forests of Kailása.

36. He who thought himself once as a prince in the land of Surástra

(Surat in Bombay), had now became as a forester in a village of the

Andhras in Madras.

37. Ráma said:—If the sage enjoyed heavenly bliss in his mind, what

need had he of assuming these ideal forms to himself? (since no body

would even in thought, like to exchange his spiritual delight for

corporeal enjoyment).

38. Vasishtha replied:—Why do you ask this question, Ráma, when you

have been repeatedly told that this world is a false creation of the

divine mind, and so were the creations of the sage’s mind also (neither

of them being anything in reality).

39. The universe which is the creation of the divine intellect, is as

unsubstantial as empty air; and so the ideal world of the human mind,

being but a delusion, they are both alike.

40. In truth, O Ráma! neither is that world nor is this other any thing

in reality; nor have I or thou any essentiality in this nonessential

world, which is filled only with the essence of God.

41. The one is as the other at all times, whether past, present or

future; all this visible world is the fabric of the mind which is again

but an ectype of the Intellect.

42. Such is the whole creation, though appearing as otherwise; it is no

other than the transcendental vacuum, although it seems to be as firm

as adamant. (Vasishtha resolves every thing to his prime essence and

unity of vacuity).

43. It is its ignorance that the mind exhibits itself in the forms of

the production, growth and extinction of things; all which are like the

rise and swinging and sinking of waves, in the ocean of eternal vacuity.

44. All things are situated in the vacuous sphere of the intellect, and

are perceived by its representative of the mind, in the form of the

firm and extended cosmos, though it has no extension in reality.

CHAPTER LXXXV.

THE SAGE’S SAMÁDHI OR ABSORPTION IN THE DIVINE SPIRIT.

Argument. Lecture on Samádhi Yoga or complete concentration of

the Mind in God.[2]

Ráma said:—Now tell me Sir, what became of this sage in his mansion of

the cavern; how he lifted his body from it, and what did he accomplish

by his austere and intense devotion?

2. Vasishtha said:—At last the mind of the sage was as extended as the

divine mind, and he beheld the Divine soul in its full glory in his own

soul.

3. He saw the primeval or dawning light of the intellect in his

meditation, which exhibited to his remembrance the scenes of his former

states of existence.

4. He then beheld the various forms of the bodies, through which he had

passed in his former lives; as also those things which had passed and

gone and those living with his present body in the cell.

5. He found his living body lying in the cave as an insect, and had a

mind to raise it above the surrounding mud and mire.

6. This body of Vítahavya which was confined in the cave, was covered

over with the dirt, carried by the rain waters and collected over its

back.

7. He saw his body pent up in the prison house of the cave, with loads

of clay on its back, and fettered in its limbs by the shrubs, carried

into it by the torrents of rain.

8. He thought in his clear understanding, of raising his incarcerated

body out of the cave; and made repeated efforts by force of his

breathings, to extricate it from its confinement.

9. With all his efforts, he found it impossible for his bodily powers,

to eliminate himself and walk upon the ground; whereupon he exerted his

spiritual power (which he had obtained by his devotion), to raise his

spirit to the orb of the sun.

10. He thought either of being raised upward by the golden rays of the

sun, or of obtaining his disembodied liberation, by the disengagement

of his soul from the bondage of his body.

11. He thought in his elevated mind; “I lose nothing by the loss of

my bodily exertions and exercise; but rather loosened myself from my

bonds, and repairing to my state of blessedness.”

12. Then remaining for some time in his thoughtful mood on earth, he

said; “neither is the leaving or having of this body, of any good or

loss to me”.

13. For as we forsake one body, so we betake to another: the difference

consisting on the size and bulk of the one, and the minuteness and

lightness of the other. (These are the _garimá_ of the corporeal, and

_laghimá_ or _animá_ of the spiritual body).

14. Let me then mount on this golden ray—_pingala_, of the sun and fly

in the open air; and borne by the vehicle of light, I will enter into

the body of the sun. (“Lo! I mount, I fly.” Pope’s Dying Christian to

his soul).

15. I will enter in the form of my shadow in the etherial mirror

of the sun, and this my aerial breath will conduct me to that orb.

(The spiritual body resembles the shadow of the material frame, and

is reflected in the luminaries of heaven as in their mirrors. The

departing breath of the dying person, is the conductor of his soul to

upper worlds).

16. He ascended with his _puryashtaka_ or subtile and spiritual body

upon the air, as the heat of fire passes out through the hollow of a

pair of bellows; and the mindful sun saw a great sage in this state

within his breast. (The sun is said to be a _muni_ or mindful; _i.e._

having a mind as any animated being).

17. On seeing the sage in this state, the high minded sun, called to

his mind the former acts of his devotion, and remembered his body lying

in the cell of the Vindyan region.

18. The sun traversing amidst the etherial regions, came to know the

actions of the sage; and beheld his body lying insensible in the cave,

covered under the grass and stones.

19. He ordered his chief attendant to lift up the body of the sage,

whose soul had now assumed its spiritual form.

20. The aerial form of the sage, now saluted the adorable sun with his

reverential mind; and was then recognized and received by him with due

honour.

21. He entered into the body of the solar attendant—Pingala, who was

now proceeding from heaven to the cell amidst the delightful groves of

the Vindhyan range.

22. Pingala entered the Vindhyan grove in the form of a cloud, which

assuming the shape of a big elephant, removed the earth from the

surface of the cave, with the long nails of his toes.

23. He then brought out the body of the sage with his trunk, as a stork

pulls up a lotus stalk from amidst the mud; and then the spiritual body

of the _muni_, fled from the form of Pingala to his own.

24. [3]The sage after his long wanderings in the regions of ether, like a

bird in the sky; found at last his own body, into which it entered as

its nest, and took his leave of Pingala with mutual salutations.

25. They then hurried to their respective callings with their refulgent

forms; the one fled into the air, and the other repaired to a lake to

cleanse his body.

26. It shone as a star in the limpid lake, and as sun beams under the

water; and then it appeared above it, as a full blown lotus on the

surface of waters. (The effect of devotion is said to brighten the body

also).

27. He rose out of the water as a young elephant, after its sport in

some dirty pool; and then offered his adoration to the sun, who had

restored his body and mind to their luminous states.

28. Afterwards the sage passed sometime on the bank of the Vindhyan

lake, fraught with the virtues of universal benevolence, fellow

feeling and kindness, and joined with the qualities of his peace

and tranquility, his wisdom and internal bliss, and above all his

seclusion and retirement from society, and unconcernedness with the

concerns of the world.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

GOVERNMENT OF BODILY ORGANS.

Argument. Necessity of controul over senses for concentration of

the Mind.

Vasishtha resumed:—The _muni_ thought again to resume his accustomed

meditation, and entered a spacious cave in the Vindhya at the end of

the day.

2. He continued in the investigation of the soul, with his command over

the sensible organs, and he reflected on the reality and unreality of

things in his mind.

3. I find, said he, these organs of sense which were under my

subjection before, are now set at liberty in the exercise of their

various functions (tending to the destruction of the mind from its

fixed attention).

4. I will now cease to think concerning the existence and inexistence

of substances, and will recline solely (with my steady posture on that

Being to whom the being and not being of things is truly known like

that of a mountain peak).

5. I will remain wakeful inwardly, appearing as I were dead and asleep

outwardly; and yet sensible in my insensibility, as the quiet and

living soul, and thus continue both with the vigilance and supineness

of my spirit in the state of my quietism (_i.e._ appearing as a dead

block before the ignorant, but as thinking and vivacious in the eye

of the intelligent. Or the wise appear as fanatics before the foolish

worldlings).

6. Waking as if asleep and sleeping as awake, I will remain in my

torpor of _turíya_, which is neither dead nor quick (and neither the

corporeal nor spiritual state. Gloss).

7. I will remain retired as a rock from all things, and even apart from

my mind, and dwell in the bosom of the all pervading soul; I will abide

with the universal spirit in my tranquility, and having ease from all

disease.

8. Having mused in this manner, he sat at his meditation for six days

and nights; after which he was roused as a passenger wakes after his

short nap on the way.

9. Then this great devotee having obtained the consummation of his

devotion, passed his long life in the state of his living liberation.

(Or living apart from all cares and concerns of the world).

10. He took delight in nothing nor hated anything; he felt no sorrow

for aught nor any pleasure in naught (_i.e._ he had his stoic

indifference to every thing, whether good or bad).

11. Whether walking or sitting, he was thoughtless of every thing;

his heart was void of cares, and he conversed with his mind alone at

pleasure.

12. Behold! he said to his mind, O lord of my senses! the unsullied

and undecaying joy that thou dost enjoy in the tranquility; and

say if there is a greater felicity than this to be found on earth.

(For true felicity, according to the Vedántist, consisted not in the

possession, but renunciation of earthly cares and concerns, so Hafiz:

“Dáadduniáoáhilhá.” Abandon the world and all its people).

13. Therefore O my mind! that art the fleetest of all things, repress

thy flight and excitability; and rely on thy cool composure for thy

lasting happiness.