by means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns to
that of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, is
changed to that of the rope upon its revision.
34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in their
dream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as the
vacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated in
the Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that).
35. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in new
bodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; and
tell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of our
reproduction in this world.
36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are done
in our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to their
retributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, should
be brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to be
very absurd to me.
37. The sage replied:--The words piety and impiety, our desires and
acts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causality
in framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these are
mere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls,
nor of the modes of our lives.
38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, and
is possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself the
various states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life),
and gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti:--The sapient
seeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designate
them and their various modes also).
39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, its
own body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to exist
as in its dream or imagination (_i.e._ in its ideal form).
40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise
in the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul
continues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.
41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the
creator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it,
then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how
can this body be what the dead person had before, and as for his
intellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into
another.
42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn
afterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so
and am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again
<in> some form or other.
43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are
impressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion
and scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is
altogether false and fanciful.
44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the
phantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious
vacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions
in this world.
45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which
is spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy
everything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.
46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly
rising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena
in its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to
be the display of One all pervading Brahma only.
47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever
exist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads
undivided through all, and knows all these <to be> an undivided whole,
and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full
and perfect in each and all of these).
48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in
a common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities
to the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light,
they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.
49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower
of the knowable (_i.e._ to him who knows the truth), and what is
understood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is believed to be true
by the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).
50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they
are all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile
these opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal
catholicism (of One, to pan).
51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real
or unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on
its verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing
can upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).
52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its
dictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or
identity of things, or their unity or duality.
53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us
is right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his
knowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic
with the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge.
(_i.e._ God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).
54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is
not distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite
understanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that
have no knowledge of the knowable One.
55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of
him; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge
increases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.
56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones
before the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.
57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one
intellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand
shapes to the understanding of gross instincts.
58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it
exhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into one, or the
single form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul
appear in one or more forms to our intellects also.
59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears
in various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and
are either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our
imagination.
60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our
minds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the
mind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its _pralaya_ or
anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.
61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of
the mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in
any manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in
reality before us even then and there.
62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the
forms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in
the beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of
dreams and the phantoms of its imagination.
63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved
in the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of
themselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it
in our presence.
64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well
as permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but
continues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our
transient lives also.
65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or
go; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the
east or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never
lose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you
proceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is
never effaced from it).
66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to
do or think upon is never effaced from consciousness, unless it be
from numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to
realize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to
effect).
67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and
you will find your consciousness to continue <the> same, and never
changing with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousness
accompany him even after his death).
68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object
or state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary
the unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (_i.e._ his wished for
object together with the consciousness of himself).
69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states
whether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in
himself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his
object). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections
with others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it
wills).
70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven
and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is
placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and
west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the
man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks
one way or the other (but stands in the middle).
71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone
pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and
many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.
72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or
indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine
intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream
of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The
indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the
destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).
73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident
from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that
are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past
lives.
74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt
down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering
their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.
75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the
living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not
reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This
argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of
the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of
absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead
at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).
76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not
be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of
the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.
77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the
established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite
compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained
in Indian philosophy.
78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the
sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as
realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality
in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks--_kalankas_
though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts--_chandra-loka_).
79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts
of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being
composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only,
and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.
80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuity
of the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable and unconspicuous of
themselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul.
81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever is
fixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether real
or unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.
82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as they
will; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, they
cannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul.
83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities or
otherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire for
any thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.
CHAPTER CXXXXIV.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE & VICISSITUDES OF THINGS.
Argument:--The Intellect manifested in the World, which is but a
manifestation of the Divine--mind and its Omnipotence.
The sage continued:--The visible world is being a something in nothing
an entity based upon non-entity (_i.e._ a substance based upon the
intellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dream
only. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind,
there can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them.
2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mites
flying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming to
swim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in the
air, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant.
3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, is
soon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is the
changeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotating
like the waters in a whirlpool.
4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to form
frail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time;
and yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages--as yugas &
kalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting).
5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility;
and yet the notion of entity that we <have> of this nullity, is no
other than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect.
6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousand
others to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others have
the like notions of other peoples.
7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of various
kinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere; but
none of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of their
inhabitants neither beside those of their own.
8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many air
built castles differing from another in their dream; so there appear
different worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen and
unknown to others.
9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleeping
together in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in empty
sphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in the
same time (_i.e._ being but a dream which is no-being or nothing).
10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself;
it is visible without its form, and appears as limited without its
limitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity being
increate).
11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styled
the firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objects
in it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughts
to our knowledge.
12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, as
the desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as the
apprehension of one’s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instances
of others.
13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image in
the mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the Divine
Intellect, and to which no other name than a _réchauffé_ of the Divine
Intellect, can be properly assigned.
14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that,
he did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this form
eternally subsisting in his omniscience.
15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, because the
common cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect (_i.e._
the one becomes as many). The action which was confined in the cause
at first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in the germ of
creation afterwards.
16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, as
have not been seen or known before, they are called _sanskáras_ or
pristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings),
and not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind.
17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us in
our dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen in
our waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain those
impressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming,
as the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.
18. Thus the vedántist comes to know the inexistence of the outer
world, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain the
consummation of their object (which is the attainment of their final
emancipation or _moksha_).
19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the state
of dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on the
memory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to the
dreaming soul.
20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of the
wind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency of
pristine impressions.
21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudes
of airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remains
solely by and in itself.
22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large in
the empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated the
world by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep,
is what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogy
applies also to the nature of the self-existed One.
23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, and
there appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting in
its open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature and
are called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself.
24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the form of
the whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of its
archetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation of
the prototype.
25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which is
diffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughout
without beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos.
26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to all
infinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it,
as immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimate
connection of the subjective mind and objective world together).
27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all minds
and intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosm
also; and it <is> for this reason that the great macrocosm of the
world, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.
28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the whole
world also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywhere
likewise, even in the midst of an atom also.
29. Being in the form of the _minutiae_ of the intellect, I am also
as great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open air all
around; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abide or
move. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times).
30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with the
intellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spirit
in my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost in
the ocean.
31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence in
me, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds within
me, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to be
developed in its future foliage).
32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to our
reminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside which
there is no outer world on the outside of any body. (The world lies in
the conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion of
the same).
33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross or
subtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both these
forms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as the
reflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect.
34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world,
in the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of the
expanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights to
dote upon.
35. The Huntsman rejoined:--If the visible world is causeless or
without its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it be
a caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge of
it in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.
36. The sage replied:--All this is without a cause, and the world
proceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni means
to say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause of
creation save the emanation of One oneself).
37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies and
transient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which is
a facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of the
eternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all.
38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of his
intellectual effulgence; hence the world’s creation and destruction are
utterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end.
39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the great
God, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is to
gross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas of
materiality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body.
40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma,
and what un-numbered diversities of shapes and forms are seen in the
formless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.
41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form);
yet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirror
of all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, in
all the various forms of moving and immovable bodies.
42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directs
them to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the laws
and prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances at
all times and places.
43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, of
moving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject to
his decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws.
44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without its
proper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand
(save from oily seeds).
45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all events
in the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which he
represses the other part of himself (_i.e._ his will); as we restrain
the action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fate governs even
Jove himself).
46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence and
will, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (काकतालीय) and
drives us along with its course, as the tide or eddy bears down the
waters with it.
47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, is
what is called destiny; without which there result all disorder and
disturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide.
It is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence.
48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it is
unseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them ever
since their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable law
of nature).
49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed by the
ignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as the
production of its maker by error of their judgment.
50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of world
before him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes as
such and such or this and that, as they have been determined by their
preordained destiny.
51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in their
primordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endless
succession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling the
visions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes.
52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of the
world, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its cause
inbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of in
traditional narration.
53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in all
things that come under own reflection (or observation), just as we
see the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsical
brightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul of
souls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified for
ever and ever.
CHAPTER CXXXXV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEPING STATES.
Argument:--The three Humours of Human body Composing the three
states of its earthly existence.
The sage continued:--The living soul (or man) perceives the dream of
the outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that of
the inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both the
internal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds
to the soul.
2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, then
the perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint and
fainter by degrees.
3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and the
inner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thought
and the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assume
gradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearances
to the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more).
4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being once
thought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself to
an enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on the
external organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast to
sight.
5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outer
objects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exterior
world only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mind
also).
6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeries
of all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch or
feeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internal
sensations of will or volition.
7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,
accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy
intellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and sees
every where.
8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins and
arteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and to
see false visions in its dream.
9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlight
sky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blown
lotuses and their blooming buds.
10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season,
and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, and
resounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humble
bees.
11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and the
merry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views its
court-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart’s
content).
12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, running
sportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowers
and smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickle
glances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surface
of the water.
13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits of
the Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigid
climes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they were
varnished with moon-beams.
14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or as
hid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds of
the rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceous
plants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.
15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resorted
to by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under the
cooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and were
soothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot.
16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewn over
with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts of _Kunda_,
_Kadamba_ and _Mandara_ blossoms, were blushing and mantling the
scenery all around.
17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the ground
wore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear of
clouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky.
18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of _Kunda_, _Kadamba_
and _Kadalí_ or plantain trees, which waved their leafy fans on their
exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancing of the leaflets.
19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblown
buds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancing
gracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.
20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightly as
the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanning white
_chouries_ and waving over them, like the feathered tribe, flapping
their wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds).
21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood,
with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; and
murmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them.
22. The dhará--terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára
or torrents of water falling from the _adharas_ or cataracts, of
_dharádharas_ or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were obscured
by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault.
23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid of
bile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom in
its cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself.
24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red _kinsuka_ flowers upon its
withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also the forms of red
lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.
25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, as
when the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flames
of wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature.
26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sun
seems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, the
withered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of their
limpid waters.
27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to beds
of hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and the
forests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolate
all about.
28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight of
storks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, and
the former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight.
29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand of
the parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by the
way side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.
30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its lands
and places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering the
face of the sky on all sides.
31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetary
bodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and the
open air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze.
32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, that
serve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds the
lands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them as
vestures of clouds.
33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the waters
of the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot.
34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastric
juice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retaining
its vigour, sees various dreams of the following description.
35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earth
and the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quite
different from what they appeared before.
36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills and
hilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of the
whirling of the wheels of a chariot.
37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagle
or on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders or
swans.
38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing before
it; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water.
39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great
danger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.
40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of all
the three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is led
by the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature.
41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstones
hurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of the
hills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about.
42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which is
over cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.
43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning around; and the
hollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of the
flashing fire and falling trees.
44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against one
another, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling.
45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emit
a harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidst
them, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and bushes
which they bore away.
46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the mountain
streams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down,
seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.
47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulated
edges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideous
sounds.
48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by the
strong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed over
the moss below.
49. The tall _tála_ trees fell to the ground with _marmara_ sound, like
the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birds flew with a
harsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day of desolation of
the world.
50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, like
_jaríkrita jíva_ in dream.
51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frog
underneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit.
52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and the
sapling within the wall of a pillar.
53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as if
they are encased within the hollow of the earth.
54. Deep darkness reigned there, and _susupti_ appeared like deep dark
well within the cavern of a mountain.
55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, and
afterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vital
air which once disappeared, makes its appearance again.
56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body in
the shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.
57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so the
combination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essence
of the body.
58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body,
and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means of
its internal senses), the dreams of the absent world, as it beholds
the visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense.
59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, by
the greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liable
to view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but the
action of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in an
even course.
60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effects
of intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over the
wide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turning
round; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles.
61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the rising
moon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, and
floods of water washing the face of heaven.
62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, or
rambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and finds
itself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds.
63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and sees
the false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing of
sinful bodies.
64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and rising
instantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinks
itself as diving in the waters upon the land.
65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere at
night, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darkness
overspreading the face of the day.
66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seen
to be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air,
and amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foes
and _vice versa_).
67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are taken
for friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats and
planes appear as caves and caverns.
68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems,
and resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen to
glide below, with their water as sweet as butter.
69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned with
females, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees.
70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself;
yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them.
(Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensation
of perceiving what is not present to the senses).
71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to represent
many such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to the
minds of people.
72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many
extraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and without
them (_i.e._ in their dreaming and outward sight also).
73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then the
course of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.
74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positions
of woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbed
state, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order of
things; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countries
and paths traversed by passengers.
75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun and
moon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances,
however unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight and
other senses.
76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, as
vacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real,
and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate and
extrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of its
nature.
77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise to
all things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is mere
vacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind that
represents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its own
vacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.
CHAPTER CXXXXVI.
DISQUISITION OF SOUND SLEEP.
Argument:--Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dream
likewise, concluding with proof of the unity of God.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and see
afterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person.
2. The sage replied:--Hear me tell you next, what I did and saw
afterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of that
infatuated person.
3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of the
last doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away the
mountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world.
4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountain
tops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent.
5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of the
individual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness,
the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops.
6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a state
of sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.
7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raised
from my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds its
petals in the morning.
8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disks
appearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about and
hovering upon me.
9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams;
and saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my spirit, as the
shapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea.
10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of my
consciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant in
the still and motionless air.
11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, and
as fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent in
pepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma.
12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself;
the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new born
child, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is here
applied to the mind’s eye).
13. The Huntsman rejoined:--Tell me sir, how is it possible for the
Intellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep,
since dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight and
light sleep.
14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of the
person in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creation
appear to you (or has the term _sound sleep_ any other sense than
the state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utter
insensibility or _anaesthesia_--gloss).
15. The sage replied:--Know that creation is expressed by the words,
_viz. jáyati_ is born, bháti appeareth, and _kachati_ shineth; and are
applied indiscriminately to all material things, as pots and pictures
(घट पट) as well as to the world also; all these words
are used to express a duality (or something different as proceeding
from Unity), by men whose brains are heated with dualism, or the notion
of a duality (as different from the nature of the Unity or the only
One).
16. Know that the word _játa_ or born means only being (sattwa), and
its synonyms are _prádurbháva_--manifestation, which is derived from
the root _bhu_ to be.
17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of being
born also, and the _sarga_ meaning production or creation, it is same
with being also.
18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what is made
or may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quiet
unborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).
19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone
(the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, is
the Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis or
unsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied of
it, which is of them alike.
20. That which is called _sakti_ or the active energy of God, resides
literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate power of
itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which is self same
with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Vedánta ignores
the predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who is the very
essence of Omnipotence).
21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to the
nature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divine
Knowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in the
manner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finite
beings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).
22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anything
that we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation to
the nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility of
our having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persian
mystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond
our comprehension and presumption of it as so and such).
23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the
creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible
in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of
creation.
24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (_i.e._ neither
the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing,
perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.
25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent
of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine Mind, and exists for
ever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of
imagination.
26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a
duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant
men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted
upon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be
marked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise
than their own person.
27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its
beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the
unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so
changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and
serene prospect in itself.
CHAPTER CXXXXVII.
THE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS.
Argument:--The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of
friends and relations in Dreaming.
The sage continued:--Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke
from my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just
<as> a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the
heavens above him.
2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld
the terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all,
to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my
visual organs or ocular deception only.
3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the
arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast
ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.
4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have
proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry
carved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also
as a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.
5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its
feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity,
as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the
produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the
earth.
6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes
of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the
smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and
organs of their bodies.
7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity,
and to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds of
distant regions coming to our sight; or as presents are brought
to the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as the
retributions and rewards of one’s <good> or bad deeds in this life,
meet him in the next and successive transmigration.
8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or a
little billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on the
colossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast upon
it. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).
9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds,
appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mind
wanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airy
empty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air.
10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its
foundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing so
bright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own;
it is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayed
these wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant and
infatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruit
of the tree of ignorance).
11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in all
times; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation of
space and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is the
single unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but one
invariable uniformity.
12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of this
world, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same error
which occurs to us in our dream, <that> possesses us also even in our
waking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams).
13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absent
past, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already present
before it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substance
or action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction.
14. There are numberless beings contained under every species of
animals, which contain others _ad infinitum_ in their ovaries, bearing
animalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits.
15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by clouds
of the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the sea
is heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by the
warring winds with the conflicting currents.
16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I saw
the village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my former
residence therein.
17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spot
and of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and my
very children seated in the very same house.
18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heart
wished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet the
shore.
19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at my
joining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more and
more, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past.
20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present before
it, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects of
its future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past.
21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge of
everything; nor is there any other principle of understanding beside
the intellect, which ever subsists by itself.
22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance of
himself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think of
a duality.
23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry into
truth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good sástras and
attendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more
(nor relapses to his former ignorance).
24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mind
is bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his good
understanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet or
inauspicious star.
25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is not
yet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall into
error of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties.
26. The Huntsman answered:--It is all very true, O sage, that
notwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find its
rest in the knowledge of only true One.
27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is so
or not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you have
declared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.
28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached,
yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supreme
in me.
29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company of wise men,
by attending the doctrine of the best sástras, and due examination of
their precepts, there can be no end of the errors of the world, nor any
rest for the weary soul, wandering continually in the maze of errors.
CHAPTER CXXXXVIII.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF DREAMS.
Argument:--Truth and untruth of Dreams.
The Huntsman said:--If the sight of the world is no more than a
vision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth or
falsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me.
2. The sage replied:--That dream is true and comes actually to take
place, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of proper
place and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morning
dreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place).
3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect of
some mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourable
or not to the dreamer.
4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of a
dream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law of
chance.
5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same is
sure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the natural
tendency and constitution of our minds).
6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, the
other falls down absolutely.
7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of any
body; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the various
forms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knows
itself to be.
8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras, that the
phenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed as
so indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, who
wanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settled
belief).
9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding his
belief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckoned
as a visionary one only.
10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strong
consciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to be
known as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of place
either sooner or later.
11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and was
represented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essence
in the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to any
length _ad libitum_.
12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellect
of Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting and
transient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, and
unreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.)
13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be no
other that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there,
that may be called a reality or non reality either.
14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot be
deemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightened
part of mankind.
15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our senses
and misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonly
passed under the name of illusion (máyá), hath naught of reality or
certainty in it.
16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with the
glare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrilling
and flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.
17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards;
so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, and
then falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to the
alternate creation and annihilation of the world).
18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to that
of dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be as that of waking,
and that both these states are but the two phases of the one and same
Brahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are both
the same).
19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity,
and the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states of
waking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the same
being (or Divine Existence).
20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can you
determine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams.
21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either in
sleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; therefore
the sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.[1]
22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, like
pulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause of
dreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (or
insouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away.
23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of the
impressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thing
or that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of the
causelessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to be
no other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenal
only).
24. In this therefore there is <no> other law with respect to this,
than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally granted
as such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam).
25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truth
in some dreams, and at others there is no truth in any of them at all;
and in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.
26. Whatever appears subjectively to one’s self, either from his own
nature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one is
habituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in the
very form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states.
27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking states
of men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain the
same whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of his
dreams.
28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because the
dream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (The
soul is ever wakeful).
29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by that
name; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which sees
sleeping and waking in the same light.
30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states of
waking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of <a> dead person,
continues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from the
body, and resurrection after death.
31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what it
is, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changes
with the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under its
rolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changing
clouds.
32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether it
exists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stone
are never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleeping
coincident with the soul Divine.
33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms of
bodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of all
forms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundane
soul.
34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space is
visible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the endless
vacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is no
way different from it.
35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth and
clouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsist
in their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.
36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes, and remains
united with his body of the Intellect, containing the knowledge of all
things within itself; and the phenomenal is never separate from the
noumenal.
CHAPTER CIL.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE ORIGINAL CAUSE.
Argument:--Conversation of the two sages, and relation of Human
Miseries.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world that
you saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its final
extinction (or nirvána).
2. The sage replied:--Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, what
then passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, and
listen to the wondrous tale with proper attention.
3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation,
I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months,
seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me.
4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happy
with enjoyment of my conjugal bliss.
5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as a
guest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devotee
with honour within my doors.
6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his meal
and he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiry
regarding the weal and woe of mankind.
7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know well
the course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret at
adversity, nor delight in prosperity.
8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy life
in the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn,
according to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is the
common belief of men).
9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, are
equally faulty in their actions at the one and same time; that they
are brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or general
doom all at once.
10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophes
repeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; say
then is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and very
time.
11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he was
taken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then he
uttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.
12. The sagely guest said:--O well spoken! these words of yours bespeak
thy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood the
cause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how you
came to know it.
13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember the
universal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thou
sittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and what
is the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of the
mind only.
14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not know
it as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of a
dream before me.
15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mere
formation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassy
Intellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.
16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you must
know; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, you
think or take it to be any where.
17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that the
Intellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything,
you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything.
18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whom all
living beings reside, that is known as _virajátma_ or common soul of
all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is known as _sútrátmá_ or
individual souls linked together in a series (composed of all souls).
19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soul
pervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according to
their desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according to
their respective acts).
20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the body
and then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbed
likewise.
21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subside
of themselves; because:--
22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons living
together, <who> are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; who
wait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven on
a forest at the same time.
23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feel
the effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from such
expectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result.
24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place or
time; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it;
whether that object be with or without its cause (_i.e._ actual or not).
25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied with
their immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are;
therefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlasting
Intellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself.
26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unreality
only; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both its
cause and reality (Hence it is called _sadasadátmaka_ _i.e._ both a
reality and unreality also).
27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them;
and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive of
our apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansion
of a dream.
28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causal
as we take it to be (hence while we deem our dreams as causeless
delusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as a
caused and sober reality).
29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world,
as the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking state
to <take> it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal in
our sleep and dreams.
30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya--Ens
or Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing is
it that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum.
31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and the
rarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and what
is the cause of the self born Brahma.
32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of the
winds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensions
of things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.
33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departed
souls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner that
the course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning
(without any assignable cause).
34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in this
world, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from our
constant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.
35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahmá
or creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receives
afterwards as many different names, as the different phases and forms
of that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c.
36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in the
spacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itself
various forms of things in its own imagination.
37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives the
very form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the very
images or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the very
body of the Deity.
38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by the Divine
Intellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and so
will it continue to bear for evermore).
39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it is able
to alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again (_i.e._
God can unmake what he has made, and make others again).
40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought also
to be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is no
supposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of its
alteration also. (_i.e._ The world is both as changeable as well as
unchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsame
with its Maker).
41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the ideal
of the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so it
continues ever still.
42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of their
pious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards or
results thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under a
thousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones or
the thunderbolts of heaven.
CHAPTER CL.
TRANSCENDENTAL ADMONITIONS.
Argument:--Conversation of the impossibility of the departed
soul, to reenter into the former body.
The house keeping sage then said as follows:--It was by this kind of
reasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made <me>
acquainted with whatever was worth knowing.
2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties;
and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead
(ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called dead
people).
3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as bright
and cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage,
that is now sitting beside you.
4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of my
ignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleased
with my sacrifice.
5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded with
wonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory of
dreaming, now sitting confest before me.
6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable in
my mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is now
manifest before me.
7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in your
dream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seen
in this waking state.
8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come to
appear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fancied
ghost of boys.
9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in due
order; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in this
questionable form.
10. The sage replied:--Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate to
you about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you,
but you must not be hasty about it.
11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for my
acquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither now
with his tale too long to relate.
12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature,
which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggy
season (of the month of _mágh_).
13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with an
expanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed
(amazed) at my wondrous change.
14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the
enjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger,
pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.
15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allure
even the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only to
deceive them.
16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, that
I was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state of
life, which is utterly devoid of every good.
17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, and
there is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors and
the greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed by
unrealities.
18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is a
wonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.
19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to these
falsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tear
off and cast away from me.
20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; she
can do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that I
must try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real.
21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all a
mistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sitting
here by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud.
22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightened
understanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying:--
23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body of
this person), in order to see what I may be doing there.
24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where are
those bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.
25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matter
yourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thing
relating to them.
26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body.
27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to this
place, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air,
and fled from my abode.
28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air,
and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carried
rapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time.
29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by the
passage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, I
kept floating in the air.
30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tied
again to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it.
31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked him
intensely in the following manner in my house in this place.
32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; and
knowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight.
33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered, as also my
own body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere.
34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of this
earth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, but
could not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out.
35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded _muni_ or sage then
said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright and brilliant
eyes to find it out unaided by my advice.
36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga
meditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as
one sees a lotus placed in his palm.
37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to my
advice, and I will tell thee all about it.
38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotus
blossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahmá only
that developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can know
nothing of yourself.
39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt in
your reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and were
confirmed in your consciousness of that belief.
40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to have
seen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earth
contained in its bosom.
41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thought
yourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fall
asleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and was
burnt down.
42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and the
blazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.
43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ash
coloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as with
a canopy.
44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forth
horrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled the
horizon.
45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and appeared
as trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as the
clattering cloud.
46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixed
lightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that of
molten gold.
47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled the
number of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of the
sky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works).
48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky;
startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of their
caves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest.
49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves and
nests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river waters
boiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes.
50. The young _chauri_ bulls, were parched in the flames; and the stink
of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air with a
nasty stench.
51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvian
fire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as a
serpent devours its prey.
52. The Huntsman asked:--Tell me sir, what was the real cause of this
fire; and why the Bráhman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, were
burnt down also.
53. The sage replied:--It is the vibration or effort of the volitive or
designing mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the production
or demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the cause
of the absence of the three worlds.
54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of the
heart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (or
primum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds.
55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of the
imaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population and
of rains and draughts.
56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative mind
of Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the first
patriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all of
which proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through the
medium of vacuum.
57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure and vacuous
Intellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects; but the ignorant
think it as it appears to them, which is not the reality (which it is
not in reality).
CHAPTER CLI.
VIEW OF INEXISTENCE.
Argument:--The world is a vision, and to be known only by
conception, perception and meditation.
The other sage rejoined:--Afterwards the whole village together with
all its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like the
dried straws.
2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, that
had been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large piece
of stone, is heated and split by fire.
3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the whole
forest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were sucked
up by the sage Agastya.
4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders had
become cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear away
the heaps of flowers.
5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit’s hut and the two
bodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which was
seen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people.
6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existence
remains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains in
the mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.
7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajian
soul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour and
vitality of the dead body.
8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out those
two bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as if
you were in your waking state.
9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing as
waking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one another
as we see the visionary beings in our dreams.
10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and this
intellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself.
11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until you
thought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life.
12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurred
to you; and which you well know by your conception, perception and
meditation of them.
13. Know at last that it is the firm conviction of our consciousness,
which shines for ever as the glitter of gold in the vacuum of our
minds; and the intellectual soul catches the colour of our deeds,
be they fair or foul or a commixture of both, in its state of a
regenerated spirit.
CHAPTER CLII.
THE SAGE’S DISCOURSE AT NIGHT.
Argument:--Refutation of the Reality of Dreams, and the reason of
the Preceptorship of the Hunter.
The sage resumed:--Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himself
in his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blown
away by the winds.
2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage and
said: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear <to have> some truth and
reality in them.
3. The other muni replied:--If you can believe in the truth of your
waking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreams
likewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith can
you then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air).
4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream;
and it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid of
everything.
5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than our
recent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, you
will shortly hear all this from me.
6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in the
day time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; so
the dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation,
which existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of the
Divine Mind.
7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, how
do you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleeping
dreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, how
do you want to dote upon it any more?
8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your waking
dream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more?
9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by another
question; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor of
the huntsman.
10. The other sage replied:--Hear me relate to you this incident also;
I will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilate
it likewise to any length.
11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; and
solely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; and
after hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in this
place.
12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me
here alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.
13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the
course of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in
this place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.
14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs,
when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned
of their occupants.
15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in
perfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by
our knowledge of the knowable.
16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and
perform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon
perform their revolutions in the solitary sky.
17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many
kinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely
place.
18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird
sitting upon them; and the waters will be filled with lotus beds, with
the humming bees and _chakoras_ chirping amidst them. There shall we
find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.
CHAPTER CLIII.
ONE SOUL IS THE CAUSE OF ALL.
Argument:--Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage’s preceptorship
of him.
The other sage said:--When both of us shall dwell together in that
forest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will
appear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in
pursuing after a deer.
2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of your
meritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue to
practice his austerities, from his aversion to the world.
3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous of
gaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena of
dreaming.
4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and he
will be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams.
5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it is
for this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title of
the huntsman’s _guru_ or religious guide.
6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of this
world; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to be
afterwards.
7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him,
I became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstrated
with him on these matters.
8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we got
up in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he was
pleased with me.
9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hut
of the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship daily
increasing.
10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and the
revolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons and
years; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudes
of time and fortune.
11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day;
I live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that.
12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in my
mind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the cause
of it.
13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these;
it is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of the
Intellect.
14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers,
and all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divine
mind, represented in empty air.
15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beams
all round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines as
the world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of the
supreme Intellect in the air.
16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales really
in existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of the
supreme Mind in empty air.
17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there is
no material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning.
18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only;
but what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight and
mind.
19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner of
his consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.
20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end,
is full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is no
efficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except its
being a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind.
21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us,
are but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything,
without its mould therein.
22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its pure
lucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except its
transparency.
23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity of
Brahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what else
are the visibles, and where is their view besides.
24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing,
and without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of the
three worlds and their contents. He is something as the universal
intelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflects
them in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).
CHAPTER CLIV.
RELATION OF PAST EVENTS.
Argument:--The living liberation of the sage, by means of his
habitual meditation.
The sage continued:--Having thus considered the vanity of the visibles,
I remained free from my anxious cares about the world; and became
passionless and fearless, and extinct in _nirvána_, from insensibility
of my egoism.
2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without my
dependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, and
my soul was elevated and rested in heaven.
3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; and
remained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action and
motion.
4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, and
all that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadow
in the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died)
Intellect or Intellectual bodies.
5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I am
quite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey,
nor to act an inner or outer part (_i.e._ not having a double part to
play, nor any duplicity in the heart).
6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mind
and actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet me
here.
7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and my
personal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself.
8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world that
lies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, and
what Brahma is after all.
9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false, <you>
must now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this is
the representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this that
is dimly seen in these, and naught besides.
10. The hunts-man rejoined:--If so it be then both me and thee and the
gods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but the
phantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence as
non existence (sadasat).
11. The sage replied:--It is verily so, and all and every one of us is
situated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as _phasma_ in
the cosmorama of the world.
12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one’s conception of
them; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. All
these radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of both
of them.
13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state,
is but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as the
prospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before.
14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have been
enlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and well
known all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you.
15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind is
not yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendental
wisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high.
16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind into
your heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexion
attain the acme of wisdom.
17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without your
habitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of wood
to contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of a
wooden vessel.
18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the
precepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal of
the mind’s suspense between unity and duality (_i.e._ between
God and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of
_nirvána_--anaesthesia in quietism.
19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to all
worldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and
abstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart--
20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities,
and enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are
the surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable
bliss--_nirvána_ (which is ever attendant on the Deity).
CHAPTER CLV.
RELATION OF FUTURE FORTUNE.
Argument:--The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman to
heaven by means of his austere devotion.
The God Agni said:--Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in
wonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the
very forest.
2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and
appeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a
sea.
3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him
onward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an
alligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his
meditation.
4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his
_nirvána_ or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was
tossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness.
5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he
came to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to
be the production (display) of Providence.
6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning;
and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body,
which I have gained by means of devotion.
7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the
existent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which
is above the etherial space (_i.e._ in heaven).
8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and
set his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated
to him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its
constant practice.
9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied himself to the
observance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers.
10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely
seers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for
very many years and seasons.
11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, and
suffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he asked
once his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respite
from these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the following
manner.
12. The muni said:--The little knowledge that I have imparted unto
thee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood;
though it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten world
from your mind.
13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge; and
with it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time. (_i.e._
No knowledge is efficacious without its long practice, hence a novice
in yoga is no _yogi_ or adept in it).
14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance of
this to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing them
to be oracular in this world.
15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of his
nature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge and
ignorance of (divine nature).
16. You are led <of> your own accord to inquire into the nature and
extent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The world
being but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).
17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understanding
of making this research, until Brahmá--the creative power will appear
before you, being pleased at your investigation into his works.
18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release you
from your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world,
saying:--
19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread out
every where as a delusion before our sight; but I want to see a spot,
which exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is free
from the blemish of the visibles.
20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom,
represents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part or
other within it. (_i.e._ The minute atom of the mind, is the reflector
of vast universe).
21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extends
to our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial sky
stretch beyond it.
22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquainted
with the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lord
of gods, and readily grant this my request.
23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mount
upon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven
(Garuda or Phoenix).
24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; until
it encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky.
25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and glorious
God, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, which
surrounds the sphere of the visible world.
26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will say
unto thee, “Be it so as though desirest,” and then he will disappear as
a vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendant
gods along with him.
27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, to
their divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thy
austerities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon.
28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome body
will mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thy
desire, which is settled in thy mind.
29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher still
as the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as brightly as a burning
fire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries.
30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of the
strong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a running
current, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world.
31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increase
in its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean,
that covered the face of the whole universe.
32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; and
filling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of all
created things.
33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with the
chaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and the
unbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of its
perpetual thought.
34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worlds
and created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as you
perceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and other
objects appearing in your dream.
35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the air
by the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled to
and fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind.
36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearance
to one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do these
worlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spiritual
light from above.
37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to the
disk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants of
that luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divine
spirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of the
infinite Mind.
38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midst
of successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing the
creation stretching to no end.
39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the heavens
like the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them in
the endless abyss of Infinity.
40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of your
devotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of your
observations all over the immensity of space.
41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthen
upon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, as
the great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws.
42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky;
answers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of.
43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space of
the visible world; is quite in the darkness--ignorance without its
spiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul.
44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is of
no use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping company
with wise and holy men.
45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan the
unknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whose
essence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hard
to be ascertained.
46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, by
exhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it),
and then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruit
after suction of its juicy sap.
47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soul
will rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life,
which is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats).
48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mount
of Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra;
and will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dust
underneath it.
49. Then will the dry and starved goddess Kálí, with her hungry host
of Mátris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earth
to its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance.
50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go therefore
to yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising your
austerities as well as you may like.
51. The huntsman rejoined:--O sir, how great are the woes that are
awaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuit
after knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God).
52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting the
great calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there be
no expedient to avoid the destined evil.
53. The sage replied:--There is no body nor any power whatever, that
is ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts to
avert them, are thrown on one’s back.
54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix the
feet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree of
fate.
55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaint
us with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that can
help us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune.
56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovran
predestination are still employed in their present duties; and who
after the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal repose
of Brahma in their consciousness.
CHAPTER CLVI.
EXPOSTULATION OF SINDHU BY HIS MINISTER.
Argument:--The aerial spirit of the Huntsman is reborn on Earth
as prince Sindhu, who kills Vidúratha, and is remonstrated by his
Minister.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul in
its aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth.
2. The sage replied:--Hear me attentively to tell you, about what is
to become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soul
sustained in the air.
3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assume
an aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vital
breath.
4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of the
earth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it as
clearly, as you view the world in your dream.
5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in the
amplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of this
wide extended globe.
6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you have
become a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highly
honoured by men.
7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from this
mortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to its
utmost boundaries of the four seas.
8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of the
land by name of Vidúratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it will
be difficult for thee to quell.
9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reign
of a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyed
in company with your consort and attendants.
10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has now risen
against me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging a
formidable warfare against him.
11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the great
war between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruple
armaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned.
12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vidúratha, by
striking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.
13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost of
the four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like the
regents of all the sides of heaven.
14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigning
over it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time in
conversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court.
15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, that
thou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vidúratha in thy single
combat.
16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vidúratha waxed so
very rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean;
and what cause impelled him to rise against me.
17. The Minister will reply:--This lord has Lílá as his lady, who had
won the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvatí; who is the supportress of
the world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvatí is the goddess of
wisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones’ prayer).
18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, and
enabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberation
with ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).
19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able to
annihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is no
difficult task to her to destroy thee all at once.
20. Sindhu then will answer him saying:--If what thou sayest is true,
it is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vidúratha come to
be slain by me in warfare.
21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not get
the better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand).
22. The Minister will reply:--Because he always prayed the goddess with
earnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares and
troubles of this world.
23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men,
and confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victory
thou didst seek, and conferred <on> him the liberation he sought by thy
hands.
24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying:--If it is so, then I must
ask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on me
also, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.
25. The Minister will then say in his reply:--This goddess resides as
intelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in the
hearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvatí
to all.
26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestly
asked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him,
as it is felt in the heart of everyone.
27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of this
goddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she has
accordingly deigned to confer unto you.
28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say:--why is it that prince did
not pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom like
me; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberation
as he did?
29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for
liberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after
the same? (_i.e._ Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is
good, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)?