IDENTITY OF THE MIND AND LIVING SOUL.
Argument--The pure Intellect shown to be without vitality; and the mind
to consist in the vital power in connection with the sensations and
external Perceptions.
The god continued:--When the intellect collects (takes) the vanities of
the world to itself (and relies on them) and thinks to be a miserable
being; it is said to have fallen into error, (by forgetting the reality
and its true nature); it then resembles a man that is deluded to think
himself for another, in his dream or ebriety. (The living soul is
forgetful of its spiritual nature).
2. Though immortal yet it is deceived to believe itself as mortal, by
its infatuated understanding; as a sick man weeps to think himself dead
when he is still alive.
3. As the ignorant man views the revolving spheres to be at a stand
still, so the deluded intellect sees the world and thinks its
personality as sober realities.
4. The mind alone is said to be the cause of the perception of the
exterior world in the intellect; but the mind can be no such cause of
it, from the impossibility of its separate existence independent of the
intellect. (The intellect is the cause of guiding and informing the
mind, and not this of that).
5. Thus there being no causality of the mind, there cannot be its
causations of the thinkable world also. Therefore the intellect only
is the cause of thought, and neither the mind nor the thinkable world
(which produces or impresses the thought). The gloss says that, "the
intellect whereby the mind thinks, is not the mind nor its dependant or
the objective thinkable world; but it is the pure subjective self-same
intellect only."
6. There is no spectacle, spectator (or sight of) of anything anywhere,
unless it be a delusion, as that which appears oiliness in a stone; and
there is no matter, making or work of any kind; unless it be a mistake
like that of blackness in the moon. (The oily glossiness of the marble
and the shade in the moon, are no other but the inherent properties of
those things).
7. The terms measure, measurer, and measurable are as negative in
nature, as the privation of forest plants in the sky; and the words
intellect, intellection and intelligible are as meaningless in
themselves, as the absence of thorns and thistles in the garden of
Paradise. (gloss. The intellect _chit_ is the subjective intellection,
_chetana_ is _chitta vritti_--the property of _chit_, is the attribute,
and the intelligible _chetya_ is the object of thought. The meaning
is that, there is no separate subject, object or attribute in nature,
but they all blend in the essentiality of God, who is all in all. The
words subjective, objective and attributive, are therefore mere human
inventions, and so are the words thinker, thinking and the thought
([Sanskrit: mantri, mati, mantavya],) and knower, knowing and knowledge
([Sanskrit: víha, vuhvi, víhavya],) and the ego, egoism and egotist
([Sanskrit: ahamkára, ahamkarttá, ahamkáryya]) all which refer to the
same individual soul).
8. The personalities of egoism, tuism and illism; [Sanskrit: ahantvam
tvantvam, tatvam], are as false as mountains in the firmament; and the
difference of persons (as this is my body and that another's), is as
untrue as to find whiteness in ink.
9. The Divine spirit is neither the same nor different in all bodies;
because it is as impossible for the universal soul to be confined in
any body, as it is impracticable for the mount Meru to be contained in
an atom of dust. And it is as impossible to express it in words and
their senses as it is incapable for the sandy soil to grow the tender
herbs.
10. The dictum _netineti_.--It is neither this nor any other, is as
untrue as the belief of the darkness of night subsisting in company
with the day light: and substantiality and unsubstantiality are both as
wanting in the supreme spirit, as heat is wanting in ice.
11. It is as wrong to call it either as empty or solid, as it is to say
a tree growing in the womb of a stone to call it either the one or the
other; is to have it for the infinite _vacuum_ or the full _plenum_.
12. It is the sole unity that remains in its state of pure
transparency forever; and being unborn from the thought or mind of any
body, it is not subject to the misrepresentation of any body. (The
gloss says: Not being born from the mind of Brahmá as this creation,
the Intellect is free from the imperfections of both).
13. It is however imputed with many faults and failings, in the
thoughts and opinions of men; but all these imputations and false
attributes, vanish before one knowing its true nature.
14. The learned devoid of indifference, are employed in many other
thoughts and things; though not a straw of all this vast world, is
under the command of any body.
15. It is in the power of every body to get rid of his thoughts,
but very difficult to get the object of his thought; How then is it
possible for one to have, what it is impracticable for him to try for?
(_i.e._ The full object of desire).
16. The one sole and immutable Intellect which pervades all nature, is
the supreme one and without an equal, and is more pellucid than the
translucent light of a lamp and all other lights.
17. It is this intellectual light which enlightens every thing, it is
ubiquious and ever translucent; it is ever shining without a shade, and
immutable in its nature and mind.
18. It is situated every where and in all things, as in pots and
pictures, in trees and huts, and houses in quadrupeds, demons and
devils, in men and beasts, in the sea, earth and air.
19. It remains as the all witnessing spirit, without any oscillation
or motion of its own to any place; and enlightens all objects, without
flickering or doing any action by itself.
20. It remains unsullied with by its connection with the impure body,
and continues unchangeable in its relation with the changeful mind. It
does not become dull by being joined with the dull body, and is never
changed to anything by its extension over all things.
21. The extremely minute and immutable intellect, retains its
consciousness in itself; and by rolling itself like a rundle of thread,
enters the body in the form of a particle of air (or the vital breath
or air pránáyáma).
22. It is then accompanied with the powers of vision and reflexion,
which are wakeful in the waking state and lie dormant in sleep; whence
it is said to be existent and inexistent by turns.
23. The clear and pure intellect, comes then to think of many things
in its waking state, and is thus perverted from its purity; as an
honest man turns to dishonesty in the company of the dishonest. (The
perversion of the intellect is owing to its attachment to the flesh,
and its entertaining to worldly thoughts).
24. As the pure gold is converted to copper by its alloy, and is again
restored to its purity by removal of the base metal; such is the case
of the intellect owing to its contracting and distracting of vicious
thoughts.
25. As a good looking glass being cleansed of its dirt, shows the
countenance in a clear light; so the intellect being born in the human
body, attains its divine nature by means of its good understanding.
26. Its want of the knowledge of itself as the all, presents the sight
of the false world to it as a true reality; but upon coming to know its
true nature, it attains the divine state.
27. When the mind thinks of itself of its difference (from the
intellect), and the existence of the unrealities (in nature), it gets
the sense of its egoism, and then it perishes though it originally
imperishable in its nature. (The sruti [Sanskrit: tasya bhayam,
bhavati], "it then fears to die" because the personal soul is subject
to death, and not the impersonal or universal soul which never dies. So
the phrase: "Forget yourself and you'll never fear to die").
28. As a slight wind scatters the fruits of trees growing on the sides
of mountain, so the consciousness of self, drops down at the gust of a
slight disease, like a large tree.
29. The existence of the qualities of form and colour and others, is
owing to that of intellect; as the position of subalterns--_adhyasta_
is dependent on the station of the superior--_adhishthata_. And the
pure intellect--infinite and indefinite in itself, is designated as a
unity, duality and plurality by want of right understanding.
30. It is from the essence of the intellect only, that the mind and
senses derive their faculties of thinking and perception; as it is
presence of day light, which gives rise to the routine of daily
business.
31. It is the action of the vital air, which gives pulsation to the
pupils of the eye, and whose light is called the sight, which is the
instrument of perceiving the forms and colours of things that are
placed without it, but the perception belongs to the power and action
of the intellect.
32. The air and skin are both of them contemptible and insensible
things, yet their union gives the perception of touch or feeling;
the mind becomes conscious of that feeling, but its consciousness is
dependent on and caused by the intellect.
33. The particles of scent being carried by the particles of air to the
nostrils, give the sense of smelling to the mind; but it is intellect
which has the consciousness of smelling.
34. The particles of sound are conveyed by the particles of air to the
organ of hearing for the perception of the mind, and the intellect is
conscious of this as in its sleep. (And as a silent witness of the
same).
35. The mind is the volitive principle of action from some desire or to
some end and aim of its own, and the thoughts of the mind are all mixed
with foulness, while the nature of the intellectual soul is quite pure
and simple. (The difference between the sensuous mind and the conscious
intellect, is that the one is the volitive and active agents of its
actions, the other is the passive and neutral witness of all and every
thing that is and comes to take place, without its interference in any).
36. The intellect is manifest by itself, and is situated of itself in
itself; it contains the world within itself, as the crystalline stone
retains the images of all things in its bosom. (The subjective soul
bears in it the objective world, which is not different but self-same
with itself. Hence the nullity of the objective duality, which is
identic with the subjective unity).
37. It is the single and sole intellect which contains the whole,
without dividing or transforming itself to parts or forms other than
itself. It neither rises or sets, nor moves nor grows at any place or
time (but occupies all space and time, in its infinity and eternity).
38. It becomes the living soul by fostering its desires, and remains
as the pure intellect by forsaking them for ever; and then seated in
itself, it reflects on its two gross and pure states. (The two gross
states are the gross world, and the gross mind that dwells only on
gross bodies of the world).
39. The intellect has the living soul for its vehicle, and egoism is
the vehicle of the living principle; the understanding is the car of
egotism and the mind the seat of the understanding.
40. The mind again has the vital breath for its curricle, and the
senses are vehicles of the vital airs; the body is the carriage of the
senses, and the organs of action are the wheels of the body.
41. The motion of these curricles forms the course of this world
(which is hence called _karma_ Kshetra or world of activity); and the
continued rotation of the body (called the cage of bird of life); until
its old age and demise, which is the dispensation of the Almighty
power. (That man must toil and moil till he is worn out and goes to his
grave).
42. The world is shown unto us as a phantasmagoria of the supreme soul,
or as a scene in our dream; it is a pseudoscope and wholly untrue as
the water in a mirage.
43. Know, O sage, that the vital breath is called the vehicle of the
mind by fiction only; because wherever there is the breath of vitality,
there is also the process of thinking carried on along with it.
44. Wherever the breath of life circulates like a thread, and acts
as spring, there the body is made to shake with it; as the forms and
colours of bodies, present themselves to view at the appearance of
light.
45. The mind being employed with its desires, perturbs the vital
breath and body as a tempest shakes the forest; but being confined in
the cavity of the heart, it stops their motion as when the winds are
confined in the upper skies. (The mind being fixed to some particular
object of meditation, stops the course of life and gives longevity to
man).
46. Again the confinement of the vital breath in the vacuity of the
heart, stops the course of the mind (thoughts); as the hiding of a
light, removes the sight of the objects from view. (No thought without
breathing, and no sight without light).
47. As the dusts cease to fly after the winds are over; so the mind
(thought) ceases to move, when the breath is pent up in the heart.
(These are subjects of _Pránáyáma_ or restraint of breath, treated at
large in chapter XXV of this book).
48. As the carriage is driven wherever the driver wishes to drive it;
so the mind being driven by the vital breath, runs from country to
country in a moment.
49. As the stone flung from a fling is lost forever, so the thoughts
of the mind are dispersed in the air, unless they are fixed upon some
object. The thoughts are accompaniments of the mind and vitality, as
fragrance is attendant on flowers and heat upon fire.
50. Wherever there is vital breath breathing (in any animal being),
there is the principle of the mind with its train of thoughts likewise;
as whenever the moon appears to view, it is accompanied with its beams
also. Our consciousness is the result of the vibrations of the vital
air, like our perception of the perceptibles; and this air is the
sustainer of the body also, by supplying the juice of the food to all
the nerves and arteries.
51. The mind and consciousness both belong to the body, the one
residing in the hollow of the vital air, and the other is as clear as
the intellect, and resides alike in all gross and subtile bodies, like
the all pervading and transparent vacuum.
52. It remains in the form of conscious self-existence in dull
inanimate bodies; and appears to be afraid of the vibrations of animal
life (_i.e._ The vegetables and minerals are conscious of their own
existence, without having their vital and animal actions of breathing
and locomotion).
53. The dull body being enlivened by the vital breath, is recognized by
the mind as belonging to itself; and plays many parts and frolics with
it, as in its prior state of existence.
54. The mind vibrates no longer, after the extinction of breathing;
and then, O sage! the pure intellect is reflected in the eight fold
receptacle of vacuum. (These are termed the puryashtakas and consist
of the mind, life, knowledge, the organs of action, illusion, desire,
activity and the subtile body).
55. As it is the mirror only that can reflect an image, and no
other stone; so it is the mind alone these as their octuple
receptacle--_puryashtaka_, and which is the agent of all actions, and
is termed by different names according to the views of different divine
teachers.
56. That which gives rise to the net work of our imaginary visible
world, and that in which it appears to be situated, and whereby the
mind is made to revolve in various bodies, know that supreme substance
to be the Immensity of Brahma, and source of all this world (or as
diffused as all in all which is thence called the visvam--the all _to
pan_).