THE SUPREME SOUL AND ITS PHASES AND NAMES
Argument.--The various Processes whereby the supreme soul becomes the
animal soul; and this again extending in all beings.
Vasishtha said:--Tell me Lord! what is the state of the living soul,
after its situation in the open air, and its observation of the vanity
of the elemental and material body on its first creation.
2. The god replied--The living soul having sprung from the supreme,
and being situated in the open firmament, views the body formed in the
aforesaid manner, as a man sees a vision in his dream.
3. The living soul being ubiquitous, enters and acts in every part of
this body, according to the behest of the embodied intellect, as a
sleeping man acts his parts in a dream, and bears his body still.
4. It was the indiscrete infinite soul before, and then became the
discrete spirit called the first male, and this spirit was the primary
cause of creation in itself.
5. Thus this animated spirit became as Siva, at the beginning of the
first creation; it was called Vishnu in another, and became the lotus
born Brahmá or the great patriarch in the other.
6. This great progenitor of one creation, became the intellect in
another, this became the volitive male agent of creation afterwards,
and at last look upon it a male form according to its volition.
7. The primary volition of ideal creation becoming compact in time,
it takes the form of the mind; which feels itself able to effect in
act, whatsoever it wills in itself. (This form of the Mind is called
Hiranyagarbha or Brahmá--the creative power of God).
8. This creation of the world by Brahmá is mere visionary, as the sight
of a spectre in the air or in a dream; but it appears as a positive
reality, to the erroneous sight of the realist. (_i.e._ The world is
ideal to the idealist, but a sober reality to the positivist).
9. The prime male agent that becomes the beholder of his creation,
retains in him the power of exhibiting himself (or displaying his will)
in the empty air every moment, or to retract them in himself into time.
10. To him a Kalpa or great Kalpa age, is a mere twinkling of his eye;
and it is by the expansion or contraction of himself, that the world
makes its appearance or disappearance.
11. Worlds come to appear and disappear at his will, at each moment of
time, in each particle of matter, and in every pore of space, and there
is no end of this successions in all eternity.
12. Many things are seen to occur one after another, in conformity with
the course of our desires; but we never find any thing to take place,
in concurrence with our sight of the holy spirit. (_i.e._ Nothing is
both temporally as well as spiritually good).
13. All things are created (and vanish) with this creation, which
do not occur to the unchanging Siva; and these are like the shadowy
appearances in empty air, which rise of themselves and disappear in air.
14. All real and unreal appearances vanish of themselves, like
mountains appearing in dreams; all these creations have no command over
their causality, space or time.
15. Therefore all these phenomenals are neither real, potential or
imaginary or temporary appearances; nor is there any thing, that is
produced or destroyed at any time.
16. All these are the wondrous phenomena of our ideas and wishes
(sankalpas), exhibited by the intellect in itself; and this world is
like the appearance of an aerial castle in the dream, and subject to
its rise and fall by turns.
17. The visible which appears to be moving about in time and space,
has actually no motion whatever in either; but remains as fixed as an
ideal rock in the mind for ever. (The unreal world can have no actual
motion).
18. So also the extension of the unreal world, is no extension at all;
as the magnitude of an ideal rock has no dimension whatever. (Things in
the abstract, have no imaginable measure).
19. The situation and duration of the unreal world, conform exactly
with the ideas of its time and place, which exist in the mind of the
maker of all (or the great Archetype).
20. It is in this manner that he is instantly changed to a worm (from
his idea of it), and so are all the four orders of living beings born
in this world.
21. Thus the curative power becomes all things, from the great Rudras
down to the mean straws in a minute (from his ideas of these); and even
such as are as minute as atoms and particles of matter (_i.e._ in the
forms of the protozoa and small animalcula).
22. This is the course of the production of the past and present
creations, and it is the reminiscence of the past, which is the cause
of the delusion of taking the world for a real existence.
23. After giving away the thought of the difference between the creator
and the created, and by the habit of thinking all as the unity, one
becomes Siva in a minute, and by thinking so for a longer period, one
is assimilated to the nature of the supreme Intellect.
24. The intellect proceeds from the original intellect (of God),
and rises without occupying any place. It is of the nature of
understanding, and resides in the soul in the manner of empty air in
the midst of a stone.
25. The soul which is of the manner of eternal light, is known
under the denomination of Brahmá and the intellect which seated
in this (soul), becomes weakened as the creative power increase,
and strengthens in it. (_i.e._ The power of the thinking intellect
decreases in proportion, as the power of the creative mind is on its
increase).
26. Next the particles of time and place, join together in the
formation of minute atoms; which by forming the elementary bodies,
have the living principle added to them. (These are called the protozoa
or animalcules).
27. These then become vegetables and insects, and beasts, brutes and
the forms of gods and demigods; and these being stretched out in
endless series, remain as a long chain of being, connected by the
strong and lengthening line of the soul, (called the sútrátmá).
28. Thus the great god that pervades over all his works in the world,
connects all things in being and not being, as pearls in a necklace by
the thread of his soul. He is neither near us nor even far from us; nor
is he above or below anything whatever. He is neither the first nor
last but ever lasting (having neither his beginning nor end). He is
neither the reality or unreality, nor is he in the midst of these.
29. He is beyond all alternatives and antitheses, and is not to
be known beyond our imaginary ideas of him. He has no measure or
dimension, nor any likeness, form or form to represent him. Whatever
greatness and majesty are attributed to him by men, they are all
extinguished in his glory as the fire is cooled in the water.
30. Now, I have related to you all what you asked me about, and will
now proceed to my desired place. Be you happy, O sage, and go your way;
and rise, O Párvatí and let us take our way.
31. Vasishtha said:--When the god with his blue throat had spoken in
this manner, I honoured him with throwing handfuls of flowers upon
him. He then rose with his attendants, and pierced into the vacuity of
heaven.
32. After departure of the lord of Umá, and master of the three worlds,
I remained for some time reflecting on all I had heard from the god,
and then having received the new doctrine with the purity of my heart,
I gave up the external form of my worshipping the Deity.