ON THE UNITY AND IDENTITY OF BRAHMÁ AND THE WORLD.
Argument.--He whose essence is the source of all our enjoyments;
is ascertained as the _Sachchidánanda_ or Entity of the Felicitous
Intellect or the blissful spirit of God.
Vasishtha continued:--That which contains this wide extended universe
within itself, and without manifesting its form unto us, is very like
the egg of the peahen and contains all space and individual bodies in
its yolk. (The mind of God contains the mundane egg).
2. That which has nothing in reality in it, appears yet to contain
everything in itself; as the spotless mirror reflects the image of the
moon, and the hollow egg bears the figure of the future peacock.
3. It is in this manner that the gods and sages, saints and holy-men,
the siddhas and great Rishis, meditate on the true and self subsistent
form of God, as find themselves seated in their fourth state of bliss
above the third heaven.
4. These devout personages sit with their half shut eyes, and without
the twinkling of their eyelids; and continue to view in their inward
souls, the visible glory of God shining in its full light.
5. Thus enrapt in their conscious presence of God, they are unconscious
of any other thought in their minds; though when employed in the acts
of life, remain without the respiration of their vital breath.
6. They sit quiet as figures in a painting, without respiration of
their breath, and remain as silent as sculptured statues, without the
action of their minds. (They forget themselves to stones in their
excess of devotion).
7. They remain in their state of holy rapture, without the employment
of their minds in their fleeting thoughts, and whenever they have any
agitation they can effect anything, as the Lord God works all things at
the slightest nod.
8. Even when their minds are employed in meditative thoughts, they are
usually attended with a charming gladness, like that of the charming
moonbeams falling on and gladding the leafy branches of trees.
9. The soul is as enraptured with the view of the holy light of God, as
the mind is delighted at the sight of the cooling moonbeams, emitted
afar from the lunar disc. (The gloss explains the distant moonlight to
be less dazzling than the bright disc of that luminary).
10. The aspect of pure conscience is as clear, as the fair face of the
bright moon; it is neither visible nor in need of admonition, nor is it
too near nor far from us. (The gloss is silent on the inappropriateness
of the simile).
11. It is by one's self cogitation alone that the pure intellect can be
known, and not by the bodily organs, or living spirit or mind, or by
our desire of knowing it.
12. It is not the living soul nor its consciousness, nor the vibrations
of the body, mind, or breath. It is not the world nor its reality or
unreality, or its vacuity or solidity, or the centre of any thing.
13. It is not time or space or any substance at all, nor is it a god or
any other being, whatever is quite free from all these and unconfined
in the heart or any of the sheaths inside the body.
14. That is called the soul in which all things are moving, and which
is neither the beginning nor end of any thing, but exists from eternity
to eternity, and is not characterised by any of the elementary bodies
of air and the rest.
15. The soul is an entity that is never annihilated in this or the next
world, though the sentient bodies may be born and die away a thousand
times like earthen pots here below.
16. There is no removal of this vacuous spirit from its seat, both
in the inside and outside of every body; for know, O thou best of
spiritualists, all bodies to be equally situated in the all pervading
spirit.
17. It is the imperfection of our understanding, that creates the
difference between the spirit and the body; but it shows the perfection
of our judgement, when we believe the universal soul, to be diffused
throughout the universe.
18. Though warmly engaged in business, yet remain unaddicted to
worldliness by your indifference to the world, and to all moving and
unmoving things that there exists on earth.
19. Know all those as the great Brahma--the immaculate soul, that is
without the properties and attributes of mortal beings; it is without
change and beginning and end, and is always tranquil and in the same
state.
20. Now Ráma! as you have known by your spiritual vision
(clairvoyance), all things including time and action, and all
causality, causation and its effect, together with the production,
sustentation and dissolution of all, to be composed of the spirit of
God, you are freed from your wanderings in the world in your bodily
form.