UNITY OF GOD.
Argument.--The liberation of the mendicant's soul and destruction of
his body, and the application of this instance in the cases of the
confinement and liberation of all souls in and from the bondage of
their bodies.
Dasaratha said:--O great sage, let these attendants of mine, repair
immediately to the cells of the mendicant, and having roused him from
his hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now
lying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with
dirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it.
3. His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the
lake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more
subject to the cares of this world.
4. It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of
his door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame.
5. They will afterwards take out the body and immerge it in water, and
then having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as
they do a deified idol. (The bodies of saints are sanctified by their
votaries among all nations, and their tombs are visited with religious
veneration).
6. The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be
brought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions
in his mortal frame.
7. It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long
as one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily
avoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times.
8. The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments
from gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that
appears as the cause of creation.
9. This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme
soul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the
calm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas,
that the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul.
10. The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul,
sees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all
these vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.
11. As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so
the man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation
of the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a
thorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing
framer of his frame work of the universe. (Right reason points out to
spiritual source of the world).
12. The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it
was seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the
undulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the
surface of the sea.
13. As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary
form, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the
creative Brahmá; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous
minds of all individual persons. (The world appears in its unspiritual
form, to the minds of the great Brahmá and all other living beings).
14. But to the clear mind this world appears as an evanescent dream, as
it appeared to Brahmá at first; and the multitudes of worlds that are
discovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes
of passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance.
15. So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the
error of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know
it in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion.
(The varieties of living souls are included under the unintelligible
terms of universal and individual:--general and particular &c.).
16. The animal soul, though possessed of intellego (or the property of
the intellect); is yet liable to transgress from its original nature
(of holiness and purity); and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease
and death and all kinds of awe. (It is the _chyuty_ of the fall of man
from his primary purity, that brought on him all his miseries on earth).
17. The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in
our dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and
then takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.
18. It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the
form of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage
over the false objects of the deceptive senses.
19. The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is
nothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same,
likening to the shadow of the substance.
20. So the supreme Brahma is said to reside in the universal Brahmá,
according to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahma,
in whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the
sky with air. (All these attributive words apply to and unite in the
unity of Brahma).
21. Men residing in this mundane form of Brahma, and yet think it
otherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its
own shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing
before it.
22. It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences,
which disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in
the unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of
butter is consumed in the sacred fire.
23. There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or
duality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all
distinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it
is and all in all.
24. When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that
it is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which
are applied to it; there remains no more any difference of religious
faith in the world. (That is one and all, is the catholic religion of
all).
25. Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of
distinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union
of all to one common faith in the supreme being.
26. Ráma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and
you will get rid of the same (and recognise their identity), as you
come to your right understanding; ask this of any body and you will
find the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and
enmity. (Confession of faith in one Divinity, that is acknowledged and
adored by all alike, is the root of catholicity, and brings on unity in
philosophy of religion).
27. In that state of fearlessness, the Brahmavádí finds no difference
in the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of
devotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which
are equal to him. (So says the sruti:--The Brahmavádí is ever blest and
is afraid of nothing in any state of life, in all of which he sees the
presence of his God).
28. Tranquillity is another name of the universe, and God has given his
peace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false
creations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God.
29. The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot
move the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of
its desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart
strings.
30. The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and
duality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached
to a state, which is next to that of the deity.
31. But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the
stain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but
the coagulation of the condensed intellect. (As the fluid water is
congealed in the forms of snow and ice).
32. Do you, Ráma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect,
because it concentrates (the knowledge of) everything (that is _sat_)
in itself, and leaves nothing (that is not _asat_) beyond it. (This is
the most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted
from all religions).
33. The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency
in it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts
of all that is and is not (in esse--et non-esse) into oblivion.
(Contentment is the ambrosial draught for oblivion of all cares).
34. Refer thy thoughts of whatever thou hast or wantest, to the
province of thy intellect (_i.e._ think of thy intellectual parts and
wants only); and taste thy inward delight as much as thou dost like.
(Pleasure of intellectual culture, is better than physical enjoyments).
35. Know Ráma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and
inappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to
burden and mislead the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself
from thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet,
whether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.