DISPLAY OF THE QUINTUPLE ELEMENTS.
Argument:--Description of the five siddhis or modes of consummation.
Vasishtha related:--Hearing these words of the beauteous lady, her
husband had not the wit to dive into the meaning of what she said, or
to understand what she meant by her reliance in the soul, but jestingly
told to her.
2. Sikhidhwaja said:--How incongruous is thy speech, and how unbecoming
it is to thy age, that being but a girl you speak of great things, go
on indulging your regal pleasures and sports as you do in your royal
state.
3. Leaving all things you live in the meditation of a nothing (_i.e._
leaving all formal worship, you adore a formless Deity); and if you
have all what is real to sense, how is it possible for you to be so
graceful with an unreal nothing? (Nothing is nothing, and can effect
nothing).
4. Whoso abandons the enjoyments of life, by saying he can do without
them; is like an angry man refraining from his food and rest for a
while, and then weakens himself in his hunger and restlessness, and can
never retain the gracefulness of his person.
5. He who abstains from pleasures and enjoyments, and subsists upon
empty air, is as a ghost devoid of a material form and figure, and
lives a bodiless shadow in the sky.
6. He that abandons his food and raiment, his bedstead and sleep, and
all things besides; and remains devoutly reclined in one soul only,
cannot possibly preserve the calmness of his person. (The yogis are
emaciated in their bodies, and never look so fresh and plump as the
princess).
7. That I am not the body nor bodiless, that I am nothing yet
everything; are words so contradictory, that they bespeak no sane
understanding.
8. Again the saying, that I do not see what I see, but see something
that is quite unseen; is so very inconsistent in itself, that it
indicates no sanity of the mind.
9. From these I find thee an ignorant and unsteady lass still, and my
frolicsome playmate as before; it is by way of jest that I speak so to
you, as you jestingly said these things to me.
10. The prince finished his speech with a loud laughter, and finding it
was the noon time of going to bath, he rose up and left the apartment
of his lady.
11. At this the princess thought with regret in herself and said, O
fie! that the prince has quite misunderstood my meaning, and has not
understood what I meant to say by my rest in the spirit, she then
turned to her usual duties of the day.
12. Since then the happy princess continued in her silent meditation in
her retired seclusion, but passed her time in the company of the prince
in the enjoyments of their royal sports and amusements.
13. It came to pass one day, that the self-satisfied princess pondered
in her mind, upon the method of flying in the air; and though she was
void of every desire in her heart, wished to soar into the sky on an
aerial journey.
14. She then retired to a secluded spot, and there continued to
contemplate about her aerial journey by abstaining from her food,
and shunning the society of her comrades and companions. (During the
absence of the prince from home. Gloss).
15. She sat alone in her retirement keeping her body steadily on
her seat, and restraining her upheaving breath in the midst of her
eye-brows (this is called the Khecharí mudrá or the posture of aerial
journey).
16. Ráma asked:--All motions of bodies in this world whether of moving
or unmoving things, are seen to take place by means of the action of
their bodies and the impulse of their breathing; how is it possible
then to rise upwards by restraint of both of them at once?
17. Tell me sir; by what exercise of breathing or the force of
oscillation, one attempts the power of volitation; and in consequence
of which he is enabled to make his aerial journey (as an aeronaut).
18. Tell me how the adept in spirituality or _yoga_ philosophy,
succeeds to attend his consummation in this respect, and what processes
he resorts to obtain this end of his arduous practice.
19. Vasishtha replied:--There are three ways, Ráma, of attaining the
end of one's object, namely; the _upádeya_ or effort for obtaining the
object of pursuit; second, _heya_ or disdain or detestation of the
thing sought for; and the third is _upeksha_ or indifference to the
object of desire. (These technical terms answer the words positive,
negative and neutrality in western terminology, all which answer the
same end; such as the having, not having of and unconcernedness about
a thing, are attended with the same result of rest and content to
everybody).
20. The first or attainment of the desirable _upádeya_, is secured by
employing the means for its success, the second heya or detestation
hates and slights the thing altogether; and the third or indifference
is the intermediate way between the two (in which one is equally
pleased with its gain or loss. It is a curious _dogma_, that the
positive, negative and the intermediate tend all to the same end).
21. Whatever is pleasable is sought after by all good people, and
anything that is contrary to this (_i.e._ painful), is avoided by
every one; and the intermediate one is neither sought nor shunned by
any body. (Pleasure is either immediate or mediate, as also that which
keeps or wards off pain at present or in future).
22. But no sooner doth the intelligent, learned devotee, come to the
knowledge of his soul and become spiritualized in himself, than all
these three states vanished from his sight, and he feels them all the
same to him.
23. As he comes to see these worlds full with the presence of God, and
his intellect takes its delight in this thought, he then remains in
the midmost state of indifference or loses sight of that also.
24. All wise men remain in the course of neutrality (knowing that an
eternal fate overrules all human endeavours), which the ignorant are
in eager pursuit of their objects in vain, but the dispassionate and
recluse shun every thing (finding the same satisfaction in having of a
thing as in its want). Hear me now tell you the ways to consummation.
25. All success is obtained in course of proper time, place, action and
its instruments (called the quadruple instrumentalities to success);
and this gladdens the hearts of a person, as the vernal season
renovates the earth.
26. Among these four, preference is given to actions, because it is of
highest importance in the bringing about of consummation. (The place
of success _siddhi_ is a holy spot, its time--a happy conjunction
of planets and events, action is the intensity of practice, and its
instruments are yoga, yantra, tantra, mantra, japa &c.).
27. There are many instruments of aerostation, such as the use of
Gutika pills, application of collyrium, the wielding of sword and the
like; but all these are attended with many evils, which are prejudicial
to holiness.
28. There are some gems and drugs, as also some mantras or mystic
syllables, and likewise some charms and formulas prescribed for this
purpose; but these being fully explained, will be found prejudicial to
holy _yoga_. (These magical practices and artifices are violations of
the rules of righteousness).
29. The mount Meru and Himálaya, and some sacred spots and holy
places, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration; but a full
description of them, will tend to the violation of holy meditation or
yoga. (Because all these places are full of false yogis, who practice
many fulsome arts for their gain).
30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something regarding the
practice of restraining the breath, which is attended with its
consequence of consummation; and is related with the narrative of
Sikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the present discourse. (Here
Vasishtha treats of the efficacy of the regulation of breath towards
the attaining of consummation for satisfaction of Ráma, in disregard of
false and artificial practices).
31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside the only
object in view, and by contracting all the orifices of the body; as
also by keeping the stature, the head and neck erect, that one should
attend the practices enjoined by the yoga sástra (namely: fixing the
sight on the top of the nose and concentrating it between the eye-brows
and the like).
32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and sitting on
clean seats, that one should ponder into the deep sense and sayings
of the sástras, and continue in the course of good manners and right
conduct in the society of the virtues, by refraining from worldliness
and all earthly connections.
33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and abstaining
from improper food and enjoyments, that one must be accustomed to
constrain his breathings in the course of a long time.
34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command over his
triple breathings of inspiration, expiration and retention (púraka,
rechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions under his control, as a
master has all his servants under his complete subjection. (because
breath is life, and the life has command over all the bodily actions,
as well as mental operations of a person).
35. Know Ráma, that all the well being of a man being under the command
of his vital breath; it is equally possible for every one, both to gain
his sovereignty on earth, as also to secure his liberation for the
future by means of his breath. (So says the proverb, "as long as there
is breath, there every hope with it" [Sanskrit: yábat shusah tábat
áshah] So in Hindi:--_jan hai to Jehan hai_ _i.e._ the life is all in
all &c. So it is said in regard to the _kumbhaka_ or retentive breath,
"repress your breath and you repress all," because every action is done
by the repression of the breath).
36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the breast, which
encircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner frame; it supplies
all the arteries with life, and is joined to by all the intestines in
the body as if they to that common channel.
37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the top of lute,
and the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved half of the
letter _Om_, and is situated as a cypher or circlet in the base or
lower most gland. (It is called the kundaliní or kula kundaliní nárhí
in the original).
38. It is deep seated at the base of the bodies of the Gods and demi
Gods, of men and beasts, of fishes and fowls, of insects and worms, and
of all aquatic molluscs and animals at large.
39. It continues curved and curbed in the form of a folded snake in
winter, until it unfolds its twisted form under the summer heat (or
the intestinal heat of its hunger _Jatharágní_), and lifts its hood
likening the disk of the moon. (The moon in the yoga sástra, means the
loti-form gland under the upper most crown of the head).
40. It extends from the lower base, and passing through the cavity of
the heart, touches the holes between the eye brows; and remains in its
continued vibration by the wind of the breath.
41. In the midst of that curvilineal artery (kundaliní nárhí), there
dwells a mighty power like the pith within the soft cell of the
plantain tree, which is continually vibrating, like thrilling wires of
the Indian lute (or as the pendulum of a machine).
42. This is called the curvilineal artery (kundaliní) on account of
its curviform shape, and the power residing in it is that prime mobile
force, which sets to motion all the parts and powers of the animal body.
43. It is incessantly breathing like hissing of an infuriate snake and
with its open mouths, it keeps continually blowing upwards, in order to
give force to all the organs.
44. When the vital breath enters into the heart, and is drawn in by the
curved _Kundaliní_; it then produces the consciousness of the mind,
which is the ground of the seeds of all its faculties.
45. As the _Kundaliní_ thrills in the body, in the manner of a bee
fluttering over a flower; so doth our consciousness throb in the mind,
and has the perception of the nice and delicate sensations. (Such as
the lungs and arteries receive the crude food and drink; so doth our
consciousness perceive their various tastes and flavour).
46. The _Kundaliní_ artery stirs as quickly to grasp its gross objects,
as our consciousness is roused at the perception of the object of the
finer senses of sight &c. These come in contact with one another, as an
instrument lays hold of some material.
47. All the veins in the body are connected with this grand artery,
and flow together like so many cellular vessels into the cavity of the
heart, where they rise and fall like rivers in the sea. (It shows the
concentration of blood in the heart by all the veins and arteries, and
its distribution to them in perpetual succession, to have been long
known to the sages of India, before its discovery by Harvey in Europe).
48. From the continued rise and fall (or heaving and sinking) of
this artery, it is said to be the common root or source of all the
sensations and perceptions in the consciousness. (It rises and falls
with the inhaling and exhaling breaths up to the pericranium and thence
down to the fundament).
49. Ráma regained:--How is it sir, that our consciousness coming from
the infinite intellect at all times and places, is confined like
a minute particle of matter, in the cellular vessel of the curved
_Kundaliní_ artery, and there it rises and falls by turns.
50. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, O sinless Ráma, that consciousness
is the property of the infinite intellect, and is always present in all
places and things with the all pervading intellect; yet it is sometimes
compressed in the form of a minute atom of matter in material and
finite bodies.
51. The consciousness of the infinite intellect, is of course as
infinite as infinity itself; but being confined in corporeal bodies,
it is fused as a fluid to diffuse over a small space. So the sunshine
that lightens the universe, appears to flush over a wall or any
circumscribed place. (Such as human consciousness, which is but a flush
of the Divine omniscience).
52. In some bodies it is altogether lost, as in mineral substances
which are unconscious of their own existence; and in others it is
fully developed, as in the Gods and human species; while in some it
is imperfectly developed, as in the vegetable creation, and in others
it appears in its perverted form, as in the inferior animals. So
everything is found to have its consciousness in some form or other.
53. Hear me moreover to explain you, the manner in which consciousness
(or other), appears in its various forms and degrees, in the different
bodies of animated beings.
54. As all cavities and empty spaces are comprised under the term air,
so are all intelligent as well as unintelligent beings comprehended
under the general category of the one ever existent intellect, which
pervades all things in the manner of vacuum. (Here is another proof of
the vacuistic theory of the theosophy of Vasishtha).
55. The same undecaying and unchanging entity of the intellect, is
situated some where in the manner of pure consciousness, and elsewhere
in the form of the subtile form of the quintuple elements. (_i.e._ As
the simple soul and the gross body or the mundane soul. So says Pope:
Whose body nature is, and God the soul).
56. This quintuple element of consciousness is reduplicate into many
other quintuples, as a great many lamps are lighted from one lamp;
these are the five vital airs, the mind and its five fold faculties
of the understanding; the five internal and the five external senses
and their five fold organs, together with the five elementary bodies;
and all having the principles of their growth, rise and decay, as also
their states of waking, dreaming and sleeping ingrained in them.
57. All these quintuples abide in the different bodies of the Gods and
mortals, according to their respective natures and inclinations (which
are the causes of their past and present and future lives in different
forms).
58. Some taking the forms of places, and others of the things situated
in them; while some take the forms of minerals, and others of the
animals dwelling on earth.
59. Thus is this world the production of the action of the said
quintuples, having the principle of intellectual consciousness,
presiding over the whole and every part of it.
60. It is the union of these quintuples in gross bodies, that gives
them their intelligence; hence we see the mobility of some dull
material bodies, as also the immobility of others (as of mineral and
vegetable creations).
61. As the wave of the sea is seen to roll in one place, and to be dull
and at a lull in another; so is this intellectual power in full force
in some bodies, and quite quiescent in others.
62. As the sea is calm and still in one place, and quite boisterous
in another; so is the quintuple body either in motion or at rest in
different places. (Hence rest and motion are properties of gross bodies
and not of the intellectual soul, which is ever quiescent).
63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital airs, and the
vital life (_jíva_) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence; the
rocks are devoid of both, but the trees have their sensibility by
reason of their being moved by the breath of winds; and such is the
nature of the triple creation of animals, minerals and vegetables.
64. Different words are used to denote the different natures of things
(or else the same word is used for things of the same kind); thus fire
is the general name for heat, and frost is that of coldness in general.
65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the quintuple
elements in bodies, that causes the difference in their natures and
names). It is the difference in the desires of the mind, which by being
matured in time, dispose the quintuple elements in the forms of their
liking.
66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their divers
directions, are capable of being collected together by the sapient, and
employed in the way of their best advantage and well being.
67. The desires of men tending either to their good or evil, are
capable of being roused or suppressed, and employed to their purposes
by turns. (The changeful desires always run in their several courses).
68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises him the
objects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless, as his
throwing the dust at the face of the sky.
69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples, hanging on
the tender and slender blade of consciousness, and these moving and
unmoving bodies, appear as worms on the tree of knowledge (_i.e._
before the intelligent mind).
70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant in them,
as the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of the earth; while
there are others with their ever wakeful desires, as the _deities_,
_daityas_ and _men_.
71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and insects in the
dirt; and others are devoid of their desires as the emancipate yogis,
and the heirs of salvation.
72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having the mind and
understanding, and being joined with his hands, feet and other members
of his body, formed by the assemblage of the quintuple materials.
73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members of their
bodies; and so the immoveables also have some kind of sensibility, with
other sorts of their organs. (The members of brute bodies are, the
four feet, horns and tails of quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have
their feathers, bills and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods
and tails; the worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings
&c. And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of their
particular natures. Gloss).
74. Thus my good Ráma! do these quintuple elements, display themselves
in these different forms in the beginning, middle and end of all
sensible and insensible and moving and unmoving beings.
75. The slightest desire of any of these, be it as minute as an atom,
becomes the seed of aerial trees producing the fruits of future births
in the forms of the desired objects. (Every one's desire is the root of
his future fate).
76. The organs of sense are the flowers of this tree (of the body), and
the sensations of their objects are as the fragrance of those flowers,
our wishes are as the bees fluttering about the pistils and filaments
of our fickle efforts and exertions.
77. The clear heavens are the hairy tufts, resting on the stalks of the
lofty mountains; its leaves are the cerulean clouds of the sky, and the
ten sides of the firmament, are as the straggling creepers stretching
all about it.
78. All beings now in being, and those coming into existence in future,
are innumerable in their number, and are as the fruits of this tree,
growing and blooming and falling off by turns.
79. The five seeds of these trees, grow and perish of their own nature
and spontaneity, also perish of themselves in their proper time.
80. They become many from their sameness, and come to exhaust their
powers after long inertness; and then subside to rest of their own
accord like the heaving waves of the ocean.
81. On one side, there swelling as huge surges, and on the other
sinking low below the deep, excited by the heat of the dullness on the
one hand, and hushed by the coolness of reason on the other (like the
puffing and bursting of the waves in the sea).
82. These multitudes of bodies, that are the toys or play things of the
quintuple essences, are destined to remain and rove for ever in this
world, unless they come under the dominion of reason, and are freed
from further transmigration.