ADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA CONTINUED.
Argument:--The non-entity of the mind, proved from the non-existence of
sensible objects, and the want of these proving only the entity of one
Brahma only.
Sikhidhwaja said:--I understand, that there is no such thing as the
mind also; but as I have no clear and correct knowledge of this
subject, I beg of you to tell me, whether it is so (as I believe) or
not.
2. Kumbha replied:--You have truly said, O prince, that there is no
such real entity as the mind at any time and in any space whatever; and
that which appears as the mind, is no other than a faculty of the only
one everlasting Brahma.
3. Anything besides which is fallible or unconscious of itself,
as the mind or anything of this world, can never be a positive or
self-existence substance; therefore the words I, thou and this or that
are only coinings of our imagination, and have no existence in reality.
4. There is no reality of the cosmos or any of its contents; and
all that seem to be in existence, are no more than the various
representations of the one self-existent Brahma himself. (Because there
is no duality beside the unity of Brahma).
5. It is said that there was no mind or its personification of Brahmá,
and the final dissolution of the world, and this proves the unreality
of both of them. Again it is said that the mind took the form of Brahmá
and created the world in the beginning, which proves also the mind to
be the divine mind, and represented by substitution of the metaphor of
Brahmá.
6. As there can be no material object without the prior existence of
a material cause, so it is impossible to believe the existence of the
sensible mind and the myriads of the sensible objects in absence of
their material cause, which never existed from before. (The spirit
alone was the pre-existent thing, which could not create anything
except in its own immaterial form).
7. Hence there is no such thing, as a dull and unconscious world; and
all that appears to exist as such, is no other than a representation of
the Divine spirit (which reflects itself in various ways) as the gold
exhibits its ornaments to view.
8. It is entirely false to believe, that the nameless and formless
Deity does this all; and because the world is visible, yet there is no
proof of its reality in our subjective knowledge of it.
9. That the nameless and formless spirit of God, which has no shelter
nor support for itself, should make this world for the abode of others,
is a laughable assumption of the ignorant only (therefore this world is
his own abode and the stage of his own action).
10. From these reasons it is plain that there is no world in existence,
nor even the mind, which is but a part of it; the world being a
non-entity, there can be no mind which is conversant alone with it.
11. The mind means no more than the wish, and then only there is said
to be a wish in any one, when there is an object to be wished for;
but this world which appears to be so very desirable, being a nullity
itself, how can there be the mind to desire it. (The mind is a nullity
for want of any of its objects to dwell upon or engage its attention).
12. That which is manifested unto us under the name of the Mind, is
no other than a manifestation of the spirit of God in itself, and is
designated by various appellations.
13. This visible which is so desirable to everybody, is no production
of any one; it is an uncaused entity ever existent in the divine mind,
from before its production by the mind of Brahmá the creator. (Being
prior to the mind, it is no production of it).
14. Therefore the divine soul, is of the form of an intellectual
vacuum, and is a void as the transcendent air; it is full with the
light of its intelligence, and having no shadow of the gross world in
it.
15. The slight light which shines in the divine soul, is like the
twilight that fills the etherial sphere; is the reflexion of the mirror
of the supreme intellect, and is neither the dim light of the mind, nor
any reflexion of the phenomenal world. (The nature of spiritual light,
as quite distinct from the mental and physical lights).
16. Our knowledge of I, thou and this world (_i.e._ of the subjective
and objective), are never real nor reliable; it is like the appearance
of our dreams, that serve only to delude us to mistake.
17. As the absence of the desirable world, removes our desire of it; so
the privation of our desire, displaces the mind which is the seat of
our wishes.
18. The ignorant believe that this visible world is the mind, (because
it is the display of the divine mind and the mind dwells upon it);
but the unreal and formless mind had not this visible form, before it
developed itself in the form of creation. (The world is not the mind
because it is posterior in the order of creation, being created by the
mind of the great Brahmá).
19. But this world is said to be coeval with the eternal mind, which is
altogether impossible; because we read nowhere in the sástras, nor find
in the ordinary course of nature, that a visible object has ever come
into existence without some cause or other, either in the beginning of
creation or at any time afterwards. (Hence the visible world is not
coeval with the mind its maker).
20. How can eternity, uncreatedness and everlastingness be predicated
of this visible world, which is a gross material substance, and subject
to decay and dissolution.
21. There is no testimony of the sástras, nor ocular evidence nor any
reasonable inference, to show any material thing to be uncaused by some
agent or other, and to survive the final dissolution of the world.
22. There is no written testimony of the vedas, and of other sástras
and Siddhántas to show, that any material thing is ever exempt from its
three conditions of birth, growth and decay, and is not perishable at
the last dissolution.
23. He that is not guided by the evidence and dictates of the sástras
and vedas, is the most foolish among fools, and is never to be relied
upon by good and sensible men.
24. It is never possible for any one to prevent the accidents, that are
incidentals to perishable things, nor can there be any cause to render
a material object an immaterial one.
25. But the immaterial view of this world, identifies it with the
unchangeable Brahma, and exempts it from the accidents of action and
passion, and of growth and decay.
26. Therefore know this world to be contained, in the undivided and
unutterable vacuity of the Divine Intellect; which is infinite and
formless void, and is for ever more in its undivided and undivisible
state.
27. Brahma who is omniform and ever tranquil in himself, manifests his
own self in this manner in the forms of creation and dissolution all in
himself.
28. The lord now shows himself to our understanding, as embodied in his
body of the world, and now manifests himself unto us, as the one Brahma
in his spiritual form.
29. Know after all, that this world is the essence of the one Brahma
only, beside which there is no separate world or any thing else in
existence; and it is our imagination only which represents it sometimes
in one form and then in another.
30. All this is one, eternal and ever tranquil soul, which is unborn
and without any support and situated as it is. It shows itself as
various without any variation in its nature, and so learn to remain
thyself with thyself as motionless as a block of wood, and with thy
dumb silence in utter amazement at all this. (The principles of vedánta
philosophy being abstraction and generalisation, it takes the world and
all things in their abstract light, and generalises them all under the
general spirit of God).