CONTINUATION OF THE SAME.
Argument.--The causes of the Elevation and degradation of living being.
Manu continued:--The soul is originally full of bliss by its nature,
but being subject to ignorance, it fosters its vain desire for temporal
enjoyment, whence it has the name of the living soul (which is
subjected to misery). This corresponds with the scriptural doctrine,
that man was originally made in the image of his Maker (_i.e._ full of
bliss); but being tempted by delusion to taste the forbidden sweetness,
became the mortal and miserable human soul.
2. But when the desire of pleasure, is lessened by the _viveka_ or
discriminative knowledge of man, he forsakes his nature of a living and
mortal being, and his soul becomes one with the supreme spirit. (Man by
his knowledge retrieves his godly nature).
3. Do not therefore allow your desire of earthly enjoyment, to draw
your soul up and down to heaven and hell; as a bucket tied in its neck
with a cord, is cast down and again lifted up from a well.
4. Those selfish folks who claim something as theirs from that of
another, are grossly mistaken and led into error, and are destined like
the dragging bucket to descend lower and lower. (The more niggardliness
the more degradation or the more selfishness the greater baseness).
5. He who gets rid of his knowledge that, this is I and that is
another, and that this is mine and that is the others, gradually
rises higher and higher according to his greater disinterestedness.
(Disinterestedness characterises an elevated mind).
6. Delay not to rely your dependance in your enlightened and elevated
soul, stretching over and filling the whole space of the sky, end
comprehending all the worlds in it. (This magnanimity is characteristic
of the catholicity of Hindu religion).
7. When the human mind is thus elevated and expanded beyond all limits,
it then approaches the divine mind, and is assimilated to it. (This
extinction is called its nirvána).
8. Any one who has arrived to this state, may well think in himself to
be able to effect whatever was done by the Gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra
(by his intellectual body Varuna and others; who were of such elevated
souls and minds).
9. Whatever acts are attributed to any of the Gods or other persons, is
no more than the display of divine pleasure in that form.
10. Whoso is assimilated to the divine intellect, and has become
deathless and unmindful of his mortal state, has a share of supreme
felicity for his enjoyment, which bears no comparison: (unspeakable
delight attends on the soul of the spiritualist).
11. Continue to think this world as neither a vacuum nor a plenum; nor
a material or spiritual substance. It is neither an intellectual being,
nor a quite insensible thing.[A]
[A] Should you think it a nullity by the Sruti which says _neti-neti_
it is naught, you deny the creatorship of God, who has created it as
something substantial and tangible.
Again on the other hand, if you consider it as a hypostatic reality,
you introduce in that case positive duality, beside the reality of
one unity alone. So every other position being liable to objection,
you must think it as neither the one nor the other, but as something
incomprehensible, or reflexion of the Divine Mind.
12. By thinking in this way, you will have composure of your
disposition, or else there is no separate place or time or condition
for your liberation or salvation.
13. It is by the absence of our egoism and ignorance, that we get rid
of our personal existence, and it is our contemplation of the nature
of God, and his presence before us in our meditation (sákshat kára) of
him, that constitutes our _moksha_ or liberation.
14. It is the even delight and perpetual tranquillity of the soul, that
constitutes our bliss and liberation; and these are to be obtained by
means of calm and cool reasoning in the sense of sástras, avoiding all
impatience and fickleness of our mind and temper, and the pleasure
derived from our taste in poetry and light studies and trifling
amusement. (It requires us to be free from the fluctuations of our
desires and options of which there is no end).