RESUSCITATION OF RÁMA.
Argument.--Bharadwája's Enlightenment and the duties of the Enlightened.
Válmíki continued:--The yogi should be peaceful and tranquil, and
exempt from all forbidden acts and those proceeding from a desire of
fruition; he must avoid all sensual gratifications, and have his belief
in God and his holy religion of the vedas.
2. He must rest quiet in his seat, and have his mind and members of the
body under his control; and continue to repeat the syllable Om, until
his mind is cleared (from all its doubts).
3. He must then restrain his respiration, for the purification of his
inner organs (the heart and mind); and then restrict his senses by
degrees, from their respective outward objects.
4. He must think on the natures and causes of its body and its organs
of sense, of his mind and its understanding, as also of his soul and
its consciousness; and repeat the srutis or the holy texts which relate
to these subjects.
5. Let him sit reclined in the meditation of Virát, the God of visible
nature at first, and then in the internal soul of nature; next to this
he must meditate on the formless spirit, as a part and abstracted from
all; and at last fix his mind in the supreme cause alone. (Rising from
the concrete to the discrete deity).
6. Let him cast off in his mind, the earthly substance of his flesh
and bones to the earth; and commit the liquid part of his blood to the
water, and the heat of his body to fire.
7. He is then to consign the airy and vacuous parts of his body to
air and vacuum, and after having thus made over his elemental parts
to the five elements; he shall deliver the organs of his sense to the
particular divinities from whom they are derived.
8. The ears and other organs, which are for the reception of their
respective from all sides, being cast aside on all sides, he is to
give the skin of his body to electricity (which imparts to it the
sensations of heat and cold by the electric shock).
9. Let him then resign his eye sight to the solar disc, and his
tongue to water, he must next give up his breath to air, his voice to
fire, and his palms to the god Indra (water and fire mean Varuna and
Agni--the regent gods of these elements).
10. He must then offer his feet to the god Vishnu, and his anus to
Mithra; and after giving up his penis to Kasyapa, he should dedicate
his mind to the moon.
11. He must afterwards lay down his understanding to Brahmá, and the
other inward faculties to special divinities, and at last abdicate his
outer senses also to their presiding duties.
12. Having thus resigned his whole body to the gods, he should think
himself as the all comprehending Viráta; and this he must do in
pursuance to the dictates of the veda, and not of his own will or
fabrication.
13. The lord that embodies the whole universe in himself, in his
androgynous form of half-male and half-female, is said to be the source
and support of all sorts of beings.
14. He was born in the form of creation, and it is he that is settled
in everything in the universe; and caused this earth to appear from the
bipartite mundane egg, as also the water which is twice as much as the
land.
15. He produced the heat twice as much as the water, and the air also
which is double in its volume to that of heat, and lastly the vacuum
which is twice more in its extent than the air which it contains. Each
latter one lying next above the former. (So the sruti:--each succeeding
one is above its preceding element).
16. These form the world whether they are divided or undivided from
their succeeding and surrounding ones; the earth being girt by the sea,
and the same by submarine fire.
17. Thus the yogi by contracting his thought of the former one under
the latter, will engross his thought of heat under that of air, and
this again under his idea of vacuum, which last is swallowed up by his
thought of the great cause of all.
18. In this manner must the yogi remain for a moment in his spiritual
form only, by contraction of his corporeal body (composed of the
elemental particles, his desires and prior acts and his primeval
ignorance--avidyá), under the same (because the material part is
contained under the spiritual, and not the latter under the former as
it is erroneously supposed by materialist).
19. The spiritual body is represented by the wise, to be composed of
the ten senses of perception and conception, the mind or memory and the
understanding faculties; which is above and outside the corporeal half
of the mundane egg. The yogi must think himself to be this supermundane
spiritual being. (This form is styled Hiranyagarbha).
20. The former or intramundane half, which is composed of the quadruple
subtile elements, is represented by the figure of the four faced
Brahmá; and differs from the former by its being an evolution of
unevolved spirit.
21. That nameless and formless being in which the world subsists, is
called Prakriti or matter by some, and Máyá or delusion by others, and
also as atoms by atomic philosophers.
22. The same is said to be ignorance--_avidyá_, by agnostics, whose
minds are confused by false reasoning; and it is after all that hidden
and unknowable something, in which all things are dissolved at the
ultimate dissolution of the world.
23. Again everything which is quite unrelated with the divine spirit
and intellect (_i.e._ material substance); comes to existence at the
recreation of the world; and retains and remains in its primary form to
the end of the world.
24. Think of creation in the direct method, and of its destruction in
the reversed order; and then betake yourself to the fourth stage of
turíya, after you have passed over the three preceding steps. (The
direct method of creation is the procedure from vacuity to air, and
thence to heat, water and earth; or the meditation of the creative
power under the three hypostasis or substantiality of Hiranyagarbha,
Brahmá and Prakriti; and the reversed order is the annihilation of
these in the quiet state of the unpredicable Deity).
25. And in order to that state of blissfulness, you must enter into the
supreme spirit by removing from your mind all its impressions (lingas),
of matter and sense, mind and understanding and all desires and acts;
that lie unexpanded and hidden in it.
26. Bharadwája responded:--I am now quite released from the fetters of
my impressions, as my intellectual part has found its entrance into the
sea of _turíya_ or transcendent blissfulness.
27. The indistinct nature of my soul from the supreme spirit, makes
me identic to it; and I find myself to be devoid of all attributes,
and only an intellectual power like the same (the human soul being as
intelligent a principle as the divine).
28. As the vacuity contained in the hollow of a pot, becomes one with
the universal and all pervading vacuum after the pitcher is broken; so
the human soul vanishes into the supreme spirit, after it flies from
the confines of the body after its destruction.
29. As a fire brand being cast into the burning furnace, becomes the
one and same fire with it; so the kind mixing with its kind, becomes
indistinctly known under common name, one: (Here we have the axiom, the
even being added to the even, whole is even).
30. Again as straws swimming in the salt sea, are transformed to the
sea salt; so all animal souls and the inanimate even mixing with the
divine soul, become animated also. (Here is opposite dogma of unequals
being equal; because the greater includes the less under it).
31. As saltpetre being thrown into the sea, looses its name and nature
and becomes the sea salt; so everything is swallowed in the universal
soul and assimilated to it.
32. As water mixing with water, salt with salt, and butter with butter;
lose their distinctions and not their substances; so my self and all
other substances mixing with the divine spirit, lose our distinct
appellations without losing our substantialities.
33. All bodies being absorbed in the all-knowing and ever blissful
intellect of the great creator of all; become equally all pervading and
tranquil and everlasting and blessed for ever.
34. So I think myself as that eminently transcendent being, which is
without any part or partner, without action or passion, without the
organs of sense, and neither loving nor hating any one.
35. I think myself as that sole entity, which is of the form of truth
and immutable in its nature and desires, which is devoid of virtue and
vice, perfectly pure and the supreme cause of all worlds.
36. I am that blissful Brahma, who is without a second and without
decay, and of the form of pure light; who is expressed by these
negative properties, and is beyond the three degrees of quality; as
the _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_--the positive, comparative, and
superlative, which do not relate to him as they do to others.
37. Thus should one meditate himself as Brahma, even when he is
employed in discharging the duties destined to his station in life: and
his continued practice of this kind of meditation, will gradually wear
out all other impressions from his mind.
38. The mind being thus set down, the soul will then appear of itself
within the man; and the appearance of the inward spirit, serves to
destroy all his internal grief, and fill its place with his heart felt
joy.
39. He also perceives the height of the truth shining in himself, that
there is no other blissful God beside his own intellect; and this is
what he calls his ego and the supreme Brahma likewise.
40. Válmíki said:--Friend, give up your observance of religious acts;
and be devoted yourself to the meditation of Brahma, if you want to
stop the revolution of the wheel of this world upon you.
41. Bharadwája replied:--I have well understood the drift of the
knowledge, you have imparted to me; I have acquired clearness of my
understanding, and I have no more any reliance in the world.
42. I am now desirous of knowing about the duties of those, who have
gained the spiritual knowledge of God; as to whether they are subject
to or freed from the performance of meritorious acts (_i.e._ whether
their knowledge is sufficient to to save them or requires their acts
also).
43. Válmíki said:--The seekers of liberation are not liberated from
the doing of those duties, whose avoidance entails the guilt of the
omission of duty upon them; but he must refrain from doing the acts of
his desire (of fruition), and those which he is prohibited to do.
44. When the living soul comes to feel the spiritual bliss in itself,
and to find his sensuous appetites disappear from his mind; as also
when he perceives his organs of sense lying quite calm and quiet under
him; he may then consider himself as one with the all pervading spirit
of the lord (and therefore freed from the bonds of action and all
earthly duties).
45. When the sentient soul conceives in itself, the sense of its
conversion to the essence of God (as conveyed by the formula _Soham_
He ego, I am He); and beyond the bounds of his body and its senses,
and the reach of his mind and understanding; it is then freed from its
obligation of worldly duties.
46. When the soul is free from all its action and passions, and remains
aloof from all titles and attributes; when it gets rid of the feelings
of pain and pleasure, he is then exonerated from the burthen of his
duties.
47. When one sees the supreme soul to pervade over all beings, and
beholds all creation to exist in the universal spirit; and when he
finds no difference between the mundane soul and the supreme spirit, he
is then released from the bonds of his action.
48. When the living soul has passed over the three states, of waking,
dreaming, and sound sleep; and enters into the fourth or turya state of
perfect bliss, he is then freed from the binding of his earthly duties.
49. The fourth state of turíya, which consists in the residence of the
living soul, in the lap of the universal soul of God, is the state of
the soul's liberation from its condition of sleep or hypnotism, and is
full of its spiritual blissfulness.
50. This _turya_ state or the consciousness of one's felicity, derived
from the fixedness of the soul in the supreme; is the great end of yoga
meditation.
51. After the mental operations of a man have ceased in a man, he
perceives nothing within himself except the turya state; which is a
calm quiescence of the soul, in the sea of the ambrosial waters of one
sole unity.
52. Why are you plunging yourself, under the waves of the briny waters
of the sea of duality; fly to the Lord of worlds and adore the great
God, who is abundant of all blessings.
53. I have thus related to you my son, all the doctrines of Vasishtha,
as the best means to the way of your knowledge and practice of yoga
meditation.
54. You will verily be able, O wise Bharadwája, to learn everything
from these, by means of your digesting the substance of this sástra,
and reconsidering the purport of the precepts of this great preceptor.
55. It is by continued practice, that we attain to the perfection of
any thing, according to the dictum of the vedas; therefore must you
avoid to attend to all things besides, and concentrate your mind to the
object of your practice.
56. Bharadwája rejoined:--Tell me O sage, the course of conduct which
Ráma followed, after he had received his knowledge of yoga or uniting
his soul with the supreme spirit.
57. By knowing this I will also try to practice upon the same model,
that I may succeed to attain to the same state of spiritual elevation
and rapture like him.
58. Válmíki said:--When the virtuous and high minded Ráma, was absorbed
and sat entranced in the divine essence, it was then that Viswámitra
addressed the venerable Vasishta and said.
59. Viswámitra said:--O highly endowed son of Brahmá--wise Vasishtha,
you have even now shown the efficacy of your preceptorship, by
hypnotising and laying dormant the powers of Ráma.
60. He is verily the best to yoga, who mesmerises the body of his
pupil, by his kind look, touch and sound; and causes his inspiration by
the infusion of the holy spirit of Siva in him.
61. So it was with Ráma, whose pure soul was dispassionate by its own
nature; and whose earnest desire of hebetude led him to that happy
state, by means of his conversation with his _guru_ or spiritual guide.
62. It is the intelligence of the student which is the cause of his
understanding, by means of the guidance of his spiritual preceptor;
but when these three roots or principles are imperfect, how can the
understanding arrive to its perfection.
63. It is evident, that knowledge is in need of both the pupil and
preceptor for its communication; where both of them are competent
and worthy of one another; it is certain that the result will be so
likewise (as in Ráma's case). (The commentary adds the good sástras, as
the third means of gaining knowledge).
64. Now be pleased to rouse Ráma from his torpor, which you alone can
do, by your beatification in the apathy; whilst we being employed in
worldly affairs, are too far from it.
65. Please sir, remember the cause that calls us hither, and the
business to which we are invited at earnest request of king Dasaratha
himself (for the performance of a certain sacrifice).
66. Therefore O sage, do not frustrate that object of ours, by the
purity of thy mind; we have a service to perform to the Gods, and which
is the cause of Ráma's incarnation on earth.
67. Ráma is to be conducted by me to the abode of the siddhas, and then
shall he be called to the destruction of the Rákshasas; after which he
will be led to the salvation of Ahalyá and to his marriage with Sitá.
68. He will break the great bow of Siva in a chivalrous feat at that
marriage, and then he shall encounter the furious Parusha-Ráma, and
restrain his way to heaven.
69. The fearless Ráma will then forsake his uncared for paternal and
ancestral realms, and under pretext of his banishment, betake himself
to the Dandaka woods of foresters.
70. He will restore the sanctity of many places of pilgrimage, and
will thereby save the lives and souls of beings from sin and its wages
of death. He will show to the world the sorrows of men at the loss of
their wives, from his own example of the loss of accompanying Sitá by
Rávana.
71. He will set the lesson of the husband's duty of recovering the
wives from the hands of their ravishers, by his recovery of Sitá by
slaughter of Rávana, and by his assembling the ape-savages of the
forest in his favour.
72. He will prove the purity of Sitá to please his plea, and will be
employed in the observance of all religious acts, with his entire
liberation in this world, and want of the desire of fruition in the
next.
73. But in order to secure the future welfare of men, he will encourage
the practice both of spiritual devotion and ritual acts, according to
the instruction of those best acquainted with those subjects.
74. He will liberally bestow his liberation to every living being of
every kind. These and many others are the duties of Ráma to this world
and to myself also. (Viswámitra means a friend to the world, and the
good services of Ráma done to it were reckoned by the sage as done to
the sage himself).
75. Such are the acts that are to be performed by Ráma, wherefore he is
to be thanked by every one here for all his conquests which no one else
can make. So fare you well.
76. Válmíki resumed:--After these words of the sage, were listened to
by the princes in the court and by the assembled siddhas and great
yogis as Vasishtha and others; they thanked the hero, and remained to
think of his lotus-like feet with respect and esteem.
77. But the sages Vasishtha and others, were not to be satisfied until
they could hear further about the lord of Sitá; whose virtues they all
eagerly expected to hear those fully and recite in their carols.
78. Vasishtha then said to Viswámitra:--Tell me sir, who was this
lotus-eyed Ráma in his past life, whether he had been a god or sage or
an ordinary man.
79. Viswámitra replied:--Believe what I say, that this Ráma is that
primary Male, who had churned the sea for the good of the world, and is
known only by the deepest learning of the vedas.
80. He is full of spiritual joy, meek and gentle, and has the mark of
the auspicious calf (lamb) upon his person; he is bountiful to all
living beings, and is soon appeased by all (that rely in him).
81. He destroys every one in his rage, and abandons all the frail
trifles of this world; he is the first male and creator of all, and is
the supporter and nourisher and kind friend of all.
82. He has passed over the unsubstantial and illusory things of this
world; he is the sea of felicity, and is dived in by the dispassionate.
83. He is some times known as a liberated soul, and relying in himself;
at others he is seen to be settled in his _turya_ state of hypnotism,
and sometimes as a male or female agent of creation.
84. He is the God of the triple veda, and beyond the reach of the three
qualities of things; he is the soul of the veda and the wondrous male
(Virát), that is displayed in the six branches of veda.
85. He is the four armed and four-faced Brahmá--the creator of the
world, he is also the great Mahádeva with his three eyes, who is the
destroyer of the world.
86. He is the uncreated creator, that is born by his yoga or union with
the power of delusion (máyá). He is the ever wakeful and the ever great
spirit of God, which though it is formless doth yet form and support
this frame of this universe, by transforming himself to the form of a
man-lion.
87. As victory is borne upon the wings of valour, and as light is borne
upon the flame of fire; and as learning bears and conveys the fruit of
good understanding, so is this god-like Ráma borne upon the wings of
the bird of heaven (_i.e._ as Garuda bears Vishnu upon his back).
88. Blessed in this king Dasaratha, who has the supreme prime male for
his son, and fortunate is the ten headed Rávana, for his finding a
place in the mind of Ráma (as his enemy). (The enemies of the gods are
not less fortunate than the godly; because their fall under the blessed
hands of gods, secures to them the blissful seats of heaven and not of
hell).
89. Oh! how lamentable is the state of heaven by the absence of Ráma
from it; and how pitiable is the infernal region from its loss of
Lakshmana who is present here. Happy is this midland of Oudh at
present, from the presence of the two gods from those two regions in
this place.
90. This Ráma is an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who sleeps in the
midst of the sea; he is the incarnate and undecaying supreme soul, and
is a consolidation of the divine intellect and felicity in his person.
91. The yogis of subdued organs discern Ráma in spirit, but we of
ordinary understanding can see him only in his outward figure.
92. We hear that he has come down to blot out the iniquities of the
race of Raghu, and hope that the venerable Vasishtha will kindly guide
him to the affairs of the world.
93. Válmíki said:--Saying so far, the great sage Viswámitra held his
silence, when the vehement Vasishtha oped his mouth and addressed Ráma
saying:--
94. Vasishtha said:--O great armed Ráma! O highly intellectual prince!
it is not the time for you thus to slumber in yoga, rise and rejoice
the hearts of your people.
95. Until you satisfy the wants of men and their expectations of you,
you are not filled to attain the acme of your pure _samádhi_ meditation.
96. Therefore attend to the temporal affairs of your state for some
time, and discharge the onus of your duties to the gods; and then
betake yourself to the state of your entrancement, and be happy forever.
97. Notwithstanding Ráma was addressed in this manner, yet as he
remained transfixed in his trance and uttered not a word in reply;
then the spirit of Vasishtha entered into the heart of Ráma, through
dormitory passage of _susumná_.
98. It infused its force to the respiratory beings, mental faculties,
organs and to the vital spirit of Ráma, it ran through the veins and
arteries and inflated the organs of sense; then Ráma slowly oped his
eyelids, and saw before him the sage Vasishtha with the learned men
about him. He remained gazing upon all without any wish or effort of
his own; and without considering aught of his duties, or what he was to
avoid.
99. He heard the voice, which his preceptor Vasishtha had uttered to
him; and in reply respectfully answered him saying:--
100. Ráma said:--By your kindness sir, I am taught to have no concern
with aught of the injunctions or prohibitions of the law; yet it is my
duty to abide by all, what my preceptor bids me to do.
101. I ween, O great sage! that of all the sayings of the vedas,
Ágamas, Puránas, and smritis, it is the word of the preceptor, is the
highest law, his bidding is commandment and its opposite a positive
prohibition.
102. So saying, the virtuous Ráma bowed down his head at the feet of
the venerable Vasishtha, and then bespoke of his indifference to the
world, to all present in the assembly.
103. Ráma said:--May ye all prosper, and know the most certain truth to
which I have arrived; that there is nothing better than the knowledge
of the self, and none superior to the preceptor from whom it is derived.
104. The siddhas and others responded saying:--Such is the impression
of Ráma, in our minds also; and it is by your favour and conversions
also, that this belief is ratified in us.
105. We thank you, Ráma Chandra, and wish all happiness to attend on
our great prince; and beg leave of the sage Vasishtha for our departure
as we are called here (to attend to his lecture).
106. Válmíki said:--so saying they rose with giving praises to Ráma,
and blessing him with showers of flowers falling upon his head from
their hands.
107. Thus have I related to you the whole narrative of Ráma, do you
now, O Bharadwája, follow the same course of yoga, and be happy forever.
108. Now this relation of mine of the consummation to which Ráma had
arrived, together with my rehearsal of the varied sayings of the sage
which are as so many strings of gems to be worn on the breasts of yogis
and poets, will serve by the grace of the sage, to give you liberation
(from the troubles of the world).
109. Whoever hears and attends to these discourses of Ráma and
Vasishtha, is sure to be relieved in every state of life; to be united
with Brahma after his release.
110. End of the Mahá Rámáyana of the sage Vasishtha and spoken by
Válmíki, relating the boyhood of Ráma and consisting of thirty-two
thousand sloka stanzas.
* * * * *
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
except in obvious cases of typographical errors. The somewhat erratic
use of brackets has been corrected where possible.
Words in italics are represented thus; _italic_ while words in bold
are represented thus; =bold=.
Chapter LXII has been wrongly headed as LXI in the original text.
The heading and sub-heading have been corrected.
Decent has been changed to descent in para 14, chapter XIV.
In chapter XXXIX, para 8, "the eight forms of as we see" has been
changed to "the eight forms of [God] as we see"
In chapter LI para 12, "remain still and motionless; if they were
buried" has been changed to "remain still and motionless; [as] if
they were buried"
In chapter LIII, para 43,"one who sees every in one and same light"
has been changed to "one who sees every[one] in one and [the] same
light"
In chapter LXI, para 15. "In whatever manner we look object,"
has been changed to "In whatever manner we look [at the] object,"
Two paragraphs of text duplicated in the table of contents have been
removed.
The sanskrit is frequently unclear, and in some places illegible
(represented by ?).