transcendent state. It is reasoning which is the only best medicine for
the chronic disease of worldliness.
3. The world is of the form of a wood of troubles, shooting in sprouts
of endless desires which being once felled under the saw of reason,
will germinate no more.
4. O wise Ráma! our understandings are shrouded under unconsciousness
at the loss of our friends, at times of danger, and even of quiet. It
is reason that is our only companion (at these times).
5. There is no expedient for the learned and wise except reason; it is
by means of reason that the minds of good people can avoid evil and
secure their good.
6. All our strength and understanding, our valour and renown, and the
ends of our actions, result from our reasoning with the intelligent.
7. Reason is the lamp to show us the right and wrong, and the
instrument for accomplishment of our desires:—by reliance on right
reason, one crosses over easily the wide ocean of the world.
8. Pure reasoning like a strong lion, tears asunder the elephants
of great error, which ravage the lotus beds of the mind (or mental
faculties).
9. If ignorant men have at any time attained a better state in life, it
was all owing to the light of the lamp of their reasoning.
10. Know O Rághava that, dominion and fair prosperity, together with
our enjoyments and eternal salvation, are all but fruits of the
celestial _Kalpa_ plant of reasoning.
11. The minds of great men, which are expanded by reasoning here, are
never liable to be immerged under the currents of calamity (but float
above them) like gourds upon water.
12. Those who conduct themselves with their intellects shining forth
with reason, become the recipients of its most liberal gifts.
13. Want of reason is like the thorny and sour plant of _Karanja_
sprouting forth with blossoms of woe, and growing in the brakes of
ignorant minds in order to shut out their hopes and prospects.
14. Do you, O Rághava! shake off the lethargy caused by your neglect
of reasoning. This torpor darkens your vision as it were by the inky
powder of collyrium, and maddens your mind as it were, by the ebriety
of wine.
15. The man of right judgment is not liable to fall into the long and
dangerous maze of error (like others); but remains as a blaze of light
amidst the gloom (of ignorance).
16. The reasoning faculties shine, as a bed of lotuses in the limpid
lake of the mind: whoso has such a reasoning mind, exalts his head as
high as the Himálayan height.
17. The man having a dull mind and incapable of reasoning (of reason)
as a flash of lightening, and like boys, sees false apparitions about
him.
18. Ráma, you must shun at a distance the base unreasonable man, who
grows as plump as a _Khanda_ cane to cause sorrow and resembles the
spring season to grow fresh weeds of evil.
19. Whatever misdeeds, misconducts and mischances present themselves to
man, they are all the effects of his want of the light of reason, and
lay hold on him like ghosts appearing in the dark.
20. O support of Raghu’s race, do you shun at a distance the
unreasonable man of the nature of a solitary wild tree, which comes to
no good use (to mankind).
21. The mind that is fraught with reason and devoid of the impatience
attendant on worldly desires, feels the light of transcendent quietism
shining in the soul with the full lustre of the moon.
22. When the light of reason shines in any person, it imparts the
coolness and good grace of moon-beams to all things around him.
23. The reasoning power of man accompanied with the flag of divine
knowledge and the silvery flapper of good understanding, shines as
moon-light in the darkness of night.
24. Men with the good grace of their reason, throw a radiance like that
of the sun on all sides about them, and dispel the gloom of worldliness.
25. Reasoning serves to destroy the false apparitions of errors which
present themselves to the minds of boys like ghosts in the sky at night.
26. All things in the world appear as charming (as if they were
realities); but they are (in fact) but unrealities, and liken the clods
of earth that are broken (to pieces) by the hammering stone of reason.
27. Men are theirself tormenters by the false imagination of their own
minds; it is reason alone that can drive away this inveterate spectre
from the mind.
28. Know the fruit of the high arbor of reason, to be the even,
unobstructed, interminable and independent happiness called _Kaivalya_.
29. It is by means of reason and its evident influence on the
deprivation of (physical) gratifications, that there rises an unshaken
and exalted disinterestedness in the mind, like the cooling beams of
the moon.
30. When the saint has reached his perfection by means of the elixir
of judgment seated in his mind, he neither desires for more nor leaves
(what he has).
31. The mind relying on that state of equanimity and perceiving
the clear light (of truth within itself), has neither its fall nor
elevation, but enjoys its inward expansion as that of vacuum for ever.
32. One unconcerned with the world, neither gives nor receives any
thing, nor feels himself elated or depressed at any event, but views
every thing as an indifferent spectator.
33. He is neither torpidly cold nor does he dwell on anything
internally or externally. He is neither inactive nor merged in activity.
34. He slights the loss of anything, and lives content with what he
has; he is neither depressed nor elevated; but remains as full as the
(tideless) sea.
35. It is in this manner that the high-souled and high-aspiring _Yogis_
conduct themselves in this world, with their fullness (of joy) and
living as they are liberated in this life.
36. These saintly sages having lived as long as they like (in this
earth), abandon it at last, and gain their कैवल्य eternal unity (after
death).
37. The sapient man should intently consider within himself, who and
whose he is, what is his family and by whom he is surrounded, and think
on the remedy (of his worldliness).
38. It is the king, O Ráma! who well knows the difficult and doubtful
state of the business (before him); and his success or failure depends
solely on his right judgment and on nothing else.
39. It is the _dicta_ and _data_ established by the Veda and Vedánta
that form the grounds of our evidence, and these are to be ascertained
by our reason as by the help of a lamp in the gloom of night.
40. The bright eye-sight of reason, is neither blinded by the darkness
(of night), nor dimmed by the full blaze (of the day), even when it has
to view things (situated) at a distance.
41. He who is blind to reason is as one born blind, and a demented man
is an object of universal pity; but the man with a reasoning soul is
said to be possessed of divine eye-sight, and becomes victorious in all
things (he undertakes).
42. The miraculous power of reason is acknowledged to be a divine
attribute and an instrument to highest felicity; wherefore it is not to
be lost sight of for a moment.
43. The man graced by reason is loved even by the great, as the
delicious and ripe mango fruit is delectable to all.
44. Men with their minds illumed by the light of reason, are like
travellers acquainted with their way, and are not liable to pit falls
of incessant danger and misery.
45. Neither doth the sickman nor one beset by a hundred evils wail so
bitterly, as the ignorant man whose soul is deprived of reason.
46. Rather leap as a frog in the mud, or creep as a worm in the dirt,
rather lie as a snake in a dark cell or crawl on the ground, than walk
as a man devoid of reason.
47. Therefore get rid of unreasonableness which is the abode of all
your dangers, is reprobated by the wise (as the bane of mankind), and
is the terminus of all your calamities.
48. Great men must always be in full possession of their reasoning,
because those unsupported by their reason are liable to fall into the
pits of darkness.
49. Let every one keep his soul under the control (of his own reason),
and by this means, deliver the fawn of his mind from falling into the
mirage of this world.
50. It is the province of reasoning to consider logically in one’s
self, whence the evil, known as worldliness, had its rise.
51. The thick mist of error is only for the continued misery of man,
and it prevails on the stony minds of those that are demented by the
loss of reason.
52. The wise that hold fast on the truth and forsake all untruth in
this world, are yet unable to discern their true natures without the
aid of reason.
53. It is by means of reason that one comes to the knowledge of truth;
and by means of truth that he gets the peace of his mind; and it is the
tranquility of the mind that dispels the misery of men.
54. Now Ráma, do you take delight in such acts as may be productive of
utility to the world, and whereby you may arrive to perfection. Weigh
all things with the clear eye of reason, which will make you blessed
for ever.
CHAPTER XV.
ON CONTENTMENT.
Vasishtha continued:—Contentment is the chief good; contentment is
called the (true) enjoyment; and the contented man, O thou destroyer of
enemies, gets the best repose.
2. Those who are happy with their prosperity of contentment, and
possess the calm repose of their souls, are as holy saints, and think a
sovereignty no better than a bit of rotten straw.
3. Whoever retains a contented mind amidst all the affairs of the
world, he is never disturbed O Ráma, in adverse circumstances nor ever
dejected (in his spirit).
4. The saints that are satisfied with the ambrosial draught of
contentment, think the highest affluence and enjoyments (of the rich)
but poison (to their souls).
5. Even the waves of liquid nectar fail to afford that pleasure, which
the sweetest taste of contentment—the healer of all evils; gives to
its possessor.
6. Abandonment of unfruitful desires and calmness in those that are
obtained, feeling no pain at and having no sense of pleasure (in any
thing), constitute what is called contentment here below.
7. Until the mind can enjoy the contentment rising spontaneously in the
soul of itself, so long will troubles continue to grow in it as briars
and brambles in a bog.
8. The mind cooled by calm contentment, and purified by the light of
philosophy, is always in its full bloom as the lotus under sun-beams.
9. The ungoverned mind which is under the subjection of desires and
devoid of contentment, does not receive the light of knowledge, as a
soiled mirror takes no reflection of the face.
10. The man whose mind is always bright with the sunshine of
contentment, does not shrivel itself like the lotus in the dark night
of ignorance (or adversity).
11. A man though poor, enjoys the happiness of sovereignty, who is
devoid of diseases and anxieties, and whose mind is contented.
12. He is called a contented man, who does not long after what he is
not possessed of, and enjoys what he has in its right manner, and is
always graceful in his manners.
13. There is a beauty shining in the face of one, whose mind has the
satisfaction of contentment, the fulness of magnanimity and the purity
of thoughts like that of the milky ocean in it.
14. Let a man entertain his self-possession within himself, and abandon
his craving of all things, by reliance on his manly exertions.
15. He whose mind is full with the ambrosia of contentment and a calm
and cool understanding, acquires a perpetual composure within himself,
as it were by the cooling beams of the moon.
16. All great fortunes wait on him whose mind is strengthened by
contentment, as if they were his servants, and as they remain in
attendance upon a king.
17. One remaining content and composed in himself, quells all his
anxieties and cares, as the rains set down the dust of the earth.
18. Ráma! a man shines by the contentment of his mind and the purity of
his conduct, as the cooling and spotless moon when she is full.
19. No one receives so much delight from his accumulation of wealth,
as he derives from the sight of the beautiful placid countenance (of a
contented person).
20. Know, O thou delight of Raghu’s race! that the best of men who are
decorated with grace of equanimity (the only quality that adorns the
wise), are more honoured both by gods and sages than any.
CHAPTER XVI.
ON GOOD CONDUCT.
Vasishtha resumed saying:—
Know, O highly intelligent Ráma! that the company of the virtuous is
everywhere of the greatest benefit to men for their crossing over the
ocean of the world.
2. It is the arbour of virtuous company that produces the fresh blossom
of discrimination; which being cherished by high-souled men, yields to
them its fruits of prosperity.
3. The society of the learned makes solitude appear as company, and the
evil of death as good as a festivity; and converts a difficulty to ease.
4. It is the society of the virtuous which wards off all disasters,
that like the frost, invade the lotus beds of our hearts; and baffle
the icy breath of ignorance (which deadens our souls).
5. Know the society of the virtuous to be the best improver of the
understanding, the destroyer of the tree of ignorance; and remover of
all our mental diseases.
6. The society of the virtuous produces the light of reason, which is
as charmingly fair as a cluster of flowers after its being washed by
rain-water.
7. It is the influence of virtuous company that teaches us the best
mode of life, which is never impaired or obstructed by anything, and is
ever full in itself.
8. Let no man ever keep himself from the association of the virtuous,
though he is involved in utmost distress, and cast in irremediable
circumstances.
9. The society of the virtuous, lends a light to the right path. It
destroys the internal darkness of man, by the rays of the sun of
knowledge.
10. Whoever has bathed in the cold and clear stream of good company
is not in need of the merit derived from acts of charity, pilgrimage,
austerity and sacrifice.
11. Whoever has the society of virtuous men, and whose lives are free
from passions and sins, and doubts and the knots (of scruples in their
hearts), of what use is (the observance of) austerity, or (performance
of) pilgrimage (to him)?
12. Blessed are the peaceful in their minds, who are viewed with as
great an ardour by people, as poor men fondly dote upon gems and jewels.
13. The intelligent mind with its gracefulness derived from good
company, shines always as the goddess of riches in the company of fairy
nymphs.
14. Therefore that blessed man is renowned as having attained the crown
of a clear understanding, who never abstains himself from the company
of the holy.
15. Hence all unscrupulous believers, holy men and those who are
revered by people, are to be served by all means for crossing over the
ocean of the world.
16. Surely do they serve as dry fuel to hell-fire, who neglect the
company of the saints, which is known as rain water to extinguish the
flames of hell.
17. The medicine of holy association, serves to allay entirely all the
afflictions consequent to poverty and death and tribulations of worldly
affairs.
18. Contentment, society of the virtuous, ratiocination and quietism,
are the several means for crossing over the ocean of the world by
mankind.
19. Contentment is reckoned as the best gain, good company the right
course, reasoning the true knowledge, and quietism the highest bliss
(of man).
20. These are the four surest means to break off the trammels of the
world, and whoever is practiced in these, has surely passed over the
erroneous waters of the terrestrial sea.
21. Learn, O best of the intelligent! that the practice of some one
of these pure virtues, leads to an assuetude of all the four (cardinal
virtues).
22. Every one of these separately is a leader to the others; wherefore
diligently apply yourself to one of these for your success in getting
them all.
23. Association with the good, contentment, right reasoning, and good
judgment, joined with peace and tranquility, serve as cargo-ships in
the ocean of the world.
24. All prosperity attends on him who is possessed of reason,
contentment, quietism and the habit of keeping good company, like the
fruits of the _kalpa_ tree (satisfying every desire).
25. The man possessed of reasoning, contentment, quietude, and a
proclivity to keep good company, is attended by every grace, as all the
digits unite in the full moon.
26. The happy mind which is fraught with contentment, quietness,
reasoning power, and a tendency to good company, meets with the
prosperity and success, as they attend on kings (who are) guided by
(the counsels of) good ministers.
27. Therefore, O delight of Raghu’s race! do you bravely govern your
mind, and always practise with diligence some one of these virtues (for
your conduct in life).
28. Exert your best manliness to subdue your elephantine mind, and know
that until you have mastered one of these cardinal virtues, you can
make no progress (in holiness).
29. It must be, O Ráma! that you shall have to set your heart to work
by the exertion of your manliness and the gnashing of your teeth, for
your success in meritorious deeds.
30. For whether you be a god or _yaksha_ or a man or an arbor, you
cannot, O long-armed Ráma! have a better course till then (_i.e._
before mastering one of these qualities).
31. As soon as one of these virtues is strengthened and made fruitful
in you, it will serve to weaken the force of the faults of your
ungovernable mind.
32. The cultivation of virtues leads to their full growth and
suppression of vice; but the fostering of vice will (on the other
hand) conduce to the increase of vices and suppression of good
qualities.
33. The mind is a wilderness of errors, in which the stream of our
desires is running with full force, amidst its two banks of good and
evil whereon we hold our stand.
34. It bears away and throws the man on that bank which he strives to
reach by his own exertion, therefore O Ráma, do as you like to reach to
either shore.
35. Now try by degrees with all the exertion of your manly force, to
turn the course of your desires towards the happy shore in the forest
of your mind; and know, O high-minded Ráma; that one’s own disposition
is as a rapid current to him, which must not be permitted to bear him
away (to the perilous coast).
CHAPTER XVII.
ON THE CONTENTS OF THE WORK.
Thus, O progeny of Raghu! it is the reasoning soul that is worthy of
attending to the words of wisdom, as a prince (is inclined to listen)
to a discourse on polity.
2. The clear and high-minded man, who has renounced the company of
stupid folks, is capable of fair reasoning, as the clear sky has the
capacity of receiving the moon-light.
3. You who are replete with the entire grace of this quality, should
now attend to the words, that I say, to remove the errors of your mind.
4. He, the arbour of whose merits is bending down with the load of
its fruits, feels a desire to hear these words for the sake of his
salvation.
5. It is the noble minded only and not the base, that are receptacles
of grand and holy sermons conferring the knowledge of their future
state.
6. This collection consisting of thirty-two thousand stanzas, is deemed
as containing the essence of the means conducing to liberation, and
conferring the final annihilation (of our being).
7. As a lighted lamp presents its light to every waking man, so does
this work effect the ultimate extinction of every person whether he
would like it or not.
8. One’s knowledge of this work whether by his own perusal or hearing
of it from the rehearsal of others, tends to the immediate obliteration
of his errors and augmentation of his delight, as it is done by the
holy river of heaven (Ganges).
9. As the fallacy of a snake in the rope is removed by examining it,
so the fallacy of the reality of the world is removed by perusal of
this work, which gives peace to one who is vexed with and tired of the
world.
10. It contains six books all fraught with sentences full of reason,
and each distinct from the other in its import. It has many verses
containing chosen examples on all subjects.
11. The first book treats of Indifference, and causes the growth of
apathy (in the mind) like that of a tree in the desert soil.
12. It contains one thousand and five hundred stanzas, which being well
considered in the mind, must impart a purity to it like the lustre of a
gem after its polish.
13. The next book dwells on the conduct of one longing after his
liberation, and contains a thousand slokas arranged in judicious order.
14. It describes the nature of men desiring their liberation. Then
follows the book on the creation of the world, and filled with
narratives and examples (of various kinds).
15. It has seven thousand stanzas teaching sound philosophy about the
spectator and spectacle of the world in the forms of—_I and thou_,
designated the _ego_ and _non-ego_.
16. It contains a description of the production of the world from its
state of non-existence. A diligent attention to this chapter will
convey a full knowledge of this world into the mind of the hearer.
17. This _ego_ and _non-ego_, and this vast expanse with all the
worlds, space and mountains, are (to be viewed) as having no form nor
foundation, and as there are no such things (in reality).
18. There are no elements as the earth and others which exist in our
fancy only, and are like phantoms appearing in a dream, or as aerial
castles and chimeras of the mind.
20. They resemble the moving hills on the shore to one passing in a
boat, without any actual movement in them; or liken the hobgoblins
appearing to an unsound mind. Such is the appearance of the world
without any seed or source or origin of its own.
21. It is as the impression of a tale in the mind, or the sight of a
chain of pearls in the sky, or taking a bracelet for its gold or a
wave for the water. (_i.e._ Taking the appearance for its _cause_, or
the phenomena for the noumena).
22. Or as the blueness of the sky is always apparent to sight without
its reality, and evercharming to behold without the existence of any
colour in it.
23. Thus whatever unreal wonders always appear to us in our dreams or
in the sky, they are but the resemblances of a fire in a picture, which
seems to be burning without having any fire in it.
24. The word “jagat” or _passing_, is appropriately applied to the
transitory world, which passes like the sea with its heaving waves,
appearing as a chain of lotus flowers in dancing.
25. It is (as false) as one’s imagination of a body of waters at a
spot, from the sound of the ruddy geese (that live by rivers); and (as
useless) as a withered forest in autumn, when the leaves and fruits
fall off, and yield neither shade nor luscious nutriment, (to the
traveller).
26. It is full with delirious cravings as of men at the point of death,
and as dark as caverns in the mountains. Hence the efforts of men are
but acts of their phrensy.
27. It is better to dwell in the clear sky of the autumnal (atmosphere
of) philosophy, after subsidence of the frost of ignorance, than to
view at this world, which is no more than an image at a post or a
picture upon the wall.
28. Know all sensible and insensible things to be made of dust (to be
reduced to dust again). Next follows the book on Existence.
29. It contains three thousand stanzas full of explanations and
narratives, showing the existence of the world to be a form (or
development) of the essence of the _Ego_ (in a subjective light).
30. It treats of the manner in which the spectator (_Ego_) is manifest
as the spectacle (_non-ego_), and how the ten-sided sphere of the
arbour of the world is manifest both as the subjective and objective
(at the same time).
31. It has thus arrived at its development which is said to be
everlasting. Next follows the book on quietude consisting of five
thousand stanzas.
32. The fifth is styled the book on holiness, containing a series of
excellent lectures, and shewing the erroneous conception of the world,
as I, thou and he (as distinct existences).
33. It is the suppression of this error, which forms the subject of
this book; and the hearing of the chapter on quietude, serves to put an
end to our transmigration in this world.
34. After suppression of the train of errors, there still remain slight
vestiges of it to a hundredth part, as the dispersed troops in a
picture afford us some faint idea of them.
35. Aiming at the object of another person is as vain as looking at
the beauty of an imaginary city, and sitting in expectation of an
unattainable object. It is as a noisy fighting for something in sleep.
36. It is as vain as a man of unsubdued desires, bursting into a
roaring like that of the loud and tremendous thunder-claps, and as the
raising of a city on the model of one’s effaced impressions in a dream.
37. It is as vain as a would-be city, with its garden and flowers and
fruits growing in it: and as a sterile woman bragging of the valorous
deeds of her unborn and would-be sons.
38. Or when a painter is about to draw the picture of an imaginary city
on the ground work of a chart, by forgetting to sketch a plan of it
beforehand.
39. It is as vain as to expect evergreen herbage and fruitage of all
seasons, and the breeze of an ungrown arbour; or to it in a future
flowery parterre, pleasant with the sweets of spring.
40. Then follows the sixth book entitled annihilation, which is as
clear as the waters of a river after subsidence of its billows within
itself.
41. It contains the remaining number of slokas (_i.e._ 14500 Stanzas
of the aggregate number of 32000 Slokas composing the entire work),
a knowledge of these is pregnant with great meanings, and the
understanding of them leads to the chief good of utter extinction and
pacification of desires.
42. The intellect being abstracted from all its objects, presents the
manifestation of the soul, which is full of intelligence and free from
all impurity. It is enveloped in the sheath of infinite vacuity, and is
wholly pure and devoid of worldly errors.
43. Having finished its journey through the world and performed its
duties here, the soul assumes a calmness as that of the adamantine
column of the sky, reflecting the images of the tumultuous world
(without changing itself).
44. It rejoices exceedingly at its being delivered from the innumerable
snares of the world, and becomes as light as air by being freed from
its desire of looking after the endless objects (of its enjoyments).
45. The soul that takes no notice of the cause or effect or doing of
any thing, as also of what is to be avoided or accepted (i.e. which
remains totally indifferent to every thing), is said to be disembodied
though encumbered with a body, and to become unworldly in its worldly
state.
46. The intelligent soul is compared to a solid rock, compact and
without any gap in it. It is the sun of intelligence which enlightens
all people, and dispels the darkness of ignorance.
47. (This soul) though so very luminous, has become grossly darkened
(in its nature), by being confined to the vile fooleries of the world,
and wasted by the malady of its cravings.
48. When freed from the chimera of its _egoism_, it becomes incorporeal
even in its embodied state, and beholds (the glory of) the whole world
as it was placed at the point of one of the myriads of hairs (on its
body), or like a bee sitting on a flower upon the Sumeru mountain.
49. The intelligent and vacuous soul contains and beholds in its sphere
a thousand glories of the world, shining in each atom, as it was in a
mirror.
50. It is not even possible to thousands of Haris, Haras and Brahmás,
to equal the great minded sage in the extent of his comprehensive soul;
because the liberated have their chief good (of internal joy) stretched
to a far greater limit than any.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ASCERTAINMENT OF THE EXAMPLE OR MAJOR PROPOSITION
Vasishtha said:—
The several parts of this work as already related, give rise to the
understanding, as seeds sown in a good field never fail to produce good
fruitage.
2. Even human compositions are acceptable when they are instructive
of good sense; otherwise the Vedas also are to be renounced (as
unreliable); because men are required always to abide by reason.
3. Words conformable with reason are to be received even if spoken by
boys; otherwise they are to be rejected as straws though pronounced by
the lotus-born (Brahmá himself).
4. Whoever drinks from a well by reason of its being dug by his
ancestors, and rejects the holy water of the Ganges even when placed
before him, is an incorrigible simpleton.
5. As early dawn is invariably accompanied by its train of light, so is
good judgment an inevitable attendant on the perusal of this work.
6. Whether these lessons are heard from the mouth of the learned, or
well studied by one’s self, they will gradually make their impressions
upon the mind by one’s constant reflection on their sense.
7. They will first furnish (to the learner) a variety of Sanskrit
expressions, and then spread before him a series of holy and judicious
maxims, like so many ornamental creepers to decorate the hall.
8. They will produce a cleverness joined with such qualifications and
greatness, as to engage the good grace of gods and kings.
9. They are called the intelligent who know the cause and effect of
things, and are likened to a torch-bearer who is clear sighted in the
darkness of the night. (Like the _stoa_ of the Stoics).
10. All their erroneous and covetous thoughts become weaker by degrees,
as the regions of the sky are cleared of their mists at the approach of
autumn.
11. Your thoughts require only the guidance of reason (to hit the
right), as every action needs be duly performed to make it successful.
12. The intellect becomes (by culture) as clear as a great lake in
autumn, and it gets its calmness (by reason), like that of the sea
after its churning by the Mandara mountain.
13. Like the flame of a chandelier cleansed of its sootiness and
dispelling the shroud of darkness, the refined intellect shines forth
in full brightness, and distinguishes (the different natures of) things.
14. The evils of penury and poverty cannot overpower on them, whose
strong sight can discern the evils of their opposites (wealth and
riches); as no dart can pierce the mortal parts of a soldier clad in
full armour.
15. No worldly fears can daunt the heart of the wise man, however
nearest they may approach to him. Just as no arrow can pierce through a
huge solid stone.
16. Such doubts as “whether it is destiny or our own merit that is
the cause of our births and actions,” are removed (by learning), as
darkness is dispelled by day-light.
17. There is a calm tranquility attending upon the wise at all times
and in all conditions (of life); so also does the light of reason like
solar rays, follow the dark night of error.
18. The man of right judgment has a soul as deep as the ocean and as
firm as a mountain, and a cool serenity always shines within him like
that of moon-light.
19. It is he who arrives slowly at what is called “living-liberation;”
who remains calm amidst the endless turmoils (of the world), and is
quite aloof from common talk (_i.e._ unnoticed by the world).
20. His mind is calm and cool at every thing; it is pure and full
of heavenly light; shining serenely as the autumnal night with the
radiance of moon-beams.
21. When the sun of reason illumines the cloudless region of the mind,
no portentous comet of evil can make its appearance (within its sphere).
22. All desires are at rest with the elevated; they are pure with the
steady, and indifferent to the inert, like the body of light clouds in
autumn.
23. The slanders of envious ill-wishers are put out of countenance (by
the wise), as the frolics of goblins disappear at the approach of day.
24. The mind that is fixed on the firm basis of virtue, and placed
under the burthen of patience, is not to be shaken by accidents; but
remains as a plant in a painting (unmoved by winds).
25. The knowing man does not fall into the pit-falls lying all about
the affairs of this world: for who that knows the way will run into the
ditch?
26. The minds of the wise are as much delighted in acting conformably
to the precepts of good books and the examples of the virtuous, as
chaste women are fond of keeping themselves within the bounds of the
inner apartments.
27. Of the innumerable millions of atoms which compose this universe,
every one of them is viewed in the light of a world in the mind of the
abstracted philosopher.
28. The man whose mind is purified by a knowledge of the precepts of
liberation, neither repines nor rejoices at the loss or gain of the
objects of enjoyment.
29. Men of unfettered minds look upon the appearance and disappearance
of every atomic world, as the fluctuating wave of the sea.
30. They neither grieve at unwished-for occurrences nor pine for
their wished-for chances; and knowing well all accidents to be the
consequences of their actions, they remain as unconscious as trees
(totally insensible of them).
31. These (holy men) appear as common people, and live upon what they
get; whether they meet with aught of welcome or unwelcome to them,
their minds remain unconquered.
32. They having understood the whole of this Sástra, and having read
and considered it well, as well as pondered (on its purport), hold
their silence as in the case of a curse or blessing (which is never
uttered by saints).
33. This Sástra is easy to be understood, and is ornamented with
figures (of speech). It is a poem full of flavours and embellished with
beautiful similes.
34. One may be self taught in it who has a slight knowledge of words
and their senses; but he who does not understand the purport well,
should learn it from a pandit.
35. After hearing, thinking and understanding this work, one has no
more need of practising austerities, or of meditation and repeating
the _Mantras_ and other rites: and a man requires nothing else in this
world for the attainment of his liberation.
36. By deep study of this work and its repeated perusal, a man attains
to an uncommon scholarship next to the purification of his soul.
37. The _ego_ and the _non-ego_, that is, the _viewer_ and the _view_,
are both but chimeras of the imagination, and it is their annihilation
alone, that leads insensibly to the vision of the soul.
38. The error of the reality of _ego_ and the perceptible world, will
vanish away as visions in a dream; for who, that knows the falsehood of
dreams, will fall into the error (of taking them for truth?)
39. As an imaginary palace gives no joy or grief to any body, so it is
in the case of the erroneous conception of the world.
40. As no body is afraid of a serpent that he sees in painting, so the
sight of a living serpent neither terrifies nor pleases one who knows
it.
41. And as it is our knowledge of the painted serpent that removes our
fear of it as a serpent, so our conviction of the unreality of the
world, must disperse our mistake of its existence.
42. Even the plucking of a flower or tearing of its (tender) leaflet,
is attended with a little exertion (of the nails and fingers), but no
(bodily) exertion whatever is required to gain the blessed state (of
Yoga meditation).
43. There is an action of the members of body, accompanied with the act
of plucking or pulling off a flower; but in the other case (of Yoga),
you have only to fix your mind, and make no exertion of your body.
44. It is practicable with ease by any one sitting on his easy seat
and fed with his usual food, and not addicted to gross pleasures, nor
trespassing the rules of good conduct.
45. You can derive happiness at each place and time, from your own
observations, as also from your association with the good wherever it
is available. This is an optional rule.
46. These are the means of gaining a knowledge of the highest wisdom,
conferring peace in this world, and saving us from the pain of being
reborn in the womb.
47. But such as are afraid of this course, and are addicted to the
vicious pleasures of the world, are to be reckoned as too base, and no
better than faeces and worms of their mother’s bowels.
48. Attend now, Ráma, to what I am going to say with regard to the
advancement of knowledge, and improvement of the understanding in
another way.
49. Hear now the recent method in which this Sástra is learnt (by
people), and its true sense interpreted to them by means of its
Exposition.
50. That thing which serves to explain the unapparent meaning (of a
passage), by its illustration by some thing that is well known, and
which may be useful to help the understanding (of the passage) is
called a simile or Example.
51. It is hard to understand the meaning given before without an
instance, just as it is useless to have a lampstick at home without
setting a lamp on it at night.
52. Whatever similes and examples I have used to make you understand
(the precepts), are all derived from some cause or other, but they lead
to knowledge of the uncaused Brahma.
53. Wherever the comparisons and compared objects are used as
expressive of the cause and effect, they apply to all cases except
Brahma (who is without a cause).
54. The examples that are given to explain the nature of Brahma, are to
be taken in their partial (and not general) sense.
55. Whatever examples are given here as explanatory of divine nature,
they are to be understood as appertaining to a world seen in a dream.
56. In such cases, no corporeal instance can apply to the incorporeal
Brahma, nor optional and ambiguous expressions give a definite idea of
Him.
57. Those who find fault with instances of an imperfect or
contradictory nature, cannot blame our comparison of the appearance of
the world to a vision in dream.
58. A prior and posterior non-entity is considered as existent at the
present moment (as is the visible world which was not, nor will be
afterwards). So the waking and dreaming states are known to be alike
from our boyhood.
59. The simile of the existence of the world with the dreaming state
is exact in all instances, as our desires, thoughts, our pleasures and
displeasures, and all other acts are alike in both states.
60. Both this work and others which have been composed by other authors
on the means of salvation, have all pursued the same plan in their
explanation of the knowable.
61. The resemblance of the world to a dream is found also in the
Srutis or Vedánta. It is not to be explained in a word, but requires a
continued course of lectures (on the subject).
62. The comparison of the world to an imagery in the dream or an
imaginary Utopia of the mind, is also adduced in examples of this kind
in preference to others.
63. Whenever a causality is shown by a simile of something which is no
cause, there the simile is applied in some particular and not all its
general attributes.
64. The partial similitude of this comparison with some property of the
compared object, is unhesitatingly acknowledged by the learned in all
their illustrations.
65. The light of the sense (of some thing) is compared with a lamp in
its brightness only, in disregard of its stand or stick, the oil or the
wick.
66. The compared object is to be understood in its capacity of
admitting a partial comparison (of the properties); as in the instance
of sense and light, the simile consists in the brightness of both.
67. When the knowledge of the knowable thing is derived from some
particular property of the comparison, it is granted as a suitable
simile, in understanding the sense of some great saying (passage in the
scriptures).
68. We must not overshadow our intellect by bad logic, nor set at
naught our common sense by an unholy scepticism.
69. We have by our reasoning well weighed the verbosity of our
opinionative adversaries, and never set aside the holy sayings of the
Vedas, even when they are at variance with the opinions of our families.
70. O Ráma! we have stored in our minds the truths resulting from the
unanimous voice of all the Sástras, whereby it will be evident that
we have attained the object of our belief, apart from the fabricated
systems of heretical Sástras.
CHAPTER XIX.
ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE EVIDENCE.
It is the similarity of some particular property (of one thing to that
of another) which constitutes a simile; whereas a complete similitude
between the comparison and compared object, destroys their difference
(and makes them the one and same thing).
2. From the knowledge of parables follows the cognition of the one soul
treated of in the Sástras (Vedánta); and the peace which attends on the
meditation of the Holy Word, is styled Extinction.
3. It is therefore useless to talk of either (the complete or partial)
agreement (of the properties) of the example and the exemplar; it is
enough to the purpose to comprehend the purport of the holy word in
some way or other.
4. Know your peace to be the chief good, and be diligent to secure the
same. When you have got the food for your eating, it is useless to talk
about how you came by it.
5. A cause is compared with (or shewn for its explication by) something
which is no cause at all: so is a comparison given to express its
partial agreement in some respect with the compared object.
6. We must not be so absorbed in the pleasures of the world as to be
devoid of all sensibility; like some blind frogs which are generated
and grow fat amidst the stones.
7. Be attentive to these parables and learn your best state from them;
all reasonable men should abide by the lessons of religious works for
their internal peace.
8. As also by the precepts of the Sástras, by the rules of humanity,
prudence and spiritual knowledge; and also by the continued practice of
the acts of religious merit.
9. Let the wise continue their inquiries until they can obtain their
internal peace, and until they may arrive at the fourth stage (turya)
of felicity known by the name of indestructible tranquility.
10. Whoso has gained this fourth state of tranquil felicity, he has
really passed beyond the limits of the ocean of the world, whether he
is alive or not, or a house-holder or an ascetic.
11. Such a man remains steady at his place like the calm sea
undisturbed by the Mandara mountain, whether he has performed his
duties according to the Srutis and Smritis or not.
12. When there is a partial agreement of the comparison with the nature
of the compared object, it is to be considered maturely for the well
understanding of the point in question, and not to be made a matter of
controversy.
13. From every form of argument you are to understand the intelligible
(that is explained to you); but the confounded disputant is blind both
to right and false reasoning.
14. The notion of self (soul or God) being clear (self-evident) in
the sphere of our consciousness within the mind. Any one who prattles
meaninglessly about this truth, is said to be defective in his
understanding (_i.e._ our consciousness of self-existence according to
the maxim “_Ego sum qui cogito_,” is an undeniable truth).
15. It is partly by pride and partly by their doubts, that the ignorant
are led to altercate about their cognitions, and thereby they obscure
the region of their inward understanding, as the clouds overshadow the
clear firmament.
16. Of all sorts of proofs it is the evidence of perception which forms
their fountain-head, as the sea is the mainspring of all its waters. It
is this alone which is used in this place as you shall learn below.
17. The substance of all sensations is said to be the supersensible
apprehension (or inward knowledge of things) by the wise; and it is
verily their right concept which is meant by their perception.
18. Thus the notion, knowledge and certainty (of things) as derived
from words, are styled the triplicate perception as we have of the
living soul.
19. This soul is consciousness and egoism, and is of the masculine
termination, and the cognition of the object whereby it is manifested
to us, is called a category. (Viz. _samvid_, _samvitti_ and _padártha_).
20. It becomes manifest in the form of the passing world by the
multifarious acts and shifts of its volition and option, as the water
exhibits itself in the shape of its waves and bubbles.
21. It was uncausal before, and then developed itself as the cause of
all in its act of creating at the beginning of creation, and became
perceptible by itself.
22. The causality was a product of the discrimination of the living
soul, that was in a state of inexistence (before); until it became
manifest as existent in the form of the material world.
23. Reason says, that the self-same being destroys the body which
was produced of itself, and manifests itself in its transcendental
magnitude (of intelligence).
24. When the reasoning man comes to know the soul, he finds by his
reason the presence of the indescribable being, before him.
25. The mind being free from desire, the organs of sense are relieved
from their action, the soul becomes devoid of the results of its past
actions as of those it has left undone.
26. The mind being set at ease and freed from its desires, the organs
of action are restrained from their acts, as an engine when stopped in
its motion.
27. It is sensuousness which is reckoned as the cause that puts the
machinery of the mind to work, just as the rope tied to the log and
fastened about the neck of a ram, propels him to fighting.
28. The sight of external objects and the purposes of the internal
mind, set all men at play, as the inward force of the air puts the
winds to motion.
29. All spiritual knowledge is holy wherever it is found in any one: it
adds a lustre to the body and mind like that of the expanded region of
the sky.
30. He sees the appearances of all visible objects, and maintains his
own position among them. He views the spirit in the same light in which
it presents itself in any place.
31. Wherever the universal soul appears itself in any light, it remains
there and then in the same form in which it exhibits itself unto us.
32. The universal soul being alike in all, the looker and the object
seen are both the same being. The looker and the looked being one,
their appearance as otherwise is all unreal.
33. Hence the world is without a cause (because it is an unreality and
not caused by any one). All existence is evidently Brahma himself, the
perceptible cause of all. Hence perception (_pratyaxa_) is the basis of
evidence, and inference and others as analogy and verbal testimony are
but parts of it (_anumána_, _upamá_, _sábdah_).
34. Now let the worshippers of fate who apply the term destiny to all
their exertions, cast off their false faith; and let the brave exert
their manliness to attain their highest state.
35. Continue O Ráma, to consider the true and lucid doctrines of the
successive teachers (of mankind), until you can arrive to a clear
conception of the infinitely Supreme being in your own mind.
CHAPTER XX.
ON GOOD CONDUCT.
It is the society of the respectable and reasoning with them, that
leads most efficiently to the improvement of the understanding, and
next to the making of a great man, with all the characteristics of
greatness.
2. Whatever man excels in any quality here, he becomes distinguished by
it: therefore learn it from him, and improve your understanding by the
same.
3. True greatness consists in quietness and other virtues, without
a knowledge of which it is impossible, O Ráma! to be successful in
anything.
4. Learning produces quiet and other qualities, and increases the
virtues of good people; all which are praised by their good effects
on the mind, as the rain is hailed for its growing the new sprouts of
plants.
5. The qualities of quietude and other virtues serve to increase the
best knowledge (of men); as sacrifice with rice serves to produce
felicitous rains for the harvest.
6. As learning produces the qualities of quiet and the like, so do
these qualities give rise to learning; thus they serve to grow each
other, as the lake and lotuses contribute to their mutual benefit
(excellence).
7. Learning is produced by right conduct as good conduct results from
learning; thus wisdom and morality are natural helps to one another.
8. The intelligent man who is possessed of quietude, meekness and good
conduct, should practise wisdom, and follow the ways of good people.
9. Unless one should bring to practice his wisdom and good conduct in
an equal degree, he will never be successful in either of them.
10. Both of these should be conjoined together like the song united
with percussion, as it is done by the husbandman and his wife in sowing
the seeds and driving away the (seed-picking) birds from their fields
of grain.
11. It is by practice of wisdom and right conduct (as causes of one
another), that good people are enabled to acquire both of them in an
equal degree.
12. I have already expounded to you, O Ráma, the rule of good conduct,
and will now explain to you fully the way of gaining learning.
13. Learning conduces to renown, long life and to the acquisition of
the object of your exertion; therefore should the intelligent learn the
good sciences from those who have studied and mastered them.
14. By hearing (these lectures) with a clear understanding, you will
surely attain the state of perfection, as dirty water is purified by
infusion of the _Kata_ fruits.
15. The sage who has known the knowable, has his mind drawn insensibly
to the blissful state; and that highest state of unbounded felicity
being once known and felt (in the mind), it is hard to loose its
impression at any time.
YOGA VÁSISHTHA
BOOK III.
UTPATTI-KHANDA.
EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.
SECTION I.
EXORDIUM (BHÚMIKÁ.)
It is both by means of words and lights (_Vágbhábhis_ _i.e._ the words
of the scripture and the lights of nature and reason), that the knower
of the Great God (Brahmavid), perceives the spirit of Brahma appearing
within himself as in a dream. And he also knows him as such, who
understands him according to the purport of the holy text. “What this
is, that is the self.” (_i.e._ He is all in all).
2. This passage shows in short, the visible world to reside in the
vacuous bosom of Brahma at its creation: it is now to be known in
length, what this creation is, whence it takes its rise, and wherein it
becomes extinct at last.
3. Hear me, O intelligent Ráma! now expound to you all things according
to my best knowledge of them, and agreeably to their nature and
substance in the order of creation.
4. One conscious of himself as a spiritual and intelligent being, views
the passing world as a _Somnum_ (swapnam) dream: and this dreaming
simile of the passing world, applies equally to our knowledge of _ego_
and _tu_ or _non-ego_ (which is as false as our cognitions in a dream).
5. Next to the book describing the conduct of the seekers of liberation
(_mumukshu-vyavahára_), then follows the book of evolution (_utpatti_),
which I am now going to propound to you.
SECTION II.
WORLDLY BONDAGE.
6. Bondage consists in our belief of the reality of the visible world
(and our relation with its phenomena, Gloss). So our release depends on
the negation of phenomenals. Now hear me tell you how to get rid of the
visible (fetters of our minds).
7. Whoever is born in this world, continues to progress, till at
last he obtains his final liberation (his _ultimum_ and _optimum_
perfection); or rises towards heaven or falls into hell (under the
subjection of his righteous and unrighteous actions (Gloss)).
8. I shall therefore expound for your understanding every thing
relating to the production and continuance of things, and their prior
states as they were.
9. Hear me Ráma, now give you an abstract of this book in brief, and I
will here-after dilate upon it, as you may wish to know more of this
(theory of production).
SECTION III.
PHASES OF THE SPIRIT.
10. Whatever appears either as moving or unmoving in this world,
know them all as appearances in a dream in a state of sound sleep
(_susupti_); which become extinct at the end of a _Kalpa-age_. (The
events of a _Kalpa_ or day of Brahmá are as his day dream).
11. Then there remains a nameless and undeveloped something, in a
state of deep, dark and dank abyss, without any light or thick-spread
(nebulae) over it. (The Teo and Beo of Moses, the _tama_ = teom of Manu
and Veda, and the Moisture of Thales).
12. This great self-existence is afterwards attributed with the
titles of Reality (_Rita_), self (_Átma_), Supreme (_Param_), Immense
(_Brahma_), Truth (_Satyam_) and so forth by the wise, as expressions
for the Great Spirit (_mahátman_) for popular use. (Vide Gloss for
definitions of these terms).
13. This self-same spirit next shows itself in another form, which
is called the living soul (_Jívátmá_), and comes afterwards to be
understood in the limited sense of life. (Jíva, Jív, Zeu or Zeus; Ji
and Ján; Zoa Protozoa &c.). (But it is the undivided and universal soul
of which the divided, individual and particular souls are but parts and
particles. Gloss).
14. This inert living principle (Jíva-Life or the Protozoa), becomes
according to its literal signification the moving spirit (_ákulátma_),
which afterwards with its power of thinking (_manana_) becomes the
Mind, and lastly the embodied soul (Bhútátmá). (So says the Sruti;
_Etasmát Jáyate pránah_, _manah_, _sarvendriyánicha_, _Kham_,
_Váyurúp_, _Prithiví_ _&c._ (_i.e._ From Him—the Spirit, is derived
the life, mind and the organs of sense or body, whence he is styled the
Living, Thinking and All acting Deity)).
15. Thus the mind is produced and changed from the quiescent nature of
the Great Supreme Spirit to a state of restlessness (_asthirákára_)
like that of a surge, heaving itself in the (Pacific) Ocean (_i.e._
the restful spirit of God-Brahma is transformed to the restless state
of the Mind, personified as Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha, called the
Atmabhu—the son of the spirit of God or God the Son, Demiurge).
16. The mind soon evolves itself as a self-volitive power which
exercises its desires at all times whereby this extensive magic
scene of the world is displayed to our view. This scene is figured
as _Virájmúrti_, or manifestation of the desires of the will of
Divine mind, and represented as the offspring of Brahmá in the Indian
Theogony. (_Vide_ Manu on Genesis, chap I).
17. As the word golden bracelet signifies no other thing than a
bracelet made of gold, so the meaning of the word world is not
different from its source—the Divine will. (The difference is formal
and not material, and consists in form and not in the substance, the
divine will being the substratum of the formal world).
18. Again as the word gold bears the idea of the substance of which the
bracelet is made, so the word Brahma conveys the meaning of immensity
which contains the world in it; but the word world contains no idea of
Brahma nor bracelet that of gold. (The substance contains the form as a
stone does the statue, but the form does not contain the substance, as
the statue may be of earth or metal or of wood).
19. The unreality of the world appears as a reality, just as the heat
of the sun presents the unreal mirage in the moving sands of the desert
as real waves of the sea. (So the phantasm of the mind-Brahmá, presents
the phantasmagoria of the world (Viswarúpa) as a sober reality).
20. It is this phantasy (of the reality of the unreal world),
which the learned in all things, designate as ignorance—_avidyá_,
nature—_sansriti_, bondage—_bandha_, illusion—_máyá_, error-_moha_,
and darkness—_tamas_. (To denote our mental delusion and deception of
senses. Gloss).
SECTION IV.
NATURE OF BONDAGE.
21. Now hear me relate to you, O moon-faced Ráma! about the nature of
this bondage, whereby you will be able to know the mode and manner of
our liberation from it (as the diagnosis of a disease being known, it
is not difficult to heal it).
22. The intimate relation of the spectator with the spectacle is called
his bondage to the same, because the looker’s mind is fast bound to
the object of his sight. It is the absence of the visible objects,
therefore, from the mirror of the mind, which is the only means of his
liberation. (So also is the removal of the objects of the other senses
from the mind).
23. The knowledge of the world, _ego_ and _tu_ (as separate existences)
is said to be an erroneous view of the soul (which is one and the same
in all); and there can be no liberation of one, as long as he labours
under this blunder of _bheda-jnána_ or knowledge of individualities.
(This is called _savikalpa-jnána_ or cognition of biplicity, which
cannot lead to _Kaivalya mukti_ or the felicity derived from a
knowledge of universal unity).
24. To say that the soul is neither this nor that (_nedam-nedam_) is
but false logomachy, which cannot come to an end. The discrimination
of alternatives serves only to increase the ardour for the visibles.
(_i.e._ The ardour of induction spreads the infection of materialism.
The idle _neti-neti_ and _tanna-tanna_ of Vedanta Philosophy is mere
amphilogy and prevarication of both, as _idem et non idem_).
25. It is not to be obtained by sophists by the chopping of logic or by
pilgrimage or ceremonial acts, any more than by a belief in the reality
of the _phenomenal_ world. (All these are observances of the esoteric
faith and blind persuasion, but do not appertain to the science of
esoteric spiritualism. Gloss).
26. It is hard to avoid the sight of the phenomenal world, and to
repress one’s ardour for the same. But it is certain that, the visibles
can not lead us to the Reality, nor the Real mislead us to unreality
(_i.e._ the spiritual and physical knowledge are mutually repugnant to
each other).
27. Wherever the invisible, inconceivable and intelligent spirit is
existent, there the beholder views the visible beauty of God shining
even in the midst of atoms. (_i.e._ Every particle of matter manifests
the beauty of its maker; unless there be a dull material object to
intercept the sight of the intelligent soul).
28. The phenomenal world has its rise from Him, yet those ignorant
people that depart from Him to the adoration of others, resemble fools,
that forsake rice to feed upon gruel. (_i.e._ They take the shadow for
the substance).
29. Although this visible world is apparent to sight, yet O Ráma! it
is but a shadow of that Being, who resides alike in the smallest atom
as in the mirror of the mind, that receives the image of the largest
as well as minutest things. (Compare. As full and perfect in a hair as
heart. Pope.)
30. The spirit is reflected in every thing like a figure in the mirror,
and it shines equally in rocks and seas, in the land and water, as it
does in the mirror of the mind. (compare: Wherever I cast my eyes, thy
beauty shines).
31. The visible world is the scene of incessant woes, births, decay
and death, and the states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are
presenting by turns the gross, subtile and evanescent forms of things
for our delusion.
32. Here I sit in my meditative mood (_anirúdha_), having wiped off
the impressions of the visibles from my mind; but my meditation is
disturbed by the recurrence of my remembrance of the visibles: and this
is the cause of the endless transmigrations of the soul. (_i.e._ The
reminiscence of the past is the cause of our everlasting bondage in
life).
33. It is hard to have a fixed (_nirúdha_) and unalterable
(_nirvikalpa_) meditation (_samádhi_), when the sight of the visible
world is present before our bodily and mental vision. Even the fourth
stage of insensible _samádhi_ called the turíya, in the state of sound
sleep (_susupti_), is soon succeeded by one’s self-consciousness and
external intelligence.
34. On rising from this state of deep meditation, one finds himself as
roused from his sound sleep, in order to view the world full of all its
woes and imperfections opening wide before him. (Compare, “I wake to a
sea of troubles, how happy they who wake no more”. Young).
35. What then, O Ráma! is the good of this transient bliss which one
attains by his temporary abstraction (Dhyána), when he has to fall
again to his sense of the sufferings to which the world is subject as a
vale of tears. (Compare, “When the cock crew I wept &c.” Young’s Night
Thoughts).
36. But if one can attain to a state of unalterable abstraction of his
thoughts from all worldly objects, as he has in his state of sound
sleep (_susupti_), he is then said to have reached the highest pitch of
his holiness on earth. (For it is the entire oblivion of the world that
is necessary for our spiritual perfection, as it is said, “forget the
present for the future”).
37. No body has ever earned aught of reality in the scene of unreal
vanities; for whenever his thoughts come in contact with any outward
thing, he finds it inseparable from the blemishes of existence.
(“Vanity of vanities, the world is vanity”. Ecclesiastes.)
38. Should any body (in the practice of the fixedness of his
attention), fix his sight for a while on a stone, by forcibly
withdrawing it from visible objects, he is sure to be carried away
afterwards by the visibles pressing upon his sight.
39. It is well known to all that an unflinching meditation, having even
the firmness of a rock, can have no durability, in the practice of the
Yogi owing to his worldly propensities.
40. Even the _nirúdha_ or steadfast meditation which has attained the
fixedness of a rock, cannot advance one step towards the attainment of
that tranquillity which has no bounds to it. (_i.e._ The everlasting
bliss of liberation or _moksha_).
41. Thus the sight of phenomena being altogether irrepressible, it is a
foolish supposition of its being suppressed by practices of _Jap-tap_
or prayers and austerities and the like acts of devotion.
42. The idea of the phenomena (_drisyadhi_), is as inherent in the mind
of the spectator of the visible world, as the seeds of the lotus flower
are contained in the inner cells of the pericarp.
43. The ideal of the phenomenal world (_drisyadhi_), lies as hidden
in the minds of the spectators of the outer world, as are the in-born
flavour and moisture of fruits, the oil of sesamum seeds; and the
innate sweet scent of flowers.
44. As the fragrance of camphor and other odoriferous substances
inheres in their nature, so the reflexion of the visible world resides
in the bosom of the intellect.
45. As your dreams and desires rise and subside of themselves under the
province of your intellect, so the notions of things always recur to
your mind from the original ideas of them impressed in the seat of the
visibles (the mind).
46. The mental apparition of the visible world, deludes its beholder in
the same manner, as the visual appearance of a spectre or hobgoblin,
misleads a child (to its destruction).
47. The notion of the visible world gradually expands itself, as the
germ of the seed shoots forth in time, and spreads itself afterwards in
the form of a plant.
48. As the minute germs and animalcules, which are contained within
the bosoms of fruits and embryos of animals, expand themselves to
wonderfully beauteous forms afterwards, so the seed of this world
(originally) lying hid in the Divine Mind, unfolds itself in wonderful
forms of the visible phenomena in nature.
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST CAUSE.
SECTION I.
NARRATIVE OF THE AIR-BORN AND AERIFORM BRÁHMAN.
Vasishtha resumed:—Hear me Ráma; now relate to you the narrative of
one Ákásaja or air-born Bráhman, which will be a jewel to your ears,
and enable you the better to understand the drift of the book of
Genesis.
2. There lived a Bráhman Ákásaja by name, who sat always reclined in
his meditation, and was ever inclined to the doing of good to all
creatures.
3. Finding him long-lived, Death thought within himself saying:—It is
I alone that am imperishable, and devour all things one by one.
4. How is it that I cannot cram myself with this air-born, wherein I
find my teeth as blunt in him, as the edge of a sword is put to the
bluff by the solid rock.
5. So saying, he proceeded to the abode of the Bráhman, intent upon
making an end of him; for who is of so dull a nature as is not alert in
his practice.
6. But as he was about to enter the house, he was opposed by a gorgeous
flame of fire, like the conflagration of final destruction on the last
day of the dissolution of the world.
7. He pierced the ambient flame and entered the dwelling, where seeing
the Bráhman before him, he stretched his hand to lay hold on him with
all avidity.
8. He was unable even with his hundred hands (_i.e._ with all his
might) to grasp the Bráhman, as it is impossible for the strongest to
withstand the resolute man in his wonted course.
9. He then had recourse to Yama—his lord to clear his doubt, and to
learn why he could not devour the air-born (being).
10. Yama replied saying:—Death, trust not too far thy own might, that
makes thee mighty to destroy the living. It is the act of the dying
person that is the chief cause of his death and naught otherwise.
11. Therefore do thou be diligent to find out the acts of the person
thou intendest to kill; because it is by their assistance only that
thou canst seize thy prey.
12. Hereupon Death betook himself gladly to wander about in all
places under the horizon. He roved over the habitable parts, as also
throughout the lacunal and fluvial districts.
13. He traversed the forests and jungles, marshy and rocky grounds and
maritime coasts, and passed to foreign lands and islands, and pried
through their wildernesses, cities and towns.
14. He searched through kingdoms and countries, villages and deserts;
and surveyed the whole earth to find out some act of the Bráhman in any
part of it.
15. At last Death with all his search and effort, came to find the acts
of the air-born Bráhman, to be as _nil_ as the offspring of a barren
woman; and his mind as transfixed (in meditation) as if it were a rock.
16. He then returned from his reconnoitering to his all-knowing master
Yama, and besought his advice, as servants do in matters of doubt and
difficulty (how to proceed).
17. Death addressed him saying:—“Tell me my lord, where the acts of
the Air-born Bráhman are to be found;” to which Yama after a long
head-work, replied as follows.
SECTION II.
STATE OF THE SOUL.
18. Know, O Death! that this air-born seer has no acts whatever; for as
he is born of empty air so his doings are all null and void. (_i.e._
The bodiless spirit or mind is devoid of acts requiring physical means
and appliances).
19. Whoso is born of air, is as pure as air itself, and has no
combination of cause or acts like all embodied (beings).
20. He has no relation with acts of his prior existence. He is _nil_
as the child of an unprolific woman, and as one unborn, uncreated and
unbegotten.
21. Want of causes has made him a pure vacuous being, and the privation
of prior acts has made him as _nil_ as an etherial arbor.
22. His mind is not ruffled as those of others, by reason of the
privation of his former acts; nor is there any such act of his present
state, whereby he may become a morsel to death.
23. Such is the soul seated in the sheath of vacuity, and remaining for
ever as the simple form of its own causality (_káranadeha_), and not
guided by any extraneous causation whatever.
24. It has no prior deed, nor does it do any thing at present; (_i.e._
neither led by predestination, nor actuated by present efforts); but
continues as something in the shape of aeriform intelligence.
25. Our inference of the actions of breathing and motion by the agency
of the soul, is a mere supposition; because the soul is devoid of every
thought of or tendency to action.
26. It sits meditating on itself as inseparable from the Supreme
Intelligence, just as the images (in painting and statuary), are
inseparable from the mind of the painter and sculptor.
27. The self-born Bráhman is as intimately connected with the objects
of his thought, as fluidity is associated with water and vacuity with
the firmament.
28. His soul is as immanent in the supreme, as motion is inherent in
the winds. It has neither the accumulated acts of past lives, nor those
of its present state. (_i.e._ It is neither a passive nor active agent
of prior or present acts; but is an indifferent witness of the acts of
the body and mind).
29. It is produced without the co-operation of accompanying causes, and
being free from prior motives, it is not subjected to the vicissitudes
concomitant with human life.
30. It is found to be no other than its own cause; and having no other
cause for itself, it is said to be self-produced.
31. Say, how can you lay hold on that being that has done no act
before, nor is in the act of doing any thing at present? It is then
only subjected to thee when it thinks itself mortal. (But he that knows
his soul to be immortal is not subject to death).
32. Whoso believes his soul to be of this earth, and thinks himself to
be an earthly being, he may be easily overtaken by thee (whose power
extends over earth-born mortals only).
33. This Bráhman is a formless being, by reason of his disowning the
material body. Hence it is as hard for thee to enthral him, as to
entwine the air with a rope.
34. Death rejoined saying:—Tell me my lord! how may the unborn _Aja_
or the self-born _swayambhu_, be produced out of vacuum, and how can an
earthly or other elemental body be and not be (at the same time).
35. Yama replied:—This Bráhman is neither born nor is _nil_ at any
time; but remains for ever the same, as the light of intelligence of
which there is no decay.
36. There remains nothing at the event of the great Doomsday, except
the tranquil, imperishable and infinite Bráhman himself in his
spiritual form.
37. This is the nature of the everlasting vacuum, too subtile in its
essence, and devoid of all attributes; but viewing present before its
mind, the stupendous cosmos in the form of a huge mountain in the
beginning of recreation. (The mind is the noumenon—Brahma, and the
phenomena of the world is the gigantic macrocosm known as _Virájmúrti_).
38. Being of the nature of intelligence it is imperishable; but those
who view the spirit in the form of any phenomenal body, are liable to
perish with it like all embodied beings.
39. Thus this Bráhman remained in the womb of vacuity in the beginning,
in his state of unalterable, vacuous intelligence.
40. It is purely of the nature of the inane understanding, and of
the form of a vast expanse of omniscience; having neither body nor
organism; no acts nor agency, nor desire of any kind in itself.
41. That which is simply of the form of vacuum and pure light, is never
beset by the snare of pristine desires, as a corporeal being.
42. It has nothing to know or see without itself (_i.e._ beyond its
self-consciousness). The only conception that we have of it, is
what resembles an extended intelligence (_i.e._ an all-diffusive
omniscience).
43. Under these circumstances, how is it susceptible of any earthly or
other external form? Therefore O Death! desist from thy attempt to lay
hold on the same.
44. Hearing these words of Yama, Death thought upon the impracticability
of laying hold on empty vacuity by any body, and sorrowfully returned
to his own abode.
45. Ráma said: you said sir, that Brahmá is your great grand-sire; I
think it is he that you mean to say as the unborn, self-born, universal
soul and intelligence.
46. So is this Brahmá, Ráma! as I have spoken to you, and it was with
regard to the same, that the aforesaid discussion was held of yore
between Death and Yama (Pluto).
47. Again when Death had made an end of all living beings at the
interval of a _manwantará_, he thought himself strong enough to make an
attempt to bear down upon the lotus-born Brahmá also.
48. It was then that he was admonished by Yama, saying:—It is your
habit that makes you go on your wonted course of killing.
49. But the super-etherial form of Brahmá too is beyond your reach:
it being simply of the nature of the mind having connection with its
thoughts only, and no concern with the actual forms of things.
50. It is of the form of the wonderfully vacuous intellect, having the
faculty of cognition in it. Thus the intellect being but vacuum, has
neither any cause for it, nor any effect produced by it.
51. As the aeriform volitive principle in men, manifests itself without
being connected with material forms, so is the self-born (Brahmá)
manifest to all in his own immaterial nature.
52. Like strings of pearl appearing to view in the clear firmament, and
forms of cities seen in a dream, the self-born (Brahmá) is manifest of
himself without relation to external objects.
53. As there is no beholder nor any thing beholden of the solitary
Supreme spirit which is the intellect itself; so is the mind manifest
of itself (without its looking at or being looked upon by any body).
54. It is the volitive mind which is called Brahmá and volition being a
spiritual faculty, has no connection with any material substance.
55. As the mind of the painter is fraught with images of various
things, so is the mind of Brahmá full of figures of all created beings.
56. The self-born Brahmá is manifest in his own mind as Brahmá is
manifested in the vacuous sphere of his intellect. He is without
beginning, middle and end, and appears to have a figure like that of
a male being, while in reality he has no body, as the offspring of a
barren woman.
CHAPTER III.
CAUSES OF BONDAGE IN THE BODY.
Ráma said:—It is even so as you have said, that the mind is a pure
essence, and has no connection with the earth and other material
substances; and that it is verily Brahmá itself.
2. Now tell me, O Bráhman! Why the remembrance of his former states (in
the past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be reckoned as) the cause
of his birth, as it is in the case of mine and yours and of all other
beings.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Whoever had a former body, accompanied with the
acts of his prior existence, retains of course its reminiscence, which
is the cause of his being (reborn on earth).
4. But when Brahmá is known to have no prior acts, how is it possible
for him to have his reminiscence of any thing?
5. Therefore he exists without any other cause except the causation
of his own mind. It is by his own causality that the Divine spirit is
self-born, and is himself his own spirit.
6. He is everlasting, and his body is born of itself from the
self-existent Brahma. This unborn or self-born Brahmá has no material
body whatever, except his subtile _átiváhika_ or _linga deha_.
7. Ráma said:—The everlasting body is one thing (called the _Súkshma
saríra_ or subtile or immaterial body), and the mortal body is another
(called the _sthúladeha_ or the gross and material frame). Now tell me
sir, whether all created beings have a subtile body also as that of
Brahmá?
8. Vasishtha replied:—All created beings that are produced of a cause,
have two bodies (the _súkshma_ and the _sthúla_ or the subtile and the
gross). But the unborn being which is without a cause, has one body
only (which is called the _átiváhika_ or the everlasting spiritual
body).
9. The increate Brahmá is the cause of all created beings, but the
uncreated spirit having no cause for itself, has one body for it.
10. The prime lord of creatures has no material body; but manifests
himself in the vacuous form of his spiritual body.
11. His body is composed of the mind alone, and has no connection
with the earth or any other material substance. He is the first lord
of creatures, that stretched the creation from his vacuous body (or
spiritual essence).
12. All these are but forms of the images or ideas in his vacuous mind,
and having no other patterns or originals in their nature. And that
every thing is of the same nature with its cause, is a truth well known
to all (from the identity of the effect and its material cause).
13. He is an inexistent being and of the manner of perfect
intelligence. He is purely of the form of the mind, and has an
intellectual and no material entity.
14. He is prime (cause) of all material productions in the physical
world, and is born of himself with his prime mobile force in the form
of the mind.
15. It was by the first impulse given by the prime moving power, that
this expanse of creation came to be spread in the same ratio, as the
currents of air and water (or the velocity of winds and tides), are in
proportion to the impetus given to them.
16. This creation shining so bright to our sight, has caught its light
from the luminous mind of the formless Brahmá, and appears as real to
our conceptions (as they are ideal in the Divine mind).
17. Our vision in a dream is the best illustration of this (unreality
of worldly things): as that of the enjoyment of connubial bliss in
dreaming. It is then that an unreal object of desire, presents itself
as an actual gain to our fond and false imagination.
18. The vacuous, immaterial and formless spirit, is now represented as
the self-born and corporeal lord of creatures in the form of the first
male. (Protogonus or the only begotten son of God).
19. He remains undiscerned in his state of pure intelligence; but
becomes manifest to all by the evolution of his volition. He is
indiscernible in his absolute state (of inaction); but becomes
conspicuous to us in the display of his nature (in creation).
20. Brahmá is the divine power of volition (or the will of God). He
is personified as the first male agent of creation, but devoid of a
corporeal body. He is only of the spiritual form of the mind, and the
sole cause of the existence of the triple world.
21. It is his volition that makes the self-born (Brahmá) to exert his
energies, as human desires impel all mankind to action: and the vacuous
mind manifests itself as a mountain of desires.
22. It then forgets its everlasting and incorporeal nature, and assumes
to itself the solid material body, and shows itself in the shape of a
delusive apparition (in his creation).
23. But Brahmá, who is of an unsullied understanding, is not involved
in oblivion of himself, by the transformation of his unknowable nature
to the known state of volition (or change of the _nirguna_ to _saguna_).
24. Being unborn of material substance, he sees no apparition like
others, who are exposed by their ignorance to the misleading errors of
falsehood, appearing in the shape of a mirage before them.
25. As Brahmá is merely of the form of the mind, and not composed of
any material substance, so the world being the product of the eternal
mind, is of the same nature with its original archetype.
26. Again as the uncreated Brahmá is without any accompanying causality
with himself, so his creation has no other cause beside himself (_i.e._
There is no secondary cause of the universe).
27. Hence there is no difference in the product from its producer;
because it is certain, that the work must be as perfect as its author
(so says the _Sruti_:—_Púrnat púrnam_ &c.).
28. But there is nothing as a cause and effect to be found in this
creation, because the three worlds are but the prototypes of the
archetype of the divine mind.
29. The world is stretched out in the model of the Divine mind, and not
formed by any other holy spirit. It is as immanent in the mind of God,
as fluidity is inherent in water.
30. It is the mind which spreads out this extended unreality of the
world like castles in the air, and builds Utopian cities (by its
imagination only).
31. There is no such thing as materiality, which is as false a
conception as that of a snake in a rope. Hence it is no way possible
for Brahma and other beings to exist as individual bodies.
32. Even spiritual bodies are inexistent to enlightened understandings.
As for the material body, it has no room in existence. (Matter or a
corporeal substance or an unseen substratum is a non-entity. Berkeley).
33. Man (_manu_) who derives his name from his mind (_mana_) is a
form of the volitive soul called _Verinchi_ (Lat. _vir_—inchoare the
inchoative spirit of Brahma); and has for his dominion the mental or
intellectual world _mano-rajyam_ (Lat. mentis regio vel regnum) where
all things are situated in the form of realities.
34. The mind is the creative Brahma called _Verinchitvas_ (Lat.
Virinchoativus), by the exercise of its inherent _sankalpa_ or the
volition of incipience or creation—_sisriksha_; and displays itself in
the form of the visible universe by development of its own essence.
35. This _Virinchi_ or the creative power is of the form of the mind
_manas_, as the mind itself is of the form of _Virinchi_ also. It has
no connection with any material substance, which is a mere creation of
the imagination. (That is to say, matter is an imaginary substance or
substratum of qualities only).
36. All visible things are contained in the bosom of the mind, as the
lotus-bud and blossom reside in the seed of the lotus. Hence there is
no difference between the mental and visible appearances of things, nor
has any one ever doubted of it any where.
37. Whatever things you see in a dream, whatever desires you have at
heart and all the ideals of your fancy, together with your ideas,
notions and impressions of the visibles, know your mind to be the
receptacle of them all.
38. But the visible objects relating to the option of the mind (_i.e._
which are desirable, to every one), are as baneful to their beholder,
as an apparition is to a child (_i.e._ they are equally tempting and
misleading to all).
39. The ideal of the phenomenal _drisyadhi_, developes itself as the
germ contained in the seed and becomes in its proper time and place
a large tree (comparable with the great arbor of the world known as
_sansáramahí ruha_ or _Vriksha_).
40. If there is no rest with what is real, there can be no peace with
the phenomenals which are full of troubles, and give no solace to the
mind. It is impossible that the feeling of the perception of visibles
will be ever lost to their perceiver (observer), though its subsidence
only is said to constitute liberation.
CHAPTER IV.
SECTION I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE NIGHT-FALL.
Válmíki related:—
While Vasistha—the leading sage, was thus going on with his lecture
without interruption, the whole assembly was intent upon listening to
it with a fixed tone and tenor of their minds.
2. The string of bells (tied to the waists of warriors) ceased to
jingle, every one was motionless, and even the parrots in the cages
ceased to warble and flutter.
3. The ladies forgot their dalliance and were quietly attentive to the
sermon: and all in the royal hall, were fixed in attention as they were
paintings and statues.
4. There remained but an hour to the closing of the day, and the
sun-beams became agreeable to all. The busy bustle of the world was
dwindling away with the glimmering light of the setting sun.
5. The beds of full-blown lotuses exhaled their fragrance all around,
and soft Zephyrs were playing about, as if to attend the audience.
6. The sun glided away from his diurnal course, and advanced to the top
of his solitary setting mountain, as if he meant to reflect on all that
he had heard.
7. The shades of night began to cover the landscape, and the frost to
overspread the forest-lands; as if they were cooled by the cooling
lectures on philosophy.
8. Now failed the concourse of the people in all directions, as if they
had availed themselves of the instructions of the sage to abate the
fervour of their exertions.
9. All objects on earth cast their lengthened shadows, as if they
stretched their necks to hear the preaching of Vasishtha.
10. The chamberlain then advanced lowly to the monarch of the earth,
and begged to inform, that the time for evening ablution and service,
was about to expire.
11. Upon this the sage Vasishtha, curbed his sweet speech and
said:—Let thus far, mighty king! be your hearing of this day, and I
will resume my lecture, and speak of other things to-morrow.
12. Here the sage held his silence, when the king responded “Be it so
as you will,” and rose from his seat.
13. He honoured for his own good, that godly sage and the other seers
and Bráhmans, with due respects and offerings of flowers, water, worthy
honorariums, fees, gifts and homage.
14. Then rose the whole assembly with the king and the assemblage of
sages; and the gems and jewels that decked the persons of the princes
and people, shed their lustres on the faces of all.
15. There was a commingled tinkling of the bracelets and armlets of
the throng caused by the collision of their bodies (in their egress),
and mixed flashing of the necklaces and brocades that decorated their
persons.
16. The jewels attached to the tufts and crests of hair on the tops of
their heads, emitted a jingling sound resembling the humming of bees
amidst their flowery braids.
17. The face of the sky on all sides, that shone with a purple hue
reflected by the golden ornaments on their persons, seemed as it was
pleased with the wise sayings and sense of the sage.
18. The aerial visitants vanished in the air, and the earthly guests
repaired to their respective habitations on earth where they all
performed their daily (evening) services in their own residences.
19. In the meantime sable night made her appearance on earth, and like
a bashful young lady, withdrew to the closet apart from the rest of
mankind.
20. The lord of the day passed to other lands to shine upon them, for
verily it is the avowed duty of every good person to give the benefit
of equal light to all.
21. The shade of evening veiled all sides, and uplifted the canopy
of the starry sphere on high, which like the vernal atmosphere, was
emblazoned with the starlike flowers of _kinsuka_.
22. The birds of air took to their repose in the hollows of mango
trees, or on the tops of Kádamba arbours, as honest people of fair
dealing, find their rest in the purity of their minds, and contriteness
of their inward hearts.
23. The skirts of the clouds tinged with red by the slanting beams of
the setting sun, and with a shade of yellow hue upon them, decorated
the western hills with vests of yellow garb while the sky crowned their
heads with gemming wreaths of starry groups.
24. The Goddess of evening (Vespera), having departed after receiving
her homage (by the vespers of mankind), was followed by her train of
dark night shades, appearing as black-bodied fiends—Vetálas (night
roving _nisácharas_ of deserts).
25. A gentle and cooling breeze was blowing softened by the dew drops
of night, and opening the petals of the Kumuda flowers (nylumbium), and
bearing their fragrance all around.
26. A thick gloom covered the face of nature, and the stars were hid
under the mists of night, and all the quarters of the skies, seemed
with their overhanging loose and hairy mists, as the faces of widows
shrouded by the dark dishevelled hair of mourning (for their departed
lord the sun).
27. Now appeared the moist orb of the moon in her ambrosial form in the
milky ocean of the sky, to moisten the mundane heat with her milk-white
beams (sudhá-subhra-dídhiti).
28. On her rising, the thick mists of darkness fled from the eastern
hemisphere, and became invisible in the air; as the darkness of
ignorance is put to flight from the minds of monarchs, by their
attendance to the sayings of wisdom.
29. Then the sages and seers, the rulers and priests of the people,
took their rest in their respective beds, as the words of Vasishtha
which were full of meaning, reposed in the recesses of their hearts.
30. As the thick darkness of night, resembling the dark complexion of
death, receded from the arena of the skies, there followed close on its
foot-steps the dewy dawn of the day with her slow moving pace.
31. The twinkling stars now disappeared from the sky, as the flowers on
the trees were blown away by the breeze, and strewn on the ground as
the fallen stars of heaven.
32. The sun became visible to the eyes, which his rays had roused from
their sleep, as the new-rising faculty of reason becomes conspicuous in
the minds of enlightened great souls.
33. Fragments of clouds shining with solar gleams, spread a yellow
mantle over the eastern hills, which were still decorated with strings
of stars, pendant on the crests of their lofty heads (like strings of
pearls suspended to the crowns of kings).
34. All the terrestrial and celestial congress assembled again at the
royal hall, in the order and manner (of their meeting) of the day
before, after the performance of their morning services. (Originally
_prátastanáh_ matins or matutinal ceremonies).
35. The whole assemblage took their seats as on the previous day, and
sat unmoved in their places, as a lotus-lake in its calmness after a
storm.
SECTION II.
NATURE OF THE MIND.
36. Then Ráma addressed the most eloquent of sages Vasishtha, with his
mellifluent words regarding the subject under investigation (the nature
of the mind).
37. He said:—Tell me plainly, O venerable sir! about the form of the
mind, which developed itself in all things of the universe, as they
were offshoots of it (or manifestations of the mind).
38. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! there is no form whatever of the mind,
that may be seen by any body. It has nothing substantial besides its
name as that of the formless and irremovable vacuity: (with which
it is compared in its all-comprehensiveness, all-diffusiveness and
all-pervasiveness).
39. The mind as an _ens_ or entity (sat), is not situated in the outer
body (or any part of it), nor is it confined in the cavity of the
inward heart or brain. But know it O Ráma, to be situated everywhere,
as the all encompassing vacuum. (Being all-pervading and all-diffusive
in its nature as vacuity itself).
40. This world is produced from it, and likens to the waters of the
mirage. It manifests itself in the forms of its fleeting thoughts,
which are as false as the appearance of secondary moons in the vapours.
41. The thinking principle is generally believed as something
intermediate between the positive and negative, or real and unreal, you
must know it as such and no other (_i.e._ neither material as the body,
nor immaterial as the soul, but a faculty appertaining to the nature of
both).
42. That which is the representative of all objects is called the mind:
there is nothing besides to which the term mind is applicable.
43. Know volition to be the same as the mind, which is nothing
different from the will, just as fluidity is the same with water, and
as there is no difference between the air and its motion in the wind.
(The inseparable property answering for its substance).
44. For wherever there is any will, there is that attribute of the mind
also and nobody has ever taken the will and the mind for different
things.
45. The representation of any object whether it is real or unreal is
mind, and that is to be known as Brahma the great father of all.
46. The incorporeal soul in the body is called the mind, as having the
sensuous knowledge or everlasting ideas of the corporeal world in
itself. (_i.e._ The sentient and thinking soul is the same with mind).
47. The learned have given the several names of ignorance, intellect,
mind, bondage, sin and darkness, to the visible appearance of creation.
48. The mind has no other image than that (of a receptacle and
reflector of the ideas) of the visible world, which, I repeat to say,
is no new creation (but a reflexion of the mind).
49. The visible world is situated in an atom of the great mind, in the
same manner, as the germ of the lotus plant is contained within its
seed.
50. The visible world is as innate in the all-knowing mind, as the
light is inherent in the sun-beams, and velocity and fluidity are
inborn in the winds and liquids.
51. But the visionary ideas of the visibles are as false and fleeting
in the minds of their observers, as the form of a jewel in gold, and
water in the mirage; and as wrong as the foundation of a castle in the
air, and the view of a city in a dream.
SECTION III.
KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION.
52. But as the phenomenals appear as no other than real to their
observer, I will O Ráma! cleanse them now from thy mind as they do the
soil from a mirror.
53. As the disappearance of an appearance makes the observer no
observer of it, know such to be the state of the abstraction of the
mind from whatever is real or unreal in the world. (This is called
_Kevalíbháva_ or _non-chalance_ of all things).
54. This state being arrived, all the passions of the soul, and the
desires of the mind, will be at rest, as torrents of rivers at the calm
ensuing upon the stillness of the wind.
55. It is impossible that things having the forms of space, earth and
air (_i.e._ material objects) will present the same features in the
clear light (of induction), as they do to our open sight.
56. Thus when the observer comes to know the unreality of the phenomena
of the three worlds, as well as of his own entity, it is then that his
pure soul attains to the knowledge of _kaivalya_ or solity of divine
existence.
57. It is such a mind that reflects the image of God in itself as in
a mirror; while all others are as blocks of stone, and incapable of
receiving any reflexion at all.
58. After suppression of the sense of _ego_ and _tu_ (or both the
subjective and objective knowledge), and the error of the reality of
the outer world the beholder becomes abstracted and remains without
vision of external things in his sitting posture.
59. Ráma rejoined:—If the perception of entity is not to be put down,
nor an entity become a non-entity nor when I cannot view the visibles
(which are the causes of our error), as non-entities;
60. Then tell me O Bráhman! how to uproot this disease of our eagerness
for the visibles from the mind, which bewilders the understanding, and
afflicts us with a train of troubles.
61. Vasishtha replied:—Now hear my advice, Ráma, for the suppression
of this phantom of phenomenon, whereby it will surely die away and
become utterly extinct.
62. Know Ráma, that nothing that is, can ever be destroyed or become
extinct; and though you remove it, yet it will leave its seed or trace
in the mind.
63. This seed is the memory of such things, which reopens the ideas
of the visibles in the mind, expanding themselves in the fallacious
notions of the forms of big worlds and skies, mountains and oceans.
64. These (wrong notions) called _doshas_ or faults and defects of
understanding, are obstacles in the way to liberation; but they do not
affect the sages who are found to be liberated.
65. Again if the world and all other things are real existences (as
the Sánkhyas maintain): yet they cannot confer liberation on any one;
because the visibles, whether they are situated within or without us
are perishable themselves.
66. Learn therefore this dreadful proposition (solemn truth), which
will be fully explained to you in the subsequent parts of this work.
(Note:—A dreadful dogma it is to physicists and “_ádivádis_” or
asserters of the _encipientes mundi_ or beginning of the world).
67. That all things appearing in the forms of vacuity, elementary
bodies, the world, and _ego et tu_, are non-entities, and have no
meanings in them.
68. Whatever is seen apparent before us, is no other but the supreme
Brahma himself, and his undecaying and imperishable essence.
69. The plenitude of creation is an expansion of his plenum, and the
quiet of the universe rests in his quietude. It is his _beom_ which is
the substance of vacuum, and it is his immensity that is the substratum
of the immense cosmos.
70. Nothing visible is real, and there is neither any spectator nor
spectacle here. There is nothing as vacuity or solidity in nature, but
all this is but a piece of extended Intelligence.
71. Ráma rejoined:—The adages relating the grinding of stones by the
son of a barren woman, the horns of a hare, and the dancing of a hill
with its extended arms;
72. And the oozing of oil from sand, the reading (of books) by dolls of
marble, and the roaring of clouds in a painting, and such others are
applicable to your words (of the reality of an unreal essence of God).
73. I see this world to be full of diseases, deaths and troubles,
mountains, vacuities and other things, and how is it sir, that you tell
me of their non-existence?
74. Tell me Sir, how you call this world to be unsubstantial,
unproduced and inexistent, that I may be certain of this truth.
75. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that I am no inconsistent speaker,
and hear me explain to you how the unreality appears as real, as the
son of a barren woman has come to rumour.
76. All this was unproduced before, and did not exist in the beginning
of creation. It comes to appearance from the mind like that of a city
in a dream. (_i.e._ They are all but creations of the mind and fancy).
77. The mind also was not produced in the beginning of creation and
was an unreality itself. Hear me tell you therefore, how we come to a
notion of it.
78. This unreal mind spreads by itself the false and changing scenes of
the visible world, just as we dream of changeful unrealities as true in
a state of dreaming. (Here the dreaming philosopher sees dreams in his
dream).
79. It then exerts its volition in the fabrication of the body and
spreads far and wide the magic scene of the phenomenal world.
80. The mind by its potentiality of vacillation has many actions of its
own, as those of expansion, saltation, and motion, of craving, roving,
diving and seizing, and many other voluntary efforts (the causes of
physical operations).
CHAPTER V.
ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. (MÚLA-KÁRANA).
Ráma said:—Tell me, O chief of the sages! what cause is it that leads
to our misconception of the mind, how it is produced and what is the
source of its illusion.
2. Tell me sir, in brief of the first production (of the mind), and
then, O best of the eloquent, you may tell the rest, that is to be said
on the subject.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Incident to the universal dissolution, when
all things were reduced to nothing, this infinity of visible objects
remained in a state of calm and quiet before their creation.
4. There was then the only great God in existence, who is increate and
undecaying, who is the creator of all at all times, who is all in all,
and supreme soul of all, and resembling the sun that never sets.
5. He whom language fails to describe, and who is known to the
liberated alone; who is termed the soul by fiction only, and not by his
real nature (which is unknowable).
6. Who is the prime Male of Sánkhya philosophers and the Brahma of
Vedánta followers; who is the Intelligence of gnostics and who is
wholly pure and apart from all (personalities).
7. Who is known as vacuum by vacuists, who is the enlightener of solar
light, who is truth itself, and the power of speech and thought and
vision, and all action and passion for ever.
8. Who though ever existent everywhere appears as inexistent to the
world, and though situated in all bodies, seems to be far from them.
He is the enlightener of our understanding as the solar light (of the
world).
9. From whom the gods Vishnu and others are produced as solar rays from
the sun; and from whom infinite worlds have come into existence like
bubbles of the sea.
10. Unto whom these multitudes of visible creations return as the
waters of the earth to the sea, and who like a lamp enlightens the
souls and bodies (of all immaterial and material beings).
11. Who is present alike in heaven as in earth and the nether worlds;
and who abides equally in all bodies whether of the mineral, vegetable
or animal creation. He resides alike in each particle of dust as in
the high and huge mountain ranges; and rides as swift on the wings of
winds, as he sleeps in the depths of the main.
12. He who appoints the eight internal and external organs
(Paryashtakas) of sense and action to their several functions; and who
has made the dull and dumb creatures as inert as stones, and as mute as
they are sitting in their meditative mood.
13. He who has filled the skies with vacuity and the rocks with
solidity; who has dissolved the waters to fluidity, and concentrated
all light and heat in the sun.
14. He who has spread these wonderful scenes of the world, as the
clouds sprinkle the charming showers of rain; both as endless and
incessant, as they are charming and dulcet to sight.
15. He who causes the appearance and disappearance of worlds in the
sphere of his infinity like waves in the ocean; and in whom these
phenomena rise and set like the running sands in the desert.
16. His spirit the indestructible soul, resides as the germ of decay
and destruction in the interior (vitals) of animals. It is as minute as
to lie hid in the body, and as magnified as to fill all existence.
17. His nature (Prakriti) spreads herself like a magic creeper (_máyá
latá_) all over the space of vacuity, and produces the fair fruit in
the form of the mundane egg (_Brahmánda_); while the outward organs
of bodies, resembling the branches of this plant, keep dancing about
the stem (the intelligent soul), shaken by the breeze of life which is
everfleeting.
18. It is He, that shines as the gem of intelligence in the heart of
the human body; and it is he from whom, the luminous orbs constituting
the universe, continually derive their lustre.
19. It is that colossus of intelligence, which like a cloud sheds
ambrosial draughts of delight to soothe our souls, and showers forth
innumerable beings as rain drops on all sides. It bursts into incessant
flashes showing the prospects of repeated creations which are as
(momentary as) flashes of lightenings.
20. It is his wondrous light which displays the worlds to our wondering
sight; and it is from his entity that both what is real and unreal,
have derived their reality and unreality.
21. It is the insensible and ungodly soul, that turns to the
attractions of others against its purpose; while the tranquil soul
rests in itself (as in the spirit of God).
22. He who transcends all existences, and by whom all existent beings
are bound to their destined actions in their proper times and places,
and also to their free actions and motions and exertions of all kinds.
23. It is he who from his personality of pure consciousness, became of
the form of vacuum (pervading all nature), and then by means of his
vacuous mind and empty thoughts filled it with substances, wherein his
soul was to reside, and whereon his spirit had to preside.
24. Having thus made the infinite hosts of worlds in the immense sphere
of the universe, he is yet neither the agent of any action nor the
author of any act in it; but remains ever the same as the sole one
alone, in his unchangeable and unimpairing state of self-consciousness,
and without any fluctuation, evolution or inhesion of himself, as he is
quite unconcerned with the world.