ATTAINMENT OF THE IDEAL REALM.
Argument. Mutual sympathy of pure hearted souls, the reciprocities of
their affections, and their union with one another.
Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the ideal reflexion of others, is not
attended with equal result, with that of the son of Bhrigu (though one
is given to the like reveries as the other).
2. Vasishtha replied:—The reason is, that the body of Sukra issued at
first from the will of Brahmá, and was born of the pure family of
Bhrigu, without being vitiated by any other birth (either prior to it
or of a lower kind).
3. The purity of mind which follows upon subsidence of desires, is
called its coolness, and the same is known as the unsullied state of
the soul. (Nirmalátmá).
4. Whatever the man of a pure and contrite spirit, thinks in his mind,
the same comes to take place immediately; as the turning of the sea
water turns into the eddy. (Turning over in the mind, turns out into
being).
5. As the errors of various wanderings, occurred to the mind of Sukra;
so it is with every body (from his observation of the world), as it is
instanced in the case of Bhrigu’s son.
6. As the serum contained in the seed, developes itself in the shoots
and leaves; so the mind evolves in all the forms which are contained
therein.
7. Whatever forms of things are seen to exist in this world, are all
false appearances; and so are their disappearances also, (mere
creations of the mind).
8. Nothing appears or disappears to any one in this world, but error
and aerial phantasms; that show themselves to those that are bewitched
by this magic scene of the world.
9. As it is our notion of this part of the world, which presents its
form to our view; so the appearance of thousands of such worlds in the
mind, is mere ideal; and as false as the show of a magic-lantern.
10. As the sights in our dream, and the images of our imagination, are
never apart from our minds; and as they cannot show themselves to the
view of others; such is our erroneous conception of the world (confined
within ourselves).
11. So are all places and things but imaginary ideas, and show
themselves as real objects, to the purblind sight of the ignorant only.
12. So also are the ghosts and goblins, demons and devils, but
imaginary figures of the mind; born in the shallow brain of men, to
terrify them with their hideous shapes.
13. Thus have we all become, like the dreaming son of Bhrigu; to
understand the false creations of our imagination, as sober realities.
14. So the creation of the world, and all created things, are situated
(pictured) in the mind of Brahmá; and make their repeated appearance,
as the phantoms of a phantasmagoria before him.
15. All things appearing unto us, are as false as these phantoms; and
they proceed from the mind of Brahmá, as the varieties of trees and
shrubs, are produced from the same sap of the vernal season. (The one
is the source of many).
16. Considering in a philosophical light (tatwadarsana), it will be
found, that it is the will or desire of every body, which is productive
of the objects of his desire. (Lit. which evolves itself in its
productions. And as it is with the will of the creator, so is it with
that of every one).
17. Every body beholds everything in the world, according to the nature
of the thoughts in his mind, and then perishes with his wrong view of
it.
18. It is in its ideality, that anything appears as existent, which in
reality is inexistent, though it is apparent to sight. The existence of
the world, is as that of a lengthened dream; and the visible world is a
wide spread snare of the mind, like fetters at the feet of an elephant.
(The world is existent in the ideal, but inexistent in its apparent
real and visual form. It is a network of the mind, like a longspun
dream, and binds it as fast as fetters at the feet of an elephant).
19. The reality of the world depends upon the reality of mind, which
causes the world to appear as real. The loss of the one, destroys them
both; because neither of them can subsist without the other.
20. The pure mind has the true notions of things, as the gem polished
from its dross, receives the right reflection of every thing, (or)
reflects the true image of every thing.
21. The mind is purified by its habit of fixed attention to one
particular object; and it is the mind undisturbed by desires, that
receives the true light and reflexion of things.
22. As the gilding of gold or any brilliant colour, cannot stand on
base metal or on a piece of dirty cloth, so it is impossible for the
vitiated mind, to apply itself intensely to any one particular object.
23. Ráma asked:—Will you tell me sir, in what manner the mind of Sukra,
received the reflexion of the shadowy world, and its temporaneous
movement in itself, and how these fluctuations rose and remained in his
mind?
24. Vasishtha said:—In the same manner as Sukra was impressed with the
thoughts of the world, from the lectures of his father; so did they
remain in his mind, as the future peacock resides in the egg.
25. It is also naturally situated in the embryo of the mind, of every
species of living being, and is gradually evolved from it, in the
manner of the shoots and sprouts, and leaves and flowers of trees,
growing out of the seed.
26. Every body sees in his mind, what its heart desires to possess, as
it is in the case of our prolonged dreams.
27. Know it thus, O Ráma! that a partial view of the world, rises in
the mind of every body; in the same manner, as it appears in the mind
in a dream at night.
28. Ráma said:—But tell me sir, whether the thought and the things
thought of, simultaneously meet themselves in the mind of the thinker;
or it is the mind only that thinks of the object which is never met
with by it.
29. Vasishtha replied:—But the sullied mind cannot easily unite with
the object of its thought, as a dirty and cold piece of iron, cannot
join with a pure red-hot one, unless it is heated and purified from its
dross.
30. The pure mind and its pure thoughts, are readily united with one
another, as the pure waters mix together into one body of the same
kind, which the muddied water cannot do.
31. Want of desire constitutes the purity of the mind, which is readily
united with immaterial things of the same nature like itself. The
purity of the mind conduces to its enlightenment, and these being
united in one, leads it to the Supreme.