CONSIDERATION OF EGOISM.
Argument. Of good attempts, good company and good studies; also of
liberation by Renunciation of Egoism and Worldly Bondage.
Vasishtha continued:—Seeing the complete success of every undertaking,
depending on your own exertion at all times and places, you should
never be slack in your energy at all.
2. See how Nandi gratified the wishes of all his friends and relations
by his own exertions, and how he became victorious over death itself,
by his adoration of Mahádeva by the side of a lake.
3. See also, how the Dánavas too got the better of the gods, who were
fraught with every perfection, by their greater wealth and prowess, as
the elephants destroy a lake of lotuses.
4. See, how Marutta the King of demons, created another world like that
of Brahmá, by means of his sacrifice through the great sage Samvarta
(the law giver).
5. See, how Viswámitra (the military chief) obtained the dignity of
Bráhmanhood by his great energy and continued exertions. He obtained by
his austerities what is impossible to be gained by another.
6. See, how the poor and unfortunate Upamanyu, obtained his nectarious
food of the cake and curdled milk, by his worship of Siva, from the
milky ocean in days of yore.
7. See how the god Vishnu devoured (destroyed), like a wild fire the
demons of the triple world, likening the tender filaments of lotuses;
and how the sage Sweta became victorious over death by means of his
firm faith in Siva (as it is described in the Linga Purána).
8. Remember, how the chaste Sávitrí, brought back her spouse Satyavána
from the realm of death, by her prevailing on stern Yama with the
suavity of her discourse.
9. There is no great exertion of any kind that goes unrewarded in this
world; all impossibility is thought possible by ardent pursuit after it
(or to the ardent pursuer, as it is said: Fortune is found by the
swiftest pursuer).
10. So men having full knowledge of the spirit, and exerting their
utmost devotion, are enabled to root out their destiny of
transmigration, which is fraught with so much pain and pleasure (both
of which are equally hurtful to the soul).
11. All visible things are full of danger to the sight of the
intelligent. There is no pleasure to be had from anything, without its
concomitant pain (either preceding or following it).
12. Though it is difficult to know the Supreme Brahma, and facile to
attain supreme felicity; yet should Brahma be sought at first, as the
giver of all felicity. (Seek happiness through its giver—the Great God).
13. Forsake your pride, and rely on your unalterable peace of mind;
consider well your worthiness in your understanding, and stick to your
attendance on the wise and good.
14. There is no other way for your salvation in this ocean of the
world, save by your attendance on the wise. All your pilgrimage,
austerity and learning of the sástras, are of no avail to your
liberation.
15. He is called the wise, whose greediness, anger and erroneous
conceptions, are on their wane day by day; and who walks in the path of
rectitude, as it is inculcated in the Sástra.
16. The society of spiritual guides, serves to dispel the visibles from
the sight of the devout, as the invisibles are hidden from sight
(_i.e._ as they are not in being).
17. In the absence of all other objects, there remains the Supreme
Spirit alone in view, and the human soul having nothing else to rest
upon, rests at last in the Supreme Soul only.
18. The visibles did not exist before, nor are they produced from
naught; they are not in existence though seen in our presence, nor are
they to exist in future. The supreme alone exist for ever without
change or decay.
19. I have already shown you by various instances the falsehood of the
visibles (in the book of Genesis); I will now show you the falsity of
existence, as it is known to the learned.
20. Now that our passive consciousness of the three worlds, being the
sober truth with the wise, there can be no room for the unrealities of
matter and _máyá_—illusion, to enter into our belief. (We know nothing
of the external world, except our inward consciousness of it. Berkeley).
21. Whatever wonders are displayed by the active intellect to the
inactive soul, the same is thought to be the world. (There is no
outward world, beside the working of the intellect).
22. The notion of the sphere of the world, is derived from the rays of
the central intellect, stretching to the circumference of the
understanding, and there being no difference between the radiating
point and the radiated circle, acknowledge the identity of the
radiator, the radii and the periphery. (_i.e._ Of the intellect, its
intelligence and the world).
23. The twinklings of the intellectual eye in its acts of opening and
shutting, cause the notions of the appearance and disappearance of the
world in continued succession.
24. One unacquainted with the true sense of Ego, is blind amidst the
luminous sphere of the intellect, but he who knows its true meaning,
finds himself amidst the sphere of spiritual light (or rather loses
himself in the divine light).
25. He that understands the Divine Ego, does no more retain the notion
of his own egoism; but mixes with the Supreme soul, as a drop of water
is lost in the waters of the ocean.
26. In reality there exists no I or thou nor the visible world nor
anything else; but all these blend upon right reasoning in the One Ego,
which remains and subsists after all other existences.
27. Even clear understandings are sometimes clouded by false
apparitions, as those of ogres &c.; when there are no such things, just
as children are seized with false fear of goblins.
28. As long as the moonlight of the intellect, is obscured by the
darkness of egoism, so long the lotus lake of spirituality, will not
come to its bloom.
29. The feeling of egoism being wiped off from the mind, the sense of
self and selfish passions, will vanish of themselves from the heart;
and there will be an utter end of the fears of death and hell, as also
of the desires of heaven and liberation.
30. So long as the egoistic feelings float about, like clouds over the
sphere of the mind, there will be no end of desires, growing in the
heart like weeds in the plains.
31. As long as the cloud of egotism continue to overcast the mind and
obscure its intelligence, the humidity of dullness will fill its
sphere, and prevent the light of intellect to pierce through it.
32. Egoistic pride is unmannerly in men, and is taken in the light of
vanity, it is the cause of sorrow and not delight; and is as bug-bears
to boys.
33. The vain assumption of egoism, is productive of a great many
errors, it leads to the ambition of gaining an infinity of worlds, as
it was in the cases of the foolish demons.
34. The conceit that I am such and such (a great man), is an error than
which there is none other, nor is ever likely to be a greater error to
lead us to utter darkness.
35. Whatever joy or grief betides us at any time in this changeful
world, is all the effect of the rotatory wheels of egoism, turning up
and down at every moment.
36. He who weeds and roots out the germs of egoism from his heart, he
verily prevents the arbor of his worldliness (_Samsára Vriksha_), from
jutting out in a hundred branches.
37. Egoism is the sprout of the trees of our lives, in their
interminable revolutions through the world; and meity or the sense that
“this is mine,” is the cause that makes them expand in a thousand
branches. (I am one, but claim many things as mine).
38. Swift as the flight of birds, do our desires and desirable objects
disappear from us; and upon mature consideration, they prove to be but
bubbles, bursting on the evanescent waves of our lives.
39. It is for want of the knowledge of the one Ego, that we think
ourselves as I, thou, this or the other; and it is by shutting out our
view of the only soul, that we see the incessant revolutions of this
world and that.
40. As long as the darkness of egoism reigns over the wilderness of
human life, so long doth the goblin of selfishness infest it with its
wanton revelry.
41. The vile man that is seized by the avaricious demon of selfishness,
is at an utter loss of any moral precept, and any _mantra_ of his
religion to satisfy his wants.
42. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable Bráhman, how we may be enabled to
suppress our egoism or selfishness, for evading the dangers and
difficulties in our course through the world.
43. Vasishtha replied:—It is by seeking to settle mind in the
resplendent soul, as it shines in the transparent mirror of the
intellect, that it is possible for any body to suppress the
consciousness, of his self or personal existence. (_i.e._ By losing
one’s self in the self-existence of the Supreme Soul).
44. A closer investigation into human life, proves it to be a maze full
with the false shows of magic. It is not worth loving or hating, nor
capable of causing our egoism or pride.
45. He whose soul is free from egoism, and devoid of the impression of
the phenomenals; whose course of life runs in an even tenor, is the man
who can have no sense of egoism in him. (Whose life doth in one even
tenor run, and end its days as it has begun. Pope.)
46. He who knowing his internal self to be beyond the external world,
and neither desires nor dislikes anything in it, but preserves the
serenity of his temper at all times, is not susceptible of egoism.
47. Whoso thinks himself to be the inward noumena, and distinct from
the outward phenomena, and keeps the calm equanimity of his mind, is
not ruffled by the feeling of his egoism.
48. Ráma said:—Tell me, sir, what is the form of egoism, and whether it
consists in the body or mind or of both of these, and whether it is got
rid of with the riddance of the body.
49. Vasishtha replied:—There are three sorts of egoism, Ráma! in this
triple world, two of which are of superior nature, but the third is of
a vile kind and is to be abandoned by all.
50. The first is the supreme and undivided Ego, which is diffused
throughout the world; it is the Supreme soul (Paramátma), beside which
there is nothing in nature.
51. The feeling of this kind of egoism, leads to the liberation of men,
as in the state of the living-liberated; but the knowledge of the ego,
as distinct and apart from all, and thought to be as minute as the
hundredth part of a hair, is the next form of self-consciousness, which
is good also.
52. This second form of egoism, leads also to the liberation of human
souls, even in the present state of their existence, known as the state
of living-liberation (Jívan-Mukta).
53. The other kind of egoism, which is composed of the knowledge of the
body, with all its members as parts of the Ego, is the last and worst
kind of it, which takes the body for the soul or self.
54. This third and last kind, forms the popular belief of mankind, who
take their bodies as parts of themselves; it is the basest form of
egoism, and must be forsaken in the same manner, as we shun our
inveterate enemies.
55. The man that is debased by this kind of egoism, can never come to
his right sense; but becomes subject to all the evils of life, under
the thrall of the powerful enemy.
56. Possest with this wrong notion of himself, every man is incessantly
troubled in his mind by various desires, which expose him to all the
evils of life.
57. By means of the better egoisms, men transform themselves to gods;
but the common form of it, debases a man to the state of a beast and
its attendant evils.
58. That I am not the body, is the certainty arrived at by the great
and good, who believing themselves to be of the first two kinds, are
superior to the vulgar.
59. Belief in the first two kinds, raises men above the common level;
but that in the lower kind, brings every misery on mankind.
60. It was owing to their baser egoism, that the demons Dáma, Vyála and
others, were reduced to that deplorable state, as it is related in
their tale.
61. Ráma said:—Tell me, sir, the state of that man, who by discarding
the third or popular kind of egoism from his mind, attains the well
being of his soul in both the present and future worlds.
62. Vasishtha replied:—Having cast off this noxious egoism, (which is
to be got rid of by every body), a man rests in the Supreme Spirit in
the same manner, as the believers in the two other sorts of it. (_i.e._
Of the Supreme and superior sorts of spiritual egoisms, consisting in
the belief of one’s self, as the impersonal or personal soul—the
undivided or individual spirit).
63. The two former views of egoism, place the egotist in the all
pervasive or all exclusive spirit (in the Ego of the Divine Unity).
64. But all these egoisms which are in reality but different forms of
dualism, being lost in the unity, all consciousness of distinct
personality, is absorbed in the Supreme monism.
65. The good understanding should always strive to its utmost, to get
rid of its common and gross egotism, in order to feel in itself the
ineffable felicity of the unity.
66. Renunciation of the unholy belief of one’s self personality in his
material body, is the greatest good that one can attain to for his
highest state of felicity _parama padam_.
67. The man that forsakes the feeling of his egoism (or personality)
from his mind, is not debased nor goes to perdition by either his
indifference to or management of worldly affairs. (_i.e._ The doing or
refraining from bodily or worldly actions, is equally indifferent to
the philosophic mind).
68. The man who has got rid of his egoism by the subsidence of his
selfishness in himself, is indifferent to pain and pleasure, as the
satiate are to the taste of sweet or sour.
69. The man detesting the pleasures of life, has his full bliss
presented before himself; as the mind cleared of its doubts and
darkness, has nothing hidden from its sight.
70. It is by investigation into the nature of egoism, and forsaking
this gross selfishness, that a man crosses over the ocean of the world
of his own accord.
71. The man who having nothing of his own, and knowing himself as
nothing, yet has all and thinks himself as all in all, and who though
possessed of wealth and properties, has the magnanimity of his soul to
disown them to himself; he is verily situated in the Supreme soul, and
finds his rest in the state of Supreme bliss. (_i.e._ The world is the
Lord’s, and human soul as a particle of the Divine, has its share in
all and every thing).