THE SAME QUIETNESS OR QUIETUDE OF THE SPIRIT.
Argument. The unconnected Soul being connected with the Mind, is
believed as the Active Spirit by the unwise. But the quiet spirit
of the wise, which is unaffected by its actions, is ever free and
emancipate from the acts.
Vasishtha resumed:—(Prose). Such being the state of the wise, the
actions they are seen to do, whether of goodness or otherwise or
pleasurable or painful, in and whatsoever they are engaged, are _nil_
and as nothing, and do not affect them as they do the other worldly
mortals. (The unconcernedness of the wise, is opposed to the great
concern of fools in their actions).
2. For what is it that is called an action, but the exertion of mental
and voluntary energies, with a fixed determination and desire of
performing some physical acts, which they call the actions of a person.
(But the apathetic minds of the wise, being insensible both of the
purposes and their ends, there is no imputation of agency which can
ever attach to them. (Gloss)).
3. The production of an act by appliance of the proper means, and the
exertion and action of the body in conformity with one’s ability, and
the completion of the effect compatible with one’s intention, together
with the enjoyment of the result of such agency, are defined and
determined as the action of the man. (It is the deliberate and
voluntary doing of an act, and not the unintentional physical action,
that constitutes human agency. Gloss).
4. (Verse). Moreover, whether a man is agent or no agent of an action,
and whether he goes to heaven or dwells in hell, his mind is subject to
the same feelings, as he has the desires in his heart. (The mind makes
a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven by its good or bad thoughts.
Milton).
5. (Prose). Hence the agency of the ignorant, arises from their wishing
to do a thing, whether they do it or not; but not so of the wise, who
having no will, are not culpable even for their involuntary actions.
Untutored minds are full with the weeds of vice, but well cultivated
souls are quite devoid of them. Gloss. (So: “If good we plant not, vice
will fill the place: And rankest weeds the richest soils deface”).
6. He who has the knowledge of truth (tatwajnána), becomes relaxed in
his earthly desires; and though he acts his part well, he does not long
eagerly for its result as others. He acts with his body but with a
quiet unconcerned mind. When successful, he attributes the gain to the
will of God; but the worldly minded arrogate the result to themselves,
though they could not bring it about.
7. Whatever the mind intends, comes verily to pass, and nothing is
achieved without the application of the mind; whereupon the agency
belongeth to the mind and not to the body. (An involuntary action is
not a deed).
8. The world doth proceed from the Mind (Divine); it is the mind (by
being a development of it), and is situated in the (infinite and
eternal) mind; knowing all things as such manifestations of the powers
of the intellect, the wise man remains in the coolness of his desire or
luke warmness.
9. The minds of spiritualists (or those knowing the soul), come to the
state of that perfect insensibility of their desires, as when the false
watery mirage is set down by the raining clouds, and the particles of
morning dews, are dried up by the raging sun. It is then that the soul
is said to rest in its perfect bliss (The _turya—sans souci_ or
impassibility).
10. This is not the felicity of the _gusto_ of pleasure, nor the dolour
of sorrow or discontent; it consists not in the liveliness of living
beings, nor in the torpidity of stones. It is not situated in the midst
of these antitheses (_i.e._ in the _sandhisthána_ or golden medium
between these); but in the knowing mind which is _Bhumánanda_—all
rapture and ravishment. (Neither is _il allegro_ nor _il spinseroso_,
the true bliss of man).
11. But the ignorant mind (which is unacquainted with this state of
transport) is transported by its thirst after the moving waters of
earthly pleasures; as an elephant is misled to the foul pool, where he
is plunged in its mud and mire, without finding any thing that is
really good.
12. Here is another instance of it based upon a stanza in the Sruti,
which says that:—A man dreaming himself to be falling into a pit, feels
the fear of his fall in his imagination even when he has been sleeping
in his bed; but another who actually falls in a pit when he is fast
asleep, is quite insensible of his falls. Thus it is the mind which
paints its own pleasure and pains, and not the bodily action or its
inactivity.
13. Hence whether a man is the doer of an action or not, he perceives
nothing of it, when his mind is engrossed in some other thought or
action; but he views every thing within himself, who beholds them on
the abstract meditation of his mind. The thinking mind sees the outward
objects, as reflexions of his pure intellect cast without him. (The
spiritualist regards the outward as images of his inward ideas, in
opposition to the materialist, who considers the internal ideas to be
but reflexions derived from external impressions).
14. Thus the man knowing the knowable soul, knows himself as
inaccessible to the feelings of pleasure and pain. Knowing this as
certain, he finds the existence of no other thing, apart from what is
contained in the container of his soul, which is as a thousandth part
of a hair. This being ascertained, he views every thing in himself.
With this certainty of knowledge, he comes to know his self as the
reflector of all things, and present in all of them. After these
ascertainments, he comes to the conclusion that he is not subject to
pain or pleasure. Thus freed from anxieties, the mind freely exercises
its powers over all customary duties, without being concerned with them.
15. He who knows the self, remains joyous even in his calamity, and
shines as the moonlight, which enlightens the world. He knows that it
is his mind and not hisself, that is the agent of his actions although
he is the doer of them: and knowing the agency of the mind in all his
actions, he does not assume to himself the merit of the exercise of his
limbs, hands and feet, nor expects to reap the rewards of all his
assiduous labours and acts.
16. Mental actions (thoughts) being brought to practice, tend to
involve their unguarded agents of ungoverned minds, into the endurance
of its consequence. Thus the mind is the seed (root) of all efforts and
exertions, of all acts and actions, of all their results and
productions, and the source of suffering the consequences of actions.
By doing away with your mind, you make a clean sweep of all your
actions, and thereby avoid all your miseries resulting from your acts.
All these are at an end with the _anaesthesia_ of the mind. It is a
practice in _Yoga_ to allay (laisser aller), the excitement of the mind
to its ever varying purposes.
17. Behold the boy is led by his mind (fancy) to build his toy or
hobby-horse, which he dresses and daubs at his wilfull play, without
showing any concern or feeling of pleasure or pain, in its making or
breaking of it at his pleasure. So doth man build his aerial castle,
and level it without the sense of his gain or loss therein. It is by
his acting in this manner in all worldly matters, that no man is
spiritually entangled to them. (Do your duties and deal with all with a
total unconcernedness and indifference).
18. What cause can there be for your sorrow, amidst the dangers and
delights of this world, but that you have the one and not the other.
But what thing is there that is delectable and delightful to be desired
in this world, which is not evanescent and perishable at the same time,
save yourself (soul), which is neither the active nor passive agent of
your actions and enjoyments; though they attribute the actions and
their fruitions to it by their error.
19. The importance of actions and passions to living beings, is a
mistake and not veritable truth. Because by the right consideration of
things, we find no action nor passion bearing any relation to the soul.
Its attachment or aversion to the senses and sensible actions and
enjoyments, is felt only by the sensualist, and not by them that are
unconscious of sensuous affections (as the apathetic ascetics).
20. There is no liberation in this world for the worldly minded, while
it is fully felt by the liberal minded Yogi, whose mind is freed from
its attachments to the world, in its state of living liberation.
(Jívan-mukta).
21. Though the Sage is rapt in the light of his self-consciousness, yet
he does not disregard to distinguish the unity and duality, the true
entity from the non-entities, and to view the omnipotence in all
potencies or powers that are displayed in nature (for these display His
power and goodness beyond our thought).
22. (Verse). To him there is no bond or freedom, nor liberation nor
bondage whatever, and the miseries of ignorance are all lost in the
light of his enlightenment. (Bondage and freedom here refer to their
causes or acts (কর্ম্ম) by the figure of metonymy; and that
these bear no relation to the abstracted or spiritualistic Yogi).
23. It is in vain to wish for liberation, when the mind is tied down to
the earth; and so it is redundant to talk of bondage, when the mind is
already fastened to it. Shun them both by ignoring your egoism, and
remain fixed to the true Ego, and continue thus to manage yourself with
your unruffled mind on earth. (The whole of this is a lesson of the
Stoical and Platonic philosophic and unimpassioned passivity).