ON THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS.
Argument. Explanation of Divine Omnipotence, and inability of Vasishtha
to give full exposition of it.
Ráma rejoined:—(Prose) Tell me, O high-minded sage, how could the
creation proceed from the Supreme Brahma, whom you represent to remain
as a painting in the tableau of vacuity.
2. Vasishtha replied:—O prince, such is the nature of Brahma, that all
power incessantly flows from him, wherefore every power is said to
reside in him. (It is unvedantic to say, that Brahma is omnipotent or
the reservoir of power, and not omnipotence or identic with all power
himself).
3. In him resides entity and non-entity, in him there is unity, duality
and plurality, and the beginning and end of all things. (Because
omnipotence has the power to be all things, which limited powers cannot
do).
4. This is one and no other else (_i.e._ it is all that is, and there
is none else beside it (_Id est non alter_). It is as the sea, whose
waters have endless varieties of shapes, and represent the images of
myriads of stars in its bosom; rising spontaneously of themselves).
5. The density of the Intellect makes the mind, and the mind brings
forth all the powers of thinking, willing or volition, and of acting or
action. These it produces, accumulates, contains, shows and then
absorbs in itself.
6. (Verse) Brahma is the source of all living beings, and of all things
seen all around us. His power is the cause of exhibiting all things, in
their incessant course or quiescence.
7. All things spring from the Supreme Spirit, and they reside in his
all comprehensive mind. They are of the same nature with that of their
source, as the water of the sweet and saltish lakes.
8. Ráma interrupted here and said:—Sir, your discourse is very dark,
and I cannot understand the meaning of the words of your speech.
9. There is that nature of Brahma, which you said to be beyond the
perception of the mind and senses, and what are these perishable
things, which you say to have proceeded from him. If your reasoning
comes to this end, I cannot then rely upon it.
10. Because it is the law of production, that anything that is produced
from something, is invariably of the same nature with that of its
producer.
11. As light is produced from light, corns come from corn, and man is
born of man, and all kinds come out of their own kind.
12. And so the productions of the immutable Spirit, must also be
unchangeable and spiritual too in their nature.
13. Beside this the Intellectual Spirit of God, is pure and immaculate;
while this creation is all impure and gross matter.
14. The great Sage said upon hearing these words:—Brahma is all purity
and there is no impurity in him; the waves moving on the surface of the
sea may be foul, but they do not soil the waters of the deep.
15. You cannot conceive Ráma, of there being a second person or thing
beside the One Brahma; as you can have no conception of fire beside its
heat. (Its light being adscititious).
16. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, Brahma is devoid of sorrow, while the world is
full of sorrows. I cannot therefore clearly understand your words; when
you say this to be the offspring of that. (The maculate equal to the
immaculate or the perishable to the imperishable is absurd).
17. Válmíki said to Bharadwája:—The great Sage Vasishtha remained
silent at these words of Ráma; and stopped in his lecture with the
thoughtfulness of his mind.
18. His mind lost its wonted clearness (in its confusion), and then
recovering its perspicacity, he pondered within himself in the
following manner.
19. The educated and intelligent mind, that has known the knowable One,
has of itself got to the end of the subject of liberation, by its own
reasoning and intuition as that of Ráma.
20. It is no fault of the educated to be doubtful of something, until
it is explained to them to their full satisfaction, as in the case of
Rághava. (Relating the identity of the cause and its effect).
21. But the half-educated are not fit to receive spiritual instruction,
because their view of the visibles, which dwells on obvious objects,
proves the cause of their ruin (by obstructing their sight of the
spiritual).
22. But he who has come to the sight of transcendental light, and got a
clear insight of spiritual truths, feels no desire for sensual
enjoyments; but advances in course of time to the conclusion, that
Brahma is All in all things (_to pan_).
(The transcendental philosophy of modern German schools, has arrived at
the same conclusion of Pantheism, _Ho Theos to pan_).
23. The disciple is to be prepared and purified at first, with the
precepts and practice of quietism and self-control (_Sama_ and _damá_);
and is then to be initiated in the creed that “All this is Brahma, and
that thyself art that pure Spirit.”
24. But who so teaches the faith of “all is Brahma” to the half taught
and the ignorant; verily entangles him in the strong snare of hell.
(Because they take the visible for the invisible, which leads them to
nature and idol worships which casts them to hell).
25. The well discerning Sage should tell them, that are enlightened in
their understandings, whose desire of sensual gratifications has
abated, and who are freed from their worldly desires, that they are
purged of the dirt of their ignorance, and are prepared to receive
religious and spiritual instruction.
26. The spiritual guide who instructs his pupil without weighing well
his habits and conduct, is a silly pedagogue and sinks into hell and
has to dwell there until the last day of judgment; (to answer for
misleading his disciples).
27. The venerable Vasishtha, who was the chief of sages, and like the
luminous sun on earth, having considered these things, spoke to Ráma as
follows. (The sages are said to be luminous both from the fairness of
their Aryan complexions, as also on account of their enlightened
understandings).
28. Vasishtha said:—I will tell thee Ráma at the conclusion, of this
lecture, whether the attribution of the dross of gross bodies, is
applicable to Brahma or not. (_i.e._ How a spiritual body may assume a
material form &c.).
29. Know now that Brahma is almighty, all pervading, ubiquitous and is
all himself, because of his omnipotence, which can do and become all
and every thing of itself.
30. As you see the various practices of magicians and the trickeries of
jugglers, in producing, presenting, and abstracting many things in the
sight of men, that are all but unreal shows; so doth Brahma produce,
present and retract all things from and into himself.
31. The world is filled with gardens as those in fairy lands, and the
sky is replenished with the airy castles of Gandharvas and the abodes
of gods; and men are seen to descend from the cloudless sky, to the
surface of the earth, and rise upwards to heaven (in vimánas or
balloons).
32. Fairy cities like the palaces of the Gandharvas of the etherial
regions, are shown on earth, and filled with the fairies of the Fairy
land. (_i.e._ The courts and palaces of princes, which vie with the
abodes of gods).
33. Whatever there is or has been or is to be in this world in future,
are like reflexions of the revolving sky and heavenly bodies, or a
brazen ball affixed to the top of a tower, and darting its golden light
below.
34. All these are but exhibitions of the various forms of
manifestations of the selfsame God. (“These as they change,—these are
but the varied God.” Thomson. So Wordsworth and the Persian Mystics).
35. Whatever takes place at any time or place and in any form, is but
the variety of the One Self-existent reality. Why therefore, O Ráma!
should you give vent to your sorrow or joy, or wonder at any change of
time or place or nature and form of things, which are full of the
spirit of God, and exhibit the endless aspects of the Infinitive Mood.
36. Let the intelligent preserve the sameness (_samata_) of their minds
and dispositions amidst all changes; knowing them as the varying
conditions of the same unvarying Mind.
37. He who sees his God in all, and is fraught with equanimity, has no
cause of his wonder of surprise, his grief or delight or any
fluctuation of his mind, in any change in nature or vicissitude of his
fortune (because the one Omnipresence is present in all events, and its
Omnipotence directs all potentialities).
38. The unaltered mind continues to view the varieties of the power of
his Maker, in all the variations of time and place, and of all external
circumstances.
39. The Lord proposes these plans in the formation of his creation, and
exhibits as the sea does its waves in endless varieties and successions
from the plenitude of his mind.
40. So the Lord manifests the powers situated in himself, as the sea
does its waves in itself. Or as the milk forms the butter, the earth
produces the pot (_ghata_), and the thread is woven into the cloth
(_pata_). So the _bata_ or fig tree brings forth its fruit, and all
other varied forms are contained in their sources. But these formal
changes are phenomenal not real. They are mere appearances of the
spectrum, as those of apparitions and spectres.[6]
41. There is no other agent or object, nor an actor and its act, or any
thing which is acted upon, nor is there any thing that becomes nothing
except it by but a variety of the one unity. (_In nihilo riverti
posse_).
42. The mind that witnesses the spiritual truths, and remains with its
unimpaired equanimity, and is undepressed by external accidents, comes
to see the light of truth in itself. (Truth like the sun shineth in the
inmost soul).
43. (Verse). There being the lamp, there is its light also; and the sun
shining brings the day with him. Where there is the flower, there is
its odour likewise; so where there is the living soul, there is the
light or knowledge of the world in it.
44. The world appearing all around, is as the light of the soul; it
appears as the motion of the wind, whereof we have no notion of its
reality or unreality. (So says Herbert Spencer concerning our notion of
motion. We see the wheel in motion and changing its place, but have no
idea of its motion).
45. The immaculate Soul, is the prime mobile power of the appearance
and disappearance of the myriads of gross bodies which like the
revolving stars of the sky, and the season flowers of the spring,
appear and reappear to us by turns, like the ups and downs of wheels in
motion. (We see their revolutions, but neither see their motion nor the
soul the giver of motion).
46. All things die away when our souls are without us, but how can any
thing be null when we are in possession of our souls? (Everything
exists with ourselves, but we lose all, with loss of our souls).
47. All things appear before us in the presence of our souls, and they
vanish from before us in their absence from the body. (Every thing is
existent with us with the existence of our souls, and nothing is
perceived by us without them, as when we are dead).
48. Everything is born with us with our souls, and is lost with loss of
them. (The living have all, but the dead are lost to view. And the
human soul, when in conjunction with the Divine, has a clear view of
everything).
51. The minds of men are endowed with their knowledge at their very
birth. Then growing big by degrees in course of time, they expand
themselves in the form of this spacious forest of the world.
52. The wood of the world is the fastening post of the soul, where our
blooming desires are fraught with fruits of poignant griefs. It
branches out with gratifications, blossoms with hoary age, and is
breaking its goodly post, and wandering at large of its free will.