PRODUCTION OF JÍVA OR LIVING SOULS.
Argument. Condensation of Desires in the Intellect. And Formation of
living souls thereby.
Vasishtha continued:—Hear now Ráma! the antidote against the wide
extended malady of Ignorance, and the raging endemic of unreality,
which vanishes from view upon your close inspection of it.
2. That which was proposed to be said (in chapter XL), concerning the
sátwika and rájasika qualities. I am now going to expound the same, on
account of investigating into the powers of the mind.
3. The same Brahma who is all-pervading, undecaying and immortal; is
known as intellectual light and without beginning and end, and free
from error.
4. The Intellect, which is body of Brahma, and has its vibration in
itself, becomes agitated and condensed at intervals, as the translucent
water of the ocean has its motion of itself, and becomes turbid and
thickened by its perturbation.
(_i.e._ The mind is possest of motion contrary to dull and motionless
matter, and it is by its moving force, that it forms the gross bodies,
as the huge surges of the sea).
5. As the water of the sea, is agitated in itself without any motion or
excitation from without; so the Almighty power exerts its force in
itself, throughout all its eternity and infinity. (The water composed
of the _gases_, is always in motion).
6. As the air stirs in its own bosom of vacuity for ever, so the power
of the Divine Spirit, exerts itself spontaneously and freely in its own
sphere of the spirit.
7. And as the flame rises high of its own accord, so the power of the
spirit, extends in itself in all directions. (It is the nature of the
flame to rise upward only, but that of the Spirit, is to move in every
way and all round the great circle of creation).
8. As the sea seems to move with its sparkling waters, reflecting the
sun and moonbeams upon its surface, so the almighty spirit appears to
shake with the fleeting reflections of creation in its bosom.
9. As the sea sparkles with the golden beams of the starry frame; so
the translucent vast soul of God, shines with the light of its own
intellectual sphere.
10. As chains of pearly rays, glitter to our sight in the empty sky; so
sundry forms of things fly about in the vast vacuity of the intellect.
(These are as bubbles in the vast expanse of the Divine Mind).
11. These intellectual images, being pushed forward by the force of
intellect, they begin to roll in its vacuous sphere like waves in the
sea. (They are the same in substance, though different in appearance).
12. These images though inseparable from the intellect of the Divine
spirit, yet they seem to be apart from it, like the light in the holes
of needles and other cavities. (The glory of God, is the light and life
of all).
13. The universal Omnipotence exhibits itself in those particular
forms, as the moon shows her various horns in her different phases.
14. Thus the intellectual power of the Supreme spirit, coming to shine
forth as light, refracts itself in various forms as the very many
semblances of that great light.
15. The Supreme spirit, though conscious of its nature of infinity and
indivisibility, yet assumes to itself the state of its individuality,
in every separate and limited form of created beings.
16. When the supreme Entity takes upon itself these several forms, it
is immediately joined by a train of qualities and properties, with
quantity, modality and the like as followers in its train.
17. The unsubstantial intellect, deeming itself as a substance by its
being separated from the supreme soul; becomes divided into infinity
like the waves of the sea water (which is one and many).
18. As there is no material difference of the armlet and bracelet, from
their matter of the same gold; so it is the intellect and the soul the one
and same thing. It is the thought that makes the difference in their
different modes.
19. As there is no difference between one lamp and the others, that are
lighted from the same light; so it is of all souls and intellects,
which are alike in their nature, but differ only in their particular
attributes—_upadhis_.
20. The Intellect, being put to action by the force of the soul on
particular occasions, pursues its desires and the objects of its fancy.
21. The same intellect also, taking its volitive and active forms at
different times and places; is styled the embodied soul or spirit, and
known as _Kshetrajna_.
22. It is so named from its familiarity with the body or _Kshetra_, and
its knowledge of the inward and outward actions of it (or from its
knowing its person and personality).
23. This being fraught with its desires, is designated as Egoism or
selfishness; and this again being soiled by its fancies, takes the name
of the understanding.
24. The understanding leaning to its wishes, is termed the mind; which
when it is compacted for action, takes the name of the senses or
sensation.
25. The senses are next furnished with their organs called the organs
of sense, which being joined with the organs of action, the hands and
feet are jointly denominated the body.
26. Thus the living soul being tied to its thoughts and desires, and
being entrapped in the net of pain and sorrow, is termed _Chitta_ or
heart.
27. Thus the gradual development of the intellect, produces its
successive results (or phases as said above); so these are the
different states or conditions of the living soul, and not so many
forms of it, but all these are the impurities of the soul.
28. The living soul becomes associated with egoism in its embodied
state, and this being polluted by its egoistic understanding, it is
entangled in the net of selfish desires, which becomes the mind.
29. The concupiscent mind becomes eager to engraft itself in its
consorts and offspring, and to secure the false possessions of the
world to itself and without a rival.
30. The tendencies of the mind, pursue their desired objects, as the
cow follows the lusty bull; and the mind runs after its objects only to
be polluted by them, as the sweet stream of the river, meets the sea to
become bitter and briny.
31. Thus the mind being polluted by its selfishness, loses the freedom
of its will; and becomes bound to its desires, as the silkworm is
enclosed in the cocoon.
32. It is the mind that exposes the body to confinement, by its pursuit
after its desires, until it comes to feel the gall of its own thraldom,
and the bitter regret of the conscious soul.
33. Knowing itself to be enslaved, it bids farewell to the freedom of
its thought and knowledge; and begets within itself the gross
ignorance, which rages and ranges free in the forest of this world,
with its horribly monstrous appearance.
34. The mind containing within it the flame of its own desires, is
consumed to death like the fettered lion in a fire.
35. It assumes to itself the agency of all its various acts, under its
subjection to a variety of desires; and thus exposes itself to the
changes of its state, in this life and all its future births.
36. It labours continually under all its octuple state of
understanding; namely that the knowledge, intelligence and activity
or active agency, and its egoism or selfishness, all of which are
causes of all its woe.
37. It is sometimes styled the _prakriti_ or character, and at others
the _máyá_ or seat of self delusion. The mind—_manas_ is often
converted to _malas_ or foulness, and very often to _karman_ or
activity.
38. It is sometimes designated as bondage, and is often synonymous with
the heart; it is called also as _avidyá_ or ignorance, and frequently
identified with the will or volition likewise.
39. Know Ráma, the heart is tied to the earth by a chain of sorrow and
misery; it is brimful of avarice and grief, and the abode of passions.
40. It is living dead with the cares of age and the fear of death, to
which the world is subject; it is troubled with desire and disgust, and
stained by its ignorance and passions.
41. It is infested by the prickly thorns of its wishes, and the
brambles of its acts; it is quite forgetful of its origin, and is beset
by the evils of its own making.
42. It is confined as the silkworm in its own cell, where it is doomed
to dwell with its sorrow and pain; and though it is but a minim in its
shape, it is the seat of endless hell-fire. (A hair as heart. Pope. The
heart is hell &c. Milton).
43. It is as minute as the soul, and yet appears as huge as the highest
hill; and this world is a forest of wild poisonous trees, branching out
with their fruits of decay and death.
44. The snare of desire is stretched over the whole world; its fruits
are as those of the Indian fig trees, which has no pith or flavour
within.
45. The mind being burnt by the flame of its sorrow, and bitten by the
dragon of its anger; and being drowned in the boisterous sea of its
desires, has entirely forgotten its Great Father.
46. It is like a lost stag straying out of its herd, and like one
demented by his sorrows; or more like a moth singed by the flame of
world affairs.
47. It is torn away as a limb from its place in the Spirit, and thrown
in an incongenial spot; it is withering away like a lotus plant plucked
from its root.
48. Being cast amidst the bustle of business, and among men who are
inimical or as dumb pictures to him, every man is groveling in this
earth amidst dangers and difficulties.
49. Man is exposed to the difficulties of this dark and dismal world,
like a bird fallen in the waters of the sea; he is entangled in the
snare of the world, like one snatched to the fairy land in the sky.
50. The mind is carried away by the current of business, like a man
borne by the waves of the sea. Lift it, O brave Ráma! from this pit, as
they do an elephant sinking in the mud.
51. Lift up thy mind by force, O Ráma! like a bullock from this
delusive puddle (_palvala_) of the world, where it is shorn of its
brightness and is weakened in its frame.
52. Ráma! the man whose mind is not troubled in this world, with
successive joy and grief, and the vicissitudes of decrepitude, disease
and death, is no human being: but resemble a monstrous Rákshasa,
although he may have the figure of a man on him. (It is not humanity to
<be> devoid of human feeling).