DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLDS AND THEIR DEMIURGI.
Argument. Relation of many past and Future Worlds, and of the gods and
other beings contained in them.
Ráma said:—O venerable sir, that art acquainted with all religious
doctrines and versed in all branches of the Vedas, I am set at perfect
ease by thy holy preachings.
2. I am never satiate with hearing your speech, which is equally
copious, clear and elegant.
3. You have said sir, of the birth of Brahmá in course of your lecture
on the productions of the satva and rájasa qualities. I want you to
tell me more on that subject.
4. Vasishtha answered:—There have been many millions of Brahmás and
many hundreds of Sivas and Indras, together with thousands of
Náráyanas, that have gone by (in the revolution of ages).
5. There have been various kinds of beings also in many other worlds,
having their manners and customs widely differing from one another.
6. There will also be many other productions in the worlds, synchronous
with others, and many to be born at times remotely distant from one
another.
7. Among these, the births of Brahmá and the other gods in the
different worlds, are as wonderful as the productions of many things in
a magic show.
8. Some creations were made with Brahmá as the first born, others with
Vishnu and some with Siva as the next created beings. There were some
other (minor productions), having the munis for the patriarchs. (These
are the different periods of the formation of the world under the
different Demiurgi).
9. One Brahmá was lotus-born, another was produced from the water; and
a third was born of an egg, and the fourth was produced in the air.
(These are named as the Padmaja, Náráyana, Andaja and Maruta).
10. In one egg the sun was born with all his eyes, and in another
Vásava—the Indra; in some one was born the lotus-eyed Vishnu, and in
another he with his three eyes as Siva.
11. In one age was born the solid earth, having no holes for the growth
of vegetables, in another it was overgrown with verdure; it was again
filled with mountains, and at last covered by living creatures.
12. The earth was full of gold in some place, and it was hard ground at
others; it was mere mud in many places, and incrusted with copper and
other metals in some.
13. There are some wondrous worlds in the universe, and others more
wondrous still than they; some of them are luminous and bright, and
others whose light have never reached unto us.
14. There are innumerable worlds scattered in the vacuum of Brahma’s
essence, and they are all rolling up and down like waves in the ocean.
(Here the infinite vacuity, is represented as the body of Brahma, and
the sole substance of all other bodies).
15. The splendours of worlds, are seen in the SUPREME like waves in
the sea, and as the mirage in the sandy desert; they abide in Him as
flowers on the mango tree.
16. It may be possible to count the particles of the solar rays, but
not the number of worlds abounding in the Supreme Spirit.
17. These multitudes of worlds rise and fall in the Universal Spirit,
like gnats flying and following others in swarms in the rainy season.
18. It is not known since when they have been in existence, and what
numbers of them have gone by, and are remaining at the present time.
19. They have been rolling without beginning like the billows of the
sea; those that are past and gone had their previous ones, and they
their prior ones also.
20. They rise over and over, to sink lower and lower again; just as the
waves of the sea, rising aloft and falling low by turns.
21. There are series of mundane worlds like the egg of Brahmá, which
pass away by thousands like the hours in course of the year.
22. There are many such bodies revolving at present, in the spacious
mind of Brahma; beside the mundane system of Brahmá (Brahmánda).
23. There will grow many more mundane worlds in the infinity of the
divine mind, and they will also vanish away in course of time, like the
evanescent sounds in the air. (The sounds are never lost, but remain in
the air. _Sabdonityam_).
24. Other worlds will come into existence in the course of other
creations, as the pots come to be formed of clay, and the leaves grow
from germs in endless succession. (Here Brahma is made the material
cause of all).
25. So long doth the glory of the three worlds appear to the sight, as
long as it is not seen in the intellect, in the manner as it exists in
the divine mind.
26. The rising and falling of worlds are neither true nor wholly false;
they are as the _fanfaronade_ of fools, and as orchids of the air.
27. All things are of the manner of sea waves, which vanish no sooner
than they appear to view, and they are all of the nature of paintings,
which are impressed in the mind.
28. The world is a perspective, and all things are but paintings in it;
they are not without the tableau of the mind, and are represented in it
as the figures on a canvas.
29. The learned in divine knowledge, consider the creations proceeding
from the Spirit of God, as showers of rain falling from the waters
contained in the clouds.
30. The visible creation is no more distinct from God, than the sea
water exuding from the earth and the earth itself, and the leaves and
seeds of the _Simul_ tree from the tree itself.
31. All created things that you see in their gross or subtle forms,
have proceeded from the vacuity of the Divine Mind, and are strung
together, like a rosary of large and small gems and beads.
32. Sometimes the subtile air is solidified in the form of the
atmosphere, and therefrom is produced the great Brahmá, thence called
the air-born lord of creatures.
33. Sometimes the atmospheric air is condensed into a solid form, and
that gives birth to a Brahmá; under the title of the atmospheric lord
of creation.
34. At another time it is light that is thickened to a luminous body,
and thence is born another Brahmá, bearing the appellation of the
luminous lord of all creatures.
35. Again the water being condensed at another time, produced another
Brahmá designated the aqueous lord of creation.
36. Sometimes the particles of earth take a denser form, and produce a
Brahmá known as the terrene Brahmá. (Such was Adam made out of the dust
of the ground).
37. It is by extraction of the essences of these four Brahmás, that a
fifth is formed under the name of the quintuple Brahmá, who is the
creation of the present world.
38. It is sometimes by the condensation of water, air or heat, that a
being is produced in the form of a male or female.
39. It is sometimes from the speaking mouth of this being, and from his
feet and back and the eyes, that different men are produced under the
appellations of Bráhmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Súdras. (These
Kshatriyas are born from the arms and eyes according to Manu).
40. Sometimes the great Being causes a lotus to grow out of his navel;
in which is born the great Brahmá known as the lotus-born.
41. All these theories of creation (in the different sástras) are idle
dreams, and as false as the dreams in our sleeping state; they are the
reveries of fancy like the eddies of water.
42. Tell me what do you think of these theories in your own judgment;
do they not appear as the tales told to boys?
43. Sometimes they imagine a being produced in the pure vacuity of the
Divine mind, this they call the golden and mundane egg, which gave
birth to the egg-born Brahmá.
44. It is said also that the first and divine Male, casts his seed in
the waters, which grows up to a lotus-flower which they call the great
world.
45. This lotus is the great womb of the birth of Brahmá, and at another
time of the sun also; sometimes the gods Varuna and Vayu also are born
of it, and are thence called oviparous.
46. Thus Ráma, are the different accounts of the production of
Brahmá—the creator, so various also is the description of this unsolid
and unsubstantial creation.
47. I have related to you already about the creation of one of these
Brahmás, and mentioned about the production of others without
specifying their several works.
48. It is agreed by all, that the creation is but the development of
divine mind; although I have related for your acquaintance, the various
processes of its production.
49. The sátwika and other productions, of which I told you before, have
all come to existence, in the manner I have narrated to you.
50. Now know the endless succession of all things in the world;
creation is followed by destruction as pleasure by pain; and as
ignorance is followed by knowledge, and bondage by liberation.
51. Past creations and objects of affection being gone, others come to
rise in future, as the lamps are lighted and extinguished by turns at
home.
52. The production and destruction of all bodies, are as those of
Brahmá and the lamps, they assume their forms in their time, but become
an undistinguishable mass after death.
53. The four ages of the world, namely, the Satya, Tretá, Dwápara and
Kali Yugas, revolve in endless rotation, like the wheel of the potter
or of any other engine.
54. The Manvantaras and Kalpa cycles succeed one another, as the day
and night, the morning and evening, and the times of work follow those
of rest by turns.
55. All worlds and things are under the subjection of time. They are
subject to repeated successions, and there is nothing without its
rotation.
56. They all proceed of their nature from the vacuum of Divine
Intellect, as the sparks of fire scintillate from the red-hot iron.
57. All things once manifest, are next concealed in the divine mind;
just as the season fruits and flowers, disappear after their appearance
in season.
58. All productions are but fluctuations of the mind of the Supreme
spirit; their appearances to our view, are as the sight of two moons to
infirm eyes.
59. It is the intellect alone, which exhibits these appearances to our
view; they are always situated in the intellect, though they appear
without it like the beams in the inner disk.
60. Know Ráma, the world to be never in existence; it is a motionless
show of that power, which resides only in the Supreme spirit.
61. It is never as it appears to you, but quite a different thing from
what it seems to be; it is a show depending on the power of the
Omnipotent.
62. What the world exists since the _mahá kalpa_ or great will of God,
and there is no more any other world to come into existence in future,
is the conclusion of the learned holds good to the present time. (This
belief is based on the holy text, “_so aikshata_—God willed—‘Let there
be’, and there was all”).
63. All this is Brahma to the intelligent, and there is no such thing
as the world, which is a mere theory (upapádya) of the unintelligent.
64. The insapient consider the world as eternal, from the continued
uniformity of its course; but it is the effect of the everlasting
error, which raises the false supposition of the world.
65. It is their theory of repeated transmigrations, that they cannot
say anything otherwise; but must conclude the world as such, in order
to keep pace with their doctrine. (The doctrine of perpetual
metempsychosis of the Mímámsaka materialists, naturally makes them
suppose the eternity of the world).
66. But it is to be wondered why they do not consider the world to be
destructible, seeing the incessant perishableness of all things all
around. (They flash as momentary lightenings in their appearance, to be
extinguished into nothingness soon after).
67. So others (the Sánkhyas) seeing the continuous course of the sun
and moon, and the stability of mountains and seas all about, come to
the conclusion of the indestructibility of the world from these false
analogies.
68. There can be nothing whatever, which does not reside in the wide
expanse of the Divine mind; but as these are but the conceptions of the
mind, they can never have any visible or separate form or existence.
69. All these appear in repetition, and so repeated is the course of
our births and deaths; as those of pain and pleasure succeeding one
another, and our rest and actions, following each other for evermore.
70. This same vacuum and these quarters of the sky, with all these seas
and mountains, appear in the recurrent course of creation with their
various hues, like those of the solar rays seen through the chink of a
wall.
71. The gods and demigods appear again and again, and all people come
and depart by turns, bondage and liberation are ever recurrent, and
Indras and Somas ever reappear to view.
72. The god Náráyana and the demigods appear by turns, and the sky is
always revolving with the regents of all its sides, the sun and moon,
clouds and winds.
73. The heaven and earth appear again like the lotus-flower full open
to view, and having the mount Meru for its pericarp, and the Sahya peak
for its filament.
74. The sun resumes his course in the maze of the sky like a lion, and
destroys the thick darkness with his rays, as the lion kills the huge
elephant with his beaming nails.
75. See again the moving moon shining with her bright beams, resembling
the white filaments of flowers; and anointing the countenances of the
etherial goddesses, with sweet ambrosial light, and borne by the air
and breezes of heaven.
76. Again the holy arbour of heaven sheds its heap of flowers, on the
deserts of meritorious men, as rewards of their virtuous acts.
77. Behold again the flight of time, riding as the eagle on its two
wings of acts and actions, and passing with the noise of _pat-pat_ over
the vast maze of creation.
78. See another Indra appearing, after the by-gone lords of gods have
passed away; and taking his seat on the lotus-like throne of heaven
like a contemptible bee. (The passing lords of gods and men are as
fleeting flies on flowers).
79. Again the wicked age of Kali appears to soil the holy _satya yuga_,
as the black body of Náráyana fills the clear waters of the deep, or as
a blast of wind sweeps the dust of the earth on its pellucid surface.
80. Again doth time form the plate of the earth like a potter, and turn
his wheel incessantly, to bring on the revolutions of his creations in
successive _kalpas_.
81. Again doth the veteran time, who is skilled in the work of
renovation, wither away the freshness of creation, as the autumnal
winds blast the foliage of a forest, in order to produce them anew.
82. Again the dozen of zodiacal suns, rising at once and burning the
creation, leaves the dead bodies all around, like the white bones lying
scattered in a country.
83. Again the _pushkara_ and _ávartaka_ clouds, poured down their rain
water, deluging the tops of the boundary mountains, and filling the
face of the earth with foaming froth, swimming on the surface of one
sheet of water.
84. And after the waters had subsided and the winds had ceased to blow;
the world appeared as a vast vacuum void of all beings.
85. Again we see living beings filling the earth, and feeding for some
years upon the moisture of its verdure, leaving their decayed bodies,
and being mixed up with their souls in the universal spirit.
86. Again the Divine Mind stretches out other creations at other times,
and these are drawn like pictures of fairylands (airy castles) in the
canvas of vacuum.
87. Again the creation appears to view, and again it is submerged in
the water of deluvion, both of which follow one another like the axles of
a wheel.
88. Now consider, O Ráma! if there is any stability of any thing in
this revolutionary world, beside its being a maze of continuous
delusion.
89. The revolution of the world resembles the hallucination of Dásúra’s
mind; it is a phantasia without any solidity in it.
90. The world appearing so extensive and thickly peopled, is but a
fancied unreality like the erroneous appearance of two moons in the
sky. It is made of unreality though appearing as real, and is not worth
reliance by our ignorance of its nature.