NATURE OF VOLLEITY AND NOLLEITY.
Argument. The bondage of volition causing our perdition, and the
freedom of Nolition as leading to salvation.
Ráma said:—Thy words, O Bráhman! are true and well spoken also. I
find the soul to be the inactive agent of actions, and the impassive
recipient of their effects, as also the spiritual cause of the
corporeal.
2. I find the soul to be the sole lord of all, and ubiquitous in its
course; it is of the nature of intelligence and of the form of
transparency. It resides in all bodies, as the five elements compose
the terraqueous bodies.
3. I now come to understand the nature of Brahma, and I am as pacified
by thy speech, as the heated mountain is cooled by rain waters.
4. From its secludedness and nolleity, it neither does nor receives any
thing; but its universal pervasion, makes it both the actor and
sufferer.
5. But sir, there is a doubt too vivid and rankling in my mind, which I
pray you to remove by your enlightened speech, as the moon-beams dispel
the darkness of the night.
6. Tell me Sir, whence proceed these dualities, as the reality of one
and the unreality of the other, and that this is I and this not myself.
And if the soul is one and indivisible, how is this one thing and that
another.
7. There being but one self-existent and self-evident soul from the
beginning, how comes it to be subjected to these oppositions, as the
bright disk of sun comes to be obscured under the clouds.
8. Vasishtha answered:—Ráma! I will give the right answer to this
question of yours, as I come to the conclusion; and then you will learn
the cause of these biplicities.
9. You will not be able, Ráma! to comprehend my answers to these
queries of yours, until you come to be acquainted with my solution of
the question of liberation.
10. As it is the adult youth only, who can appreciate the beauty of a
love-song; so it is the holy man only, who can grasp the sense of my
sayings on these abstruse subjects.
11. Sayings of such great importance, are as fruitless with ignorant
people, as a work on erotic subjects is useless to children.
12. There is a time for the seasonableness of every subject to men, as
it is the season of autumn which produces the harvest and not the
vernal spring.
13. The preaching of a sermon is selectable to old men, as fine
colourings are suitable to clean canvas; and so a spiritual discourse
of deep sense, suits one who has known the Spirit.
14. I have ere while mentioned something, which may serve to answer
your question, although you have not fully comprehended its meaning, to
remove your present doubts.
15. When you shall come to know the Spirit in your own spirit, you will
doubtlessly come to find the solution of your query by yourself.
16. I will fully expound to you the subject matter of your inquiry, at
the conclusion of my argument; when you shall have arrived to a better
knowledge of these things.
17. The spiritualist knows the spirit in his own spirit; and it is the
good grace of the Supreme spirit, to manifest itself to the spirit of
the spiritualist.
18. I have already related to you Ráma! the argument concerning the
agency and inertness of the soul, yet it is your ignorance of this
doctrine, that makes you foster your doubts.
19. The man bound to his desires is a bondsman, and one freed from them
is said to be set free from his slavery; do you but cast away your
desires, and you will have no cause to seek for your freedom (as you
are then perfectly free yourself).
20. Forsake first your foul (támasi) desires, and then be freed from
your desire of worldly possessions; foster your better wishes next, and
at last incline to your pure and holy leanings.
21. After having conducted yourself with your pure desires, get rid of
these even at the end; and then being freed from all desires, be
inclined to and united with your intellect (_i.e._ knowing all and
longing for nothing).
22. Then renounce your intellectual propensity, together with your
mental and sensible proclivities; and lastly having reached to the
state of staid tranquility, get rid of your mind also in order to set
yourself free from all other desires.
23. Be an intellectual being, and continue to breathe your vital breath
(as long as you live); but keep your imagination under controul, and
take into no account the course of time, and the revolution of days and
nights.
24. Forsake your desire for the objects of sense, and root out your
sense of egoism, which is the root of desire. Let your understanding be
calm and quiet, and you will be honoured by all.
25. Drive away all feelings and thoughts from your heart and mind; for
he that is free from anxieties, is superior to all, (who labour under
anxious thoughts and cares).
26. Let a man practice his hybernation or other sorts of intense
devotion or not, he is reckoned to have obtained his liberation, whose
elevated mind has lost its reliance on worldly things.
27. The man devoid of desires, has no need of his observance or
avoidance of pious acts; the freedom of his mind from its dependence on
anything, is sufficient for his liberation.
28. A man may have well studied the sástras, and discussed about them
in mutual conversation; yet he is far from his perfection, without his
perfect inappetency and taciturnity.
29. There are men who have examined every thing and roved in all parts
of the world; yet there are few among them that have known the truth.
30. Of all things that are observed in the world, there is nothing
among them which may be truly desirable, and is to be sought after by
the wise.
31. All this ado of the world, and all the pursuits of men, tend only
towards the supportance of the animal body; and there is nothing in it,
leading to the edification of the rational soul.
32. Search all over this earth, in heaven above and in the infernal
regions below; and you will find but few persons, who have known what
is worth knowing. (The true nature of the soul and that of God, is
unknown to all finite beings every where).
33. It is hard to have a wise man, whose mind is devoid of its firm
reliance on the vanities of the world; and freed from its desire or
disgust of something or others, as agreeable or disagreeable to its
state.
34. A man may be lord of the world, or he may pierce through the clouds
and pry in heaven (by his Yoga); yet he can not enjoy the solace of his
soul without his knowledge of it.
35. I venerate those highminded men, who have bravely subdued their
senses; it is from them that we can have the remedy to remove the curse
of our repeated births. (It is by divine knowledge alone that we can
avoid the doom of transmigration).
36. I see every place filled by the five elements, and a sixth is not
to be seen any where in the world. Such being the case every where,
what else can I expect to find in earth or heaven or in the regions
below.
37. The wise man relying on his own reason and judgment, outsteps the
abyss of this world, as easily as he leaps over a ditch; but he who has
cast aside his reason, finds it as wide as the broad ocean. (The
original word for the ditch is _gospada_—the cove of a cows hoof—a
_cul-de-sac_).
38. The man of enlightened understanding, looks upon this globe of the
earth, as the bulb of a Kadamba flower, round as an apple or a
ball—_teres atque rotundus_; he neither gives nor receives nor wants of
aught in this world.
39. Yet fie for the foolish that fight for this mite of the earth, and
wage a warfare for destruction of millions of their fellow creatures.
40. What, if any one is to live and enjoy the blessings of this world
for a whole Kalpa when, he can not escape the sorrow, consequent on the
loss of all his friends during that period.
41. He who has known the self, has no craving for heavenly bliss within
himself; because he knows his gain of all the three worlds, can never
conduce to the strengthening of his soul.
42. But the avaricious are not content with all they have, and like the
body of this earth, is not full with all its hills and mountains and
surrounding seas. (The earth is never full with all its fullness).
43. There is nothing in this earth or in the upper and lower worlds,
which is of any use to the sage acquainted with spiritual knowledge.
44. The mind of the self-knowing sage, is one vast expanse like the
spacious firmament, it is tranquil and sedate and unconscious of itself.
45. It views the body as a net work of veins and arteries, pale and
white as frost, and all cellular within.
46. It sees the mountains floating as froth, on the surface of the
pellucid ocean of Brahma; it looks upon the intellect blazing as
brightly as the sun, over the mirage of existence.
47. It finds the nature of the soul, to be as extensive as the vast
ocean, containing the creations as its billows; and it considers the
all-pervasive soul as a big cloud, raining down in showers of sástras
or knowledge.
48. The fire, moon and the sun, appear as the fuel in a furnace,
requiring to be lighted by the blaze of the intellect, as every opaque
atom in nature.
49. All embodied souls of men, gods and demigods, rove in the
wilderness of the world, for feeding upon their fodder of food, as the
deer graze in their pasturage.
50. The world is a prison house, where every one is a prisoner with his
toilsome body. The bones are the latches of this dungeon, the head is
its roof, and the skin its leather; and the blood and flesh of the
body, are as the drink and food of the imprisoned.
51. Men were as dolls covered with skin for the amusement of boys, and
they are continually roving in quest of sustenance, like the cattle
running towards their pasture grounds.
52. But the high minded man is not of this kind; he is not moved by
worldly temptations, as the mountain is not to be shaken by the gentle
breeze.
53. The truly great and wise man, rests in that highest state of
eminence; where the stations of the sun and moon, are seen as the
nether regions.
54. It is by the light of the Supreme Spirit, that all the worlds are
lighted, and the minds of all are enlighted. But the ignorant are
immerged in the ocean of ignorance, and nourish their bodies only in
disregard of their souls.
55. No worldly good can allure the heart of the wise, who have tested
the vanity of temporal things; and no earthly evil can obscure their
souls, which are as bright as the clear sky which no cloud can darken.
56. No worldly pleasure can gladden the soul of the wise man, as the
dance of monkeys can give no joy to the heart of Hara, that delights in
the dancing of Gaurí.
57. No earthly delight can have its seat in the heart of the wise, as
the sun-light is never reflected in a gem hidden under a bushel.
58. The material world appears as a solid rock to the stolid ignorant;
but it seems as the evanescent wave to the wise. The ignorant take a
great pleasure in the transitory enjoyments of the world; but the wise
take them to no account, as the swan disdains to look upon the moss of
the lake.