WORKS OF BRAHMÁ’S CREATION.
Argument. Vanity of the World born of Brahmá’s conception. Its
Disappearance and Liberation.
Vasishtha continued:—There is nothing in this world except the
gratification of the carnal appetites, and the pleasure of eating,
drinking and concupiscence with the vulgar; but it is the lasting good
of men, which is desired by the good and great.
2. The crooked and creeping beings and things, and beasts and wicked
men and ignorant people only are gratified with carnal pleasures; they
are all fond of everything conducing to their bodily enjoyments.
3. They are human asses, who dote on the beauty of female bodies, which
are no better than lumps of flesh, blood and bones.
4. This may be desirable to dogs and devouring animals, but not to man
(who is a rational and spiritual being). All animals have their fleshy
bodies, as the trees have their trunks of wood, and the minerals their
forms of earth.
5. There is the earth below and the sky above, and nothing that is
extraordinary before us; the senses pursue the sensible objects, but
human reason finds no relish in them.
6. The consciousness (or intuition) of men, leads them only to error;
and true happiness, which is desired by all is situated beyond all
sensible objects and gratifications.
7. The end of worldly pleasure is sorrow and misery, as the product of
a flame is soot and blackness; and the functions of the mind and
senses, are all fleeting having their rise and fall by turns. All
enjoyments are short lived, owing to the fugacity of the objects, and
the decay of the powers of our enjoying.
8. Prosperity fades away as plant encircled by a poisonous viper; and
our consorts die away as soon as anything born of blood and flesh.
(Fortune is fleeting and life a passing dream).
9. The delusion of love and lust, makes one body to embrace another,
both of which are composed of impure flesh and blood. Such are the
acts, O Ráma! that delight the ignorant.
10. Wise men take no delight in this unreal and unstable world, which
is more poisonous than poison itself, by infecting them that have not
even tasted the bitter gall.
11. Forsake therefore your desire of enjoyment, and seek to be united
with your spiritual essence; because the thought of your materiality
(or being a material body), has taken possession of your mind (and
separated you from yourself and the spirit of God).
12. Whenever the thought of making the unreal world, rises in the mind
of Brahmá the creator, he takes an unreal body upon him of his own will.
13. It becomes as bright as gold by his own light, and then he is
called Virinchi (_virincipiens_) on account of his will; and Brahmá
also for his being born of Brahmá. (He is represented as of red colour,
as Adam is said to be made of red earth).
14. Ráma asked:—How does the world become a solid substance, from its
having been of a visionary form in the spirit or mind of God?
15. Vasishtha replied:—When the lotus-born male (Brahmá), rose from his
cradle of the Embryo of Brahmá, he uttered the name of Brahmá whence he
was called Brahmá. (The word Brahm answers the Hebrew Brahum—create
them, and corresponds with the Latin _ficet_—bhuya ভুযাৎ).
16. He then had the conception (Sankalpa) of the world in his own
imagination, and the same assumed a visible and solid form by the power
of his will, called the conceptional or conceived world. (Sankalpasrí).
17. He conceived at first luminous idea of light, which having assumed
a visible form spread on all sides, as a creeping plant is outstretched
all about in autumn. (Light was the first work of creation).
18. The rays of this light pierced all sides like threads of gold; they
shone and spread themselves both above and below.
19. Concealed amidst this light, the lotus-born Hiranyagarbha,
conceived in his mind a figure like his luminous form, and produced it
as the four faced Brahmá.
20. Then the sun sprung forth from that light, and shone as a globe of
gold amidst his world encircling beams.
21. He held the locks of his flaming hair on his head, which flashed as
fire all around him; and filled the sphere of heaven with heat and
light.
22. The most intelligent Brahmá, produced afterwards some other
luminous forms from portions of that light, which proceeded from it
like the waves of the ocean (and these are thence called the Maríchis or
rays, who were the first patriarchs of other created beings).
23. These most potent and competent beings, were also possessed of
their concepts and will, and they produced in a moment the figures as
they thought of and willed.
24. They conceived the forms of various other beings also, which they
produced one after the other, as they desired and willed.
25. Then did Brahmá bring to his recollection the eternal vedas and the
many ceremonial rites, which he established as laws in his house of
this world.
26. Having taken the gigantic body of Brahma, and the extensive form of
the mind—manas, he produced the visible world as his own
offspring—Santati. (Brahmá means _brihat_—great; and _santate_ derived
from the root tan. Latin—_leoreo_ means continuation of race).
27. He stretched the seas and mountains, and made the trees and upper
worlds. He raised the Meru on the surface of the earth, and all the
forests and groves upon it.
28. It was he who ordained happiness and misery, birth and death and
disease and decay; and he created the passions and feelings of living
beings, under their threefold divisions of satva, rajas and tamas.
29. Whatever has been wrought by the hands (faculties) of the mind of
Brahma before, the same continues to be still perceived by our deluded
vision.
30. He gave the mind and laws to all beings, and makes the worlds anew
as they are situated in his mind.
31. It is error, that has given rise to the erroneous conception of the
eternity of the world, whereas it is the conception of the mind alone
that creates the ideal forms. (The world is neither material nor
substantial, but a conceptual and ideal creation of the mind).
32. The acts of all things in the world, are produced by their
conception and wishes; and it is the concept or thought, that binds the
gods also to their destiny.
33. The great Brahmá that was the source of the creation of the world,
sits in the meditative mood, contemplating on all that he has made.
34. It was by a motion of the mind, that the wonderful form of the
living principle was formed; and it was this that gave rise to the
whole world, with all its changeful phenomena.
35. It made the gods Indra, Upendra and Mahendra and others, and also
the hills and seas in all the worlds above and below us, and in the ten
sides of the heaven above:—
36. Brahmá then thought in himself, “I have thus stretched out at large
the net work of my desire, I will now cease from extending the objects
of my desire any further”.
37. Being so determined, he ceased from the toil of his creation, and
reflected on the eternal spirit in his own spirit. (According to the
Sruti:—the spirit is to be reflected in the spirit).
38. By knowing the spirit, his mind was melted down by its effulgence,
and reclined on it with that ease, as one finds in his soft sleep after
long labour.
39. Being freed from his selfishness and egoism, he felt that perfect
tranquility which the soul receives by resting in itself, and which
likens the calmness of the sea by its subsidence in itself.
40. The Lord sometimes leaves off his meditation, as the reservoirs of
water sometimes overflow their banks and boundaries.
41. He beholds the world as a vale of misery, with very little of
happiness in it; and where the soul is fast bound to its alternate
passions, and led by the changes of its hopes and fears.
42. He takes pity on the miserable condition of man, and with a view of
their welfare, promulgates the sacred sástras and rites, which are full
of meaning for their guidance.
43. He propounds the Vedas and their branches—the Vedángas, which are
fraught with spiritual knowledge, and precepts of wisdom, and he
revealed the Puránas and other sástras for the salvation of mankind.
44. Again the spirit of Brahmá reclined on the supreme spirit, and was
relieved from its toil; and then remained as tranquil as the becalmed
ocean, after its churning by the Mandara.
45. Brahmá having observed the efforts of mankind on earth, and
prescribed to them the rules of their conduct, returned to himself,
where he sat reclined on his lotus seat.
46. He remains some times entirely devoid of all his desires; and at
others he takes upon him his cares for mankind from his great kindness
to them.
47. He is neither simple in his nature, nor does he assume or reject
his form in the states of his creation and cessation. He is no other
than intelligence, which is neither present in nor absent from any
place.
48. He is conversant with all states and properties of things, and is
as full as the ocean without intermixture of any crude matter in him.
49. Sometimes he is quite devoid of all attributes and desires, and is
only awakened from his inertness, by his own desire of doing good to
his creatures.
50. I have thus expounded to you concerning the existence of Brahmá
(Bráhmi Sthiti), and his real states of Sátwika, Vidhyanika and
Suranikas creation. (The first is the creation of his intellectual
nature, and the second that of his mind or will or mental form).
51. The intellectual creation is what rises of itself in the Spirit of
Brahma, and the mental is the result of his mind and will. The first is
the direct inspiration of Brahmá into the Spirit of Brahmá.
52. After creation of the material world by the _rájasika_ nature of
Brahmá, there rises the visible creation in the air by the will of the
creator. (This is called the _madhyanika_, because it is the
intermediate creation, between the elemental and animal creations).
53. In the next step of animal creation, some were born as gods
(angels) and others as Yakshas—demigods, and this is called the
_suranika_, because the suras or gods were created in it.
54. Every creature is born in the shape of its inherent nature, and
then it is either elevated or degraded, according to the nature of its
associations. It lays also the foundation of its future state of
bondage to birth or liberation, by its acts, commenced in the present
life.
55. In this manner, O Ráma! has the world come to existence. Its
creation is evidently a work of labour, as it is brought to being by
various acts of motion and exertion of the body and mind; and all these
products of the god’s will, are sustained also by continuous force and
effort on his part.